Say Anything Blog

Yawn. Boring. I do not trust a liberal democrat when they say they have a budget that doesn’t require tax cuts, that immediately makes me grab for my wallet, because the pain is coming. If you read Conrad’s letter he basically is spouting off the same crap the other dems are saying. Pay your fair share. Rich are not paying enough, tax shelters.

Conrad is at it again

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota letter: Letter left wrong budget impression

The Forum

Published Tuesday, April 10, 2007

I write to correct the mistaken impression left by the letter of John Manesis in Friday’s Fargo Forum. The letter wrongly asserts that the budget adopted by the Senate assumes the president’s tax cuts will expire in 2010. I can assure the readers of The Forum that the Democratic budget makes no such assumption.

Our budget does not include or require a tax increase. On the contrary, our budget extends tax relief to middle-class Americans and provides a two-year fix for the alternative minimum tax, which ensnares more and middle-class taxpayers each year.

Our budget even allows for new tax relief, as well as the extension of other expiring tax cut provisions, as long as they are paid for.

Over the five years of our budget plan, projected revenues come to $14.827 billion – almost identical to the $14.826 billion in revenue projected by the administration under the president’s budget plan. Our modest additional revenues can be achieved by closing the tax gap, shutting down abusive tax shelters and addressing offshore tax havens – without raising taxes.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, the annual tax gap – the amount of taxes owed under current law but not paid – was $345 billion in 2001. And the gap has likely grown much larger since then. At the same time, the treasury is losing $100 billion each year to abusive tax shelters and offshore tax havens.

Recovering just a small percentage of this lost revenue could help us fund the nation’s priorities while lowering the tax burden on the vast majority of honest taxpayers who pay what they owe.
The Senate-passed budget provides a guide to put our nation back on a sound fiscal path. It balances the books by 2012. And it does so without raising taxes.