Hearing of House Committee on the Budget: The President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2006

HEARING OF HOUSE COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET: THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006

February 8, 2005

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Ms. DeLauro. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. President Bush has said that his 2006 budget is a budget that sets priorities. To examine the priorities and seeing just who will benefit and who will suffer, it is a moral concern in my view. Budgets reflect the values and priorities of a family, of a church, an organization, a city, State or a Nation. Once we examine the priorities reflected in this budget we will find that they are the wrong priorities for this Nation and do not reflect the values of Americans.

This institution is about improving people's lives. It is a goal that I share with my colleagues, and in fact it is what ties us to our serving in this institution.

This budget runs directly counter to that goal. The policies reflect a deepening income inequality and remarkably raises the barriers for those who are struggling and working to do better. This budget calls for the extension of $1.9 trillion in tax cuts primarily to the wealthiest Americans, those making over $350,000. It compromises our ability to face our most pressing challenges, and it comes at the expense of the social safety net that might rescue those who live in poverty. The decision to eviscerate Medicaid by $60 billion over 10 years will leave many low-income families with nowhere to turn for medical care and many seniors with no way to afford long-term care; decrease in food stamps by more than 1 billion over 10 years making it more difficult, even impossible for low income families to qualify; funding for low income energy assistance, a program crucial to low income families and seniors. Child care funding is frozen for the fourth straight year, making it more difficult for families who are struggling to find someone to care for children while they go to work.

These are a few examples of the policy decisions that will have a devastating effect on real families across this Nation. They are not just numbers on a page. These decisions make a real difference for families who struggle to feed and care for their children. With this budget the President has turned his back on these families, and the President talks about a budget, this budget will put us on a path for cutting the deficit in half is simply not honest, but dishonest. The administration has left out key costs, ongoing military operations, privatizing Social Security, and when you take a look at the long term we are talking about saddling our children and grandchildren with the kind of debt that is immoral. The cost of the deficit should not be borne by those who are least able to afford it.

Budgets are moral documents, which reflect the values and the priorities of this great Nation, and I will quote you the Catholic bishops: The obligation to provide justice for all means that the poor have is the single most urgent economic claim on the conscience of this Nation. And the more that I hear this administration's justification for the harsh decisions that are in this budget, the more I believe that there truly is no justification. This budget is not only dishonest, but simply reflects the wrong values and the wrong priorities of this great Nation.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time. I have no questions.

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