Quote of the Week: Senator Kent Conrad Calls Bush Budget Harmful to Farmers and Rural USA

This budget is full of deep cuts that will be felt by our rural hospitals, our small-town pharmacists, rural fire departments, and tribal health clinics. This budget cuts health care for rural seniors and for expecting mothers. These cuts make it harder for farmers, ranchers and others who live out of town to get the health care they need.

These are the wrong priorities for America. We should be promoting rural health, not cutting it. These are the wrong priorities for North Dakota and our Nation. I will stand up and fight these misguided policies."

--- Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and considered one of the most fiscally astute senators, speaking on February 9, 2006 of the 2007 federal budget proposed by President Bush.

Submitted to Congress earlier this week, the President's budget for FY2007 calls for cuts in programs supporting farm families, including a five percent across-the-board cut in commodity programs. It seeks a 29 percent cut in Rural Utilities Service loans to electric cooperatives.

Senator Conrad said the budget particularly fails rural America in the area of health care. The President is proposing to cut rural health funding by $133 million in 2007 -- an 83 percent cut. In addition, the President calls for completely eliminating the FLEX Program, which has provided more than $3 million to North Dakota's Critical Access Hospitals.
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-- Profile of US Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota
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