> FACT SHEET:
>
> Irresponsible Bush Budget Hurts Pacific Islanders and Asian Families

Even as middle class Americans are struggling to achieve financial
security, the Bush budget ignores the very real challenges they are
facing. It fails to create jobs, and instead creates record deficits. It
shortchanges education, health care, veterans\' benefits, and small
business. Instead of helping working families, it provides additional
tax breaks for those who need them least and billions of dollars in new
giveaways to HMOs and other wealthy corporate interests.

**No action on job creation, with over 334,000 Asian Americans looking
for work**. The Bush budget squanders an additional \$1 trillion over
the next 10 years on additional tax cuts for the wealthy, but President
Bush's budget does nothing to create good-paying jobs here at home. The
Bush budget cuts funding for the Small Business Administration, which
helps minority owned small businesses grow, by \$79 million. There are
over 900,000 small businesses owned by Asian Americans.

**Breaks the promise of a better education.** The President's budget
[fails to provide \$9.4 billion in promised funding for
education]{.underline} -- meaning that 2.4 million children will not get
the help with reading and math they were promised.

**Increases child care waiting lists by hundreds of thousands.** The
Child Care and Development Block Grant provides child care assistance
for low income families and early education services to our country's
most disadvantaged children. In many states, waiting lists for this
assistance are tens of thousands of families long. The Bush budget
freezes funding for this program for the third consecutive year and cuts
child care assistance by an additional 300,000 children by FY 2009. When
state TANF expenditures are accounted for, another 150,000 children will
be cut.

**Undermines after-school programs.** The Bush budget provides only half
of the funding promised to these programs, meaning that [1.3 million
children who were promised after school services will not get
them]{.underline}.

**Guts Head Start.** The President's budget eliminates the comprehensive
educational, health, and nutrition services that children in this
program currently receive. In addition, the program receives a funding
increase of less than 3 percent, even though Head Start currently only
serves 60 percent of eligible preschoolers.

**Closes the door on a college education.** Despite nationwide increases
in the cost of college, the Bush Administration has frozen funding for
Pell Grants and [cut funding for Perkins loans by nearly \$100
million]{.underline}.

**Leaves veterans behind.** There are over 284,000 Asian veterans. The
President's budget [raises health care costs for over 500,000
veterans]{.underline}, imposing new co-payments and enrollment fees that
will cost veterans over \$2 billion over five years. In fact, over five
years, the budget for veterans health care programs is \$[13.5 billion
below]{.underline} the amount needed to maintain services at current
levels.

**Fails to make healthcare affordable for middle class families.** There
are over 2.2 million Asian Americans without health insurance and
millions more who can barely afford to pay their premiums, yet the Bush
budget does nothing to hold down costs. It includes \$70 billion for a
\$1,000 tax credit for individual coverage that covers only 5 percent of
the 44 million uninsured, and Health Savings Accounts that help only the
healthy and wealthy.

**More for special interests, not seniors.** Although the Bush budget
now includes [\$46 billion in special payments to HMOs]{.underline} --
\$30 billion more than originally estimated -- it does nothing to help
seniors lower their prescription drug costs. Despite this, Republicans
are refusing to hold down drug costs, refusing to let the government
negotiate discounts for seniors, and refusing to allow Americans to
import less expensive drugs from Canada.

**Democrats have different priorities.** We want to help all Americans
achieve financial security, invest in programs that create good paying
jobs, improve education, lower health care costs, make college more
affordable, help small businesses grow, support our veterans and
military retirees, and do more to protect our ports and borders from
terrorism.

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="0.6840277777777778in"
height="0.43680555555555556in"}
**[Office](http://www.housedemocrats.gov/) of the House Democratic
Leader Nancy Pelosi, February 6, 2004**
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