Mr. Speaker, the President’s budget is a blueprint of his priorities.  A way of showing what direction he wants to move the country.  Based on the last four years, it is no surprise that the President’s budget is more of the same: continued tax cuts for the wealthy paid for by slashing programs that Americans depend on. 

While the President has urged a return to fiscal discipline, he has been more of a culprit than a savior.  This year’s budget continues to move in the wrong direction, and the FY 2006 deficit will likely be the largest in history.  The President’s projected deficit is not even a credible accounting, as the budget completely omits the President’s own plans for tax cuts, Social Security privatization, and fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  These programs alone will cost trillions of dollars over the next decade.

The President says spending cuts are necessary to keep the deficit from increasing even more.  This is only half accurate.  Without the tax cuts enacted since 2001, our nation’s fiscal health would be much rosier, and the President would not be asking the neediest and most vulnerable Americans to sacrifice.

With control of the White House and both Houses of Congress, this blueprint shows America the real Republican agenda.  They want to cut Medicaid by $60 billion over ten years and put more of the burden on states and the 45 million Americans who do not have health insurance.  They want to eliminate 48 education programs that provide assistance with vocational education, education technology, and civic education.  And they want us to fall $12 billion further behind in our commitments under No Child Left Behind, handing an unfunded mandate to states and shortchanging our teachers and students. 

While the Department of Homeland Security receives an overall increase in funding, the President proposes cutting FIRE grants by 30% and first responder funding by 10%, in addition to a 42% cut for the hugely successful COPS program.  How does this budget make us safer?

Perhaps most egregiously during this time of war, the President wants to impose new fees and increase copayments for veterans’ health care, adding an undue burden to those who have served their country so honorably.

I urge my colleagues to join me in returning fiscal responsibility to the budgetary process and creating a realistic blueprint that meets the needs of the American people, not just the President’s wealthiest supporters.