President Bush's Budget for 2009
Op-Ed
Dear friends,
This week, President Bush released his budget proposal for the 2009 fiscal year. His proposal would cut Medicare and Medicaid, slash important education and early literacy programs and even cut the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) which helps lower-income families stay warm in winter.
This troubling budget plan takes this country in the wrong direction. Overall, I'm very disappointed to see heavy cuts in social programs. Programs like LIHEAP, Medicaid and Medicare are important to our district.
The Congressional Budget Office's economic forecast indicates that for 2008 alone the deficit is already $56 billion greater than the final deficit for 2007. This figure does not include the costs of the economic stimulus package or additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Taking these likely costs into account, the 2008 deficit could exceed $400 billion.
So, it's clear we have to get spending under control. However, I believe that cutting Medicare by $556 billion over 10 years, slashing heating assistance by $570 million, even reducing the school lunch program from $50 million to $39 million is not the answer. Such recommendations just punish people who are already hurting.
Under President Bush's Budget, Ohio also stands to lose the following: $5,408,000 in law enforcement grants, $24,018,000 in firefighters grants, $14,369,000 for dislocated workers, $4,788,000 in grants to improve teacher quality, as required by No Child Left Behind, $45,210,000 in career and technical education funding, $1,342,000 in child care development block grant funding, $16,173,000 in LIHEAP funding, $22,125,000 in Federal-Aid Highways Program funding.
We must work together as we take this country in a new direction. In that spirit, I looked for and found a positive portion of the President's budget. I'm pleased to see $641 million in the President's budget for carbon capture and storage research. I've said it before and I'll say it again and again: I believe coal is our future. This carbon capture technology will play a huge role in the economic re-development of the Ohio River Valley.
Sincerely,
Charlie Wilson
Member of Congress
Ohio's Sixth District
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