In his post-Hurricane Katrina speech, President Bush gave a moving speech about the need to "confront" the poverty exposed by this disaster with "bold action."

It appears some of his Republican friends in Congress weren't listening very well.

In a move to accumulate money for relief efforts, the Senate has proposed a five-year, $35 billion cut in basic entitlement programs such as food stamps and Medicaid.

In the House, Speaker Dennis Hastert has upped the ante to an astounding $50 billion in cuts.

In both cases, the cuts would most directly affect the neediest — those on welfare, on Medicare and other safety net programs.

This is unconscionable.

It's true that there are savings to be found in any of these programs.

But compared to the massive savings that could be achieved by eliminating some of the more odious congressional pork programs and dropping the next round of upper-bracket income tax breaks, the potential savings in program cuts for the poor are small.

And those cuts would indeed hit home.

Here's an example: There are 11 community health centers in Hawai'i on five islands, serving the needs of close to 85,000 people annually. The focus of their work is on the health and welfare of the poor, those without insurance or with minimal access to other health services.

These centers are already struggling to keep up with demand and even today are unable to reach many of the 115,000 to 130,000 people in the Islands who are uninsured.

Almost half of the centers' overall $75 million budget comes through reimbursements from Medicaid and the state's QUEST program.

As Beth Giesting, executive director of the Hawai'i Primary Care Association notes: "Medicaid is absolutely critical to our health centers' well-being."

Any significant cut in Medicaid would directly impact the ability of these community centers to serve their existing clientele, let alone pursue needed expansion in services.

And what looks like "savings" will quickly disappear as these individuals shift from the relatively cost-efficient support of the health centers to more expensive emergency room services or from chronic to critical illnesses.

A coalition of some 750 social welfare groups has already urged Congress not to cut safety net programs, rightly arguing that to do so in the name of Hurricane Katrina relief would be particularly backward since the storm has only increased the need for services.

Congress should forget about the politically expedient idea of huge entitlement cuts and get to the meat of the matter, which must include rethinking huge tax breaks for big drug and medical companies, unneeded pork barrel spending and unjustified tax cuts.