Dear Friends:

       Last week, the Republican majority crammed through the House of Representatives two bills that are a double-team smackdown of the environment, safety-net programs, Medicare, Medicaid, and other vital priorities.

       Not one billionaire, not one multi-billion corporation was asked to sacrifice by paying their fair share.  Yet millions of hard-working average Americans have been told they must go without vital services to fix the fiscal mess they had no part in creating.

       First up, the spending bill for the rest of the Fiscal Year 2011, which ends next September 30, cuts almost $40 billion from crucial programs.  This is the Majority party's misguided effort to keep its absurd promise to somehow cram over $60 billion worth of cuts (from last year's funding levels) into less than six months of federal spending.

       The second part of the smackdown is the Republican House Majority's Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Resolution, H.Con.Res. 34, a long-term blueprint for ruin that continues tax cuts for the very wealthy and big business, and continues to savage Medicare, Medicaid, infrastructure and education. 

       I voted "No" on both of these bills.  This is not a plan to fix the economy.  It's a devil's bargain to hurt jobs, hurt the economy and hurt the people who depend on the programs cut by these proposals. 

       Keeping track of all of the cuts can be dizzying, so, I've launched the budget section of my website which has more information about these bills. Serious fiscal reform must include a balance of both spending cuts and increased federal revenue in order to return us to the balanced budgets of the Clinton era, and pay down our national debt. 

       Please check out my website out and let me know what you think.

 Sincerely,

Gary L. Ackerman