September 8, 2005

Tax cuts will extend economic prosperity
By U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson
(As appeared in The Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Even as we struggle with high gasoline prices and billions of dollars in recovery costs from Hurricane Katrina, it would be a mistake to turn our backs on the extraordinary economic growth of the past two years by abandoning all tax cuts.

I feel very strongly that we should continue our nation's unprecedented economic prosperity by making the tax cuts permanent.

Unemployment is down. Tax revenues are way up. The deficit is shrinking. And this economic prosperity is occurring in the face of $70-a-barrel oil. It is proof positive that the tax cuts we've passed in the last four years are working. It confirms what I have always believed — letting American taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned money pays far better dividends than sending that money to Congress for another "government solution."

The president's tax cuts are scheduled to expire, but we cannot let that happen. We simply cannot raise taxes on our families and businesses, forcing them to plan budgets with taxes going up and down like a roller coaster.

In the wake of high gas prices and an expensive recovery from Katrina, we absolutely cannot afford to abandon the very strategy that has created jobs, allowed businesses to expand, left more money in the pockets of our families and spurred unprecedented economic prosperity for the entire nation.

Johnny Isakson, a Republican, is Georgia's junior U.S. senator.