Tax and Spend?

In an effort to restore spending in ten critical areas and lower the deficit, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) offered a resolution (H. Res. 685) on Thursday, June 24, to invest $14.2 billion in key domestic priorities and $4.7 billion towards reducing the deficit. The total $18.9 billion would be fully offset by limiting tax breaks to those making over $1 million a year.

Republicans gleefully allowed consideration of Obey's amendment in order to bring out their worn "tax-and spend-Democrats" cry. As predicted, the bill was defeated, mostly along party lines, by a straight up-or-down vote of 184 to 230. Two Republicans supported the bill, and 17 Democrats voted against it.

A tight budget cap, with most of the increases flowing into military spending and homeland security, will require cuts in many of the other things that government does on the domestic front. In addition, the national debt will reach the statutory "debt ceiling" sometime this summer, forcing Congress to raise the debt limit yet again. In addition to reducing the deficit (thus keeping the national debt from growing), Obey's amendment would have provided additional spending for a number of the priorities that many Americans strongly support like education, health care for children and public health, veterans' benefits, homeland security, conservation and clean water, strengthening rural communities, and restoring cuts to the Community Services Block Grant. The tax increase on millionaires would have reduced the average tax break from $120,000 to $24,000, which, according to Obey, would still be 24 times larger than tax breaks for those making $50,000 a year.

Obey's amendment was about fairer taxes that will support important government services -- for veterans, for children's health, for education, and for assistance to low-income families and rural communities -- by allowing them to grow with inflation and population increases, and reducing the deficit. Hardly "tax-and-spend," though it might be termed "tax-millionaires-fairly-and-don't cut."

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