[US Budget] Budget measure generates opposition

From The Asbury Park Press

BY LAUREN O. KIDD

TRENTON — New Jersey Citizen Action urged House lawmakers Monday to vote against a federal budget bill they say will cut services to middle-class and low-income families in favor of increasing tax cuts for the wealthy.

Reps. Rush Holt and Frank J. Pallone Jr., both D-N.J., joined the activist watchdog group for its Statehouse pitch against the measure. Pallone also told reporters he will announce "within the next few weeks" whether he will make a primary bid for the U.S. Senate seat now held by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.

"It will be fairly soon, but I am still, you know, weighing my options," Pallone said.

The House of Representatives is scheduled to take on the budget reconciliation bill early next month. It approved the legislation in December but must still consider changes made by the Senate.

Citizen Action says the bill would reduce health care for the poor, cut money from child-support enforcement and child-care assistance, require disabled people to wait longer for aid and force students to pay more for college loans.

Ev Liebman, the group's program director, said New Jersey state government may have to compensate for federal moves in the midst of its own $5 billion budget shortfall.

"To then on top of that, as a compassionate state, have to look at these cuts and figure out a way to make up for these benefits or to absorb them, even without actually saying we will through increased costs in charity care, is just a crime to all people of New Jersey," Liebman said.