Levin Statement on President’s FY2008 Budget Request: 02/05/07
Washington, D.C. — Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., issued the following statement on the President’s FY 2008 budget request:
“The budget request President Bush sent us today will not get our country back on track. It would drive us further into the deficit ditch by giving more than $1 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent of Americans, while failing to invest in the health, education, and security of our people. The President proposes cutting funding for key first responder programs by more than half, cutting billions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid, and slashing $1.5 billion from the Department of Education, along with many other misguided priorities.
“The President’s claim that deficits will be eliminated by 2012 is divorced from reality. It leaves out major expenses like fixing the Alternative Minimum Tax so it doesn’t sock additional middle-class families, and it uses the Social Security Trust Fund as a piggy bank for covering shortfalls.
“Of particular concern for Michigan, the President is continuing his neglect of the manufacturing sector. For the fourth year in a row, he proposes terminating the Advanced Technology Program, which helps manufacturers develop new technologies for commercial use, and proposes significantly reduced funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which helps small and mid-sized manufacturers compete. The President’s budget also cuts job training and employment services by a whopping 19 percent.
“A bright spot in the budget is that the President has recognized the importance of a dispersal barrier to keep Asian carp, a harmful invasive species, from entering the Great Lakes. We have worked hard to get this barrier funded and will continue to work with other Great Lakes senators to make a dispersal barrier a reality before it is too late for our precious Great Lakes.”