× New Teachers. Pay almost two million teachers' salaries for10 years. Student Aid. Increase the federal Pell Grant budget 88-fold ormultiply federal student loans 18 times. Class Size Reduction. Multiply federal funding for class sizereduction 193 times. Preschool. Pay for preschool for all of the nation'sfour-year-olds almost eight times over (based on a cost estimate by theBrookings Institution's IsabelSawhill). Rebuild Crumbling Schools. Multiply federal spending on schoolrenovation by 59 times (compared to the estimate for 2001). Police Officers. Pay two million police officers'salaries for 10 years. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services. Multiply federalspending on substance abuse and mental health services 29 times. National Health Research. Quadruple the National Institutes ofHealth's budget or increase funding for the National CancerInstitute 234-fold. Prescription Drugs. Fully fund a comprehensive Medicareprescription drugbenefit for senior citizens -- with $36 billion left over. Middle Class Tax Cuts. More than double Bush's tax cut for thebottom 80 percent of Americans. Family Tax Credits. Triple funding for the Earned Income Tax Creditfor the working poor and the child tax credit put together. Family Support. Almost quadruple federal spending on welfare, child care,and child support enforcement. Housing Assistance. More than quadruple federal housingassistance. Food Aid. Multiply spending on the supplemental food programWIC 19 times or almost quadruple the federal food stamps budget. International Food Aid. Increase international food aid97-fold. Transportation Spending. Double federal spending onmass transit, highways, and aviation. Natural Resources and the Environment. Triple the totalexpenditures on natural resources, pollution control, and Superfundcleanup. Farm Support. Quadruple federal expenditures on farm incomestabilization.
Today, George W. Bush is traveling around the country touting his toppriority -- a giant tax cut. But he exaggerates the benefit to themiddle class, while neglecting to mention that he would give the top 1percent of families 43 percent of the tax cuts. The tax cut for thewealthiest 1 percent amounts to $774 billion over 10 years. The American Prospect investigates what else the country couldbuy with that lump of cash (based on year 2000 expenditures) over thenext decade. Shop for yourself.
The money that Bush would spend on the top 1 percent could fund thefollowing:
Schools and Colleges
Public Safety
Health Care
Family Support and Nutrition
Transportation
Natural Resources