To: Congressional Republicans
From: Democratic Leader’s Press Office
Date: March 2, 2011
Re: Your Job Cutting Spending Bill vs. American Priorities
You have been in control of the House for 8 weeks now and still the American people are waiting for a bill that is in line with their priorities. Now that the Senate has voted on the interim funding bill, taking away the immediate threat of a government shutdown, the American people want to know – will you be willing to work with Democrats on passing a funding bill that will create jobs, strengthen the middle class and responsibly reduce the deficit?
In a speech this morning, Speaker Boehner claimed that the GOP’s “So Be It” spending bill “contains billions in spending cuts needed to create a better environment for job creation.” But here’s what independent analysts tell us about your reckless bill: it would destroy hundreds of thousands jobs, make America less safe, harm homeless veterans, cripple education funding for our students, weaken our economic recovery, and jeopardize our position as the leader of the worldwide scientific community.
Washington Post – GOP spending plan would cost 700,000 jobs, new report says:
A Republican plan to sharply cut federal spending this year would destroy 700,000 jobs through 2012, according to an independent economic analysis set for release Monday…
His report comes on the heels of a similar analysis last week by the investment bank Goldman Sachs, which predicted that the Republican spending cuts would cause even greater damage to the economy, slowing growth by as much as 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of this year.
Wall Street Journal – Port Authority Faces $22 M Cut:
Federal spending cuts passed recently by the House would slash grants for antiterrorism work at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by two-thirds, or some $22 million…
The cut to the Port Security Grant Program, though, is opposed by the top homeland security lawmaker in the House of Representatives, New Yorker Peter King.
“From a security perspective and a dollars and cents perspective, it’s very shortsighted, it’s dangerous, and it’s wrong,” said Mr. King, a Long Island Republican…
Long Island Democratic Rep. Steve Israel accused House Republicans of “blindly gutting port security and putting New Yorkers at risk.” Mr. Israel said spending cuts were needed, but not in security funding.
CNNMoney.com – Budget cuts may hit homeless vets:
Among the more controversial GOP budget cut proposals is an effort to kill $75 million that’s slated to house homeless veterans…
The cuts would hurt some 11,000 homeless veterans who have already qualified for housing this year but have yet to receive vouchers.
“It’s really unnecessarily prolonging homelessness for another year,” said John Driscoll, president of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans in Washington…
The administration estimates that on a single night in January 2009, 75,600 veterans were homeless. At the current funding levels, federal officials are nearly halfway to ending veteran homelessness.
Education Week – House GOP Presses for Deep Cuts to Education:
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives appear determined to make deep cuts to education and related programs in the temporary spending bill that would keep the federal government operating for the rest of the fiscal year, even as President Barack Obama seeks a modest funding boost next year…
“People have been talking about ‘tough cuts’-it’s not tough to take money away from a poor child. It’s not tough to kick a child out of Head Start,” Rep. George Miller of California, the top Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said in a Feb. 17 interview with MSNBC.
“You want to do something tough?” he said. “Take away tax breaks from the hedge fund managers that don’t deserve it. … That’s tough. You know why? Because they can fight back. Head Start parents don’t get to fight back very much. Poor children don’t get to fight back very much.”
… under the House Republicans’ bill, many…literacy programs would be scrapped entirely, including the Even Start Family Literacy program, funded at $66 million; the Striving Readers program, funded at $250 million; the $19 million Literacy Through School Libraries program; and the $25.6 million National Writing Project…
The GOP measure would also zero out money for mathematics and science partnerships, now $180 million, and the Education Technology State Grants, funded at $100 million, among other programs…
Pell Grants to help low- and moderate-income students attend college-which are facing a $20 billion shortfall in fiscal 2012 because of high demand-would be slashed as well, resulting in an $845 reduction to the maximum per-student grant of $5,550.
ABC News – Goldman Sachs: House Spending Cuts Will Hurt Economic Growth:
A confidential new report prepared by Goldman Sachs for its clients says spending cuts passed by the House of Representatives last week would be a drag on the economy, cutting economic growth by about two percent of GDP.
“Under the House passed spending bill [which cut spending by $61 billion],” says the report, which was obtained by ABC News, “the drag on GDP growth from federal fiscal policy would increase by 1.5pp to 2pp in Q2 and Q3 compared with current law.”
USA Today – Proposed budget cuts target science and research:
…With a federal budget battle showdown underway, science looks like collateral damage, say former federal officials, with proposed cuts to research that they consider severe. At stake, they warn, is the nation’s long-term economic growth.
“Some of these are almost punitive cuts for science,” says Raymond Orbach, who headed the Energy Department’s science office during the George W. Bush administration. Writing in Science magazine this week, Orbach says proposed research cuts “would effectively end America’s legendary status as the leader of the worldwide scientific community.”…
“We’re eating our seed corn. A lot of this looks like mindless cutting,” says retired congressman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., former head of the House Science Committee…
“I’m an old-fashioned patriot. I like the U.S. to lead in science and innovation,” Boehlert says…
“The House budget bill is a dramatic statement of the Republicans’ view of crisis — dramatic because if implemented it would indeed harm the nation, and it certainly would harm science,” [former George W. Bush administration science adviser John] Marburger says. “It’s equivalent to threatening to cut off your arm to get attention.”
Is this really what you think the American people sent you to Washington to do?