Bush Budget

From the office of Senator Bernie Sanders (D) Vermont. SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS, MEMBER OF BUDGET COMMITTEE: THE BUSH BUDGET IS A DISASTER The President punishes the middle class and the poor to provide tax breaks for the rich. -- 02/05/2007 Among many other cuts proposed by the President there is: A complete elimination of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), a vital nutrition program primarily for low-income seniors but also serving mothers, infants and children across the country. The CSFP provided more than 6.4 million food packages for over 400,000 low-income seniors, mothers and children across the country in 2006, including over 4,000 Vermonters. A $379 million cut to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program at a time when senior citizens on fixed incomes and low-income families with children struggle to pay to heat their homes this winter. A $100 million cut for Head Start, at a time when only about one-half of the children eligible for this program actually participate due to a lack of funding. A complete elimination of the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Program even though each and every year more people are diagnosed with TBI than those who suffer from breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, Spinal Cord Injury and Multiple Sclerosis combined. A complete elimination of the $630 million Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program, one of the most successful anti-poverty programs in the country, that has provided millions of Americans with emergency food assistance, employment, affordable housing and heating assistance. An 87 percent cut in Rural Health Programs. A $310 million cut in the National Institutes of Health. A $1 billion cut in job training and employment services at the Department of Labor. A $172 million cut in elderly housing and a $115 million cut in housing for persons with disabilities.