The Congress is moving swiftly to finally finish the national budget for Fiscal Year 2006. (The Fiscal Year begins October 1 so they are late.) Because they did not pass the budget by October 1, they have put everything into an omnibus piece of legislation that makes it very difficult to make any changes once they come to floor votes in the House and Senate.
Conservative Republicans have used this truncated process, the excuse of a deficit they created, and the emergency funding needed to assist victims of the hurricanes, to ram through cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, student loans, and child support enforcement. This is insane public policy at the exact moment when more women and children, and elderly need Medicaid and when more people lack food security. The Senate has already voted for billions of cuts, but the House wants to cut even deeper.
Once they have passed this package of cuts, they will attempt to make the huge tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, thus bleeding money from our budget at the worst possible time. This is one of the most tragic budget seasons in years, so please make your voice heard. Tens of thousands of people have already contacted Congress and it has had the effect of lessening the cuts and letting them know we are watching.
Please go to www.ombwatch.org where they have made it easy for you to contact your representative and where you can get more information.
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