RESULTS Strongly Supports President Obama's Call for a Balanced Approach to Budgeting


April 5, 2012
by Allison Burket, Emerson National Hunger Fellow

In a speech to the Associated Press on Tuesday, April 2, President Obama demanded an approach to deficit-reduction that, unlike the House Republican Budget our recent weekly updates, the House Republican Budget would have a devastating impact on government programs across the board, including over $133 billion in cuts to SNAP over ten years and cuts to Medicaid that would leave 17 million people without health coverage. All in all, 62 percent of the cuts in the proposed budget would hit low-income individuals and families – all while expanding tax cuts for the wealthy and increasing military spending. 

RESULTS volunteers have raised their voices on this issue, writing letters to the editor  and calling Members of Congress to oppose this plan. Critical safety-net programs help keep millions of Americans out of poverty, particularly children and are an essential building block for a strong economy and a brighter future for America. 

We are pleased that President Obama agrees. In his speech, he reminded Americans why so many of the programs under attack in the House Republican Budget – from transportation infrastructure to Head Start to the Earned Income Tax Credit – have had bipartisan support over the years: “What leaders in both parties have traditionally understood is that these investments … are expressions of the fact that we are one nation.  These investments benefit us all.  They contribute to genuine, durable economic growth.” 

President Obama also highlighted why it is time to let the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest expire: “At the beginning of the last decade, the wealthiest Americans received a huge tax cut in 2001 and another huge tax cut in 2003.  We were promised that these tax cuts would lead to faster job growth.  They did not. ” (For a graph on the contribution of the Bush-era tax cuts to our nation’s debt, 93 percent went to the top one percent of taxpayers. Based on this data, the According to Washington Post Columnist Harold Myerson, economic recoveries haven’t always disproportionately benefited the rich, and the government has a part to plan in ensuring that the benefits of an economic recovery are felt by all. 

Read a available online. Learn more about RESULTS’ take on the budget in our

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