Ed Case's Budget Stance Is Undermining Biden's Agenda
If Case is concerned about the deficit, he should help rescind tax breaks for the rich.
June 30, 2021 · 2 min read
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On June 14 Hawaii Rep. Ed Case and four other House Democrats wrote a letter telling Speaker Nancy Pelosi that they are “deeply concerned with the fiscal state of our nation” and demanding passage of a budget resolution to stabilize the deficit before approving President Biden’s economic plan.
This seems like a rather obvious attempt by Case to make sure that the President’s plan is not passed.
The federal deficit in 2017 was $665 billion, which was equal to 3.5% of gross domestic product. Trump’s tax cuts in 2017 were approximately $1.5 trillion.
When Biden took office this year, the annual deficit was $2.3 trillion. Trump and the Republicans raised the deficit. That didn’t worry them in the least.
What we need now are jobs at good wages to put people back to work. To provide these jobs, we need to tax those who benefited from the Trump-Republican tax giveaway to the wealthiest among us in 2017.
Case says he is for an infrastructure bill but not if we can’t pay for it.
We say to Case: Let the wealthy corporations and individuals, including Trump, who received the bulk of the 2017 tax cuts, pay for it.
This is what President Biden and the overwhelming majority of Democrats are proposing with their plan, which has lowered the overall price tag on the program and proposed measures to raise government revenues by over $1.5 trillion through new revenue, which includes increased corporate taxes and funding for IRS tax collection.
This approach seems very reasonable, especially because it is supported by the majority of Americans. Unfortunately, like too many Republicans, Case seems most opposed to budget deficits when the programs they finance help middle-class and lower-income Americans.
We urge Case to stop siding with Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues. We say pass President Biden’s economic plan and rescind the 2017 tax giveaway. Use those revenues to implement measures for Americans in need. The citizens of Hawaii and the country deserve no less.
Rep. Case’s Letter To Speaker Pelosi:
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