Dem Mayors: Cities Can't Afford Bush

NEW YORK – Cities are taking the hardest hits from the Republican administration's domestic policies, Democratic mayors say.

"We are very frustrated and angry because they are moving us in the wrong direction," said Mayor Douglas Palmer (search) of Trenton, N.J. "We can't afford George Bush and Dick Cheney for four more years."

Palmer, president of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors (search), will join mayors John Street of Philadelphia; Robert Baines of Manchester, N.H.; Jack Ford of Toledo, Ohio; Tom Barrett of Milwaukee and others at the Democratic rapid-response room on Thursday, the last day of the Republican National Convention (search).

Democratic Chairman Terry McAuliffe and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack will run the Democratic briefing at the war room, about a half-dozen blocks south of the GOP convention at Madison Square Garden.

The mayors will talk about Bush administration policies on job creation, school funding and support for homeland security — which they say are inadequate.

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt dismissed the mayors' claims as "baseless attacks."

Palmer said, "All that money being spent in Iraq with Halliburton is causing problems for my city." Massive tax cuts haven't created jobs and haven't trickled down to the help the cities, he said.

Every time the government raises the terrorist alert, cities have to put police and other emergency responders on overtime — expenses that go over their budgets, Palmer said. And he noted that increases in the nation's poverty rate have directly affected the cities.

"We have more people in poverty," Palmer said. "The majority of these people reside in cities."