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CURRENT
ISSUE: February 19, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 4Oakland,
CA
Proposed budget will make poverty
much worse, says Catholic Charities
President
Bush’s proposed $2.9 trillion budget not only misses the mark on
reducing poverty, but will actually serve to exacerbate the problems facing
millions of our nation’s poor families, according to Father Larry
Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA.
The proposed budget contains drastic cuts and changes to a range of programs
that address the health and well-being of low-income families and individuals.
Father Synder said his agencies are alarmed that just two weeks after
the president’s State of the Union address, in which he acknowledged
the nation’s health care crisis, he recommended cutting more than
$100 billion from Medicaid, Medicare, and other critical health care programs
over five years.
“The President’s new budget hurts those living in poverty
at a time when we should be doing even more to help the most vulnerable
among us,” Father Synder said.
According to Catholic Charities USA, some of the most alarming cuts are
in the following areas:
• Health Care. The Administration proposes deep cuts to health care
programs-such as Medicaid, Medicare, the State Children’s Health
Insurance Program, and substance abuse and mental health programs-that
will impact some of the most vulnerable Americans, including seniors,
low-income children, and the disabled.
• Hunger. The Administration proposes to eliminate Food Stamp eligibility
for approximately 300,000 people in working families with children. These
families have low-incomes, but they are not receiving cash assistance.
The budget also proposes to eliminate funding for the Commodity Supplemental
Food Program, which provides funding for the elderly and nutritionally
vulnerable pregnant women and their children.
• Housing. The Administration proposes deep cuts to services and
housing programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development. These include cuts to the Housing for the Elderly Section
202 Program by nearly a quarter and reducing funding for HUD’s Housing
for Persons with Disabilities 811 Program by half.
• Economic Security. The Administration’s proposal eliminates
funding for the Community Services Block Grant, which funds a range of
services to address the needs of low-income individuals. The budget further
proposes to significantly cut the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program,
which helps low-income persons meet their home heating costs.
The budget proposal also calls for reducing the federal commitment to
abused and neglected children in the nation’s foster care system.
Catholic Charities USA recently launched its Campaign to Reduce Poverty
in America, a new multi-year initiative to cut poverty in half by 2020,
by urging Congress and the Administration to give a much higher priority
to the needs of the 37 million Americans living in poverty in policy and
budget decisions on issues such as health care, housing, nutrition, and
economic security.
(Shelley Borysiewicz is on the staff of Catholic Charities USA.)
