Citizens Against Government Waste-CAGW
Dec 3rd, 2008 Posted in Current Events | no comment »An email I received from the CAGW.
With the likelihood of a $1 trillion deficit in the current fiscal year and massive new taxes and spending on the way, I want to urge you in the strongest terms possible to please take a few minutes now to complete our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY. CAGW needs to hear your views today.
Here’s why your survey answers are so important right now.
While we hope that President-elect Barack Obama’s vision of “change” includes changing Washington’s carefree attitude toward wasting tax dollars, many members of Congress, by their own admission, have “pent-up demand” for new spending and taxes. Some of the proposed tax and spending increases are staggering.
Let me share with you just a few of the most dangerous proposals under serious consideration in Washington right now.
First, as Congress and the new Administration try to decide who is going to qualify for their “share the wealth” tax increases very early next year (those making $250,000 or $200,000 or $150,000 or even $125,000 or less), the general consensus is that the tax hike on this group will total 25 percent, including higher tax rates and phasing out exemptions and itemized deductions. The fact that history has shown that you can’t tax your way out of a recession may not stop this misguided proposal from going forward.
But I must warn you it is not just the so-called “rich” that the new Congress and Administration will be coming after.
What will be particularly difficult for many retirees is that the big spenders are working toward a 33 percent increase in the tax rates on dividends and capital gains. They’re also advocating reinstatement of the death tax at a whopping 45 percent rate, and a new payroll tax on employers that is estimated at 7 percent to help pay for the Obama government-run healthcare plan.
And if reducing Americans’ income at a time when many are struggling to make ends meet is not enough to push the economy into a deep and prolonged recession, the big spenders are proposing to increase corporate taxes by 25 percent even though American businesses already face the second-highest marginal tax rate in the industrialized world. All Americans will pay dearly for these corporate taxes through higher prices, more lost jobs, and an even more stagnant economy.
To make matters worse, President-elect Obama and his allies in Congress have promised $1.3 trillion in “tax cuts” over the next 10 years to lower- and middle-income Americans, many of whom don’t pay federal income taxes at all! Some 47 million filers, or 33 percent, don’t pay taxes today. That number would rise by 16 million, to 44 percent, under the Obama plan.
Mark my words, if this unprecedented giveaway goes forward, it will push America toward bankruptcy!
These proposals are made more dangerous when you add them to the fact that we are facing a deepening economic recession and a budget deficit in 2009 that very likely will reach an all-time record of $1 trillion. And this deficit may very quickly get $300 billion, $500 billion, or even $700 billion higher as Congress considers an ill-conceived, quick-fix, giveaway stimulus program. This stimulus package will simply increase the deficit and, in all likelihood, will be as much of a waste as the $100 billion in stimulus checks that President Bush sent out.
To help fight the massive taxes and record amounts of deficit-producing, wasteful spending being proposed and, at the same time, help CAGW pick our battles over the coming weeks and months, I urgently need you to participate in our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY. Your survey answers will arm us with the evidence of public opposition we need to derail many of the worst tax and spending plans.
Completing our survey is the most powerful way you can show your anger over the skyrocketing deficit while delivering an urgent demand to stop the most reckless and radical spending and tax proposals.
In addition, your survey answers will help set CAGW’s agenda and direct our most critical efforts in the months ahead. This is your opportunity to help decide which upcoming battles CAGW should wage.
As I have said before, I may be CAGW’s president, but CAGW is your organization. CAGW’s success or failure rests in your hands, so please give us your survey answers today.
The results of our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY will be publicized to the news media and key opinion leaders here in Washington and across the country and included in an upcoming edition of “E-News.” What’s more, we will use your survey answers to focus a media spotlight on the financial dangers posed by a $1 trillion deficit and demonstrate that there is growing public opposition to the proposed massive expansion of failed big-government policies.
I assure you, the #1 way CAGW can help stop wasteful, deficit spending and economy-stagnating tax increases is by producing solid evidence of overwhelming public support for spending cuts, deficit reduction, and preserving the Bush tax cuts.
If you want to see Congress stop the wasteful spending, halt the drive for higher taxes, reject the pork-barrel projects that are hollowing out our nation’s defenses and other vital programs, and revise the proposal for government-run healthcare so that it is focused on the needy and won’t bankrupt America, I urge you to take part in our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY today.
And when you do, I also need to ask you to make a year-end donation today to help CAGW act on the recommendations you have made.
