President’s Budget Ignores Concerns of Nebraska’s Working Families
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 7, 2007
Contact: Eric Fought
(402) 434-2184
eric@nebraskademocrats.org
President’s Budget Ignores Concerns of Nebraska’s Working Families
LINCOLN, Neb. – According to a new analysis by the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, President Bush’s 2008 budget will cut millions of dollars from critical education, health care, homeland security, and law enforcement programs in Nebraska. While the President’s $2.9 trillion budget does little to address the rising economic insecurities that middle class Americans are facing, it slashes millions from programs that are essential to thousands of Nebraskans. President Bush’s new budget shows that he continues to ignore the will of the American people and by advancing a radical agenda that has already been rejected by the vast majority of the American people. After all, a Newsweek poll last week found that 58 percent of American simply want the Bush Presidency to end.
As in previous years, President Bush has tried to sneak his Social Security privatization plan into the budget, which would undermine the retirement security of 203,406 Nebraskans. The President’s budget request seeks to eliminate the Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS) program and the Justice Assistance Grants program, which together provided more than $3 million in funding to help keep Nebraska communities safe. While the Democrats in Congress have saved the Community Development Block Grant Program from elimination in each of the last two years, President Bush has it on the chopping block again, risking $5.7 million in community development funds for Nebraska.
“President Bush’s budget shows that he still has no interest in listening to the will of the American people,” said Nebraska Democratic Party State Chair Steve Achelpohl. “Last November, the voters demanded real change and real leaders who put working families first. Yet, just like all his previous budgets, President Bush’s budget this year offers more of the same cuts to programs that are critical to Nebraska’s working families. If Nebraska Republicans like Chuck Hagel, Lee Terry, Jeff Fortenberry and Adrian Smith are serious about doing the work that Nebraskans sent them to Washington to do, they should join Nebraska Democrats in fighting President Bush’s reckless and irresponsible budget cuts.”