Press Release
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For Immediate Release |
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| Crowley Supports President Obama’s Long-term Economic Plan Investing in America’s Future FY ’10 budget is an honest blueprint for critical investments in healthcare reform, energy independence, education revitalization and a return to long-term fiscal responsibility |
Washington, D.C. — Congressman Joseph Crowley (NY-7) voted today in the U.S. House of Representatives in support of the Democratic economic plan. President Obama has presented a fiscally responsible blueprint that invests in strengthening and revitalizing our nation by reforming healthcare, improving education, and reducing our dependency on foreign oil. The FY 2010 budget is the first honest long-term economic plan in a decade – making good-faith estimates about the costs we will incur as a nation through straight forward accounting. For the first time, the economic plan includes expenses that have been left out of the budget for many years, such as the War in Iraq. The broad economic plan passed by a vote of 233 to 196 late Thursday evening. “The Democratic budget passed tonight is the right plan to put our nation back on track during this time of economic crisis,” said Congressman Joseph Crowley. “President Obama has challenged our nation to take bold steps towards rebuilding our economy in the short term, while paving the way towards a secure and lasting prosperity. This budget lays the groundwork for addressing these challenges by making long overdue investments in reforming our health care system, investing in our education system and making our nation energy secure and efficient.” President Obama’s broad economic plan will: · Begin a new era of honest budgeting where costs are accurately and openly represented such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Previous Republican budgets masked these costs to make the deficit appear smaller. · Provides the Blueprint for Economic Strength through strategic investments in education, health care reform, and energy independence that are necessary to restore our crumbling economy and put the country in a position to remain globally competitive. It also takes the needed steps to put us back on a more fiscally responsible path by cutting the federal budget deficit by more than half by 2013. · Supports Health Care Reform by lowering costs, improving quality, and expanding coverage to help the 46 million Americans who now lack health insurance. Like the President’s plan, the economic plan assumes health care reform will be paid for and leaves it to the relevant committees to determine the best way to accomplish it. · Builds upon Education Investments Made in Recovery Act with further support for early childhood education, high standards and the tools to achieve them for elementary and secondary school students, and efforts to help more Americans obtain a college degree. The budget accommodates the President’s proposals for new initiatives in early childhood education, effective approaches to making sure all children learn and achieve in school, and continuing to raise the maximum Pell grant award without adding to the budget’s bottom line. · Invests in Energy Independence by increasing our investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency by some 18 percent for 2010, in addition to our investments as part of the Recovery Act. It also allows for fiscally responsible legislation that will promote energy independence over the long term. · Honors our Veterans by providing $53.3 billion in appropriated funding for veterans’ health care and other services, which is $5.5 billion (11.5 percent) more than the 2009 level. · Cuts the Deficit by more than Half in four years, putting the budget on a fiscally sustainable path needed for future economic strength. This budget is in contrast to the historic budget deficit that President Obama and the 111th Congress inherited from the Bush Administration – a deficit of well over $1 trillion in 2009. “Aside from tackling the tough issues, this budget is honest and straight forward with the American people about our nation’s fiscal status – something we haven’t seen in almost a decade. The previous Administration’s budgets failed to make good-faith estimates about what costs we would incur as a nation and did not account for large spending items, such as the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hiding these costs was wrong; in order to put our nation’s long-term fiscal health back on track, we must deal with the issues we are facing in an open, transparent and responsible way,” said Congressman Crowley. ### |