[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE Greens: Obama's tax package blows up the deficit, undermines Social Security

[Green Party of California Updates]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, December 16, 2010



Obama's compromise tax package will blow up the deficit, undermine Social
Security, say Greens urging House Democrats to vote nay

• Tax-cut deal with GOP seals Obama's betrayal of working Americans who
elected him, say Greens

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on economic justice,
taxation, and budget policy:
http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-economic-justice.php


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders urged House Democrats to stand firm and
do what they can to block President Obama's tax package, calling it a
capitulation to the Republican Party that will expand the deficit and
undermine Social Security.

"The tax cut is evidence that President Obama isn't compromising with
Republicans, he's adopting their agenda," said Howie Hawkins, 2010 Green
candidate for Governor of New York and co-chair of the Green Party of New York
State.  "Greens warned that should the President's tax package pass, Democrats
will be the ones initiating the half-century GOP plan to dismantle Social
Security.  Since the plan extends unemployment benefits by diverting some
payroll taxes away from Social Security, it weakens the safety-net for working
Americans and defers the financial hit a little bit longer."

Green Party leaders praised Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind.-Vt.) for his
eight-and-a-half-hour speech on the Senate floor about the damage that the
President's tax package will do to the Social Security trust fund and the
safety net for low- and middle-income Americans.

Green leaders said that if either Democrats or Republicans want to reduce the
deficit and restore domestic financial stability, they should reduce the
military budget and work to end the military occupations of Afghanistan and
Iraq.  The Green Party has repeatedly called for such action, as well as for
requiring the rich to pay their fair share in taxes, since tax breaks for the
wealthy have contributed even more to the deficits than bloated military
funding, as the CBO has repeatedly documented over the last decade.

"It's no secret that maintaining the Bush tax cuts for people who don't need a
tax break will do very little to stimulate the economy.  The Congressional
Budget Office confirms that for every one dollar in tax cuts, only 10 cents to
40 cents are returned to the economy.  The tax cuts may drain $4 trillion from
the US treasury in revenue," said Laura Wells, 2010 Green candidate for
Governor of California.

"Republicans have little concern for the deficit or for the nation's
unemployed.  The swollen deficit is attractive to Republicans because it leads
to a fiscal crisis in which agencies and public-sector jobs get shut down,
regulation of corporations goes unenforced, and privatization of public
resources and services is fast-tracked," Ms. Wells added.

The tax bill will raise taxes on working people: about 40% of workers (about
45 million households out of just over 100 million total households) by
replacing the Making Work Pay tax credit with the Social Security payroll tax
cut (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20025087-503544.html).  Greens
also faulted Democrats for not fighting to extend unemployment benefits for
"99ers," about 2 million unemployed whose benefits ran out in their 100th week
of unemployment.

Greens called the GOP obsession with the estate tax, which affects the top
three-tenths of one percent of Americans, typical of a party that exists
solely to serve the most powerful corporate interests and the wealthiest
income brackets.  "Populist" Tea Party favorites elected to Congress and
conservative 'Blue Dog' Democrats have signed on to the same plutocratic
agenda, and Democratic Party leaders repeatedly cave in to their demands,
regardless of which party controls Congress, said Greens.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

"Compromise Tax Cut Plan Tilts Heavily in Favor of the Well-Off"
Citizens for Tax Justice, December 7, 2010
http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2010/12/compromise_tax_cut_plan_tilts_heavily_in_favor_of_the_well-off.php

"Note on the Tax Deal"
By Sam Smith, The Progressive Review, December 7, 2010
http://prorevnews.blogspot.com/2010/12/notes-on-tax-deal.html

"Alternatives to Austerity"
By Joseph E. Stiglitz, Project Syndicate, December 6, 2010
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stiglitz133/English

"Obama-GOP tax deal the beginning of the end of Social Security, Sen. Sanders
says"
By Edward W. Dolan, The Raw Story, December 14, 2010
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/tax-deal-beginning-social-security-sen-sanders/

"What Bernie Said"
By William Rivers Pitt, truth-out.org, December 14, 2010
http://www.truth-out.org/what-bernie-said-part-i65944

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the
United States (Fall 2010 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog


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