Schakowsky called on Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) to oppose President Bush’s economic proposals and to instead work with Democrats to helps working families, create jobs, and provide critical aid to the states. The Coalition includes consumer organizations, labor unions, and advocacy groups.

Below is Schakowsky’s statement:

When it comes to the economy, the Bush Administration is a one trick pony – tax cuts for the rich, mostly for the richest of the rich.
 
Budget surpluses?  Tax cuts for the rich.  Economic downtown?  Tax cuts for the rich.  Terrorist attack?  Tax cuts for the rich.  War?  Tax cuts for the rich.
 
At the same time that most Americans are being asked to sacrifice, the richest are heaped with billions, even trillions of dollars in tax cuts.  While every expenditure that helps American families is on the chopping block, only the tax cuts remain untouchable.
 
Our elderly are asked to sacrifice a long promised Medicare prescription drug benefit.  Money earmarked for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are paying for tax cuts for the rich.
 
Our children are giving up their after school programs, training for their teachers, funding for special education.  Why are hundreds of thousands of children being left behind?  Tax cuts for the rich.
 
Our jobless saw an inadequate and delayed extension of unemployment benefits and a cut in employment and training programs.  While they and their families face financial disaster, the richest Americans are slated for another $90,000 per year in tax cuts.
 
Even as the terrorist threats heated up to orange, promised funds for homeland security were cut.  The President blocked $2.5 billion for local first responders – firefighters, police, emergency medical personnel – sent Coast Guard cutters from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, and has too little money to inspect containers at our ports and protect chemical plants.  And still more tax cuts for the rich.
 
And what about Illinois?  President Bush told governors last week not to expect any help to cover skyrocketing Medicaid and other costs.  He said the federal government has a “budget deficit of its own…”  This excuse comes from a President who was handed a $5.6 Trillion surplus when he took office and turned it into a $2 trillion deficit, all in two years.  President Bush’s budget is full of unfunded state mandates and lacking in promised support.  The Bush budget will cost Illinois $2 billion in lost revenue.
 
I congratulate the Illinois Fair Taxes for All Coalition for calling on every member of the Illinois delegation, including Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Senator Peter Fitzgerald, to say NO to more tax cuts for the rich and NO to the Bush budget.