Work Harder for Less Budget 'Will Cause Irreparable Harm'

Speaker Boehner and Congressional Republicans announced their "Work Harder for Less" budget conference agreement yesterday.  It's been a week for them.  Secret negotiationsto pulling bills off the Floor.  Budget "gimmick" concerns to targeting the Affordable Care Actwhile jeopardizing the coverage it's provided to millions.  Stacking the deck for the ultra-wealthy to attempting to balance the budget on "the back of students" to calling for more callous cuts – it's no wonder Americans are expressing their strong disapproval:

From Robert Greenstein, President of Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

The budget conference agreement, if adopted by Congress, will represent one of the most radical budget plans that lawmakers have adopted since they created the modern budget process in 1974.  That's no exaggeration.

…it would widen inequality that's already at or near its highest levels in nearly a century.

…the agreement shows how far Congress has strayed from a positive, productive path.  The nation needs to chart a very different one.

From Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

Instead of bragging about a plan to balance the budget on paper, Congress should work toward achieving that claim.

From Committee for Education Funding:

The Committee for Education Funding (CEF), a coalition of 117 national education associations and institutions spanning early learning to postgraduate education, writes to express our strong opposition to S. Con. Res. 11, the conference report on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Budget Resolution.

This budget will cause irreparable harm to children, students, schools, libraries, museums and colleges and will undermine job creation, economic growth and global competitiveness…

This does not reflect the priorities and values of our country.  The message to the American people: be prepared to work harder for less.  So much for helping the middle class.