April, 10 2013, 11:35am EDT
President Obama's Budget Capitulation
Today, President Obama released his fiscal year 2014 Budget. For the first time the President's Budget is calling for $1.2 trillion in cuts to the government, including billions from Social Security and Medicare. Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica issued the following statement in response to the President's Budget.
WASHINGTON
Today, President Obama released his fiscal year 2014 Budget. For the first time the President's Budget is calling for $1.2 trillion in cuts to the government, including billions from Social Security and Medicare. Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica issued the following statement in response to the President's Budget.
"Today, President Obama passed up the opportunity to lay down a positive vision of how our country can maintain its commitments to the Americans whose hard work built our country. Instead he proposed to balance the ledgers with significant cuts to the programs that working Americans depend on.
"Yet again, President Obama proved he is an excellent negotiator -- with himself. It is past time that he learned not to negotiate when he is alone at the table. The Republican House offered up a more draconian version of the Ryan Budget that the American people rejected in November, and President Obama rewarded the House's intransigence by proposing billions in cuts to the same social safety nets they want to weaken.
"The election is over and President Obama cannot run again, so he has no excuse for acting like a milquetoast. Obama's budget priorities have made it clear that he is more concerned with protecting corporations than working Americans.
"We can do better. Instead of cutting environmental protections and benefits for seniors, we should be raising revenue by making polluters pay for their pollution. In his address this morning, President Obama reiterated his commitment to deal with climate change, but his budget does not call for the steps that are necessary. Enacting a meaningful price on carbon is perhaps the single most important step we can take to avoid climate disaster, and it could also raise funds to strengthen our government."
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
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