A Budget for the Middle Class
Commentary: On the eve of President Bush's 2007 budget proposal, freshman Senator and Senate Budget Committee member Bernie Sanders (I-VT) demands a financial plan for America that rolls back tax cuts for the wealthy and stands up for the middle class and working poor.
January 30, 2007
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Early next month, the president has an historic opportunity to submit a federal budget to a Democratically-controlled Congress that will expand the middle class, reduce the enormous gap between the rich and the poor, and lower the poverty rate. But don’t hold your breath. The president’s pledge to make all of his tax cuts permanent, including hundreds of billions to the wealthiest people in our country, while balancing the budget within five years, is not an encouraging sign of things to come.
While there is still time to change course, it appears that the president’s budget proposal will be closer than ever to meeting Grover Norquist’s goal of cutting government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
It should come as no surprise, therefore, that when the Republicans controlled Congress, Vice President Dick Cheney infamously declared that "deficits don’t matter."
Or, when then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, upped the ante by telling a group of bankers that "Nothing is more important in the face of war than cutting taxes."
In large part by ramming through massive tax giveaways to millionaires, billionaires, and wealthy corporations, President Bush and the Republican Congress were responsible for racking-up the three largest deficits in U.S. history and accumulating a record-breaking $8.6 trillion national debt.
And now, with the Democrats in control of Congress, the president has suddenly gotten deficit-reduction religion while continuing his failed trickle-down economic policies. If the president succeeds, his plan will inevitably lead to massive cutbacks in Medicare, Medicaid, education, veterans' benefits, and the environment. I do not believe that is the vision of America that voters had in mind when they put Democrats in charge of Congress last November.
At a time when millions of Americans are struggling to keep their heads above water economically the last thing we need to do is to make the president's tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. What is needed in Washington is the political courage to roll-back the president's tax breaks for the wealthiest one percent and stand-up for the middle class and working poor.
The president still believes that the economy is booming as a result of his tax breaks. But the president fails to note that since he has been in office, 5.4 million middle class Americans have slipped into poverty, 6.8 million Americans have lost their health insurance, median income for working-age families has declined for five consecutive years, and 3 million manufacturing workers have lost their jobs. At the same time, the costs of education, prescription drugs, energy, and housing have risen dramatically.
Meanwhile, the wealthy have never had it so good. The richest 13,000 households earn nearly as much income as the bottom 20 million and the top one percent own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.
In terms of our federal budget priorities there is one key question which must be asked. Which side are we on: the rich and the powerful or the middle class and working families?
As a member of the Senate Budget Committee the choice is pretty clear to me. I will not be voting for more tax breaks for the outgoing CEO of Home Depot who recently received a $210 million golden parachute. Rather, I will be voting to substantially increase financial aid for low and middle class families so that every American, regardless of income, can receive a college education. I will not support a tax cut for the former CEO of Pfizer who received a $200 million compensation package. Instead, I will vote to substantially increase funding for child care so that working families can find affordable and quality care for their children.
I don't think that the former CEO of Exxon-Mobil, who managed to get a $400 million retirement package, needs more tax relief. In my view, it is far more important that we keep our promises to the veterans of this country who now find themselves on waiting lists to get the health care they need.
If, as a nation, we are serious about addressing the long neglected needs of the working people of this country and creating a more egalitarian society, we have got to invest in education, health care, housing, infrastructure, environmental protection and sustainable energy as well as many other areas. We also have to reduce our national debt. Given that reality, Congress must develop the courage to stand up to the big money interests and roll-back the tax breaks for the wealthiest one percent, eliminate corporate welfare and demand that the wealthy and powerful rejoin American society.
We should do no less.
Bernie Sanders is the freshman senator from Vermont.
