According to the National Woman's Law Center (NWLC), the newly released FY2007 budget is missing three prime components--women, children and housing.
This budget will decrease economic security and reduce opportunity for low-income women and children, according to the NWLC analysis of President Bush's released budget. While tax reductions will be awarded to wealthier citizens, women and children will be short-changed by disproportionate program cuts in the national budget.
"Six years ago, the President told Americans that the nation could afford to have tax cuts and continue to meet its domestic priorities," said Joan Entmacher, NWLC Vice President for Family Economic Security. "But he failed to mention that under his watch, quality of life for low- and moderate-income Americans would not be a priority.
Specifically, the budget would harm vulnerable American women and families by:
· Cutting $13 billion from Medicaid over the next five years,
· slashing education spending by 29 percent next year,
· pushing 300,000 individuals off the food stamp program,
· slashing housing assistance for low-income families and the elderly,
The President's budget also cuts $600 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a 1.8% decrease from last year's budget appropriations. HUD recently reported that 5.18 million very low-income families have critical housing problems, especially in light of the Golf Coast Hurricanes. The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) objects strenuously to the Administration's failure to make affordable housing a priority, as it ignores elderly and low-income citizens' housing needs, in particular.
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