April 15, the day your 2007 income tax forms are due, marks an appropriate time to reflect on President Bush's priorities for spending your money. It is a good time to consider whether a nation facing rising unemployment, a national crisis over home mortgage foreclosures and greater human suffering at home can "afford" to continue paying more than $100 billion dollars per year for a war that the public does not support.
The Bush administration's newest budget proposal continues to turn the nation's priorities upside down. Instead of attending to human needs at home, it throws billions of dollars more into an immoral and ill-planned war in Iraq. Instead of aiding the poor, it cuts into aid programs while proposing to extend tax relief for the nation's richest individuals and corporations.
The economy is sliding into a recession; this is an accepted fact everywhere but in the White House and the Federal Reserve Board, and the latter is wavering. Jobless claims reached a two-year high in March, home sales and home prices are falling, and consumer confidence is scraping the bottom of the scale. Now is clearly the time to make the domestic needs of America the first priority of government. But President Bush continues to do just the opposite.
The administration, instead, is proposing a budget that slashes federal spending for health care, housing, hunger programs, education and other programs. The cuts to domestic spending are not because the government does not have enough money. The real issue is the Bush administration's priorities for spending the money it has.
Perhaps there is "not enough money" to support Americans in need because the Bush administration has squandered more than $500 billion on an ill-conceived war in Iraq - a conflict that also has cost more than 4,000 American lives, tens of thousands of injured men and women, American credibility as a military power and American prestige as a force for democracy and peace. Although 70 percent of the American people oppose the continuation of the war, the administration has resisted all efforts to begin withdrawing troops. Meanwhile, the war continues to cost taxpayers $341 million every day. Wisconsin's share of this total is $3.5 million a day.
Perhaps there is "not enough money" to support Americans in need because President Bush relieved the tax "burden" of wealthy Americans to the tune of $1.6 trillion (if the cuts are made permanent). These tax cuts cut deeply into government revenues, turned a budget surplus into a deficit almost overnight, and did virtually nothing for middle-income taxpayers.
Perhaps there is "not enough money" to support Americans in need because the share of government revenues contributed by corporate taxes has declined steadily. Fifty years ago, corporate taxes supplied 27 percent of federal revenues. Today they account only for 11 percent. But that has not stopped the Bush administration from seeking additional tax breaks for corporations - supposedly, to stimulate investment, create jobs, and let the increases in profits "trickle down" to the rest of us.
It is a good time to consider whether relieving the tax "burdens" on the top 1 percent of American households should be a higher priority than providing relief to Americans who need decent and affordable homes, proper health care, food stamps, student loans, high-quality day care, and many other services and protections that people depend upon government to provide them - particularly in a time of economic distress.
Congress is considering a budget resolution and a second economic stimulus package that would begin to reverse the President Bush's flawed priorities. We hope Wisconsin's senators and representatives recognize the wisdom of a government that invests in America's real priorities.
- Linda Honold is executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a grassroots progressive organization with over 90,000 members across the state.
The Bush administration's newest budget proposal continues to turn the nation's priorities upside down. Instead of attending to human needs at home, it throws billions of dollars more into an immoral and ill-planned war in Iraq. Instead of aiding the poor, it cuts into aid programs while proposing to extend tax relief for the nation's richest individuals and corporations.
The economy is sliding into a recession; this is an accepted fact everywhere but in the White House and the Federal Reserve Board, and the latter is wavering. Jobless claims reached a two-year high in March, home sales and home prices are falling, and consumer confidence is scraping the bottom of the scale. Now is clearly the time to make the domestic needs of America the first priority of government. But President Bush continues to do just the opposite.
The administration, instead, is proposing a budget that slashes federal spending for health care, housing, hunger programs, education and other programs. The cuts to domestic spending are not because the government does not have enough money. The real issue is the Bush administration's priorities for spending the money it has.
Perhaps there is "not enough money" to support Americans in need because the Bush administration has squandered more than $500 billion on an ill-conceived war in Iraq - a conflict that also has cost more than 4,000 American lives, tens of thousands of injured men and women, American credibility as a military power and American prestige as a force for democracy and peace. Although 70 percent of the American people oppose the continuation of the war, the administration has resisted all efforts to begin withdrawing troops. Meanwhile, the war continues to cost taxpayers $341 million every day. Wisconsin's share of this total is $3.5 million a day.
Perhaps there is "not enough money" to support Americans in need because President Bush relieved the tax "burden" of wealthy Americans to the tune of $1.6 trillion (if the cuts are made permanent). These tax cuts cut deeply into government revenues, turned a budget surplus into a deficit almost overnight, and did virtually nothing for middle-income taxpayers.
Perhaps there is "not enough money" to support Americans in need because the share of government revenues contributed by corporate taxes has declined steadily. Fifty years ago, corporate taxes supplied 27 percent of federal revenues. Today they account only for 11 percent. But that has not stopped the Bush administration from seeking additional tax breaks for corporations - supposedly, to stimulate investment, create jobs, and let the increases in profits "trickle down" to the rest of us.
It is a good time to consider whether relieving the tax "burdens" on the top 1 percent of American households should be a higher priority than providing relief to Americans who need decent and affordable homes, proper health care, food stamps, student loans, high-quality day care, and many other services and protections that people depend upon government to provide them - particularly in a time of economic distress.
Congress is considering a budget resolution and a second economic stimulus package that would begin to reverse the President Bush's flawed priorities. We hope Wisconsin's senators and representatives recognize the wisdom of a government that invests in America's real priorities.
- Linda Honold is executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a grassroots progressive organization with over 90,000 members across the state.
