Contact: Josh Goldstein 202-637-5018
Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
On Republican Budget Letter to President Obama
Republicans in Congress are not in touch with their constituents. They do not seem to understand that they lost the last election because voters rejected their agenda.
And now they are recycling more of the same agenda that was overwhelmingly rejected in November: lower tax rates for the richest Americans and benefit cuts for Social Security and Medicare.
Today the House Republican leadership put forward a plan that would squander trillions of dollars by extending tax cuts for the richest 2% of Americans and lowering top tax rates even further.
Speaker Boehner claims this proposal is a “compromise” because it includes $800 billion in tax revenues from closing unspecified “loopholes.” But this is the same “fuzzy math” that Gov. Romney tried to sell in the last presidential campaign. We know from the debate over Gov. Romney’s plan that this sort of “loophole closing” either increases taxes on the middle class or increases the deficit.
At the same time, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is proposing benefit cuts to Social Security and Medicare. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday, he argued for cutting Social Security COLAs, raising the eligibility age for Medicare, and increasing premiums for higher-income Medicare beneficiaries.
It is ironic that Republicans unfairly attacked President Obama during the campaign for cutting Medicare, and now they are turning around and proposing Medicare benefits cuts. This is an agenda that spares the wealthiest Americans from any sacrifice and shifts the burden to working people.
We reject Speaker Boehner’s outlandish claim that this was a “status quo” election. We reject the Republican agenda of lowering tax rates for rich people and cutting benefits for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And specifically, we reject cuts in Social Security COLAs, increases in the Medicare eligibility age, increases in Medicare premiums, and any reduction in the top individual income tax rates below 36% and 39.6%.
We challenge Republicans in Congress to heed the lesson of the November election and work with us to put America back to work, raise wages, restore tax fairness, and rebuild the middle class.
Statement online here: http://www.aflcio.org/Press-Room/Press-Releases/Statement-by-AFL-CIO-President-Richard-Trumka-On-Republican-Budget-Letter-to-President-Obama
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