Nita Lowey: “The fiscal challenges our nation faces are the result of the irresponsible policies of the Bush administration and…”

“The fiscal challenges our nation faces are the result of the irresponsible policies of the Bush administration and costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as necessary measures that continue helping our economic recovery after the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. The high federal deficit is not, as some claim, due to over-investment in Head Start, schools, roads, bridges, medical research, or other critical priorities. The federal government must operate more efficiently, eliminate waste, and find cost-savings and efficiencies that jeopardize neither vital services on which Americans rely, nor critical investments in our economic growth. The administration and congressional negotiators made progress toward that end in this bill. We were successful in restoring funding for critical programs like Head Start, Pell Grants, public broadcasting, and Title I aid to local schools, and that the damage was mitigated for programs like family planning and medical research at the National Institutes of Health. The draconian cuts prescribed in H.R. 1 for these and other vital initiatives would have hurt our ability to grow the economy, create jobs, and compete in the future.…”