Legislation & Politics

Letter to Senators opposing the budget resolution

March 13, 2006

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the 1.4 million members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), I urge you to oppose the budget resolution approved by the Budget Committee. It fails to adequately fund our nation's most important priorities in both domestic discretionary and mandatory programs, shifts costs to state and local governments, and assumes very costly tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy. These bad budget choices are especially harmful given the misguided budget decisions for the current fiscal year that slashed federal funding support for health care, child support enforcement, student aid, and a host of other services that Americans rely on for their economic security.

The Budget Committee's resolution fails to increase President Bush's proposed cap of $873 billion for non-emergency discretionary spending. This spending level assumes cuts of $5.3 billion below FY 2006 levels and is $17 billion less than what is needed to maintain the purchasing power of last year's budget when adjusted for inflation.

AFSCME is particularly concerned that the Budget Committee's resolution will not provide the necessary resources for state and local governments to meet the pressing needs of our nation's children, seniors, and working adults. The President's proposed FY 2007 budget reduces grants-in-aid to state and local governments by $7.5 billion, almost half of the proposed reductions in domestic discretionary funding relative to FY 2006 funding, adjusted for inflation. Any funding reductions will force states to choose between continuing to provide the important human services made possible by federal investments, cutting other state or local programs, or raising their own taxes to make up for lost federal revenues.

The budget resolution is the first and most important line of defense against unnecessary and unwise cuts to domestic discretionary spending. The President's and Budget Committee's proposed totals — which provide 4.1 percent less than the cost of today's services for domestic discretionary programs — will inescapably lead to cuts in education, child care, health care, nutrition, Head Start, housing and job training programs. We support responsible amendments that would increase the budget level for these and other important domestic discretionary programs for seniors, children and working families. In particular, AFSCME strongly urges you to vote for the Specter-Harkin amendment which will make available an additional $7 billion for programs funded by Labor-HHS-Education appropriations that will allow restoration to FY 2005 funding levels.

Domestic discretionary spending is an ever-shrinking slice of the federal budget pie. The federal commitment to ensure that children with special needs receive an appropriate education, to help state and local public health departments prepare for a pandemic flu outbreak, to provide nutrition services for pregnant women and infants through the WIC program, or to subsidize working families' child care costs are not the cause of the ballooning federal budget deficit and debt. I urge you to address the real cause of our budget woes: over a trillion dollars in tax breaks that are heavily weighted towards the wealthiest Americans. The Senate budget resolution assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are made permanent, at a cost of $227 billion over the next five years - and this figure grossly underestimates the likely cost of the tax cuts, since it excludes the cost of providing relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax. Tax breaks of this magnitude are particularly ill-advised when the staggering Iraqi war costs continue unabated, the costs for hurricane recovery and reconstruction continue to mount, and homeland security is becoming an ever-larger portion of the domestic discretionary budget but did not even exist before 2001. I urge you to oppose these unaffordable tax cuts.

AFSCME supports the Conrad amendment to the budget resolution that would restore "pay-as-you-go" rules to pay for both additional tax cuts and new mandatory spending. This would restore basic fairness into the budget process.

AFSCME also strongly urges you to oppose additional cuts to mandatory spending programs. The Deficit Reduction Act included dangerous reductions in core programs that serve low- and moderate-income families, including Medicaid, child support enforcement, foster care, and student loan programs. These cuts will shift costs to state and local governments and result in hardship for millions of affected families. The budget resolution assumes an additional $14 billion net cut in mandatory programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. As a nation, we cannot afford any further cuts that would harm beneficiaries who rely on these programs. AFSCME is particularly concerned about Senator Gregg's proposal that would trigger a point of order when general fund contributions to Medicare rise above 45 percent for two consecutive years, a threshold that could be reached in five years. Any new entitlement spending would then have to be offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget or tax increases. This would cause potentially devastating cuts to Medicare and other health care programs while tax cuts continue unabated.

The federal budget reflects our nation's priorities and choices. As ordinary Americans came to understand the high stakes involved in the budget process last year, they engaged as never before in letting their senators and representatives know that they wanted a budget that would expand, not contract, opportunity and security for all Americans. AFSCME joins with these millions of Americans who have spoken out and we urge you to vote "NO" on this budget resolution.


     Sincerely,

     Charles M. Loveless
     Director of Legislation

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