Budget cuts would hurt health care, education, they claim
Midstate housing advocates yesterday protested President Bush's proposed cuts in the 2006 federal budget,
claiming they would hurt children, veterans and the poor.
Elected officials and community leaders also called on Pennsylvania's GOP senators, Rick Santorum and Arlen
Specter, to oppose five-year federal budget caps on many domestic programs.
The Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania and local officials criticized Bush's spending plan at the Capitol
yesterday. The budget caps would cut spending on education, law enforcement, affordable housing, the Head Start program and
veterans services, advocates said.
"We will either provide these services today or we will pay tomorrow with interest," said Harrisburg City
Councilwoman Gloria Martin-Payne, who said the cuts and caps would increase prison and health care needs.
The cuts would mean a $4 billion loss for Pennsylvania, the alliance said, quoting the Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities, which tracks federal policies affecting low-income residents. Dauphin County alone would lose about
400 vouchers to provide homes for people, the group said.
Bush in his State of the Union address Feb. 2 proposed cutting or eliminating more than 150 programs "that
are not getting results, or duplicate current efforts, or do not fulfill essential priorities."
Congress has yet to approve the spending plan. Bush proposed eliminating dozens of programs last year, but
Congress restored nearly all of them in the final budget.
"My assessment is that we're going to have to make substantial modifications in the Congress," Specter said
in a prepared statement. Specter cited some cuts -- including a $500 million cut in the Department of Education -- as "unacceptable."
Bush proposes the elimination of the Community Development Block Grant program, and would limit aid to the
Women, Infant and Children program, which helps low-income residents buy food.
Santorum will work "to support programs of importance to Pennsylvania, such as community development block
grants and WIC," Christine Shott, a Santorum spokeswoman, said yesterday.
Bush has said discretionary spending must be limited to reduce the federal debt and finance the war in Iraq.
"Discretionary spending to me means going out to dinner," said Cindy Daley, of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania.
"Federal money for food banks to me is the difference between having dinner or going hungry."
