| Tax breaks top one percent Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://bernie.house.gov/statements/20020403180236.asphttp://bernie.house.gov/statements/20020403180236.asp
Statement of Congressman Sanders on 4/3/2002 regarding: The Rich Get Richer, Working Families Struggle: Rescind the Tax Breaks For the Top One Percent
President Bush, the Republicans in Congress and some Democrats believe that it’s appropriate to provide hundreds of billions in tax breaks to the wealthiest one percent of the population - people with a minimum income of $375,000 a year. Clearly, the priorities they are establishing have being developed in country clubs and high dollar fundraisers. Surely, they are not listening to the ordinary people of this country, the people who are struggling hard to keep their heads above water.
The President and his supporters in Congress insist on these tax breaks at the same time as they ignore the needs of working families in such areas as health care, education, affordable housing, childcare, veterans’ needs, environmental protection and raising the minimum wage.
As I travel around my own state of Vermont, and meet with people from throughout the country, I am astounded by the increasing pressures that working families are experiencing. Americans are working longer and longer hours to make ends meet. They are finding it harder to secure decent and affordable childcare for their young children, or to send their kids to college. Last week I was in Bennington County where low-income adults are finding it extremely hard to locate a dentist who will treat them.
In Vermont and throughout the country millions of families are spending half of their incomes, or more, on housing. In some cases, working people are sleeping out on the streets or in their cars. The simple truth is that no major country treats its children and working parents in as shabby a way as does this nation, despite our pious proclamations of “family values” and “leaving no child behind.”
In terms of health care the situation today is especially dismal, and it is getting worse. Despite the fact that we now spend at least twice as much per capita on medical care than any other nation, predictions are that health care costs will double in the next ten years. Today, even with the expenditure of over $1 trillion, 41 million Americans have no health insurance, more are underinsured and a significant number of doctors no longer accept Medicare or Medicaid patients because of low reimbursement rates. Throughout the country senior citizens, and others, are suffering and dying because they can’t afford the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs.
Congress must get its priorities right. It is insane to be supporting huge tax breaks for the rich when this country is now in a deficit, borrowing money from the Social Security Trust Fund, and ignoring the crises facing working families. Congress must rescind the hundreds of billions in tax breaks given to the wealthiest one percent.
|
|