The Republican Children’s Tax

03/20/2006

Dear DFL Members and Supporters,

The Senate voted this week for a budget that continues the Bush administration’s reckless fiscal policies and misplaced priorities, voting against Democratic efforts to restore funds for needed programs by restricting top-heavy tax cuts. Instead, they voted to raise the federal debt ceiling to almost $9 trillion dollars! Hillary voted against the budget and against raising the debt ceiling.

She said:

The budget approved by the Senate doesn’t pass the basic tests of fairness, fiscal responsibility and fails to reflect the values of the American people. While holding the line on many of the President’s deep budget cuts to education, health care, and income security for working families, this budget does find room for tax cuts for the wealthy, the giveaway of the Artic Wildlife National Refuge to the oil industry, deeper budget deficits, and the ever growing threat of an exploding national debt which is expected to reach nearly $12 trillion in just five years.

Instead of building upon the progress made in the 90’s, when tough decisions were made on both the spending and revenue side which resulted in budget surpluses, job creation and unprecedented economic growth, the Republicans instead chose a path that moved our nation towards the four largest budget deficits ever and the highest level of indebtedness of any nation in the history of the world.

Instead of making investments in the American people through education, job training and health care and creating a foundation for new economic opportunities and a stronger America in the future, we have increasingly ceded our fiscal sovereignty to foreign nations like China, Japan, and the OPEC consortium who now finance about 45 percent or $2.2 trillion of our nation’s publicly held debt.

Instead of offering budget plans that were balanced and didn’t place further burdens on the middle class, the neediest in our society and future generations, we were given reckless tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy.

Clearly, today should be a wake up call for all Americans concerned about the future of our children and the economic security of our nation. ...Raising this debt limit while embracing policies that further exacerbate the deficit is in essence a “children’s tax,” a burden borne not by this Administration or this Congress, but by our sons, our daughters and our grandchildren.

As this is only the first step in the budget making process, I will continue to fight for the priorities and values important to New Yorkers and Americans.

Everyday we are reminded of the importance of the 2006 election and the difference your support for Hillary can make.

Thank you so much for your friendship.

Sincerely,
Ann F. Lewis

P.S. Yesterday, Hillary spoke with many of you and took questions on a conference call about health care. To listen to the call, please visit http://www.hillaryclinton.com/.