New York officials are pushing back hard against the House Republican budget proposal, which they say would hurt New York more than any other state. In NYC alone, the proposed budget would cut $452 million in funding, according to some estimates. (Representative Anthony Weiner says the GOP would cut $1 billion in funding to NYC.) If the Republicans get their way, the NYPD and local anti-terrorism programs would face big cuts, and the Daily News reports that there would be $38 million in cuts for schools, almost $122 million taken from the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, $30 million in cuts for jobs programs and $139 million slashed from the Housing Authority. Here's video of upstate Congressman Maurice Hinchey accusing the GOP of behaving "like a blindfolded child at a piñata party":
In his speech yesterday, Hinchey reminded everyone that "the fiscal crisis we are facing today was inherited from the Bush administration," and observed that Republicans "told us they would work to eliminate needless layers of bureaucracy, but instead, they're cutting heating assistance for the elderly, food aid for young mothers and infants, and college aid for 15,000 students in the district that I represent and hundreds of thousands of other students all across the country.
"They said they would focus on the economy but instead they're eliminating energy research and development that we need to create green jobs and compete with other countries around the world. They're sending the workers home on 76 high-speed rail projects underway in 40 states, all very necessary. This hurts real people. It does nothing to address our long-term deficit, and middle-class families are the ones who pay the price."
House Democrat Nita Lowey also issued a handy statement citing the top 10 ways the proposed cuts would screw New York. Among them, cuts to schools, the Port Security grant program, and transit security for systems like Metro North. At a new conference yesterday, President Obama conceded that his budget proposal doesn't do enough to resolve the nation’s long-term fiscal problems, and said he would "eventually come together with Republicans on a broad deal."
And Senator Chuck Schumer told reporters yesterday, "The feeling to do genuine deficit reduction is greater on both sides of the aisle than I’ve ever seen it. The question is meeting in the middle and throwing away the ideological baggage." Speaking of deficits and Republicans, this whole mess reminds us of the immortal words of Vice President Dick Cheney: "Deficits don't matter."
