FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Joseph Rendeiro
(202) 776-1566
jrendeiro@nclr.org
Earlier today, the White House released its proposed budget for fiscal year 2014. Although President Obama’s proposal aims to replace the harmful sequester and contains some positive features, it fails to measure up to NCLR’s (National Council of La Raza) core principles on the federal budget. Specifically, the president's plan overemphasizes cuts that place an undue burden on vulnerable Latino seniors and families without raising sufficient revenue that could support efforts to create new jobs and expand economic opportunity.
“NCLR is seriously concerned that the administration’s budget is too skewed toward cuts instead of bringing in new revenue to reinvest in job creation efforts,” said Eric Rodriguez, Vice President of the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation at NCLR. “While the president’s plan reflects a wiser approach to deficit reduction than the sequester or the House-passed budget proposal, it raises only $600 billion in revenue in exchange for $1.2 trillion in troubling cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other programs, continuing down a path of severe austerity instead of investment. Latinos, whose unemployment rate continues to hover around 9%, are looking for a budget that grows the economy and creates jobs.”
That said, the president’s plan has several strong elements that Congress should take up. NCLR commends the president’s commitment to expanding preschool access to all four-year-olds whose families earn wages below 200 percent of the poverty line. Expanded preschool would greatly benefit America’s Latino youth, who represent nearly one in four children. In addition, NCLR applauds the president for making permanent the expansions to refundable tax credits, which are critical to the economic security of low-income working families.
“Congress would do well to start with the Senate-passed budget and include some of the very best ideas in the president's proposal, including broader access to early childhood education and the expanded Child Tax Credit, laudable examples of how the federal budget can make important down payments on our future prosperity,” Rodriguez added.
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