For Immediate Release
Tuesday, January 07, 2003
Statement by AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee: President Bush's Economic Plan Crushes Working Families
Times are tougher now than ever for America's working families. Layoffs are increasing, health care costs are skyrocketing, and the President's remedy is a $670 billion economic stimulus plan favoring the wealthiest among us. We need a plan that will stimulate the economy, help people who can't find jobs, and assist fiscally-strapped states — not put hundreds of billions of dollars into the pockets of America's richest citizens.
It is insulting that the President is trying to pass off yet another tax cut for the wealthy, this time the centerpiece is eliminating taxes on dividends, as a boost to the economy. Many economists are saying that eliminating taxes on dividends would do little to reduce rising unemployment or encourage economic growth. Seventy-five percent of the benefit will go to those making more than $100,000. Compare that to workers with incomes below $50,000 — that's nearly 70 percent of us — who would get an average tax break of $135 or less.
What this Administration should be doing is helping unemployed workers find jobs. It's tragic that this Administration has the worst record for job growth in nearly 60 years. Extending the Temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) is essential to boosting the economy and to help unemployed workers who have run out of benefits and cannot find jobs in an economy that is not creating them. Belatedly, the President has offered to extend the TEUC program after he sat on the sidelines in December leaving millions of unemployed to face economic uncertainty over the holidays. And even now he refuses to support additional benefits for the one million unemployed workers who have run out of all their unemployment benefits, remain jobless and face financial difficulties.
According to the National Governors Association, the states are suffering their worst financial crisis since World War II. Collectively they're at least $75 billion in the red and growing, much of it due to federally mandated programs. State Medicaid costs grew more than 13 percent last year, the biggest jump in years. AFSCME has long urged Congress and the Administration to temporarily increase federal assistance to cover exploding Medicaid costs to meet the health care needs of poor families and to help states deal with their fiscal crises. The Bush plan does virtually nothing to help the states.
The Bush recession is already crushing America's working families, and now the president wants to bury them. We need an economic recovery program designed to help those hardest hit by the downturn, not one that aids the wealthiest among us or includes bogus tax breaks to corporations that will not create jobs or help working Americans.
