(Washington, DC): -- Congressman Michael R. McNulty (D-Green Island) released the following statement today after reviewing the Fiscal Year 2007 budget released by the Bush Administration:

“This irresponsible budget cuts Medicare by $105 billion over the next ten years, slashes educational programs from pre-school through college, reduces health care funding for our brave veterans, and mortgages our grandchildren’s future with never-ending deficits and skyrocketing national debt.”

“The president proposes these cuts affecting working families, while simultaneously asking for $1.5 trillion in tax breaks for the wealthy. The unfairness of these proposals is breathtaking.

“Just days after renewing the Milk Income Loss Compensation (MILC) program, the president is pulling the rug out from under dairy farmers in my district who are struggling to regain their footing financially. This budget takes aim at dairy farmers with not one, not two, but three new proposals to drive up the cost of doing business.

“First, the budget includes a new fee of three cents per hundredweight of milk to be paid by all producers on all of their production. It also proposes an across-the-board five percent cut to the MILC program, which provides compensation to dairy farmers when milk prices fall below certain levels. Finally, it demands additional changes in the dairy support price structure to maximize government savings – and minimize payments to producers.

“I will fight these proposals in order to make sure that dairy farmers and their families in my district are treated fairly.

“During his 60 months in office, President Bush has turned a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion into a projected deficit of nearly $4 trillion, including a proposed deficit of $423 billion in fiscal year 2007.

“I will join my Democratic colleagues in fighting for a budget that restores fiscal responsibility and focuses on priorities important to the American people: economic prosperity, strong national defense, affordable health care and energy, and strong public schools.

“Together, America can do better than continuing these out-of-control deficits and promoting such misplaced priorities.”

# # #