White House proposes cuts in nuclear dismantling program

[struggle4progress]

By Amy Klamper, CongressDaily


The Bush administration is proposing to trim funds for a program designed to curb the spread of nuclear and catastrophic weapons.

According to a draft of the fiscal 2006 budget proposal, the Pentagon wants to cut $46 million from its Cooperative Threat Reduction program, initiated in the early 1990s to dismantle and secure the former Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal. The total cost of the CTR program is slightly more than $400 million.

"This is classic Bush," said Charles Fant, spokesman for House Budget Committee ranking member John Spratt, D-S.C. "He touts programs like CTR in the rhetoric, then he cuts them in the budget. We've seen this kind of thing all throughout the Bush budget, in programs like veterans' health care and education."

Chris Hellman, director of the Project on Military Spending Oversight at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, lamented the proposed cut, noting that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction was one of the few topics both Bush and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., agreed on during the 2004 presidential campaign. "This sends the wrong message from a president who says countering proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is a priority for his administration," said Hellman. "It may seem like a small amount of money, compared to other Pentagon programs, but when you look at the CTR program, it's a significant reduction of nearly 10 percent."
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http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0105/010605cdam2.htm


W acts as if he WANTS some terrorist to lay hands on FSU nuclear material ...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. bend over

and prepare to kiss your >backside< goodbye. I think the odds of nuclear catastrophe just went up at least ten percent.

[meti57b]

2. they should fund to dismantle and secure those materials immediately....

and all at once.

[Pirate Smile]

3. OMG

:wtf:

[Todd B]

4. Huh?

But I thought that the goal of the "war on terror" was to get weapons of mass destruction OUT OF the hands of tyranical dictators? :/