With all the money that President Bush has asked for, how is it possible that he could have such terrible priorities. If we were to inact his budget, Ohio would take a huge hit on Assistance to Fire Grants. These grants help local fire departments obtain equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training, and other resources needed to protect our emergency personnel and residents from fire and other incidents. Under the new budget, Ohio would be receiving a cut in these grants by a severe $24,018,000, which would equate to the loss of about 267 grants.

Every year, the number of fire related injuries goes up, while the funding necessary to fight and protect goes down. Nationally, departments nationwide will operate by $465 million below the level needed to maintain the services they are offering now, and even the services now are not as adequate as they could be.

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With all the money that President Bush has asked for, how is it possible that he could have such terrible priorities. If we were to enact his budget, Ohio would take a huge hit on Assistance to Fire Grants. These grants help local fire departments obtain equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training, and other resources needed to protect our emergency personnel and residents from fire and other incidents. Under the new budget, Ohio would be receiving a cut in these grants by a severe $24,018,000, which would equate to the loss of about 267 grants.

Every year, the number of fire related injuries goes up, while the funding necessary to fight and protect goes down. Nationally, departments nationwide will operate by $465 million below the level needed to maintain the services they are offering now, and even the services now are not as adequate as they could be.

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Here's a fun fact: President Bush’s defense plan calls for $1.2 million to be spent per second, while millions of dollars are being cut from crucial programs in his new budget. Our kids, our police officers, our teachers and middle class families are all supposed to do without while the President rewards defense contractors with huge sweetheart deals. That's just not the America I think any of us want to live in anymore. Yet. his rhetoric is now all about "fiscal responsibility" and he has chosen to take that stand on earmarks. I've said it before, we are not going to sit by and be lectured to by a guy who has created the single highest deficits in the history of our country. Oh but wait, there's more, The President has littered the bill with executive earmarks, how about that for hypocracy.

The President requested $894,000 for an air traffic control tower in Kalamazoo, Mich., $3 million for a forest conservation project in Minnesota, and $6.5 million for research in Wyoming on the “fundamental properties of asphalt.” He sought $12 million for a parachute repair shop at the American air base in Aviano, Italy, $2.1 million for a neutrino detector at the South Pole and $28 million for General Electric and Siemens to do research on hydrogen-fuel turbines. The President has yet again shown he has no intention of working with us.

Meanwhile, Ohioans are faced with cuts toward crucial programs. The Byrne Justice Assistance Grants are a great example. In the Bush Budget, a decrease of about $5.5 million dollars will be pushed toward this program, resulting in the loss of 122 police officers. The grants provide funding to states and local law enforcement agencies for crime prevention, law enforcement, prosection, drug treatment, corrections, and performance improvement. As a result of budget cuts made by President Bush to this program in past years, violent crime has increased in both of the last two years he did so. I will continue to specify the harming details of the Bush Budget as the week continues. See the chart below.

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President Bush unveiled his Budget for the 2009 Fiscal Year budget, and the results are what we expected from this Administration. The analysis of his budget is a failure for the American people and a failure for Ohio. The projected 2008 deficit will be $410 billion, the second largest in history, and the 2009 deficit is projected to $407 billion, which will be the third largest.

It is clear that the President doesn’t value healthcare for our grandparents judging by the drastic cuts he wants to make in Medicare. He doesn’t value keeping home heating affordable for our working poor because of his drastic cuts to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and clearly the President doesn’t value the safety and security of our children because of his cuts to the Community Oriented Policing Services program which would be eliminated completely. I suppose the only values that this President does stand for are ensuring no bid contracts get to his friends and the richest 1f Americans enjoy tax cuts at the expense of the middle class. Look below at these numbers which show just how badly our state will be affected.

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Yesterday, I joined with collegues on both sides of the aisle to pas the Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act (It passed with a vote of 385-85!). This economic stimulus package means real results for 4.8 million households in the state of Ohio, granting tax rebates of up to $1200 per couple, plus $300 per child, which could be seen as early as mid-May of this year. There’s no doubt in my mind that this bill will help, even just a bit, the many families in our community that are struggling to get by. The legislation will also give great tax breaks to small business on capital improvements and equipment. I urge all of our small businesses to take advantage of them. 

While this bill will be beneficial in the short term, we need to keep working to ensure a permanent road to economic stability and prosperity for every American, not just the privileged few. We are faced, currently, with enormous employment problems, off-the-chart health care costs, predatory lending practices from mortgage companies deceiving good people, and unfair trade agreements. It will take more than this stimulus package to cure those issues, and I’m counting on the President to step up and encourage the same bipartisan attitude that passed this bill in House to do the same to remedy these issues, as well. Hopefully, the need for this package will have sent that signal that things are beginning to get serious, and we need decisive action immediately.

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