December 7, 2005Ed Bryant
115 Penn Warren
Suite 300-309
Brentwood, TN 37027
Dear Mr. Bryant,
I was surprised to read your statement that recent votes in Congress slashing important programs for seniors, nurses, business owners, students and working families and giving tax breaks to millionaires are, in your words, "two small steps in the right direction.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Just last month, Republican leadership in the House of Representatives pushed through a bill called the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The irony of the bill is that, while it claims to reduce the deficit by $50 billion over 5 years, it will have the practical effect of increasing the deficit by almost $6 billion.
The reason? The spending measure is just one part of a two-pronged attack on fiscal discipline. The other shoe drops tomorrow, when the Republican leadership will advance a tax package that will reduce federal revenues by $56 billion over the same time period. So despite your suggestion to the contrary, these bills are going to increase the financial burden we are placing on future generations.
I suppose I should not be surprised that you and Van Hilleary would view these bills favorably. After all, you both voted against the 1997 Balanced Budget Act that was enacted into law, which I supported. And while you served in Congress together, federal spending increased 43 percent and the national debt grew by $1.5 trillion, or $5,800 for every Tennessean.
The Republicans’ erosion of our financial security did not stop after you both left. Instead, they turned record surpluses into record deficits and pushed the national debt above $8 trillion, or $27,000 for every man, woman and child in America.
By borrowing $615,000 a minute to finance our debt – much of it from foreign countries who do not see the world as we do – we are literally mortgaging our children’s and our grandchildren’s future. This is morally wrong.
Each year, every Tennessee family and nearly every state government has to do something that the federal government does not: balance their budget. When money runs tight for families in Sullivan, Bedford or Shelby County, they make the hard choices necessary to live within their means. But when money runs tight for the federal government, we just print more of it or borrow it from abroad.
It is time to force the federal government to exercise the same fiscal discipline as Tennessee families. In my nine years in Congress, I have never voted for a budget that was unbalanced. Unfortunately, too many other elected officials in Washington are unwilling or unable to make the hard choices to do the same.
That is why I am sponsoring legislation to enact a Balanced Budget Amendment that will force Congress to make the right decisions and stop increasing the burden on future generations by adding to our debt. And we must make it enforceable so Congress may not balance the budget early in the year, only to pass budget-busting spending bills later on.
I was also surprised at your endorsement of these bills because they will leave Tennessee and the nation worse off in the long run. For example, the recent budget bill does the following:
Medicaid and TennCare – cuts Medicaid by $11.9 billion while decreasing benefits and making harder for seniors to access long-term care. This cut comes at a time when our governor is struggling to reform TennCare in the face of already reduced federal support.
Student Loans – cuts student loan funding by $14.3 billion by increasing interest rates and loan fees. These changes could cost the 128,410 student borrowers in Tennessee up to $5,800 each.
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) – funds LIHEAP at $3 billion less than I had advocated. This means almost 150,000 fewer Tennessee families will receive help with their home heating bills this winter, when energy prices are near all-time highs.
Child Support Enforcement – cuts $75 million from Tennessee programs that help enforce child support payments from dead-beat parents over the next five years. Over the next ten years, these programs will be cut $238 million.
Food Stamps – cuts $844 million in food stamp assistance over the next five years. These cuts hurt organizations like the Memphis Food Bank, which provides food to more than 20,000 – including 9,900 children – every week, and the Second Harvest Food Bank in Knoxville, which distributed 8.1 million pounds of food to over 350 agencies in 18 East Tennessee counties last year.
While the bulk of the spending cuts will be borne by those who are most in need, the bulk of the beneficiaries of the Republican tax cuts are those who need it least. In fact, multimillionaires – in particular, those who earn more than $5.2 million a year – will see their after-tax income increase at a greater rate than any other segment of the population due to the tax cuts.
And while 95 percent of Tennesseans earn less than $100,000 a year, those earning more than $190,000 will receive 84 percent of the bill’s total benefit – more than $47 billion. On average, they will receive more than $1,200 in tax cuts. By contrast, the tax rebate for all other taxpayers – who earn less than $63,000 a year on average – will be at most $135 and as little as $7. This patent unfairness is why I will vote against the tax measure.
All of this comes at a time when America is struggling to pay for a war and for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. Put simply, these budgetary and tax priorities are completely misplaced.
It has been said that governing does not involve picking the good over the bad. Rather, it involves picking the good over the just as good. In short, it is about setting priorities. Given the choice between help for our seniors, nurses, business owners, students and working families trying to make ends meet this winter on the one hand, and more tax cuts for millionaires on the other, I will side with seniors, nurses, business owners, students and working Tennesseans every time. In this case, it is an easy choice.
I hope you agree.
Sincerely,
HAROLD FORD, JR.
Related: Read about Blogging for Bryant's continued distortion of the truth here!
