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Miller calls for a renew deal as Americans pay their taxes
As millions of working Americans file and pay their taxes, the Carol Miller for Congress campaign calls for Congress to enact a fair and progressive tax policy. Because of the regressive nature of US tax policy, the system is upside down and needs a total reform. Low income and poor people pay the highest percentage of their income in taxes while many of the wealthiest either pay no taxes or get refunds.
Corporate income taxes are at their lowest level since before World War II. The nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that Treasury Department data show that actual corporate income tax revenues fell to $132 billion in 2003, down 36 percent from $207 billion in 2000. Corporate revenues in 2003 represented only 1.2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (the basic measure of the size of the economy), the lowest level since 1983, the year in which corporate receipts plummeted to levels last seen in the 1930s.
Despite these tax breaks US corporations still pack up their jobs and move them to other countries in the global search to pay the lowest wages. Corporations should face substantial penalties for setting up in offshore tax havens and be banned from federal contracts.
Working Families need a tax break, not corporations and upper income tax payers. The Earned Income Tax Credit should be increased and extended to all low income tax payers whether or not they have children.
“We need wealthy taxpayers and corporations to pay their fair share so that we can provide the essential services of government,” said Miller. “One of the best investments we can make right now is in rebuilding our infrastructure; bridges, water systems, mass transit, schools, clinics – all now suffering from decades of neglect. I call this the RENEW DEAL. Jobs created to strengthen the US infrastructure are jobs that cannot be outsourced.”
