Today's Action Alert

Today's Action comes from the Campaign for America's Future:

Beneath the incomprehensive federal budget numbers -- a $2.57 trillion budget, a $427 billion deficit, $419 billion in military spending -- the federal budget is a moment of truth. It reveals what we value, what kind of nation we are and what we seek to build. In this regard, the Bush budget is a stunning disservice to our education system, and it must be rejected.

The president's budget slashes education programs for children while adding more tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. Bush literally takes books from the hands of the poorest children to provide the wealthiest Americans with the money for a new Ferrari.

The silver lining is that what the president proposes, Congress disposes. None of Bush's cuts will happen if Congress rejects his budget. This is where we come in. Congress needs to hear loud and clear from the American people: the Bush budget should be dead on arrival.

Below are ten misguided Bush budget decisions that particularly offend American values and squander our country's future. Please help to get 100,000 signatures to Congress demanding that they reject Bush's spending priorities -- priorities that are fundamentally out of step with the needs of America's children and students.

Tell Congress to reject Bush's indecent budget proposal! Tell them that you don't want your government to...

1. Undercut schools in need by reneging on $12 billion in funding promised to schools by President Bush himself. [1]

2. Cut 25,000 children from Head Start. [2]

3. Eliminate childcare assistance for 300,000 children by 2009. [3]

4. Cut funding for school construction. [4]

5. Leave 1.7 million children without after-school programs. [5]

6. Eliminate the Even Start family literacy program that helps impoverished children and their parents learn to read. [6]

7. Cut funds from Medicaid that would pay health care for 1.8 million low-income children. [7]

8. Kill funding for Safe and Drug Free School programs. [8]

9. Keep college out of reach for qualified students by failing to raise the maximum Pell Grant as promised [9] -- and by freezing work-study funding. [10]

10. Force deeper cuts in education programs by adding new tax cuts that will cost $1.6 trillion over ten years. More than half of these cuts would go to households that earn more than $1 million yearly, while virtually none target households earning less than $100,000 per year. [11]

Congress has the power to overrule Bush's grossly misguided spending priorities. Please contact your representatives today and demand that they reject the Bush budget and realign America's spending priorities to serve us all, not just a privileged few.

Write a letter to your Congressperson today!

Thanks for taking today's action!