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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) issued the following statement concerning the President's Fiscal Year 2009 budget proposal:
"The President's budget proposal unfortunately fails to address the concerns of Connecticut's families by its recommendation of cuts in education, health care, and community development programs. These proposed cuts are unacceptable. We cannot afford irresponsible tax cuts while we fail to meet the needs of working families. This is a moment when we should work together across party lines to forge a budget that meets our nation's priorities to keep us strong both at home and abroad."
A strong advocate for fiscal discipline, Lieberman pointed to aspects of the President's proposal that further threaten our nation's fiscal health:
• The budget proposal, which includes a five-year window, would balloon the deficit from $163 billion in 2007 to about $400 billion in 2008 and 2009 - rivaling 2004's all-time high deficit of $412 billion. The President's budget proposal achieves balance in its final year (2012) only because of its liberal use of budget gimmicks, assuming, for instance, that the alternative minimum tax will be allowed to escalate and ensnare millions of middle-class families.
• The President's budget proposal again proposes making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, at a cost of $2 trillion over the next 10 years. These cuts are heavily weighted to the rich. In terms of the tax cuts' total value, the top 1% of households will receive 31%, while the bottom 60% of households would receive 12%.
Lieberman identified unacceptable spending cuts across policy areas:
• Community and social programs. The budget proposal cuts 151 vital programs, some by unconscionable levels. For instance, the budget proposal would completely eliminate the Community Services Block Grant, which provides housing, nutrition, education, and job services to low-income people, and would slash 22% from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps our most vulnerable neighbors stay warm through the winter.
• Transportation. The budget proposes over a one-third reduction in Amtrak's budget. With growing concern about climate change and the environment, the budget's proposed spending for Amtrak guarantees that Americans will have fewer transportation choices in the future.
• Infrastructure. Despite the catastrophe suffered by the people of Minneapolis when a bridge collapsed, the budget proposes a $2 billion reduction in funding for the Federal Highway Administration - even though a blue ribbon commission recently concluded that more—not less—money must be invested in our nation's transportation system.
• Environmental enforcement. The budget proposal would cut $330 million from the Environmental Protection Agency, including funds to protect water quality. At a time when we must address the issue of climate change, it is unacceptable to cut funding for climate science, the highly successful Energy Star program, and greenhouse gas emissions tracking.
• Energy policy. The Administration takes a backwards approach to energy policy, focused on continued attempts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas exploration while simultaneously cutting funds for energy efficiency and eliminating funds for weatherization and renewable energy technologies like solar, wind and hydrogen.
• Health. Medicaid, which provides health insurance to the sickest and poorest in America, would be cut by $1.2 billion next year alone; and Medicare, which provides health insurance to over 40 million seniors, would face over $170 billion in cuts over the next five years. A significant percentage of the cuts would come from reducing payments to public hospitals that are already facing overcrowded emergency rooms and are caring for the uninsured and teaching hospitals, which are critical in training more physicians and nurses to meet our current and future health care needs. The budget has proposed reducing the budget of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) by $1 billion. This includes the elimination of: the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Program (CHGME), which is a critical funding source for training pediatricians and pediatric specialists, who are in high demand in many parts of the nation; the Title VII programs, which provide support for nurse training programs; and the traumatic brain injury program, among many others. The budget proposal also freezes payments to nursing homes and home health agencies, which provide care to seniors and others with disabilities in their own homes, at a time when they are faced with ever-increasing health care costs.
• Education. The budget proposal fails to recognize the importance of investing in our nation's future by shortchanging education programs. The budget proposal only contains a small increase for the No Child Left Behind law and specifically, the critical Title I program. The proposal contains inadequate increases for special education programs and eliminates funding for many programs supported by congress, and cuts funding for other programs such as afterschool programs.
• Defense. While proposed Defense funding is about 7.5 % more than the current year budget, it still falls below the 4% of gross domestic product (GDP) that many experts conclude is needed.
• Homeland Security. The President claims to propose a funding increase of 7% for the Department of Homeland Security in FY 2009, but this figure ignores supplemental funding by Congress for border security and immigration enforcement in FY 2008. When this funding is included, the actual increase is less than 2%. - 30 -
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