NJ SENATORS MENENDEZ AND LAUTENBERG OFFER INITIAL REACTION TO PRESIDENT’S BUDGET PROPOSAL

WASHINGTON – Today, President Bush submitted his FY2009 budget proposal to Congress – a proposal that includes cuts to key domestic health care, education, environmental programs and state and local homeland security grants. The budget raises the deficit without even including the cost of the war.

New Jersey Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) members of the Budget Committee that will hold hearings on the proposal, offered their initial reactions this afternoon to the president’s budget. 

Senator Menendez:

“Cutting some of the most important investments in our families while leaving out huge costs that will run up our debt – that’s a budget double whammy that only this president could pull off. He’s leaving behind a fiscal legacy of lost opportunity, lost priorities and lost values. Health care, homeland security, the environment and education are areas in which we should be investing, but those are four of the areas which the president has put on the chopping block. The fact is that while President Bush left out of this budget enormous costs like the war and fixing the Alternative Minimum tax, he will leave behind a mountain of debt for our children and grandchildren. As a member of the Budget Committee, I plan to stand up for the safety and well being of the families of our state and the nation in the face of this cynical budget proposal.”

Senator Lautenberg:

“With the country on the brink of a recession, President Bush’s budget continues to ignore the needs of working families in New Jersey and across the country.  This budget fails to lower health care and tuition costs, give necessary tools to state and local law enforcement and first responders, fix our jammed airports and highways or lower prices at the pump.  Instead, President Bush’s budget carelessly cuts funding for Medicare, Medicaid, education, state and local homeland security funding, protection of the environment and transportation infrastructure.  

By hiding the true costs of the war in Iraq and irresponsibly neglecting our needs at home, President Bush leaves a sad legacy of huge deficits and unmet challenges for future generations.  This is an irresponsible budget and I will fight President Bush’s misplaced priorities to make sure we match our budget with the real needs of New Jersey and the entire nation.”