Courtney: Bush Budget Will Damage Second District Priorities
Courtney: Bush Budget Will Damage Second District Priorities
Congressman Joe Courtney expressed today his opposition to President Bush's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2008 in which many domestic priorities are cut or reduced.
"Once again we see that the priorities of President Bush are not those of the people of eastern Connecticut," stated Courtney. "The President proposes to cut low-income energy programs leaving seniors and working families out in the cold, slashes funding for Medicare, Medicaid and HUSKY making health care harder to find, and proposes cuts to special education leaving the high cost of that mandate on the shoulders of property tax payers. All of these cuts are for the sole purpose of paying for President Bush's $2 trillion tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and the war in Iraq. I will fight to change this budget proposal to reflect the needs of the people I represent, not the President's."
The President's budget includes an 11.3 percent increase for the Pentagon totaling a record $481 billion, excluding most costs associated with the ongoing war in Iraq. The President is seeking an additional $100 billion this year and $145 billion next year to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The budget does not reflect the already appropriated $70 billion supplemental passed by the previous Congress. Spiraling costs of the Iraq war are placing strains on other U.S. national security needs, including America's shipbuilding and submarine building budgets.
As anticipated, the President's budget includes $2.5 billion for one Virginia Class nuclear submarine.
The President's budget proposal will hurt hospitals and the health care industry because of cuts to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. President Bush seeks to trim $78 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over the next five years.
Additionally, the President's budget seeks a 4 percent cut to the Children's Health Insurance Program, SCHIP that will result in the inability of the program to adequately meet the needs of America's uninsured children currently enrolled in the program and those children who may need to enroll in the future. SCHIP is a major funding source for Connecticut's HUSKY program.
The Education Department will be denied an increase this year and instead receive flat funding of $56 billion for the third straight year.
While the President's proposal to increase Pell grants for lower income college bound students is laudable, it is undermined by a proposed elimination of 43 "low-priority or non-performing" programs for low-income students. One such program is the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, which is a grant for students with exceptional financial needs.
http://courtney.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=58272