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WASHINGTON - Senator Joe Lieberman today criticized President Bush’s budget for Fiscal Year 2007 for making deep cuts in important federal programs in areas such as education, Medicare and community development that put those who are most vulnerable in Connecticut and across the country further at risk. Lieberman complained that favoring tax cuts for the rich over prudent investments in programs critical to our nation’s future is not sound budgeting.
“Across the board, the President’s budget has cut funding or under-funded critical federal programs to help hard working Americans and our nation’s neediest citizens while renewing his plan to make permanent his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. These are the wrong priorities,” Lieberman said. “Shortchanging vital investments in education and training, medical care and community development means that kids in Connecticut and across the country will suffer at school, families will have to scrape by to own homes and doctors and hospitals may have to think twice before providing care to senior citizens.”
The President’s cuts in federal education programs and his failure to adequately fund the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act come at a time when schools in Connecticut and across the country are struggling to meet the requirements of NCLB. The President is also proposing a cut in payments to the Medicare entitlement, including cuts to hospice and long term care, to home health programs and to acute care hospitals which take care of the sickest of the sick. The President’s budget cuts the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The CDBG program supports physical, economic, and social development activities for local communities and the block grants can be used to provide adequate housing, a suitable living environment and expanded economic opportunities, principally for low and moderate income persons.
Lieberman also blasted the President’s budget for once again using his budget to call for the opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for drilling, and not providing the necessary funding for development of alternative energy sources to back up his promise in last week’s State of the Union address to break America’s dependence on foreign oil.
“While President Bush is promising the American people he will break America’s addiction to foreign oil, his budget provides more disturbing evidence that his Administration is merely paying lip service to the problem,” Lieberman said. “The White House is using the budget to repeat its past failed efforts to drill in ANWR. I urge the White House and Congress to stop trying to drill our way out of this problem and instead work together to innovate our way to energy independence.”
Last year, Lieberman led a bi-partisan group of 10 Senators who introduced the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act, which would mandate 10 million barrels in oil-savings in 25 years and would also require the mass-production of cars that can burn any combination of gasoline and alternative fuels or, alternatively, cars powered by efficient hybrid engines.
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