Statement by John Kerry on the President's Budget

Statement by John Kerry on the President's Budget

Below is a statement from Senator Kerry on President Bush's budget for fiscal year 2006, submitted to Congress today:

Monday, January 31, 2005

"Only in Washington would anyone call this budget fiscally responsible. Every American family has to live within their means. Their government should, too. Yet with this budget, the Bush administration has succeeded in reaching new lows of fiscal irresponsibility while slashing and eliminating investments that help America's communities. This budget takes cops off the street, hurts veterans, and punishes school children while saddling future generations with record budget deficits and mountains of debt.

"There's nothing fiscally responsible here. It's textbook Washington bait-and-switch budgeting that puts special interests ahead of families. The administration is sweeping under the carpet the huge costs of some of their most reckless policies, and is doing next to nothing to rein in out-of-control spending in Washington. It will cost $1.6 trillion to make the President's tax cuts permanent, but there's not a penny in the budget to pay for them. It will cost $1.9 trillion to privatize Social Security accounts, but there's not a penny in the budget to pay for that ideological blunder. Americans are spending $5 billion a month in Iraq, but there is not a penny in the budget to fund the war. The numbers simply don't add up, and the American people deserve better."

http://kerry.senate.gov/v3/cfm/record.cfm?id=231722