Dear Sen. Kerry,
We know that Massachusetts labor unions
are urging you to support their special interest status quo
instead of doing what is best for the country. As
Massachusetts’ largest statewide grassroots taxpayer
organization, we are writing to balance their demands with a
request that you consider taxpayers and future generations
of Americans who are liable for the already unsustainable
national debt.
If, in the ‘90s, you had voted for a
federal balanced budget amendment in the Senate after it
passed in the House, we might not be in such severe fiscal
crisis today. If you recall, it failed in the Senate by one
vote. We hope you will make up for this by now supporting a
constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, and
until that can take effect, by supporting the necessary
budget cuts, entitlement reforms, and limitation on the
union benefits that have already led to bankruptcy in some
communities.
The mission of Citizens for Limited
Taxation is control over taxes at the state level, but of
course we realize that Massachusetts does not exist in a
vacuum and will also pay the price for lack of intelligent
budgeting in Washington DC.
Our decades-long focus on taxes reflects
not only a desire to let taxpayers keep more of their own
money, but a perceived need to control the waste,
inefficiency, mismanagement, and abuse of power and
corruption that is financed by a high tax burden. However,
when spending continues despite tax limitation/tax cuts, we
abhor the debt and unfunded liabilities that will result in
extraordinary levels of taxation or loss of essential
services for our children and grandchildren.
Many people who pay little attention to
government feel that a balanced approach of spending cuts
and tax increases would be reasonable. We might agree were
it not for the previous "grand agreements" that raised taxes
but never got around to the agreed spending cuts. From our
experience, we have to assume that as soon as tax hikes are
approved, the impetus for essential reforms will again be
kicked down the road.
E.g. The 1982 Tax Equity and Fiscal
Responsibility Act. President Reagan agreed to a budget deal
with Congressional Democrats that promised $3 in spending
cuts for every $ 1 in tax cuts. We got the largest peacetime
tax increase in American history, without spending
restraint. E.g2. The 1990 Budget Deal. President George H.W.
Bush agreed to raise $1 in taxes in return for $2 in cuts.
Taxes went up, and so did spending.
So we’re not Charlie Brown, trying to
. This time, Lucy,
spending cuts first, then we can talk about revenues, that
we’ll expect to see earmarked for bringing down the national
debt instead of being spent on new programs and bailouts.
And once spending cuts are enacted to
balance this year’s budget and begin to control the national
debt, it will be time to do a complete overhaul of the
national tax system, simplifying it to the point where Big
Government can no longer team up with lobbyists from Big
Labor and Big Business to overwhelm the resources of the
"unconnected" American people whom, we hope, are organizing
themselves into Big Voters for November 2012.
Thank you for your attention.
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Barbara Anderson |
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Executive Director |
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Every Tax
is a Pay Cut . . . A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise |
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Letter in PDF format |
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