To: Sen. Charles Schumer (NY-1) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-2)
NY Senators Schumer & Gillibrand: Tax Wall Street, Invest in us
As a New Yorker concerned about the upcoming "fiscal showdown", I urge you to distance yourself from the corporate coalition "Fix the Debt" and support rebuilding our country and economy with these these economic proposals:
1. Raise $1 trillion in new revenue from the wealthy and corporations over 10 years and use it to prevent any cuts to critical programs and services, like Social Security, Medicare and education.
2. Make corporations pay their fair share of taxes. While corporate profits are at a 60-year high, the average corporate tax rate is just 12.6% - a third of their official tax rate.
3. End tax breaks that encourage corporations to ship jobs and profits overseas.
4. Eliminate loopholes that benefit primarily the wealthy.
1. Raise $1 trillion in new revenue from the wealthy and corporations over 10 years and use it to prevent any cuts to critical programs and services, like Social Security, Medicare and education.
2. Make corporations pay their fair share of taxes. While corporate profits are at a 60-year high, the average corporate tax rate is just 12.6% - a third of their official tax rate.
3. End tax breaks that encourage corporations to ship jobs and profits overseas.
4. Eliminate loopholes that benefit primarily the wealthy.
Why is this important?
The end of the fiscal year is September 30th; when elected officials get back from the August recess they will either have to pass a budget or a continuing resolution to keep the gov't running. Talk of Grand Bargains-- more cuts to both corporate taxes and vital government services-- are starting to move again in D.C.
Corporations and their front groups like Fix the Debt put forward a public face of bipartisan concern and cooperation for the country and our budget crisis, but their real agenda - cut earned benefits and our human and physical infrastructure to pay for massive corporate tax breaks - is clear. They are swarming Capitol Hill pushing their agenda, and some of our elected officials are picking it up.
"Fix the Debt" uses terms like "tax reform" and advocates for a territorial tax system, which would exempt every penny of offshore profits from US taxation – a $134 billion windfall annually. They say "entitlement reform" and mean cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They say "balance" and they mean lowering corporate tax rates.
Our economy continues to be sluggish, income inequality is rising and our communities are struggling. A decades-long campaign by corporate interests and the 1% has discredited government, starved revenues, and concentrate wealth and political power in the hands of the few. We’re facing high unemployment and stagnant wages, while corporations and the wealthy are sitting on trillions of dollars in cash and demanding our elected officials grant them more tax breaks paid for with cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and our human and physical infrastructure.
Wall Street corporations who spend their money lobbying instead of paying their fair share can't be allowed to keep rigging out system according to their economic interest.
Corporations and their front groups like Fix the Debt put forward a public face of bipartisan concern and cooperation for the country and our budget crisis, but their real agenda - cut earned benefits and our human and physical infrastructure to pay for massive corporate tax breaks - is clear. They are swarming Capitol Hill pushing their agenda, and some of our elected officials are picking it up.
"Fix the Debt" uses terms like "tax reform" and advocates for a territorial tax system, which would exempt every penny of offshore profits from US taxation – a $134 billion windfall annually. They say "entitlement reform" and mean cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They say "balance" and they mean lowering corporate tax rates.
Our economy continues to be sluggish, income inequality is rising and our communities are struggling. A decades-long campaign by corporate interests and the 1% has discredited government, starved revenues, and concentrate wealth and political power in the hands of the few. We’re facing high unemployment and stagnant wages, while corporations and the wealthy are sitting on trillions of dollars in cash and demanding our elected officials grant them more tax breaks paid for with cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and our human and physical infrastructure.
Wall Street corporations who spend their money lobbying instead of paying their fair share can't be allowed to keep rigging out system according to their economic interest.