National Alliance Magazine

FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK

WRONG REMEDY FOR ECONOMIC DISTRESS

The bad news keeps coming like a runaway train. Unemployment has reached an eight-year high of 6 percent among the general population and 10.4 percent among blacks whose job loss is always disproportionate to whites. According to the New York Times 2.6 million private sector jobs have been lost during the last two years, 8.8 million are unemployed and millions more have dropped out of the labor force altogether and are not counted in unemployment figures. States facing a combined $100 billion deficit and the need to balance their budgets are cutting needed programs and raising taxes. The Children's Defense Fund has issued a report stating that nearly 1 million black children are living in extreme poverty. Meanwhile, the growing gap between the very rich and the very poor is breathtaking in its enormity.

The national deficit has ballooned to $500 billion, creating a greater burden for future generations. In order to borrow the money needed to pay its debts, Treasury Secretary Snow urged Congress to raise the debt limit. Congress responded with the historic increase of $984 billion.
Throughout this litany of economic bad news, President Bush has been pushing his $726 billion tax cut package as the means to cure our economic ills. President Bush has argued that accelerating the reduction in income taxes passed in 2001, removing the tax on stock dividends, tripling the small business deduction on equipment purchases, and raising the child credit to $1,000 is the boost that the economy needs. Many economists disagree. Even, the Congressional Budget Office has said that the plan will have little impact on the economy. Yet undeterred, President Bush spent most of his post war boost pushing for the very tax cuts that will do little to help the economy. He has been undeterred by evidence that the many who are truly suffering during this economic downturn will not be helped by the tax package.

Republican leadership in the House of Representatives was only too happy to go along with Bush's proposed package. However, they could only pass a $550 billion compromise. Though less than what Bush proposed, this equally astronomical figure was rejected by the Senate where moderate Republicans forced a compromise limited to $350 billion. The Senate package also included $20 billion in aid to the States. This $350 billion which would eventually be the final amount of the tax cut package that passed Congress was achieved by using accounting sleight of hand and is likely to cost the government treasury much more. In the end, President Bush who had derided the $350 billion amount as "itty bitty" was content to accept it as the means to have some tax cuts passed. However, he and conservative Republicans have made it clear that they will continue to push for all the cuts they want.

Those who supported the tax cut plan that will, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center give those with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000 a tax break of $703 and millionaires a tax break of $93,000, are ignoring those who are hardest hit by this economic downturn. Disparaging criticism as class warfare, they blithely ignore the hard questions. Questions such as what will be the future of a society that under funds the education of its children by $4 billion, raids the Social Security surplus to pay for the government's debt; does not provide comprehensive health care for its children, seniors and veterans, and fails to adequately provide for the safety of its citizens at a time when they are under terrorist threat? What becomes of an extremely wealthy country that fails to provide for the least among them? If today's economic woes are any indication of what the future holds it is very bleak indeed.

However, we must not feel helpless. The strength of our democracy lies in our ability to choose our leaders. More of us need to take full advantage of this tool of our democracy. To paraphrase the great fighter for the underdog, Maury Maverick: Democracy is liberty plus economic security. It is up to us whether we have the leaders that will provide us with both.

That's the way it is and I'm James M. McGee.

JMcGee@napfe.org

Editor: Jacquelyn C. Moore

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