An Obama administration is unlikely to slash social service programs, says Donna Shalala, former secretary of Health and Human Services.

The next president will face a myriad of crises and important decisions. But for Jewish voters, a few of those decisions will stand out as particularly strong indications of where a Barack Obama administration will move on issues of concern to the Jewish community. Here are five potentially revealing examples:

*How will Obama face the delicate questions of government faith-based funding?

*Will he launch Middle East peace efforts with pressure on Israel to remove illegal outposts, as it has pledged to do?

*Will the new Congress and administration, facing unprecedented budget pressures, include Israel foreign aid in expected spending cuts?

*Will Obama take Gen. David Petraeus’ advice and open talks with Syria?

*And how will an Obama administration respond to the growing crisis over

funding for health and social service programs such as Medicaid?

The economic crisis and social services

No matter how great the need to cut federal spending, President-Elect Barack Obama is unlikely to use the budget axe on critical social service programs.

“I don’t expect him to create a larger number of poor people,” Donna Shalala, the former secretary of health and human services under President Bill Clinton, told The Jewish Week Tuesday.

Within the first 90 days of his administration, said Shalala, now president of the University of Miami, Obama is likely to announce specifics of an economic initiative to “put money in people’s pockets” and spur the economy. Slashing the crucial safety net provided by Medicaid and Medicare would run counter that effort, she says.

“The one thing Sen. Obama is not going to do, and neither would [Sen. John] McCain, is create more poor people and create more sick people and the last thing you want to do is pick on most vulnerable elderly and pregnant women with children, because that’s essentially who is covered by these programs,” Shalala continued.

“Do you need to get fraud out of the programs, get some more efficiencies out of the programs? Yes, but you certainly don’t want in the process to destroy them because in the process you destroy people’s lives.”

Last month a McCain aide told the New York Times the Republican candidate would slash funding to Medicaid and Medicare in a bid to save up to a trillion dollars in government spending over 10 years and fund McCain’s health care plan.

If Congress fails to agree on another economic stimulus package before the end of this session and the transition at the White House, then it is certain to be the first bill to land on the president-elect’s desk.

Social service providers, including the United Jewish Communities (UJC), have been pushing for an increase in the formula of federal-to-state funds for Medicaid.

“We’re close to an agreement [in both houses] to temporarily increase the Medicaid formula for states whose budgets are hit the heaviest by the downturn, in large part because 49 out of the 50 are required to have a balanced budget,” says William Daroff, vice president for public policy at UJC. The increase in federal funding could range from three to seven percent across the board, he said.

At the same time, such groups are lobbying for greater incentives for increased philanthropy, such as allowing those who do not itemize their deductions to get tax breaks for charity, which could spur millions of new donors.

Some Democrats, Daroff said, would rather have the stimulus package pass in January because, with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, Republicans would have little say over it.

Daroff said that, based on Obama’s experience in Chicago, he was confident Obama understood that “Medicaid and Medicare are incredibly important to the Jewish community and the Jewish social service agencies and become more and more important as more people are dependent on them in a time of economic distress.”