George W. Bush addressed Congress for the first time as the 43rd President of the United States Tuesday and immediately introduced his plan to initiate an across-the-board tax cut, one that Bush says “best fulfills the needs of the American public.”
However, local Congressman Robert Menendez of Union City (D- 13th Dist.) does not agree with the new president’s stance and issued his concerns with Bush’s tax cut proposals.
“The problem with the President’s speech is that it’s too good to be true,” said Menendez, who serves as the vice-chair of the Democratic Caucus. “Using his own words from his campaign, it’s nothing but fuzzy math. He’s becoming a modern day Robin Hood, but he’s taking from the poor and middle class and giving the money to the top one percent [in earned income, making an average of $900,000 annually] of the nation. His plan is going to cost us $2.7 trillion and he’s planning on using all of the non-Social Security and Medicare surplus with his tax cut.”
Menendez said that he also has serious concerns with the ways Bush’s tax cuts are slated to be allocated.
“Forty-three percent is going to go to the top one percent,” Menendez said. “If you carry it to the top 10 percent, then the numbers jump to 60 percent. The plan is skewered to the wealthiest people in the country and then there’s nothing left for any increases in services, like education, like quality of life for the people in our armed services, like a prescription plan for seniors.
Added Menendez, “No family in Hudson County that I represent will benefit from this plan. All of their projected income for the next 10 years will come up front. But what happens if someone gets sick or changes jobs? In those cases, income can fluctuate. We can’t project everything is going to be rosy for the next 10 years. We don’t know what can happen with military action, with the economy.”
Menendez stated that there have been major changes in the last six months alone, citing a roller coaster stock market, the blackouts in California and the rising cost of oil prices.
Menendez said that he thinks the Democrats offer a better solution as to what to do with the accrued national surplus.
“I think our plan acts more fairly and more responsibly,” Menendez said. “A third of the surplus, some $800 to $900 million, could go to the tax cuts. While everyone will receive something, the focus will be on the middle class working family, not the wealthiest people in the country.”
Added Menendez, “A third of the surplus can be put to the national debt. The other third can be put to priority investments, like education and insuring that seniors would be able to purchase prescriptions at a low cost. I think our plan gives tax relief, but it doesn’t give the entire store away. Ours is fairer and more responsible, while continuing to reduce the national debt, like we have in the last eight years of the Clinton administration.”
Menendez believes that the focus of the surplus should go to the reduction of the debt.
“It’s the most important thing we can do,” Menendez said. “If we reduce the debt, then we lower the interest rates and that goes to fuel the economy. It’s been the hallmark of the Clinton presidency.”
Menendez said that he actually chuckled when Bush mentioned the tax policy instituted by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
“That was the worst public policy in our nation in more than a century,” Menendez said. “We quadrupled debt and had high interest rates and high inflation. We don’t want to go back there. We can’t afford to go back there. Those types of cuts were a nightmare.”
Menendez said that he agreed with some things Bush discussed, but could not agree with the across-the-board tax cuts.
“He’s like a kid in a candy store right now,” Menendez said. “He wants to grab everything, but he doesn’t have the money to pay for it. It really doesn’t add up.”
However, Menendez knows that it is an uphill climb to get the Democratic ideology introduced and then supported, considering that the Republicans have a strangle hold on both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“I’m encouraged to see that some Republican senators have come out and say that the cuts are too large,” Menendez said. “That’s a start. I understand that the President is new and people want to give him a chance. When you say that you’re going to give out money, people show up and listen. I hope that a public debate on the issue can bring us out of a drunken stupor and reality sets in. You can’t spend what you don’t have. You can have tax cuts. You just can’t have what he proposes. I think there’s room for negotiation.”