House Republican budget would harm African-American community says Donna Brazile

House Republican budget would harm African-American community says Donna Brazile.

Instead of working to cut the deficit in a responsible manner, the U.S. House Republican plan would do so by slashing Medicare benefits and increasing health care costs for America’s poor and elderly, said Democratic National Committee Interim Chair Donna Brazile in a conference call today.

Wisconsin U.S. Rep Paul Ryan’s budget is one that will ruin the future, she said.

“His budget, as we know, ends Medicare, guarantees raises to seniors’ health costs for everyone under 55. It will have a very dramatic impact on African American communities across the country as well as middle class families in poor communities as well.”

His plan to dismantle Medicaid will disproportionally affect communities of color, she said. Although African Americans make up only 12 percent of the population, they account for 21 percent of Medicare recipients.

“The Ryan approach is the wrong approach,” she said. “The Ryan budget basically says: We don’t need the great society programs. We don’t need the New Deal. We need to go back to the 1920s, and we don’t need to focus on the future.”

“Now, we’re going to fight very hard to ensure that this budget will never see the light of day,” she said.

Having emerged from the worst recession in generations, she said the President has put forth a plan to rebuild our economy and win the future by out-innovating and out-educating and out-building our global competitors and creating jobs for the future.

“Paul Ryan’s budget is what I call a “back to the future approach,” where we basically cut taxes for the rich, drain the federal government of revenues, and we decrease the amount of money that the federal government is paying for critical infrastructure, education, and research and development.”

Chairwoman Brazile called on Republicans to join with President Obama to bring down the deficit in a responsible manner and not by doing so on the backs of America’s poor and elderly. As the President has said, we can cut the deficit without cutting key investments in education, innovation, and infrastructure that will help America win the future.

Listen to the call here: http://my.democrats.org/page/-/audio/calls/20110421_DNC_CC_2.mp3