FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FEBRUARY 03, 2003
CONTACT: LINDA MACIAS/PAUL TODD (202) 225-6161

Baca Statement on President’s FY 2004 Budget Proposal

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Representative Joe Baca (D-Rialto) made the following statement regarding the President’s Fiscal Year 2004 budget proposal:

“We’re just getting into the specifics of the President’s 2004 budget proposal, and already the damage that it will do to the American economy and the American working family is appalling.”

“The general consensus is that this is the most fiscally irresponsible budget submitted by a president not in the last couple years, not in the last 20 years, but ever!”

“Over the same 10 years that the previous Administration’s budgets projected a $5.6 trillion surplus, the President’s budget will impose a $2.1 trillion budget deficit on American taxpayers. With deficits and debt comes interest, which the American working families will have to pay.”

“Over the next 6 years American taxpayers will have to pay $453 billion in interest - they’ll be getting taxed for nothing! No prescription drug benefits under Medicare for seniors, no COPS funds for police officers in schools, no highway dollars for local interchanges, no money for Perkins Student Loans or teacher training, no funds for state Medicaid programs. But, the Administration still wants to spend billions of dollars on a tax cut for the wealthy.”

“The President does an injustice to our children with this budget. It’s money that our children will have to pay back with higher taxes, fewer services, and no retirement or healthcare benefits when they need them.”

“More importantly, the President’s budget spends every dime of the Social Security and Medicare surpluses. Baby boomers are going to start retiring in the next five years, but this budget leaves nothing for Social Security and Medicare. It will all be gone in the next 10 years. What are working families going to do without the Social Security and Medicare benefits that they have paid for all their lives?”

“And, the President has included nothing for the war in Iraq, not one dime. It’s baffling to think that the President considers the cost of this war so incidental that he hasn’t even included it in his budget. It’s going to cost many billions of dollars, maybe even hundreds of billions!”

 

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