Washington DC - President Bush submitted his proposed 2008 budget to Congress today, but it hit the U.S. House of Representatives with a thud. "This budget is proof that the President is out of touch with the American people," said Congressman Jim Oberstar. "It short changes working families and it fails to tell the truth about the deficit and the growing national debt."

The President claims that the budget puts the nation on track to a surplus by the year 2012. However, it only takes the most optimistic economic projections into account, does not account for the entire cost of the Iraq War, and uses the Social Security trust fund to mask the size of budget deficit.

"This isn't a budget, this is a bunch of smoke and mirrors. When you add in all of the unaccounted for costs you don't have a surplus in five years, you have a deficit of $145 billion. President Bush coined a phrase for this kind of accounting himself: he called it 'fuzzy math,'" said Oberstar."

Although members of Congress have just begun to analyze the massive budget document, a first glance shows that it will hurt low income Minnesotans who rely on help to pay their heating bills. Nationwide, the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) would be cut by 17%. That will cost Minnesota energy assistance programs a total of $19 million. "It's ironic that this budget was released on a morning when it was 23 below zero in Northeast Minnesota," said Oberstar.

Oberstar says he and other Democrats will be drafting their own budget proposals for 2008. "We can't keep spending $9 billion a month in Iraq and pretending that isn't affecting anybody. This is a real policy issue that we have to address, both from a foreign policy perspective and from a financial perspective," The Bush budget also cuts Medicare by $252 billion over the next ten years and Medicaid will see cuts of $28 billion.

Oberstar also favors allowing a series of tax cuts that were aimed at the rich to expire; this will return over $1 trillion to the treasury. "This country has never cut taxes at a time of war, this was a reckless and irresponsible policy and it needs to be reversed. The budget the House will adopt will do more to fund the nation's critical priorities and it will pay down more debt more quickly," said Oberstar. "And the numbers will add up."

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