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Bush ignoring needs of cities: Sen. Clinton

Posted on: Wednesday, 25 January 2006, 19:48 CST

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused the Bush administration on Wednesday of ignoring the needs of cities in its politically driven zeal for tax cuts and told U.S. mayors "you are on your own."

Clinton, a potential White House candidate in 2008 who is seeking Senate re-election this year in New York, said that since the September 11 attacks President George W. Bush had reneged on his obligation to states and cities to pay for crucial security and social programs.

"Across the board, federal budget cuts are leaving states and cities struggling to make up the difference," Clinton told a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

"We know the money is going to tax cuts," she said, adding those cuts are desirable in the right political and economic climate but "it is hard to square with the challenges we face at this time of terrorist threat."

At the federal level, "the sense of urgency that marked the months after the 9/11 attacks has largely given way to politics as usual," she said.

Bush's message in his State of the Union speech to the U.S. Congress next week "can be summed up in three words: on your own. We are shifting costs and we are shifting risks onto individuals and families and local governments," she said.

"Mayors, you are on your own to protect your cities," she added.

Clinton's comments were the latest in a series of blasts at Bush in recent weeks. She said earlier this month his presidency would "go down in history as one of the worst" and accused him last week of playing down the Iranian threat.

A Republican Party spokesman said Clinton's comments were groundless.

"Senator Clinton's political attacks ignore the reality that Republican policies have generated more than 4.6 million jobs since May 2003, created a Department of Homeland Security, and invested record funding to protect cities throughout our country," Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz said in a statement.

"The American people are simply not going to trust their security to a defeatist party that continues to demonstrate its pre-9/11 mentality and fundamental misunderstanding of the war on terror," Diaz said.

Talking to reporters after her speech, Clinton criticized Bush's defense of the legality of his domestic surveillance plan, saying "their argument that it's rooted in the authority to go after al Qaeda is far-fetched."

In an indirect reference to her husband, former President Bill Clinton, she told the mayors Bush had squandered the federal budget surpluses of five years ago.

She said Bush had slashed community development block grants, school improvement funds, Medicaid and foster care while not delivering the money to hire, train and equip local emergency and security personnel.

"There is hardly a program that is part of the social safety net that hasn't been slashed," Clinton said.

Source: REUTERS

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