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The Human Needs Report is the Coalition on Human Needs' newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations. It is published every other week while Congress is in session.
Article from the March 4, 2004 editionof the CHN Human NeedsReport: As part of a new federal budget campaign, CHN has compiled an analysis of how the President's proposed FY 2005 budget will affect programs and services for low-income people.
Called The President's Fiscal Year 2005 Budget: Slamming the Door Shut on Opportunity for All Americans, the report includes an overview and specific analyses of over two dozen programs provided by CHN member organizations. It sounds the alarm about reductions in vital services proposed for FY 2005 that could affect millions of low-income people. The analysis also reveals massive cuts proposed through 2009 - reductions that are not specified in the 2,500-page budget document submitted by the Bush Administration but that were made available to Congressional budget staff. Many popular and important services - including nutrition aid for infants, toddlers, and pregnant women (WIC), education for disadvantaged children (Title I), and energy assistance for low-income households (LIHEAP) - show increases from 2004 to 2005 (in the budget's published pages), but start to decline in 2006 and beyond.
The budget chooses tax cuts for the top 1 percent - about 1.4 million taxpaying units with incomes averaging just under $1 million each - over adequately funding improvements in education, homelessness and child abuse prevention, job training and economic development, and child nutrition, to mention just a few. In FY 2009, the analysis shows that substantial cuts to a sample of human needs programs could be avoided if the average tax cut for the top 1 percent - about $95,000 in that year - were trimmed by only about $7,000. Just preventing cuts does not fulfill the proper role of the budget to expand opportunity for all Americans. But the budget makes the wrong choices by refusing to revisit the tax cuts while placing the burden of deficit reduction on the backs of families with low or moderate incomes.
The Opportunity for All Campaign
The choices in the federal budget will make a profound difference in the lives of millions of Americans. Is the door to opportunity slamming shut, or will people get the chance to find and keep a decent job and provide for their children, and to have health coverage, affordable housing, and a secure retirement? Because these choices are too important to be left to a handful of insiders, the Coalition on Human Needs has started the Opportunity for All Campaign. In order to succeed, we need tens of thousands of advocates to receive timely information and to speak out in favor of fair and commonsense budget decisions. If you would like to be a part of the Opportunity for All Campaign, send an email to Adam Hughes at ahughes@chn.org.
Resources You Can Use Right Now
CHN FY 2005 Budget Resources Page
Has links to press statements and analyses of the President's budget done by CHN member organizations and materials presented at the CHN hill briefing on the budget.
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