Opponents Prepare to Challenge Bush Budget Cuts and Drive to Privatize Social Security

Interview with Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, conducted by Scott Harris

After winning a narrow victory in the November 2004 election, President Bush set out an audacious set of foreign and domestic policy goals in his State of the Union address and his administration's budget proposal. In his State of the Union speech, Mr. Bush gloated about the higher than expected turnout in the Iraqi election and threatened the nations of Iran and Syria, demanding they comply with Washington's blueprint for a democratic transformation of the Middle East.

On the domestic front, the president made many questionable declarations about the imminent demise of the Social Security system while proposing that the nation follow his prescription of moving toward costly partial privatization of the popular New Deal era program. In his administration's 2006 budget proposal, Bush put forth a plan that would eliminate or deeply cut programs benefiting veterans, food stamp recipients, students and farmers, while increasing funding for the Pentagon. The dramatic cuts were said to be part of a plan to reduce record deficits amassed during the president's 1st term in office.

But much of the country greeted Bush's audacious agenda with skepticism, noting that with the U.S. tied down in a bloody guerrilla war in Iraq, threats made against Iran and Syria were mere empty gestures. And although solutions to long-range shortfalls in Social Security and current budget deficits could easily be addressed with a rollback of the president's tax cuts primarily benefiting the rich, these obvious resolutions were willfully ignored. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, who takes a critical look at the president's agenda and the strategies being discussed to oppose his policies.

Contact Campaign for America's Future by calling (202) 955-5665 or visit their website at www.ourfuture.org

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