State Dems React to Bush’s Budget
By Morgan Kelly
WASHINGTON- Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., blasted President Bush Wednesday for cutting back low-income housing programs in his 2005 budget proposal.
“[The] budget proposal once again demonstrates that the Bush administration is primarily concerned about the well-being of the rich and is trying to reduce the unmanageable deficit on the backs of the poor,” Rep. Frank said in a statement.
Rep. Frank was especially angered by the president’s proposed reform of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 8 voucher program, which pays 70 percent of a qualified family’s rent. The current “unit-based” system gives vouchers to local housing authorities based on the number of low-income homes in the area. The president proposes “dollar-based” funding, which would give a set amount to housing authorities regardless of the number of people in need of housing.
The proposal cuts the current Section 8 program and forces local housing authorities to “pick and choose among their low-income clientele,” kicking many recipients out of the program, Rep. Frank said.
HUD spokeswoman Donna White said the proposed change is needed to rein in a system whirling out of control financially.
“We’re trying to address the spiraling cost of running the program,” Ms. White said, who added that the cost of each voucher has increased by 20 percent in the last two years. “If it continues to grow in that way it will drain from other HUD programs.”
Although the president proposes cutting Section 8, HUD’s overall budget is slated to go up 3 percent to $31.3 billion.
If program costs are rising, it is because rent prices are climbing, including those in New Bedford , said Joseph Finnerty, executive director of the New Bedford Housing Authority. Some 1,600 families participate in New Bedford ‘s Section 8 voucher program, with 1,000 families on the waiting list.
Currently, the housing authority receives enough money for all the families and can apply for more if needed. But under the president’s proposal, the authority would have to ration out the cash as rents increase and reduce the number of families it can help.
“We’re not going to throw people out, but ration out the money and just not reissue” vouchers as people leave the program, Mr. Finnerty said. If Congress approves the president’s proposal, “it’s going to be a hard year,” he added.
Rep. Frank said the cutbacks and policy changes represent the president’s malice toward the poor.
“[The administration] has relentlessly made war upon poor people, refusing to fund new affordable housing, failing to preserve existing housing, presiding over an increase in homelessness and slashing programs for low-income people, the elderly and the disabled,” Rep. Frank said.
Rep. Frank’s comments echo a theme of robust disapproval of the president’s budget proposals by others in the Massachusetts congressional delegation.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement the proposed budget was “the most anti-family, anti-worker, anti-health care, anti-education budget in modern times.” He added that it “doesn’t deserve to pass.”
Of the several problems Sen. Kennedy cited, the most significant were the president’s plans for education and health care funding, initiatives Sen. Kennedy initially supported but later turned against when he felt betrayed by the president.
“[The president] proposed to underfund his signature education initiative [the No Child Left Behind Act] by $9.4 billion,” Sen. Kennedy said. “Over 4.6 million will be left behind.”
On health care, “the president has proposed a smoke and mirrors budget–long on rhetoric and short on real resources to meet the needs of the American people,” Sen. Kennedy continued. The president, for example, proposed $20 billion less for health care than in the current year, despite his pledge to cover the uninsured, Sen. Kennedy said.
In a statement from the presidential campaign trail, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also accused the president of underfunding his education and health care initiatives. He added: “With George Bush in the White House, we have been losing two jobs every minute. With this new budget, every minute we will be adding $1 billion to our deficit.”
