Kerry's reactions to the budget

[Mass]

Two reactions : one as SBC ranking member and one as a senator.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=60593

Sen. Kerry: President's Budget Doesn't Meet Needs of Small Businesses

2/6/2006 5:25:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Kathryn Seck of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 202-224-9431

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The President's budget request for fiscal year 2007 does not meet the needs of America's small business owners, Senator John Kerry, Ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, charged today.

"This is the James Frey version of a budget if ever I saw one," said Kerry. "While President Bush brags about government costs going down for the Small Business Administration, he fails to tell the truth that slashing federal resources over the years raises costs for small business owners. And not just for small businesses: The Administration is proposing to increase costs for homeowners and businesses devastated by disasters like Hurricane Katrina. A president's budget defines priorities. But the President's rhetoric on keeping America competitive doesn't match reality when it comes to key programs that foster small business innovation. This budget cuts or eliminates key programs that meet the needs of small businesses."

And

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1865

If budgets are a statement of your values backed up by dollars, then this President’s priorities are sorely out of whack.

“The President is cutting money for veterans, child support enforcement, Medicare, student loans and food stamps so he can cling to deficit-exploding wasteful tax policy without giving one dime in tax relief to the 19 million middles class families who will pay higher taxes next year.

“I applaud the military pay raise and the President’s newfound interest in clean energy and America’s competitiveness. They are areas of reason in 2,400 pages of mess.

“This budget hurts America’s seniors, veterans, students and working poor. It undermines the values of compassion, community and responsibility that define the best of America.”

[ProSense]

1. Wow!

That's a lot of mess: 2,400 pages.

[pinkflower21]

2. JK has a way with words

This is the James Frey version of a budget if I ever saw one, priceless, score one for John Kerry. I love the way he articulates things.

[ProSense]

3. I completely agree.

:hi:

pinkflower21


Welcome!

[karynnj]

4. His statements are great

Not only are they genearally amazingingly on target, they reflect his personality. How on earth did he ever get labelled boring or dull. (I like David Wade's comments as well.)

[_dynamicdems]

10. He got labeled as boring and dull because they didn't have anything else

on him. So they went after his serious side. If he had been more boisterous in his public appearances, they would have labeled a wild man like they did Dean. All BS.

[karynnj]

9. The NYT editorial uses essentially the same theme

Titled "A trillion little pieces", it refers to the budget as fiction masquerading as fact.

[ProSense]

11. Good article. Thanks.

A Trillion Little Pieces
Published: February 7, 2006

Snip...

The point of all these imaginary financial projections is to give the president leeway to cement in place hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts the nation can ill afford and does not need. The cuts were made temporary in the first place because there was no way to even pretend that budgets could be balanced in the future with such an enormous loss of revenue.

Now, to pay for his top priorities — the military and tax cuts — the president is relying on proposed spending cuts. While Congress will never make some of them, it may make others, but only at the peril of the poor and the middle class. Those cuts include basic needs in education, environmental protection, medical research, low-income housing for the elderly and the disabled, community policing, and supplemental food for the needy.

The budget is steeped in campaign-year pretensions, billboarding $65 billion in "savings" across the next five years — more than half of it in Medicare — even as tax revenue is further choked. A Congress up for re-election should be wary of taking that path, particularly as the open-ended costs of the Iraq war dwarf all promised savings.

Snip...

The president's plan was, on the whole, depressingly familiar. The administration that produced shattering deficits is at it again. Even the fiction was plagiarized from failed budgets of the past.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/07/opinion/07tue1.html

[TayTay]

5. Did April Boyd leave?

This says: Kathryn Seck of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

April Boyd from Sen. KErry's office used to have her name on SBA stuff. Did she leave?

[Mass]

6. I went back on the SBC website and this is the same person

that was listed as early as January 05.

I dont remember April Boyd involved in the SBA stuff. I think she is still here though,but is more involve in other things (she was listed in an earlier article as in charge of the Internet, I think to remember).

[TayTay]

7. Thanks Mass!

I could have sworn I saw a different name on the PR's from the SBA. Thanks!

[kerrygoddess]

8. Stuff comes separately from SB&E office

The main press staff frequently sends out stuff from the SB&E office but there is a separate press staff for that office.

April hasn't gone anywhere...