Approximately 18,000 Americans die every year for lack of access to health insurance, according to the Institute of World Medicine. In contrast, worldwide deaths from terrorism fall somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 annually.

Which is why we are skeptical of the central claim of President George W. Bush’s annual budget message: “My administration has focused the nation’s resources on our highest priority: protecting our citizens and our homeland.”

This week’s budget proposal, which would boost military and homeland defense spending by 7 and 6 percent, respectively, will do little to protect Americans from peril. Deceptively, the budget does not include funding for the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, ensuring that the new money will be stuffed into new weapons programs, not used toward existing security threats.

As the world battles to contain the spread of new diseases, we find it hard to believe that any plan reducing support for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actually protects Americans.

Though every budget reflects ideological priorities, the president’s obsession with military spending and tax cuts — which will far outstrip the $56 billion in proposed spending cuts — defies reasoned justification.

Since Bush took office in 2001 with promises of fiscal responsibility, federal spending has grown by 42 percent. For Bush’s ballooning bucks, poverty has grown, inequality has increased and the ranks of uninsured have swelled — while his priorities remain virtually unchanged. We do need protection, but mainly from our leader’s obstinacy.