Mary Elizabeth is ready to throw her weight around, all 90 pounds of it.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Eva Havlicsek, of O'Hara, sports a hatful of pins while protesting yesterday in front of the William S. Moorhead Federal Building, Downtown. Click photo for larger image. Related article Skepticism greets Bush's budget cuts

Elizabeth, a Garfield senior citizen who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, wants to stop President Bush's budget in its tracks.

"I'm just afraid of the human costs," she said. "It never talks about the disabled, or survivors' benefits for widows. How does this new deal affect them? Where is the safety net?"

Elizabeth is angry enough to tackle the federal government on her own, but she does not have to. She's part of an ad hoc group, the Pittsburgh Coalition for Human Needs, that brought about 80 people to a lunchtime rally yesterday at the William S. Moorhead Federal Building, Downtown, to demonstrate against the proposed Bush budget.

The protest was one of many held across the nation to coincide with the release of the budget, which aims to pare 150 government programs.

Elizabeth said that even with federal aid, she has seen her pharmacy bill increase by $600 a year.

Protesters fear that too many of the elderly, the poor and moderate income households will suffer under what they call severe cuts to vital services such as housing support, veterans benefits, Head Start, welfare programs and health care.

According to the White House, the budget will trim $20 billion from domestic programs in 2006.

As proposed, the Bush budget is unrealistic and irresponsible, said Joni Rabinowitz, an activist with Just Harvest and one of the organizers of the ad hoc group, which includes mental health, clergy and peace organizations.

"Children will suffer, seniors will be hungrier, and families struggling to educate and train their children to make their lives better will be hurt," Rabinowitz said.

The Pittsburgh Coalition for Human Needs plans to move beyond the rally and ask participants to visit their congressmen and to write letters to the editor. The goal is to initiate a wider debate on the budget.

At the moment, Bush is seeking to have the budget passed by April 15. Rabino-witz and others are worried that is not enough time to educate the public about its ramifications and would like to see the budget stopped.

Pittsburgh City Councilman Gene Ricciardi called Bush's proposal "ill-conceived," saying that it will hurt families and damage neighborhoods. In Pittsburgh, he said, the loss of funding will hurt infrastructure and fray the social safety net.