Congress Must Face the Facts
Dear Representative:
As Congress debates Debt Ceiling Legislation, the FY 2012 Budget, the 2012 Defense
Authorization Bill and specific 2012 Appropriations bills, it’s time to face the facts:
•
In January 2001, the United States had a budget surplus of $2 trillion.
•
Tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 that heavily favored the very rich, oil companies and
big corporations have cost the government $1.7 trillion in revenues. Tax revenues as a
percentage of the economy are now at their lowest levels in 60 years. Exxon Mobil, Bank of
America, Chevron, Citigroup and General Electric alone made over $51 billion in profits last year
but paid no taxes. Instead they got a whopping $6.4 billion in tax refunds.
•
Bush era policies that fueled the economic recession, including limited if any
government oversight of Wall Street and lost tax revenues for workers who lost their jobs,
account for more than $7 trillion in deficit spending.
•
Obama era policies have contributed $1.7 trillion dollars to the deficit although $719
billion was for the 2009 economic stimulus program which created or saved 3 million jobs,
arguably keeping the recession from turning in to a depression.
•
The federal workforce is not bigger than ever. It is now slightly smaller than it was in
1967 and there are 100 million more Americans to serve. While many lawmakers blame federal
workers and critical government services for the economic crisis, core domestic spending has
grown by only 15 percent since 2001 and most of that growth has been in the Departments of
Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.
•
Federal workers did not create the deficit and should not be seen as “the cure”.
Proposals to further freeze federal pay, cut benefits and eliminate jobs score political points but
they totally ignore our country’s underlying economic problems.
The facts speak for themselves. Congress needs to make the very rich and tax evading
corporations like GE pay their fair share. And Congress needs to create good jobs. Those are
the real deficits that our country faces. Congress doesn’t need to further reduce the standard of
living of federal employees, cut or outsource federal jobs and further slash the critical services
that insure the safety and well-being of all Americans.
Sincerely,
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American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO
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