Mark believes in tax relief for hardworking Americans and believes that the President's tax cuts have failed to produce the promised results. The Bush tax cuts did not deliver the immediate economic stimulus that they purportedly would provide, and nor did they benefit the people most in need of help.
Mark believes that we need a tax policy that helps people who most need a break: hardworking, middle-class Americans. This category, however, did not benefit from President Bush's 2003 tax cut. Mark voted against the President's plan, because it disproportionately favored the wealthiest Americans. Of the 2.5 million taxpayers in Minnesota, only 15 percent will receive more than $100 by 2006 under the Bush tax cut. The top one percent of Minnesotans, with an average income, of $860,000, received an average tax cut of $44,012.
Although the President's tax cuts are targeted to the wealthy, all Minnesotan taxpayers will be responsible to shoulder the burden for the explosion in federal debt that accompanies the tax cuts.
Federal income tax revenues in 2003, as a share of the economy, are the lowest since 1942. The large cost of the tax cuts will add substantially to the nation's budget deficit, which is estimated to total $5.2 trillion over the next ten years. We must balance responsible spending with the needs and goals of Minnesota and the nation. Mark continues to fight for these principles by closely monitoring the tax and budget processes in Congress.
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