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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2009		 CONTACT:  David Simon
(202) 225-0123 		 
 
Congresswoman Corrine Brown Applauds President's Budget for Honest Assessment, Investments in the Future
 
(Washington, DC) - Congresswoman Corrine Brown applauded President Obama's 10-year budget outline, which was released last week.  The Congresswoman said that "the budget is an honest assessment of the challenges facing our nation, and no longer hides the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Moreover, it makes the necessary choices to restore fiscal responsibility and begin reducing the deficit, while making critical investments in health care, energy, education and transportation and infrastructure, all of which will return our economy to strong footing for the future." 

Congresswoman Brown continued:

"President Obama's budget also makes tough choices to strengthen our economy and restore fiscal responsibility, while also presenting an honest portrayal of the true fiscal picture, and puts an end to years of masking the costs of things we have to pay for, like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

While making hard choices to reduce the deficit and return to a fiscally sustainable path, this budget also makes critical investments to ensure that our economy stays strong for years to come. It makes a down payment on health care reform to provide affordable and accessible health care, invests in clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and expands access to early and higher education so that our nation can stay competitive in the 21st century economy.

I am also pleased with the Transportation funding increase provided in the President's proposed budget, which will allow the country to make much needed investment in infrastructure to meet the current and future needs of the traveling public.  As I have stated in the past, for every $1 billion invested in transportation and infrastructure, 47,000 jobs are created.  Indisputably, our nation is facing an economic crisis greater than any since the Great Depression, with a staggering 2.6 million American jobs lost in the last year and an unemployment rate in my state of Florida that has climbed above 8%.  This budget proposal, along with the economic stimulus package signed into law last month, are positive first steps towards putting our country on the path to recovery.  Lastly, I am extremely pleased to see that the President's budget makes a $5 billion installment payment on President Obama's campaign promise to build a national network of high-speed passenger trains, as well as the $8 billion for high-speed trains in the recently enacted economic stimulus bill."

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