In a time of War

[Crimson and Clover]

Thanks to our friends at the Center for Community Change for this helpful information:

1. § In a time of War, everyone is expected to sacrifice, not just poor families. Yet the House and Senate budget resolutions include $726 billion in tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest families while shortchanging healthcare, education, social services, and homeland defense. The President’s proposed dividend tax cut has rightly been criticized for benefiting only the small percentage of Americans who receive substantial income from stock dividends. But the other large piece of the President’s $726 billion tax cut package, accelerating the 2001 tax rate cuts, is even more skewed to the wealthy than the dividend tax cut. Over half of the benefits of accelerating the rate cuts would flow to the top one percent of tax filers, a group whose average income is about $1 million. The rate cuts alone, without the dividend tax cut, would give millionaires a new tax break of over $63,000 next year.
§ The House budget resolution clearly outlines how the tax cut for the rich will be balanced on the backs of the poor. Over the next 9 years:
§ Medicaid is cut by $93 billion, reducing health benefits or eliminating eligibility for millions of low-income people without health insurance.
§ Supplemental Security Income for low-income seniors and people with disabilities is cut by $19 billion.
§ Veterans benefits, during this time of war, are cut by $14 billion.
§ The Earned Income Tax Credit, responsible for lifting millions of families out of poverty each year, will by scaled back by $14 billion.
§ Food Stamps, which keep low-income families from going hungry, are cut by $13 billion.
§ Temporary Assistance to Needy Families is cut by $8 billion.
§ Child Nutrition, including school lunches, is cut by $6 billion.
§ Foster Care and Adoption Assistance is cut by $4 billion.
§ Child Support Enforcement is cut by $3 billion.
§ The Child Tax Credit is scaled back by $3 billion.
§ Student loans are cut by $2 billion.
§ State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for low-income children is cut by $2 billion.
§ Child Care grants to states are cut by $1 billion.
For a state-by-state breakdown of what the Administration's budget will mean for your state, see:
http://www.cbpp.org/3-20-03bud3.htm.

[theshark8777]

I agree that doesn't make sense. Why have a tax cut when we are spending more and more money. We had a budget surplus in 1999, where is it now?

[Max Whittaker]

Originally posted by theshark8777
I agree that doesn't make sense. Why have a tax cut when we are spending more and more money. We had a budget surplus in 1999, where is it now?

Bush spent it on his tax rebate, the 9/11 victims, his war campaign and his Iraq war.