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For Immediate Release
August 9, 2004
ASK PRESIDENT BUSH: HOW CAN I OWN SOMETHING IF I CAN’T AFFORD MY HEALTH CARE OR FIND A GOOD JOB?
George Bush will be meeting today with voters in Virginia to discuss his idea of an ownership society. We are all for helping Americans with ownership but the way George Bush pursues this goal actually increases the burden on to the middle-class while making America even more of a debt society.
Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said: “How can George Bush talk about encouraging ownership when under his Administration it has become a hardship to help families get good-paying jobs or pay for the skyrocketing costs of health care and college? Is this his definition of turning the corner? Instead of coming up with a plan to turn the Bush economy around, the White House is content to recycle old ideas and repackage them as new ones. John Kerry thinks we can do better and has a comprehensive plan to make America stronger at home and respected in the world.”
QUESTIONS FOR GEORGE BUSH:
How Can You Talk About Real Ownership When I Can’t Afford Health Care? Today, health care premiums cost my family over $2,600 more than it did before you took office. With prescription drug prices and other out of pocket costs rising faster than inflation or the increase in my paycheck, its tough to keep up with these costs. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
How Can You Talk About Real Ownership When the Hardship is Finding a Job that Pays the Bills? Over the past four years, the job market has not been so stellar. A lot of people I know lost their jobs and the ones that are coming back are paying $9,000 less than the ones we’ve lost. A lot of families I know feel squeezed with income down by nearly $1,500. This is not the kind of job creation that makes it easy to start a business or max out in my retirement account. (Bureau of Labor Statistics; Census Bureau)
How Can You Talk About Ownership When the Hardship is Sending My Kids to College? I think it would be great to max out on retirement this year, but I have more pressing needs like sending my kids to college. Unfortunately, over the past four years the cost of college tuition has increased by 35 percent and is now over $1,200 more than it used to cost. (College Board)
How Can You Talk About Ownership When Filling My Car Up at the Pump Is Squeezing My Families Budget? Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen gas prices skyrocket at the pump. This past week oil prices approached $45 a barrel, making high gas prices here to stay for a while. This is costing my family, with two teenagers still living at home who have to be driven around, nearly $700 more this year than it did four years ago. We’re expecting to pay over $2,800 for gas this year alone. (Department of Energy, Household Vehicles Energy Consumption 1994, Table 5.2, August 1997; AAA Fuel Gauge Report)
AN OWNERSHIP SOCIETY THAT BENEFITS THE WEALTHY AND CREATES A NEW DEBT SOCIETY:
Shifting From Taxing the Wealth of the Wealthy to the Work of the Middle Class By Running Record Deficits. Over the past four years, this administration has shifted the tax burden from the wealth of the wealthy to the work of the middle class. At the same time, they have pushed the size of the deficit to staggering levels. The tax cuts overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest Americans and shifted a greater burden of taxes onto middle-class families. The president’s new proposals will only continue to shift this burden and add trillions to the nation’s debt.
George Bush’s Tax Cuts Went to the Wealthiest Americans. The Bush tax cuts are targeted to the rich, not to the lower- and middle-income Americans most likely to spend them. The top 1 percent get about $50 billion in tax cuts in 2004, close to one quarter of the entire tax cut. The top 10 percent get more than the other 90 percent combined. (Urban/Brookings Tax Policy Center)
Bush’s So-Called Savings Plans Offer Virtually Nothing to 95% of Americans While Increasing Government Debt We Pass On to Our Children. Today, only about 5% of people contribute the maximum amount to IRAs and 401Ks while the other 95% either can’t afford to put away that much or have no retirement savings at all. By removing income caps and raising the contribution limit from $3000 to $5000, RSAs and LSAs would do next to nothing for the 95% who can’t afford to max out existing incentives, while offering the privileged 5% a generous new tax windfall. (Copeland, Craig “IRA Assets and Characteristics of IRA owners,” EBRI Notes, December 2002; CBO, “Utilization of Tax Incentives for Retirement Saving,” August 2003.)
HSAs Offer Lucrative And Unprecedented Tax Shelter Benefits To The Wealthy. HSAs permit tax-deductible contributions, investment earnings on funds held in the accounts to grow tax-free, and tax-free withdrawals if funds are used to pay for out-of-pocket medical costs. In other words, funds held in these accounts are not taxed at any point. This constitutes a tax benefit never previously allowed in the U.S. tax code for other tax-advantaged savings accounts such as IRAs and 401(k) plans. There are also no income limits on HSA participants, so wealthy individuals can use them to supplement their existing retirement accounts. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 12/1/03)
$2 Trillion Social Security Privatization. George Bush has proposed privatizing Social Security and creating individual retirement accounts. This plan will not only put the fiscal future of America’s seniors in doubt, it will also cost the American taxpayers an additional $2,000 billion. (Council of Economic Advisors, Economic Report of the President, 2004)
Bush Administration Proposed Eliminating Section 8 Housing and Removing Protections for Renters. Bush has proposed reforms to the Section 8 housing program that would hurt American families who take advantage of low income housing. The Washington Post reported, “The Bush administration is proposing to transform a cornerstone of the nation's housing policy for the poor, replacing a federal program that provides rent vouchers to 2 million families with a system that would give broad new powers to local housing authorities…This year's version would eliminate a long-standing rule that families in the program, known as Section 8, pay no more than two-fifths of their income in rent. It would erase a requirement that three-quarters of the vouchers go to families who are extremely poor. And it would omit the federal quality standards that have covered all the apartments and houses in which participants live.” (Washington Post, 4/13/04)
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www.johnkerry.com
Paid for by Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc.
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