DOES BUSH CARE ABOUT POOR PEOPLE?

A post from a right-winger

(If you notice, I added the sarcastic crap in the yellow...the rest are the REDNECK'S words.)

The first excerpt shows the absurdity of those who claim that Bush doesn’t help the poor. Side note: many of you have seen me quoted in (He's trying to plug his blog, but I had to remove the REDNECK's information) My columns are linked to the big "REDNECK" icon. The columns are based on local topics of interest given to me weekly. Reader’s have the ability to comment …I look forward to hearing from you. – Aaron Hohenbrink.

Hi! I'm Aaron!  I still do the band thing to get the chicks because I'm having a mid-life crisis.

More from the Aaron Hohenbrink:

Bush doesn't care about the poor? Let us count the ways.

Larry Elder full column at:

Since Bush took office, according to the Heritage Foundation, federal anti-poverty spending -- including Medicaid, food and nutrition programs, housing, earned income tax credit and child credits, plus other programs -- increased 42 percent. This is nearly double the rate of increase under President Clinton.

Education

Under No Child Left Behind, Bush increased federal spending on education -- in inflation-adjusted dollars -- from 2001 to 2005 by 38 percent. During the same period, Education for the Disadvantaged Grants (this includes Title I) -- the program designed to decrease the performance gap between urban and suburban school districts -- received an inflation-adjusted increase of 58 percent. Bush increased spending on Education for Homeless Children and Youth by an inflation-adjusted 57 percent during those same years. Under Bush, federal spending for bilingual education has increased 44 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars since 2001. Bush has increased by 52 percent (from 2001) funding for Pell Grants used at technical schools and community colleges.

Job Training

President Bush's 2005 budget included 12.5 percent more funding than in 2001 for job training and employment assistance. This comes to a total of $23 billion for 30 programs in nine agencies. The Trade Adjustment Assistance Program pays for job training for those "displaced" as a result of free trade. Bush, in his first four years in office, more than doubled the inflation-adjusted dollars spent on this program.

Community Service:

The budget of the Corporation for National and Community Service -- which includes funding for former President Bill Clinton's pet project Health Care: The federal share of Medicaid, the joint federal/state program, increased from $129 billion in 2001 to $176 billion in 2004, a 36 percent increase, averaging over 10 percent a year. Health research and regulation funding has gone from $42 billion in 2001 to $63 billion in 2004, a 48 percent increase.

SBA Loans

The Small Business Administration provided twice as many loans in 2004 than it did in 2001, providing over $19 billion in loans and venture capital to almost 88,000 small businesses. Over 30 percent of all loans and all loan dollars went to minorities in 2004, a 34 percent increase from 2003. From 2000 to 2004, the SBA backed more than 283,600 loans worth more than $63 billion, almost as much in those five years as the agency totaled in its first 40 years.

Homeownership

Half of all minority households are homeowners, an all-time high. In 2002, Bush vowed to increase minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by 2010. Bush pushed for programs on down payment assistance, and called for increased funding for housing counseling services. Bottom line, under President Bush, the nation has seen the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted spending since President Lyndon B. Johnson. Indeed, much to the chagrin of fiscal conservatives, President Bush's budgets -- even excluding defense and homeland security spending -- make him the biggest spending president in 30 years. But, Bush doesn't care about the poor.

Thanks for the information AARON...I'll be sure to take all your points into account, write them on a piece of paper and then wipe my ass with it.