Following the release today of additional details on President Obama’s FY 2010 budget, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, issued the following statement:
"The budget put forward today is as disappointing as the outline offered earlier this year. It still spends too much; it still taxes too much; and it still borrows too much. Only now, the American people are being presented with illusory savings intended to mask the significant new spending proposed by this Administration.
“The approach to education programs is particularly telling. While the Administration has touted cuts to a number of discretionary programs that are ineffective or unnecessary, they have failed to mention that the budget replaces these programs with new ones – at roughly twice the price.
“Of course, some programs were spared the Administration’s scalpel. The Associated Press reports that the Administration ‘spares a $9 million program to promote the history of whaling and trade in Massachusetts, where Captain Ahab set off in search of the great white whale.’ It’s hard to take seriously any budget cutting plan that goes out of its way to preserve a multi-million dollar program that only Moby Dick could love.
“And on programs that impact American workers, it is a tremendous disappointment to see where the Administration chose to cut. Like Democrats’ budgets before, the President’s budget slashes funding for the Office of Labor-Management Standards, the only office in the federal government tasked with overseeing union leaders and protecting rank-and-file workers. This follows an earlier move to rollback important reporting and disclosure requirements that empower union members with information about how their dues are spent.
“America’s students and workers deserve better.”
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