(Source: International Brotherhood of Teamsters press release, July 21, 2011)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa issued the following statement today about ongoing negotiations between Congress and the White House to raise the national debt limit:
“Any agreement to raise the national debt limit must not be done on the backs of the middle class. Working people in this country did not create the deficit. Frivolous tax giveaways to the rich and Wall Street’s recklessness are to blame.
“As the deadline approaches, deficit reduction plans being put forward fail miserably in the goal of shared sacrifice. They instead rely on draconian cuts that will only serve to further harm workers, senior citizens and low-income Americans already suffering during the Great Recession. Teamster members and working families nationwide demand that our government come to a budget agreement that:
• Protects Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Cutting benefits would send millions of seniors, people with disabilities and low- and middle-class families into poverty, shredding the vital social safety net created during the Great Depression to help protect the most vulnerable in our society.
• Preserves health care. Nearly 160 million people have access to health care through employment-based insurance. Proposals to tax health care benefits would essentially amount to a tax hike on a large portion of America’s middle class and would lead to many employers dropping their coverage.
• Raises taxes on America’s ultra-rich. The Bush tax cuts failed to create strong long-term job growth, disproportionately benefitted the wealthy and added heavily to our national debt. Those tax cuts must be rescinded. Taxes should be increased on those who can afford it most and those who have benefited most from government policies in the past 30 years that have created severe economic inequality in our country.
• Closes corporate loopholes. Some of the biggest U.S. corporations pay no taxes at all even though they drive the roads, fly from the airports, call the police when there’s trouble, summon the Coast Guard to clean up their oil spills, use the State Department to negotiate their trade deals, take billions from the Treasury when they’re about to collapse and rely on the military to protect their overseas factories, offices and oil fields.
“The best way to solve our budget crisis is to put Americans back to work. I urge Congress and the White House to return our national focus to job creation and to reject proposals aimed at further gutting our middle class.”
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hard-working men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Go to www.teamster.org for more information.