The President’s proposed budget doesn’t reflect the needs and priorities of most Americans. His budget will:
- Take Medicaid coverage from 230,000 children.
- Cut Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance by almost $200 million.
- Deny child care assistance to 300,000 children.
- Take food stamps benefits from as many as 300,000 people.
- Eliminate programs that support literacy, make college affordable, help public housing residents, provide food for hungry families, promote drug-free schools, reduce alcohol abuse among students, and strengthen urban and rural communities.
At the same time, President Bush’s budget will:
- Establish new tax-sheltered savings accounts that will cost $35 billion and almost exclusively benefit those with incomes over $100,000.
- Make income tax changes that will cost $16 billion per year and serve households earning more than $100,000.
- Extend tax cuts that primarily benefit wealthy households and will cost over $1 trillion in the next ten years.
These are the wrong priorities. Slashing social programs while lavishing tax breaks on the wealthy will not reduce the budget deficit.
