Wednesday, March 02, 2005
The Disaster of Bush's Budget in Virginia
This post does lift liberally (heh) from an email I received, but the numbers were new to me. I take State and local issues very seriously, and I'm angered to see how these cuts are going to affect us.
Here are just a few of the cuts Virginia faces under Bush's 2006 budget:
Homeland Security
- The Bush 2006 budget cuts $420 million to state and local funding for homeland security, including a $23.9 million cut for Virginia. These cuts will take police and firefighters off your streets.
- The Bush budget cuts the COPS program, which has put 2,461 officers on Virginia streets, by 96 percent.
Health Care
- The Bush budget cuts $45 billion from Medicaid, enough to provide health care to 1.8 million children. Virginia's share of these cuts is $587 million.
- Bush's budget cuts the very same community and rural health care programs he touted during the campaign, even though more than 148,000 Virginia residents have lost their health care coverage since Bush took office due to his failures.
Education
- Bush underfunds his own No Child Left Behind Act by $13.1 billion in his budget. In Virginia, that means a shortfall of $227.1 million, leaving behind 46,786 Virginia children.
- Bush promised to fund Pell Grants in his State of the Union address, but his budget is $6.6 billion short. That's $121.9 million less than what's needed in Virginia, a real burden for the 91,501 students in Virginia who receive the grants.
Other Priorities
- The Bush budget would require many veterans to pay a new $250 annual "user fee" to use the Veterans Administration health care system, and would double the prescription drug co-payment for the 786,359 Virginia veterans.
- Bush cuts Virginia clean water programs by $7.9 million.
- Bush's 2006 budget also cuts the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program -- which helps low-income families afford heating fuel in the winter -- by $234.4 million, including $4.5 million cut for Virginia residents.
And Bush's irresponsible budget is a record $427 billion in the red, increasing each Virginia family's share of the federal debt by $38,910.
Take Action
Take action today to help stop Bush's disastrous budget in its tracks. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper explaining why Bush's budget is such a disaster for America.
Be sure to include some of the facts about Virginia above, or download our full report here for even more useful information.
Write your letter here:
http://www.democrats.org/action
And be sure to tell your friends to join in. Forward this email to all your friends in Virginia, or tell them to find the report for their own state here:
http://www.democrats.org/bushbudget
Sincerely,
The DNC Grassroots Action Team
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