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Friday, September 16, 2005
What About Taxes?
Last night President Bush unveiled his initial ideas about plans for reconstruction of the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The president did not mention how much he expected this to cost, how he thought the country should pay for it, or what sacrifices he expected citizens to make to help out with the efforts. Congress has already approved over $60 billion for emergency relief efforts, with another emergency supplemental expected sometime in October. The large amount of existing spending plus vague, but potentially costly plans for reconstructions has some members of Congress once again worried about deficits.
Before the president addressed the nation last night, fiscally conservative members of the House and Senate held a press conference with government watchdog groups asking the President to reign in federal spending for Gulf Coast states decimated by Katrina. Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK), John McCain (R-AZ), Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) led the calls for fiscal restraint. Sen. McCain stated, "We know this is a huge bill and we don't want to lay it on future generations and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) commented after the president's speech, "for every dollar we spend on this, it is going to take a little bit longer to balance the budget."
But cutting relief and reconstruction efforts, or other parts of the budget is not the right answer. It is budget cuts and underinvestment that played a part in making the impact of Katrina so much worse along much of the Gulf Coast. If those conservatives are truly concerned about balancing the federal budget and not passing on debts to future generations (and not simply shrinking the size of government), they need to look at more than simply reducing federal spending - they need to reconsider the incredible number of tax cuts passed over the past five years that have driven government revenues to its lowest level in 50 years. Countless projections and estimates (see here, here, here, and here) show the combination of massive tax cuts and current policies leading to decades of unsustainable, deep, and persistent deficits. In order to truly address consistent budget deficits, and to pay for not only the relief and reconstruction efforts in the Gulf Coast, but also long-term preventative investments in the infrastrucure and people of America, the President and Congress must reverse some of the tax cuts passed over the past five years.
Posted by Adam Hughes
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