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WASHINGTON,
D.C. – In an open letter to President Bush that was published in today’s
edition of the Chicago Sun-Times, U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
writes:
Under
your budget, the vast majority of Americans will likely be asked to sacrifice,
with one exception: the millionaires who can most afford to give
something up. Their tax cuts – the same tax cuts that brought us
unprecedented deficits – would be protected and likely even extended under
your proposal…
Based
on the record of your first Administration, maintaining and making permanent
tax cuts for millionaires has been a higher priority than meeting the needs
of the majority of Americans. Now is the time to reverse course so
that we do not continue to mortgage our country’s future and our children’s
prosperity in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich that we cannot afford
and that they do not need.
Below
is the text of Schakowsky’s letter to President Bush:
January
31, 2005
The
Honorable George W. Bush
President
of the United States
1600
Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington,
DC 20500-0003
Dear
Mr. President:
As you finalize your Fiscal Year 2006 federal budget recommendations, reports
are that you will request an “austere” budget that would seriously underfund
domestic initiatives, from education and children’s health care to support
for small businesses and scientific research. Under your budget,
the vast majority of Americans will likely be asked to sacrifice, with
one exception: the millionaires who can most afford to give something
up. Their tax cuts – the same tax cuts that brought us unprecedented
deficits – would be protected and likely even extended under your proposal.
Mr. President, these are the wrong priorities for our nation. It
is morally wrong to cap spending for children, seniors and veterans while
allowing tax cuts for the wealthiest among us to continue without limits
or restraint. We have never provided tax cuts during wartime.
Now, when your Administration has projected a $427 billion deficit for
FY2006 and you are asking for an additional $80 billion for Iraqi operations,
it seems particularly unfair that you have refused to question the wisdom
of continuing massive tax cuts. I urge you to reconsider and to send
Congress a budget that limits your tax cuts of the past few years.
Given the seriousness of our fiscal crisis, I believe that it would be
fair to limit the maximum annual cut per household to no more than $30,000.
However, even if you limited the tax cuts to the first $200,000 in income
– which would be the equivalent of up to a $87,000 yearly tax cut– we would
have an extra $19.2 billion in revenues that could be used to create good
jobs, improve education, build affordable housing, develop domestic energy
sources, or clean up the environment.
When you took office, the federal budget had a projected 10-year surplus
of $5.6 trillion. We now have an over $3 trillion deficit.
That $9 trillion swing is the largest fiscal reversal in United States
history. Your own accountants at the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) found that your tax cuts are 57 percent of the cost of all legislation
enacted since 2001 and have contributed more to the worsening fiscal picture
than all other new policies combined – more than the sum of the war on
terrorism, the war in Iraq, homeland security, and all domestic spending
increases.
The massive deficit is a great threat to our nation’s future well-being
and America’s prosperity. If we do not address that threat our children
and grandchildren will be forced to carry
the
weight of the debt your deficits have caused. It is our moral responsibility
to them to reverse our fiscal course immediately and the first response
should be to ask those who can most afford to do so to give a little back
to their country. It should not be to cut programs for the most vulnerable
Americans, for veterans who have done so much to keep our country safe,
or those who need a little boost in order to have the opportunity to become
prosperous and succeed in life. Since tax cuts, not critical
domestic programs, caused the deficit, we should look there for a deficit-reduction
plan.
Mr. President, budgets are not just about numbers, they are about values
and priorities. Based on the record of your first Administration,
maintaining and making permanent tax cuts for millionaires has been a higher
priority than meeting the needs of the majority of Americans. Now
is the time to reverse course so that we do not continue to mortgage our
country’s future and our children’s prosperity in order to pay for tax
cuts for the rich that we cannot afford and that they do not need.
Sincerely,
Jan Schakowsky
Member of Congress |
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