Says middle class families deserve a tax cut, not the rich
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree called on Congressional leaders today to pass tax cuts for the middle class and end tax breaks for the rich before they adjourn for six weeks. In a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Pingree asked that the tax cuts be put up for a vote.
“President Bush rammed through Congress a multi-billion dollar giveaway for the wealthiest Americans on the backs of our nation’s middle-class,” the letter reads. “In the process, the Bush tax cuts eviscerated an unprecedented budget surplus and weakened our nation’s fiscal health.”
Pingree has long opposed the tax breaks for people making over $250,000, while passing tax cuts for middle-class taxpayers.
“Extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich will add $700 billion to the budget deficit,” Pingree said. “Middle class working families need a tax break but millionaires do not. It’s irresponsible to give wealthy taxpayers a break that will only add to the deficit.”
Full text of letter follows
Dear Madam Speaker:
During the past decade, President Bush rammed through Congress a multi-billion dollar giveaway for the wealthiest Americans on the backs of our nation’s middle-class. In the process, the aforementioned Bush tax cuts eviscerated an unprecedented budget surplus and weakened our nation’s fiscal health. As the Bush tax cuts are set to expire, we respectfully urge you to bring to the floor, before Congress adjourns in October, a vote on President Obama’s recently proposed tax plan: permanent tax cuts for the middle-class while allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans to expire, using any additional revenue to close our budget deficit.
We must show the American people that our Democratic Majority stands for them — people who have worked hard, played by the rules and depend on these tax breaks to make ends meet. We also need to get serious about cutting our budget deficit by allowing the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire.
Some have argued that the Bush tax cuts help to stimulate the economy or that allowing these cuts to expire would hurt our nation’s small businesses. This is flat out wrong. According to a recent report by the Center for American Progress, the economy boasted 132 million jobs in June 2001, the month that the first of the Bush tax cuts was signed into law. By June 2004, there were just 131.4 million jobs – a decrease of 600,000 jobs. Furthermore, a recent report from the Tax Policy Center states that, “Roughly 97 percent of small businesses would not be affected at all by increases in the top two tax rates.”
Extending the Bush tax cuts will result in an $830 billion giveaway for the nation’s wealthiest Americans, significantly increasing government debt, the interest on which will be paid by our nation’s middle-class for years to come. This astronomical sum could instead be used to close our budget deficit.
It is critical that we pass the Obama middle-class tax cuts – not provide an even greater lift for the wealthiest Americans who don’t need it.
Sincerely,
Chellie Pingree