Thread: Menendez Says Bush Budget Harms Hispanics

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/ne ... e-news.asp

Menendez Says Bush Budget Harms Hispanics
April 25, 2005
Miguel Perez

Charging that Republicans are "out of step with the values of Hispanic American families," Rep. Robert Menendez denounced President Bush's budget Saturday as "fiscally reckless" and harmful to the nation's 40 million Latinos.

"This budget provides Hispanics with less opportunity to achieve the American dream," Menendez, D-Hoboken, said in this week's Democratic Hispanic Radio address, broadcast nationwide over Spanish-language stations. "President Bush is mortgaging our community's future on irresponsible tax cuts for the rich."

Menendez, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said the Bush budget contains severe cuts to initiatives critical to Latinos -- including education, health care, veterans' benefits and homeland security.

Hispanic Republicans countered that when cuts need to be made, all Americans must sacrifice -- including Latinos.

"The Democratic Party keeps telling us that the deficit is too high, that we have to cut it," said Jose Manuel Alvarez, a Republican who once served as Menendez's chief of staff. "But if you are going to cut the deficit, you have to make cuts that are not only going to hurt the middle class and working people, but everyone, including Latinos."

Alvarez, who switched to the Republican Party when he left Menendez's staff four years ago, called his former boss' speech "extremely vague."

"He dealt with the issues very superficially," Alvarez said.

"How is it that a Republican party that alleges to leave no child behind can tolerate a Hispanic high school dropout rate of 25 percent?" Menendez asked. "Well, they not only tolerate it -- they even fail to provide $12 billion in promised funding for education -- meaning 3 million children will not get the help with reading and math that they were promised."

Alvarez said the Hispanic dropout rate has been a problem for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

"For more than 20 years, the Democratic Party has been throwing billions of dollars into education with no results whatsoever," Alvarez said. "So at least under Bush they have been trying to make it work, and I think they have been very successful with it."

Menendez also noted that Bush's budget cuts $60 billion from Medicaid "while doing nothing to make health care more affordable." He said one out of every three Latinos lacks health insurance, a situation he described as "a national tragedy."

Alvarez acknowledged that Medicaid cuts affect the poor and unemployed, but he insists they are not aimed solely at Latinos. "They go across the board," he said.

Menendez also claimed that Bush's blueprint fails to create jobs even while 1.1 million Latinos are unemployed. Alvarez, in turn, argued that Latino unemployment is not far from the rate for the entire population.

The national jobless rate was at 5.2 percent in March, according to President Bush, and it was at 5.7 percent for Latinos.

At a legislative conference sponsored by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Bush said Thursday that the Latino unemployment rate is "still too high," but he noted that it is "down from 8.4 percent over the past two years."

Alvarez said he feels awkward criticizing Menendez, whom he still considers a friend.

"Don't forget that we were together for 15 years," Alvarez said. "You can have different ideologies, different ways of thinking, and that doesn't mean you have to stop being someone's friend."

Menendez, D-Hoboken

This man is a BOIL in NJ politics {not that he's the only one}