Congressman Jim Moran's News Commentary

Late last Friday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed what Democrats and some of my fellow colleagues on the House Budget Committee have known for quite a while, that the Bush tax cuts passed in 2001 were skewed towards the wealthiest in America and have shifted a higher tax burden onto the middle class.

CBO was established in 1971 to analyze and offer guidance to Congress on all matters dealing with the federal budget. At the behest of congressional Democrats, it has used its ability to evaluate the effects of the Bush tax cuts. While some Republicans have attempted to downplay the results and mischaracterize CBO's numbers, it is very hard to take such arguments seriously, given that CBO is non-partisan by nature and is run by a Republican appointed director.

The report, released late Friday afternoon (most likely an attempt to bury the news at the end of the week when less people would be paying attention), has found that the average tax cut for the richest one percent is more than 70 times larger than the tax cut for middle income families in 2004. The increase in after-tax income for the wealthiest households is four times greater than the increase for middle-income households. CBO's numbers further show that the Bush tax cuts gave an average tax cut of only $250 to the lowest earning 20 percent of households, an average break of $1,090 to the middle earning 20 percent of households and a whopping average cut of $40,990 to the top 1 percent earning households.

This squeezing of the American middle class in order to provide tax breaks for the highest income brackets in the country is wrong. Our nation's fiscal policies should be geared towards helping the lower and middle classes make ends meet, not padding the pockets of those who don't need financial breaks in order to put food on the table for their families.

The tax breaks provided by the Bush Administration are also very expensive and must be paid for at some point. And where is this money coming from? It's being financed by spending the entire Social Security surplus over the next 10 years. This is taking money from a surplus created by American workers, 75 percent of whom pay more in payroll taxes (which finance social security) than in income taxes. The direction we are headed with this sort of fiscal policy weighted in favor of the wealthiest in our society is misguided. We need progressive fiscal policies that protect the middle class and therein strengthen our economy in the long run. I am optimistic that hope is on the way.