President’s Budget Ignores Concerns of Oklahoma Working Families

President Bush's 2008 budget will cut millions of dollars from critical education, health care, homeland security, and law enforcement programs in Oklahoma, according to analysis by the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. While the President's $2.9 trillion budget does little to address the rising economic insecurities that middle class Americans are facing, it slashes millions from programs that are essential to thousands of Oklahomans. President Bush's new budget shows that he continues to ignore the will of the American people and by advancing a radical agenda that has already been rejected by the vast majority of the American people. A Newsweek poll last week found that 58 percent of American simply want the Bush Presidency to end.



As in previous years, President Bush has tried to sneak his Social Security privatization plan into the budget, which would undermine the retirement security of 436,100 Oklahomans. The President's budget request seeks to eliminate the Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS) program and the Justice Assistance Grants program, which together provided more than seven million dollars in funding to help keep Oklahoma communities safe. While the Democrats in Congress have saved the Community Development Block Grant Program from elimination in each of the last two years, President Bush has it on the chopping block again, risking over $30 million in community development funds for Oklahoma.

"President Bush's budget shows that he still has no interest in listening to the will of the American people," said Oklahoma State Democratic Party Chair Lisa Pryor. "Last November, the voters demanded real change and real leaders who put working families first. Yet, just like all his previous budgets, President Bush's budget this year offers more of the same cuts to programs that are critical to Oklahoma’s working families. If Oklahoma Republicans like Senators Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe and Representatives Tom Cole, Frank Lucas, Marry Fallin and John Sullivan are serious about doing the work that Oklahomans sent them to Washington to do, they should join Oklahoma Democrats and U.S. Congressman Dan Boren in fighting President Bush's reckless and irresponsible budget cuts."

See how the Bush budget truly effects Oklahomans.