Budget: Bring the Dollars Home
Next week, your representative will have an opportunity to determine how much of the federal budget for 2007 will be spent on weapons and the military and how much will be spent to fund education, health care, housing, and other domestic programs. The Senate has already voted to increase spending on non-military programs, directing about $7 billion to employment, education, and health programs. Now your representative can make a difference in the House vote.
More $$ for Military and Tax Breaks or More $$ for Workers, Families, Children and Elderly People? Though the House budget committee will recommend deep cuts in domestic human needs programs, we anticipate some proposals will be offered on the House floor to add funding on the domestic side of the budget. For example, a group of 23 moderate Republicans wrote to House Speaker Dennis Hastert last week asking for a 2 percent increase in domestic discretionary programs. They may offer an amendment to that effect when the budget resolution comes to the House floor in early April.
Where should the money come from? We have a candidate. Speaker Hastert has said that he expects the House to keep to the overall limit that the president proposed for discretionary spending. So if something goes up, something must come down. The military budget has increased by more than $200 billion in the last five years, while domestic human needs programs have been cut "beyond the bone, and into the marrow," according to Sen. Arlen Specter (PA).
FCNL opposes increases in military spending. Proposed military increases should be diverted into non-military solutions to global conflicts, protection of the environment, and support for programs that serve elderly, poor, and disabled people and low- and moderate-income households in this country.
Take Action Now
Your representative will probably have several chances to vote on amendments to the budget resolution. It’s impossible to know now what those amendments might be. Please contact your representative and urge him or her to find opportunities to support funding for the most vulnerable people among us, and to do whatever he or she can do to reduce the very large percentage of our tax dollars that support the military.
Write to your representative directly from FCNL’s web site and find talking points to help you craft your message.
Background
The House is now considering its version of the federal budget resolution. A broad framework for spending decisions, the budget resolution identifies limits on military and non-military discretionary spending (spending that is voted on every year). The budget resolution can also direct cuts in “entitlement programs” such as food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, and student aid. Though the budget resolution doesn’t bind Congress to any particular spending choices, it can carry loud and clear messages to the appropriators as they begin to make their choices in the next stage of the process.
The House budget resolution includes several disturbing features. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- It increases spending on military and international programs by $16.5 billion in FY 2007 and $151 billion over the next five years, not including “supplemental” and other “emergency” appropriations for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- It cuts spending for domestic programs by almost $133 billion over the next five years (slightly deeper than the president requested), including $5.1 billion from entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, student aid, unemployment compensation and veterans’ benefits.
- The spending cuts cover – in part -- new tax breaks ($228 billion) and increased military spending.
- The deficit will grow by more than $250 billion over the next five years with the policy changes in this resolution
For more details, visit the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ web site.
Contacting Legislators
Contact your members of Congress through FCNL's web site.
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
Sen. ________
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Rep. ________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Contacting the Administration
Contact the President through FCNL's web site.
White House Comment Desk:
202 456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2461
White House web site
President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
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