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ABOUT USThe Minnesota Budget Project is an initiative of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.
President's Budget Fiscally Irresponsible, Asks Low- and Moderate-Income Americans to Make Sacrifices While Making Tax Cuts Permanent for the WealthyGet the printer-friendly PDF version of this document. The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits today expressed its disappointment with President Bush's budget for fiscal year 2008 and urged Congress to take a different approach to meeting the nation's priorities while achieving budget discipline and fairness. "The President's budget for fiscal year 2008 calls for making deep tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America permanent while at the same time making deep cuts to health care, education, nutrition, energy assistance, environmental protection, and other critical needs. It is a budget that is deeply flawed and is out of step with Minnesota values," said Steve Francisco, federal policy director for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. The biggest cuts in the president's budget proposal come in health care for the elderly, people with disabilities, and low-income people. Medicare is slated to be cut by $70 billion over five years, mostly for physician reimbursements, and Medicaid would be cut by $23 billion over five years, mostly through shifting to the states more of the costs of providing health care to low-income families and children. The President's budget includes $145 billion in cuts to child care, Food Stamps, Head Start, the Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), housing, education and training, environmental protection and cleanup, and other parts of the domestic discretionary spending part of the budget. "These cuts will be felt across the nation and in communities across Minnesota," said Francisco. "At a time when nearly 260,000 Minnesotans rely upon Food Stamps to help feed their families, the President proposes a net cut to Food Stamps of $66 million and ending assistance to approximately 250,000 people nationwide. He also proposes to abolish the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), which provides food for low-income seniors," said Francisco. "While the president claims that he would produce a balanced budget by 2012, his numbers just don't add up," said Francisco. "The reality is that the president's budget gets there by ignoring the huge cost of making his tax cuts permanent, by grossly exaggerating federal revenues by 2012, and by leaving out any costs for the war on terror after 2009." "We call on the Minnesota congressional delegation to reject the President's budget and to begin work crafting a budget which recognizes our shared priorities and Minnesota values. We believe in adequately funding our shared priorities. Congress should allow most of the President's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire so that we can truly make progress in reducing the budget deficit," said Francisco. February 5, 2007 |
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