Denver, Colorado - A new report issued by the Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) confirms that President Bush's budget would severely and negatively impact the quality of life of rural Coloradans. Since 2001, the DPC has issued reports on the failure of the president’s policy to address the issues important to rural Americans. The report confirms that the President's cuts in funding for law enforcement, health care, education, and economic development will have a harmful impact on working families, farmers, small businesses and local economies across the heartland.

At the same time the budget would put affordable health care further out of reach for many working Americans in Colorado. Furthermore the president’s budget would underfund children’s health care and do nothing to reduce the ranks of Colorado's 176,000 children.

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak issued the following statement criticizing the President's cuts:

"President Bush is engaging in gimmickry in order to justify his misplaced priorities such as tax cuts at expense of rural Coloradans. Many of these initiatives that the Bush Administration has callously slashed are critical to well-being of Colorado's working families. Republicans should join Democrats in combating this reckless and irresponsible assault on rural Americans and work to craft a budget that builds up all working families."

The rural report card issued by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee includes the following areas that will be adversely affected by the President's reckless budget cuts:

Rural Law Enforcement

Since 2001, President Bush, with the help of Congressional Republicans, has cut funding for state and local law enforcement programs by more than fifty percent. This year's budget would cut $1.4 billion (or 54 percent) in funding for all state and local law enforcement programs in the Department of Justice (DOJ), including programs specifically designed to assist rural communities. Once again, the Bush budget will inhibit the ability of first responders in Colorado to prepare for new threats and law enforcement to combat the growing methamphetamine problem. In 2006, Colorado received $4.4 million in Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) and $657,000 in Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS) funding that is used to keep neighborhoods safer for Colorado families.

Rural Health Care

The Bush budget proposal slashes programs designed to help rural communities in Colorado address their unique health care challenges. It proposes cutting rural health programs by $146 million, or 89.6 percent, from the H.J. Res. 20 level. The President proposes terminating outreach grants, rural hospital flexibility grants, the rural and community access to emergency devices program, and area health education centers, which provide vital health and health education services to rural areas in Colorado. The President’s health insurance proposal will not help the vast majority of Coloradans 768,000 uninsured, will not address rising health care premiums that have increased 87% percent since 2000, and would eventually impose a new health insurance tax on many of Colorado's middle class families.

Education

The President has proposed cutting Department of Education discretionary funding by $2.3 billion, for a total of $56 billion. This represents a 3.9 percent cut from the H.J. Res. 20 level adjusted for inflation. In addition, the President's budget proposes eliminating 44 programs, including Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, education technology state grants, arts in education, LEAP, and school counseling, and making large cuts to numerous other programs including career and technical education, and safe and drug-free schools state grants that are essential for thousands of Coloradans. And as tuition and fees at schools like the University of Colorado at Boulder increase 58% in just four years, the administration’s cuts in student aid will put college further out of reach for many Colorado students.

Economic Development

Rural businesses in Colorado face a changing global economy and increasing costs, and economic development programs provide them with skills and tools to help them compete. The Bush budget would drastically cut economic initiatives relied on by rural communities in Colorado. The economic development initiatives specifically benefit communities of 3,000 or fewer residents. These cuts will be detrimental to Coloradans.

Agriculture

The President's budget includes funding for its proposal for the new Farm Bill, due to be reauthorized this year. The proposal would add $500 million in 2008 and $5 billion over the 2008 to 2017 period for agriculture and nutrition programs, but it is not yet clear how those funds would be distributed and how they will affect Coloradans.

A full report can be found at the following link can be found at

http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=fs-109-2-22