Levin Critical of Bush Tax Proposals

WASHINGTON – Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., issued the following statement regarding Treasury Secretary John Snow's visit to the Detroit Economic Club today. Secretary Snow spoke about President Bush's recent tax proposals.

Levin statement follows:

"The Bush tax proposals are the wrong medicine for our ailing economy. They are fiscally irresponsible, sharply slanted toward upper income folks, not focused on short-term job growth, and harmful to Michigan and our other states."

"We're already in a deficit ditch with lots of priorities we need to tend to. Rather than focusing on returning us to a surplus, the President has proposed long-term tax cuts that will increase the deficit by an estimated $1.8 trillion over 10 years. Even Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan disagrees and believes it's important to curb deficits. Failure to do so will harm the economy and raise interest rates down the road."

"I don't think we should pass a tax package that will give the top one percent of taxpayers more in the way of benefits this year than the bottom eighty percent combined, all the while refusing to extend unemployment benefits for the million Americans whose benefits have expired and weren't extended. The President's proposal is not fair, it's not balanced, and it's not going to provide our economy the jumpstart it needs."

"The better alternative is a broad-based tax cut that would provide every working family of four with an immediate tax cut of $1,200, an extension of unemployment benefits for those whose benefits have expired, short-term incentives for businesses to invest now, when we need it, and aid to our struggling states for education, infrastructure improvements, homeland security and Medicaid, among other things."