Congress returned to work Monday to tackle the difficult task of finalizing the federal budget. They face a daunting challenge as they grapple with the need to fund the $200 billion Gulf Coast recovery effort and America’s other domestic and foreign priorities. Yet despite recent events and the all-too-evident economic hardship that many American families face, Congress seems determined to return to business as usual.
In recent weeks, many members of Congress, citing the growing deficit, have called for “fiscal responsibility” and urged cutting domestic spending to offset the Hurricane Katrina relief. While the hurricane survivors are in desperate need of the promised federal aid and growing deficits are cause for concern, the idea of cutting spending on federal programs like Medicaid, Medicare and food stamps at this time is unconscionable and would hurt the very people we all want to help.
If anything, the recent devastation wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita revealed the dark side of our economy and focused attention on something it seems the public mind and Congress would just as soon forget: poverty in America.
The economic hardship that left so many Gulf Coast residents unable to escape harm is not limited to the South; it exists across the country and here in Colorado. In fact, at almost the same moment that the levees of New Orleans failed, the U.S. Census Bureau released annual data showing another failure: A growing number of families across America and in our state live below the poverty level.
Yet, despite the tragic consequences that we know now can result, Congress is poised to make billions in cuts to programs that reduce poverty and alleviate hardship. The House of Representatives is looking at increased cuts in vital programs like Medicaid and food stamps from $35 billion to $50 billion. There’s also a movement underway calling for across-the-board cuts to all domestic programs ranging from Head Start and WIC to workforce training and housing programs.
The rhetoric is seductive. “We need these cuts to rebuild better and stronger communities in the Gulf, to provide for displaced hurricane survivors, to get control of our country’s growing deficit.” But the truth is, the proposed cuts will not pay for Katrina or slow the growth of the deficit. Instead, these cuts will merely offset a portion of the $70 billion in proposed new tax cuts that Congress wants for the wealthiest among us.
The non-partisan Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center reports that households with incomes of more than $1 million per year – the richest 0.2 percent of the U.S. population – are currently receiving tax cuts averaging $103,000 this year. If Congress moves forward with its budget bill as planned, as it seems intent on doing, these millionaires will receive another $20,000 a year in increased tax cuts in the upcoming year.
Roughly 37 million people, including children, live in poverty in the United States and many million more live on the edge, one paycheck or one disaster away from ruin. Now is no time for Congress to weaken the programs and structures that help vulnerable Americans move toward economic security. Now is no time for Congress to cut health care, nutrition programs or other vital services for the poor, working poor, elderly and persons with disabilities in order to shuffle more tax breaks to millionaires.
More tax cuts and misguided spending cuts should not be our priorities. We have all seen so clearly the face of poverty, and we should not forget.
Kathy White represents the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute; John Kefalas the Tax Fairness Project of the Colorado Progressive Coalition; and Linda Meric the Colorado Chapter of 9to5, the National Association of Working Women.
