Media Center

Today Congressman David Scott rejected aspects of the 2.5 trillion Fiscal Year 2006 Budget submitted to Congress by President Bush on Monday. The Bush Administration’s 2006 budget adds more than $4 trillion to the deficit in the next 10 years while cutting billions in education, health care, housing, and environmental programs. Congressman Scott formally spoke out against the budget from the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday.

“This budget is not honest and egregiously omits many important priorities that were signature points in President Bush’s State of the Union address last week, including the transition costs of privatizing Social Security and continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This completely negates his promise to cut the deficit in half by 2009,” said Scott.

Under the administration's policies, the annual burden of the Federal debt on the typical American family will more than double over the next 10 years, with each family's share of the Federal interest payments on the debt rising from just over $2,000 per year to around $5,000 per year. Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office also put costs for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as much as $400 billion more than what the president’s budget includes.

“The Draconian cuts and flat discretionary spending in the president’s budget do not reduce the deficit. In fact, the deficit continues as far as the eye can see. The $5.6 trillion 10-year surplus inherited by this administration from the Clinton administration, which should have been used to strengthen Social Security, instead has been squandered and replaced by a deficit of $4 trillion over the same time period from 2002 to 2011, which just passes the bill for today's policy choices on to our children and our grandchildren,” said Scott.

The President’s budget also imposes a new $250 annual enrollment fee for veterans without service-connected disabilities who also have incomes above VA means-tested levels.

“This is the meanest cut of all in this budget: to cut our veterans, to raise taxes on our veterans. We need to be doing more for our veterans, not less. And certainly not raising taxes on our veterans as this budget does,” Scott continued.