(no subject)

[steelmagnolia97]

Homeland Security

• The Bush 2006 budget cuts $420 million to state and local funding for homeland security, including a $16.9 million cut for South Carolina. These cuts will take police and firefighters off your streets.
• The Bush budget cuts the COPS program, which has put 1,119 officers on South Carolina streets, by 96 percent.

Health Care

• The Bush budget cuts $45 billion from Medicaid, enough to provide health care to 1.8 million children. South Carolina's share of these cuts is $696 million.
• Bush's budget cuts the very same community and rural health care programs he touted during the campaign, even though more than 104,000 South Carolina residents have lost their health care coverage since Bush took office due to his failures.

Education

• Bush underfunds his own No Child Left Behind Act by $13.1 billion in his budget. In South Carolina, that means a shortfall of $161.2 million, leaving behind 41,125 South Carolina children.
• Bush promised to fund Pell Grants in his State of the Union address, but his budget is $6.6 billion short. That's $97.1 million less than what's needed in South Carolina, a real burden for the 72,834 students in South Carolina who receive the grants.

Other Priorities

• Bush cuts $17.7 million from South Carolina job training programs in his 2006 budget.
• The Bush budget would require many veterans to pay a new $250 annual "user fee" to use the Veterans Administration health care system, and would double the prescription drug co-payment for the 420,971 South Carolina veterans.
• Bush cuts South Carolina clean water programs by $4 million.
• Bush's 2006 budget also cuts the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program -- which helps low-income families afford heating fuel in the winter -- by $234.4 million, including $1.6 million cut for South Carolina residents.

And Bush's irresponsible budget is a record $427 billion in the red, increasing each South Carolina family's share of the federal debt by $37,962.