FISCAL WATCHDOG GROUP DECLARES $792 BILLION TAX PLAN IRRESPONSIBLY SMALL | Citizens Against Government Waste

FISCAL WATCHDOG GROUP DECLARES $792 BILLION TAX PLAN IRRESPONSIBLY SMALL

Press Release

For Immediate ReleaseContact: Jim Campi
August 5, 1999(202) 467-5300

 

(Washington, D.C.) –The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), America’s largest taxpayer watchdog group, today criticized the Republican tax cut plan for not providing adequete relief for overburdened American taxpayers.  A final vote on the 10 year, $792 billion tax proposal is expected this week.

“The $792 billion Republican tax cut is certainly better than the President's paltry proposal,” said CCAGW President Thomas A. Schatz.  “But that still leaves about $23 trillion dollars laying around in Washington over the next 10 years.  It would be great if that money could be used to pay off the debt and save Social Security and Medicare.  In reality, though, anybody in their right mind knows that the money will really wasted on a big-government, pork-barrel spending spree.  Washington doesn't have the fiscal discipline to save a dime.  The only solution is to get the money out of the hands of legislators and back into the hands of the taxpayers who earned it.”

A larger tax cut can be paid for without endangering Medicare or Social Security, or siphoning funds needed to pay off the federal debt.  Citizens Against Government Waste's 1999 Prime Cuts, a compendium of $1.2 trillion worth of wasteful government programs, should be used as a guide to where the fat can be cut from the budget to offset these tax cuts.

While $1.2 trillion is a larger tax cut than any proposed in this Congress, it is relatively small compared to the $21 trillion being spent in Washington for over the next 10 years.  It is a miniscule fraction of the nation's $122 trillion GDP over that same decade.  Further, the American taxpayer is in desperate need of relief.  The average taxpayer sends Uncle Sam 36 percent of what he earns, the largest percentage since World War II.

"One of the key goals of cutting taxes is to reduce the amount of money that Washington has available to misspend," Schatz continued.  "Prime Cuts demonstrates that there is plenty of fat still left to be cut from the budget.  With the economy humming along, this is the perfect time to put America's fiscal house in order."

CCAGW is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.

 

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