(Washington, DC) In response to the president’s FY 2003 budget request, Congresswoman Corrine Brown made the following statement:

"With regard to the war on terrorism, our troops overseas, and strengthening homeland security, I am in complete support of the President. I am glad to see ample funding for our military, and for the NIH.

I am deeply concerned however, that the president's budget will send our nation even further into debt. This budget reverses an entire decade of fiscal prosperity by driving our nation back down the road of unending deficits and raids money from the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, while making drastic cuts in other domestic programs.

Meanwhile, the Republican leadership adamantly refuses to even consider scaling back their $1.3 trillion tax cut. In less than a year, a surplus of $5.6 trillion shrank by $4 trillion. Now, the President's requests for 2003 could easily wipe out the rest. Two weeks ago, the Congressional Budget Office confirmed that the enacted tax cut was the largest single factor in a $4 trillion deterioration of the budget. Now, the administration is proposing to further undermine our nation’s budget by pushing on with an additional $600 billion in tax cuts.

Florida, already wounded from a billion dollar budget deficit last year, will suffer huge federal spending cuts in transportation dollars, healthcare, and job training programs. One of the president’s savings plans would be a $9 billion reduction in federal payments to hospitals. Florida hospitals stand to lose over a hundred million dollars per year for hospital services for low-income residents and Medicaid beneficiaries if the Administration successfully carries out its plan to cut the Medicaid accounting procedures.

Furthermore, the Administration plans to cut highway spending by $9 billion, and Florida stands to lose hundreds of millions. This decrease would be coupled by the Florida Department of Transportation’s estimate that the state is already facing a $22 billion shortfall. Transportation dollars stimulate the economy. For every $1 billion spent, 40,000 jobs are created. Transportation projects put people to work immediately, while retroactive tax cuts do not.

Again, I would like to applaud the administration in the war effort, but I remain greatly concerned about dramatic spending cuts for domestic programs, that, if carried out, will disproportionately affect our nation’s poor.”