Etheridge: Bush Budget Leaves N.C. Children, Farmers Behind

News Release
Congressman Bob Etheridge
North Carolina

February 6, 2006

Contact: Joanne Peters
Phone: (202) 225-4531

Etheridge: Bush Budget Leaves N.C. Children, Farmers Behind

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) today denounced the President's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2007, which slashes funding to education initiatives and the Farm Bill and escalates the national debt.

"Less than one week after the President pledged in his State of the Union address to invest in education, science and technology, this budget proposes eliminating funding for 48 education initiatives and under-funding many others. This budget fails the test of moral leadership by increasing the burden on the poor, the middle class and those families struggling to get into the middle class," said Etheridge.

Of the approximately 150 initiatives eliminated, almost one third are education initiatives. Funding for vocational education is completely eliminated in the budget. Etheridge has been a long-time supporter of increased funding for vocational education and has visited many schools in the 2nd Congressional District to promote vocational education. The President also proposes cutting $440 million in Safe and Drug-Free School grants, $500 million in education technology state grants and $225 million for the Even Start literacy program. For the fifth consecutive year the budget fails to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act, falling $15.4 billion short of what is needed for the year.

The President's budget also decreases spending for agriculture by 6.5 percent. The budget cuts spending on farm commodities by $4.99 billion.

"The President's budget breaks the promise that Congress made to North Carolina farmers in the 2002 Farm Bill. Our farmers were promised that the compromise we reached in 2002 would not change until the Farm Bill expired. Just one week after Congress voted, without my support, to cut $2.7 billion from the Farm Bill, the President is supporting another $4.99 billion in cuts," said Etheridge.

Etheridge also criticized the President's budget for increasing the deficit. Under the new budget, the deficit will reach a record high of $423 billion.

"We will spend three times as much on the interest on the national debt this year as we will on education. That shortsightedness is an example of misplaced priorities. The President and Congress must reverse course, get back to the values of balanced budgets and get the burden of crushing national debt off our children's backs."

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