Republican Budget Is Another Rip-off of Middle Class Under Guise of Helping Katrina Survivors

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined other Democratic leaders at a press stakeout today after the Democratic Caucus meeting to discuss the Republican budget and its negative effects on working families. Below are Pelosi's remarks: "Tomorrow will present a choice to the Members of Congress. We can choose to help the people who are affected by Katrina, or we can give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America.

"Once again, the Republicans are using a misfortune in our country as a Trojan horse. They are wheeling in this Trojan horse on the guise of assistance and using it instead as a way to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in our country.

"This budget increases the deficit by $20 billion; it does so by giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America at the expense of the poorest people in our country; and the middle class is paying the bill. It is a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest without doing what it should do for the people of Katrina: cutting Medicaid, which gives health care to the poorest children in America, many of them in the Katrina area; and cutting student loans, making it more expensive for young people to go to college. Why is that a good idea in order to give tax cuts to the wealthy? Cutting assistance to LIHEAP as we go into a winter where people have apprehension not only about the price at the pump of gasoline, but also of home heating oil for their families.