Feb. 7—Just days after President George W. Bush laid out his blueprint to privatize Social Security—a scheme that could slash guaranteed benefits for many workers—Bush submitted a $2.57 trillion federal budget that makes massive funding cuts in programs covering health care, education, veterans and worker training. Spending for Department of Labor discretionary programs will fall by 6 percent in real dollars.   “The proposed budget slashes programs that help workers build futures for their children and prepare themselves for changes in the workplace,” says AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney. “The budget crisis Bush relies on to justify huge cuts in programs that serve all Americans is a problem largely of his own making.”   Bush Budget Explodes the Federal Deficit   According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the series of tax cuts Bush enacted since 2001 that primarily benefit the wealthy account for almost half of the increase in the 2005 budget deficit. But instead of proposing rollbacks in some of these cuts, Bush wants to make them permanent and is asking working families to pay the price with deep budget cuts in important domestic programs.    Overall, some 150 federal programs would be eliminated or drastically scaled back. One-third of those are education programs that include vocational education, anti-drug efforts and literacy programs.   At the same time he is proposing huge cuts in domestic spending purportedly to encourage fiscal discipline and reduce the deficit, Bush’s budget does not address the impending future costs that would magnify the nation’s deficits. The budget excludes the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, estimated at $80 billion in the coming fiscal year, and the cost of his plan to privatize Social Security, which analysts estimate will cost $4.5 trillion in the first 20 years alone. The budget also fails to account for the full costs of making the Bush tax cuts permanent, which over the next 20 years would amount to around $10 trillion.    Budget Targets U.S. Veterans’ Health Care for Cuts   Among Bush’s target for big cuts are Medicaid, the federal program that provides health care for low-income working families, and veterans’ health care programs. His budget will double the co-payment many veterans must pay for prescription medication and requires some veterans pay an annual $250 fee to use government health services, The New York Times reported. Many likely to be hurt by Medicaid cuts are working families with no access to job-based coverage but who earn too little to afford to buy health coverage on their own.   The Bush budget cuts job training and other programs established under the Workforce Investment Act to help jobless workers. It also cuts the Trade Adjustment Assistance program that provides assistance for workers whose jobs are shipped overseas. The budget slashes funding for several trade enforcement programs established to ensure U.S. workers don’t suffer from unfair trade practices by other nations.   The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says Bush’s budget places programs for populations that have little political clout, such as low-income families, especially at risk.   Bush’s Pension Proposals Penalize Workers   Bush’s pension-related funding proposals—including those covering the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.—penalize workers for corporate underfunding of pension plans by restricting the amount of pension benefits that can be provided to workers whose employers declare bankruptcy. Analysts say Bush’s pension proposals likely will encourage more employers to stop offering defined-benefits plans, further weakening the nation’s traditional job-based guaranteed pension plans.   Other cuts are aimed at the Healthy Communities Access Program, rural health care grants, the Community Food and Nutrition program and migrant and seasonal farm worker training. His budget proposal calls for complete elimination of Amtrak funding.