There was a lot of sound and fury coming out of Washington on Monday in response to President Bush’s 2009 budget for children’s programs, but just what it signifies is hard to say.

“The president’s budget proposal, released this morning, confirms our worst fears,” said an Afterschool Alliance news release. It noted the administration would cut after-school funding by 27 percent and convert the $800 million remaining in the 21st Century Community Centers into a voucher system for after-school programs. An official from First Focus, a bipartisan child advocacy group, told CongressNow that the move would further destabilize after-school funding by making these funding sources more unpredictable.

First Focus also came out with its own rather alarming e-mail, saying the Bush cuts would include, among other things, a $700 million -- or 12.5 percent -- reduction in discretionary health programs that help children and a $640 million (38 percent) cut in child welfare.

“As the economy worsens, dramatically cutting child health, education, welfare and safety programs is not the answer,” First Focus said.

Scary? A little. But remember that Bush won’t be around come Jan. 21, 2009, the fiscal year begins in October (just a month before the presidential election), and the Democratic controlled Congress has no intention of making these kind of drastic cuts.

“He doesn’t have us over a barrel this year, because either a President Clinton or a President Obama will have to deal with us next year,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, told USA Today. “We are not going to be held hostage to this unreasonableness of this president.”

He didn’t say what would happen under a President McCain.

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor