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However, while Congress should continue its efforts, it must be done in a way that does not come down heavily on the backs of the weakest and most vulnerable.
Two years ago, Newt Gingrich and the Republican majority in the House offered legislation that would drastically cut Medicare, Medicaid, veterans programs, education and student loans, environmental protection, nutrition, programs affecting senior citizens, children, working families, and the poor. Concurrently, they proposed huge tax breaks for the rich and large corporations.
Today, some Republicans and Democrats are proposing new balanced-budget ideas that, while not as drastic as Gingrich's, would continue the assault against working people. These proposals include major cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and a lowering of the consumer price index for Social Security. Other ideas have been discussed which, could lead to the destruction of Social Security.
Any serious balanced-budget proposal must take into account the current economic and political reality and must be based on fairness. Some of the factors that must be considered are:
The United States has the most unfair distribution of wealth and income in the industrialized world. While the middle class shrinks and 22 percent of our children live in poverty, the richest 1 percent never had it so good. They own 42 percent of the wealth, more than the bottom 90 percent.
While real wages for working people have declined 16 percent since 1973, and the bottom 60 percent saw their real income decrease, the wealthiest 1 percent received 62 percent of the increased wealth created between 1983 and 1989. Between 1979 and the present, the top 1 percent saw their incomes explode by more than 10 percent.
While most of the new jobs being created are low-wage, part-time, temporary, and provide no benefits, the CEOs of our major corporations earn 170 times what their workers make. The gap between CEO and worker in the United States is much higher than in any other major nation.
Further, the United States has an extremely regressive tax system, which over recent decades has heavily shifted the tax burden from the rich and large corporations onto the middle class and working families.
From 1971 to 1991, the combined Social Security and income tax bills of median income families shot up 329 percent, while the combined tax bills of individuals and families with incomes of more than $1 million fell 34 percent.
Not only have wealthy individuals seen a major decline in their tax rates, so have large corporations. In 1953, corporations contributed 33 percent of federal tax revenue. Today, they contribute less than 10 percent.
If we are serious about balancing the budget in a fair way, we must develop a progressive tax system that asks the wealthy and large corporations to assume once again their fair share of taxes.
The United States spends $125 billion a year on corporate welfare - tax breaks and subsidies that go to some of the largest and most profitable corporations in America. As an additional irony, some of these same corporations receiving welfare are throwing American workers out on the street as they move their jobs to China, Mexico, and other cheap-labor countries.
If we are serious about balancing the budget in a fair way, we must slash corporate welfare. The middle class should not be subsidizing multibillion-dollar profitable companies.
Now that the Cold War is over, it is absurd to be increasing military spending. We do not need to spend $100 billion a year to defend the wealthy countries of Europe and Asia against a nonexistent enemy. We do not need to spend $1.5 billion a plane for B-2 bombers that the Pentagon doesn't even want, and we do not need to increase funding for the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
If we are serious about balancing the budget in a fair way, we must make significant cuts in a bloated and wasteful military budget.
US Representative Bernard Sanders of Vermont, an independent, is chairman of the Progressive Caucus.
Petition for New Priorities | 24 Lie$ Flyer Series |
