U.S. Representative Mike Ross (D-AR-4), a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, hailed their budget as a responsible plan that preserves Social Security and Medicare, pays down the national debt, provides meaningful tax cuts for all families, and addresses important priorities such as agriculture, defense, education, and prescription drugs.  

“This budget provides for a responsible, meaningful tax cut for our working families, while allowing us to maintain our current discipline by using fifty percent of the available surplus to pay down our $5.7 trillion national debt, twenty-five percent for tax relief and the remaining twenty-five to strengthen our defense, modernize Medicare to include prescription drugs, and invest in our children’s education,” said Ross.  

In calculating the available budget surplus, the Blue Dogs take the Social Security and Medicare trust funds out of the budget process and require that monies from those funds be used only for Social Security and Medicare benefits.  In February, Ross introduced a Medicare and Social Security “lockbox” bill that would require Congress to take the Medicare and Social Security trust funds off budget.  

“I believe it’s time for us to take our hands off of Social Security and Medicare,” Ross added.  “If you take away the Medicare, Social Security and military retiree trust fund monies, last year’s surplus was only $8 billion.  Each year, our nation spends over $360 billion—$1 billion a day—simply paying interest on our national debt.  It’s wrong for us to shoulder that debt on our children and grandchildren.”      

The Blue Dog budget reduces the publicly held debt by more than half over the next five years—by retiring more than $1.8 trillion of the publicly held debt by 2006.  The budget also devotes one-quarter of the on-budget surplus to tax cuts, retroactive to 2001, for a net tax cut of $180 billion from 2001-2006, and one quarter of the on-budget surplus for investments in priorities identified by the President and supported by both parties in Congress, including defense, Medicare prescription drugs, education, agriculture, low-income programs and veterans.  

The Republican budget resolution, along with the Blue Dog and other Democrat and Republican budget alternatives, are being debated on the floor of the House of Representatives this afternoon.

“It is wrong to have a tax system that penalizes married couples who rely on two incomes to make ends meet,” Ross said.  “Our current system encourages couples to live together out of wedlock, and I’m glad to be able to work with members across the aisle in a bipartisan manner to change that and to bring relief to our working families.” 

The legislation passed Thursday increases the basic standard deduction for a married couple filing a joint return to twice the basic standard deduction for an unmarried individual filing a single return, effective in 2002.  It sets maximum taxable income in the fifteen percent income tax rate bracket for a married couple filing a joint return at twice the amount of the maximum taxable income in the corresponding rate bracket for an unmarried individual filing a single return.  The measure also increases the child tax credit from $500 to $1000 over the next six years. 

“I pledged to the people back home that, as a member of Congress, I would vote to get rid of the tax penalty on married couples.  This bill eliminates the marriage penalty, expands child care tax credits, and increases the alternative minimum tax exemption for married couples, and it fits into the budget framework that I support,” Ross added.

The funding was included at the delegation’s request in the 2001 Labor/Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill, which was signed by President Clinton in December. The Blair Center, which will be established within the College of Arts and Sciences, will coordinate research, archival, and publishing efforts devoted to knowledge about Arkansas and the South.

“I am very pleased that the Diane Blair Center is on its way to becoming a reality,” Rep. Mike Ross said. “Diane had a special gift of inspiring her students and her peers to truly appreciate the role of politics and public service in our society, and it is fitting that her legacy be carried on through this new political science center at the University of Arkansas.”