Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 13:57 EST

From: "Wes Boyd, MoveOn.org"

Across the nation, schools are suffering. Tens of thousands of teachers have received pink slips and looming budget deficits only promise worse to come. Yet in Washington, Congress seems unaware of the problems at home. They're talking about cutting taxes and cutting budgets -- not about how to keep the schools and essential services going.

The final vote on these budget cuts will come in just a few days, and we're leading a campaign to bring focus to who is getting hurt -- especially to the cuts that will hurt our kids and fail our schools.

Please join us and sign a petition to Congress, asking key Congressional leaders to lead the fight against tax and budget cuts, and to save education and other basic services from drastic cuts. Just go here.

With this petition, we're also collecting personal stories about the impact budget cuts have already had on schools in your area. Tell Congress about teachers who have been fired, about schools closed, about the impact on your own children or grandchildren. Instead of proposing a plan to support the states and our schools during this difficult time, the Bush administration is cutting back billions in federal support, just when it's most needed. We've got to expose the real-world pain of these cuts.

We'll deliver the petitions and the stories to key leaders in Congress who have the power to block this dangerous tax bill.

Help us highlight what's at stake here.

This petition is part of a seven day countdown campaign, called the "Countdown to Budget Disaster", leading up to the final vote.

In the past, the administration has succeeded in framing budget negotiations in terms of the size of a tax cut. Of course, this a continuation of the right-wing strategy of forcing historic program cuts by driving the U.S. budget into deep deficit. This ideological maneuver may be good political strategy, but it's terrible policy.

It's time to fight back.

Critiques based on sound economic policy have largely fallen on deaf ears. Even Alan Greenspan objects to tax cuts, yet Congress continues to argue over the size of cuts. We have ignored the vast pain that will result from a crippled federal government. This pain is already beginning to bubble up from across the nation. It's time to connect the dots. It's time to focus on the pain, and to lay responsibility for this pain on Bush and the right-wing ideologues.

Our campaign will be a daily drumbeat, in the midst of congressional debate on the budget. Each day will focus on a different kind of pain, and highlight who is gaining by these cuts and how. We will lay bare the costs of blind ideology -- to our children, to our elders and to ourselves.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

-Wes Boyd
MoveOn.org
May 6th, 2003

P.S. I've attached Senator Jeffords May 3 radio address on the budget cuts below. He summarizes the situation very well.

_____

Saturday, May 3, 2003
SENATOR JIM JEFFORDS DELIVERS THE WEEKLY DEMOCRATIC RADIO ADDRESS

Hello, this is Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont.

Two years ago this month I made my decision to leave the Republican Party and become an Independent. One reason I made that change was that I felt the Republican Party that I knew, and grew up with, had changed its priorities dramatically. Those changed priorities were best exemplified by President Bush's insistence on a budget that short-changed so many of our national needs: education and special education; health care and prescription drugs for our elderly, environmental protection; and, importantly, deficit reduction.

It is now two years later, and it seems that we're having the same debate again. The President is again proposing a budget that does not adequately fund America's needs and includes new tax breaks that are likely to force disastrous cuts in urgent national programs, and create horrendous future deficits. And again, those who are expressing their reservations are being vilified for taking stands of conscience. This happened in 2001 when I made my decision to leave the Republican party, and it is sad for me to watch it happen again. When did standing on principle, speaking your conscience and representing your constituents become unacceptable in certain Republican circles?

When he was pushing for the first tax cut, President Bush said that we could do it all, we could afford a tax cut, make investments in our national priorities, and still have money left over to pay down the debt. Time has proven those words wrong, and we have massive job losses and a soaring deficit to show for it. After the President's proposal was reduced, I supported the 2001 tax cut. That was a mistake, one I will not make again.

Now, those needs I spoke of two years ago have become even more pressing, and we face the new challenges of protecting America and fighting a war against terror. President Bush has said that his plan is a, "jobs growth package." But the only thing guaranteed to grow is the federal budget deficit, something Republicans used to care about, and I still do. We will be paying for these tax cuts with borrowed funds, money borrowed from our children and grandchildren who will be forced to foot the bill. And these deficits will explode just as the baby boom generation begins to retire, further endangering the health of Social Security and Medicare, both of which are so critically important to our seniors.

Perhaps more importantly, the President's plan doesn't benefit the people who need it most. In my home state of Vermont, 2,200 people have lost their jobs. Many who are lucky enough to have jobs are just barely scraping by. What will this plan do for them? Well, two-thirds of Vermont taxpayers will get a tax cut of less than $100. Yet, someone who makes a million dollars a year will get a tax cut of $90,000.

This fervor for tax breaks at the expense of all else demonstrates that there are some who see tax cuts not as a policy, but as a theology. Their belief that tax cuts will solve any problem is uncompromising, unyielding, and, sadly, undeterred by past experience. Our goal should not be a tax cut for the sake of a tax cut, especially one that gives most of its benefits to a very few people. Our goal should be a policy that puts Americans back to work, gets our economy growing and keeps us on the right track for future generations.

What should we do to boost our ailing economy and help those Americans most in need? We should start by extending unemployment insurance benefits, currently scheduled to expire at the end of May. More than 100,000 additional jobs were lost in March, and the overall number of jobs fell to a 40-month low. We should help the states, which are facing the worst budget crisis in 50 years. To close budget deficits, some states are cutting back school days, eliminating effective early education programs and eliminating health insurance coverage for our neediest families. We should support programs that encourage job creation, like boosting federal spending to improve our nation's highway system, money we are going to have to spend someday anyway. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 47,000 jobs are created for every billion dollars spent on our highways and bridges.

That is the approach I support. Millions of Americans need help. Yet, the President insists on a tax cut that hurts those who need help most, and helps those who need it least. In Vermont we take care of our own, and as a nation we should do the same.

This is Jim Jeffords, Independent Senator of Vermont, thanks for listening.

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