[Moi],
We have just one week to go before the current budget agreement expires. If a new agreement is not found, we face the prospect of something no one wants: a government shutdown.
My fellow senators and I are working hard to avert that, but so far, the debate has centered on so-called "domestic discretionary spending" -- basically the 12% or so of the budget that goes to programs other than the military, Social Security, and Medicare.
And let me tell you: a bipartisan compromise simply will not be found in domestic discretionary spending cuts alone.
Just yesterday, the Senate defeated H.R. 1, the House Republicans' scorched-earth spending proposal that sought to cut such critical national priorities as border security, cancer research, and food safety inspectors.
The defeat of H.R. 1 shows we need to reset the budget debate to include things like military spending and agricultural subsidies and put revenue raisers on the table.
Help me reset the budget debate. Click here to use our easy online tool to write a message to your representative in Congress today.
Right now a small, intense ideological tail is wagging the dog over in the House of Representatives, where the hard right wing of the Republican Party has deliberately confused two separate issues: reducing the deficit and cutting government.
Their fervor for spending cuts is not grounded in deficit considerations at all. They are using deficit talk as a Trojan horse for eliminating things they don't like.
We don't face the current deficit because of Head Start and cancer research, and we'll never get out of it by cutting Head Start and cancer research.
We need to scour all parts of the budget that contribute to the deficit, not just the parts of the budget that some of us don't like.
And we can't have honest debate on the rest of the budget until we reset it.
Send a quick message to your member of Congress today and ask them to reset the debate on the budget.
In last week's Wall Street Journal-NBC poll, the most popular proposal to reduce the deficit -- out of 23 options surveyed -- was a surtax on millionaires and billionaires.
The Pentagon should no longer be treated as off-limits. We can find ways to achieve savings in Medicare and Medicaid that don't reduce benefits. And agriculture needs to be put on the table.
Yet all the Republicans can talk about is cutting "discretionary" areas of government.
We need to reset the debate. Together, we can do it.
Click here to help.
Thank you for your support,
Chuck Schumer
We have just one week to go before the current budget agreement expires. If a new agreement is not found, we face the prospect of something no one wants: a government shutdown.
My fellow senators and I are working hard to avert that, but so far, the debate has centered on so-called "domestic discretionary spending" -- basically the 12% or so of the budget that goes to programs other than the military, Social Security, and Medicare.
And let me tell you: a bipartisan compromise simply will not be found in domestic discretionary spending cuts alone.
Just yesterday, the Senate defeated H.R. 1, the House Republicans' scorched-earth spending proposal that sought to cut such critical national priorities as border security, cancer research, and food safety inspectors.
The defeat of H.R. 1 shows we need to reset the budget debate to include things like military spending and agricultural subsidies and put revenue raisers on the table.
Help me reset the budget debate. Click here to use our easy online tool to write a message to your representative in Congress today.
Right now a small, intense ideological tail is wagging the dog over in the House of Representatives, where the hard right wing of the Republican Party has deliberately confused two separate issues: reducing the deficit and cutting government.
Their fervor for spending cuts is not grounded in deficit considerations at all. They are using deficit talk as a Trojan horse for eliminating things they don't like.
We don't face the current deficit because of Head Start and cancer research, and we'll never get out of it by cutting Head Start and cancer research.
We need to scour all parts of the budget that contribute to the deficit, not just the parts of the budget that some of us don't like.
And we can't have honest debate on the rest of the budget until we reset it.
Send a quick message to your member of Congress today and ask them to reset the debate on the budget.
In last week's Wall Street Journal-NBC poll, the most popular proposal to reduce the deficit -- out of 23 options surveyed -- was a surtax on millionaires and billionaires.
The Pentagon should no longer be treated as off-limits. We can find ways to achieve savings in Medicare and Medicaid that don't reduce benefits. And agriculture needs to be put on the table.
Yet all the Republicans can talk about is cutting "discretionary" areas of government.
We need to reset the debate. Together, we can do it.
Click here to help.
Thank you for your support,
Chuck Schumer
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