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Bush may want more Americans to find work, but not if it means spending funds to help the unemployed gain the skills they need to find new jobs, Each year, Bush has proposed cutting funding for the Workforce Investment Act, the main vehicle for providing job training and reemployment support. For 2004, with national unemployment growing, Bush has called for cuts of more than $200 million.
The president's 2004 budget proposal consolidates job training grants to states, all in the name of efficiency. But the end result is a $60 million cut in funding. Unemployed youngsters fare even worse. In 2003, Bush proposed cutting funding for Youth Opportunity Grants from $225 million to only $45 million. For 2004, he has called for the program to be eliminated entirely. Instead, Bush has rolled out a new federally-funded program of state-run Personal Re-Employment Accounts, which he claims will provide unemployed workers with financial incentives to find new jobs. But the program establishes a $3000 per-person cap for reemployment services and job training.