Tell Congress To Protect Funding for Education and Healthcare

President Bush has produced a budget proposal that cuts, freezes or provides minor increases in funding to key education programs; it also calls for severe cuts in essential healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. In response to President Bush’s budget, the House of Representatives and Senate have produced budget resolutions for fiscal year 2009 that offer substantially more funding than President Bush’s budget. Although the budget resolutions do not provide the levels of funding we believe are needed, they do offer a good down payment toward meeting the needs of students and their families. The budget resolutions in the House and the Senate offer, respectively, $22 billion and $18 billion over President Bush’s funding request.

To prevent the cuts proposed by President Bush and to achieve the funding increases proposed in the House and Senate, Congress must approve the budget resolutions that will come to the floor in both the House and the Senate this week. It is important that you contact your senators and representative at this crucial time.

Tell me more

Subject:

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

I urge you to vote for the budget resolution recently approved by the Committee on the Budget, which provides limited, but important, increases in funding allocations that can be used to support key education and health initiatives.

Strong education and healthcare systems are the bedrock of both our economy and our society. More must be done to ensure that our children are receiving a world-class education and that all Americans have access to the healthcare they need. To maintain a strong economy and a vibrant society, we must be willing to invest in both.

Given the limited increases proposed in the budget resolution before you, I also would like to take a moment to encourage you to support using the funds allocated for education, health, and labor programs to provide funding increases to Title I grants to school districts, Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act's basic state grants, Pell Grants, Child Care and Development state grants, Head Start, Language Acquisition state grants, as well as a reformed Reading First program that includes more stringent accountability. As the process moves forward, I would also ask that you reject President Bush's proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

I believe the budget before you improves upon the president's original proposal by better reflecting the needs of working families. I hope I can count on you when it comes up for a vote later this week.

(Edit Letter Below)

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

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