[ Note: With this post, we're happy to introduce our first guestblogger here at CtW Connect! Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY) is the Congresswoman representing New York's 28th Congressional District, which includes the cities of Rochester, Buffalo, and Niagara Falls. She is the current chairwoman of the House Committee on Rules, making her the first woman in history to hold this powerful position. Join us in welcoming Congresswoman Slaughter! -- The editors ]
The pundits on cable television have never had to tell America’s working families that our economy is in serious trouble. These families have known it for a very long time.
They’ve felt how their families are under siege as they struggle to keep up with skyrocketing gas prices, rising levels of unemployment, astronomical health care costs, decreasing wages, and a crisis in home foreclosures.
After some high profile catastrophes on Wall Street, even President George W. Bush has finally acknowledged the difficulties facing Americans trying to make it in the current economic climate.
However, though he may have admitted it, I’m not sure that he actually gets it.
Last month, the President submitted his budget for the coming fiscal year to the cheers of his Republican allies in Congress and to the astonishment of many of my Democratic colleagues.
In the face of deepening economic turmoil, the President offered more of the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.
He offered more cuts to critical domestic priorities like education, health care, and even national security in an effort to sustain excessive tax cuts for the super rich and taxpayer giveaways to the corporations who export nothing but good paying jobs.
He slashed funding to the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program and raised veterans’ health care fees by $5.2 billion over the next ten years in order to maintain funding for the war in Iraq, burying our children and grandchildren in already unprecedented levels of debt.
What’s unfortunate is that none of this is particularly shocking; President Bush’s 2009 budget proposal is little different from President Bush’s 2007 or 2008 budget proposals.
This most recent plan is just a continuation of Administration policies that are bad for working Americans, bad for their children, and, simply put, bad for the nation.
It’s just another in a long line of policies that show he just doesn’t understand the obstacles that mothers and fathers face every day as they are forced to put in longer hours at work (when they can find work) so that their children have food to eat, clothes to wear, and a roof over their heads.
Recognizing the economic realities facing America’s working families, the Democratic Congress put forth an alternative budget proposal for the coming year. We put forth a plan that expands children’s health insurance coverage; provides tax relief to more than 20 million middle-income families; makes education a priority; and invests in economic growth and job creation within the United States of America.
Since Democrats regained the majority in Congress, we have seen a stark difference in the kind of legislation coming out of the House and Senate. From the Employee Free Choice Act passing the House to the increase in the minimum wage, working families are finally becoming the priority they deserve to be.
However, we have a long road ahead. Dark clouds are gathering on our nation’s economic horizon and there is much work to be done. Both the White House and Congress must work together in order for all Americans to make it through alright.
President Bush once famously declared that you are either with us or against us.
I agree.
Today, as we find ourselves on the edge of an economic precipice, the time has come for politicians of every stripe and every party to stand up and answer a very simple question: “Are you with America’s working families or against them?”
Comments (1)
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I flat don't believe your middle class income tax cuts. The only tax cuts that have allowed my kids to stay at home with my wife, and for me to finally be able to build a house not a big one but a nice one are the tax cuts that are in place now. If government left me and mine alone we would do a lot better. I don't need you or a union or anything else except less government to help me get ahead.
Posted by Alex Carroll on March 25, 2008 at 6:31 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 at 6:31 PM