Westmoreland responds to tax legislation
From STAFF REPORTSnews@newnan.com
According to U.S. Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga.Third District: “We don’t have a revenue problem in this country – we have a spending problem.”
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on legislation that would allow the tax rates on some American families and small businesses to increase, while at the same time included no spending cuts, Westmoreland said.
Westmoreland, a vocal opponent of raising tax rates without addressing spending, opposed the legislation.
Following is his statement.
“The American people are sick of Washington politics and temporary ‘fixes’ that don’t really fix anything. They want to see us take real actions with real solutions to the real problems we face – especially our mounting debt. Over the last four years since President Obama took office, our debt has risen from a little over $10 trillion to more than $16 trillion. That’s a 60 percent increase. And it’s only getting worse. Did you know that our country borrows roughly $6 billion every day? That’s $239 million every hour, or $4 million every minute.
“Let’s look at the reality of our overall tax situation. Between 2007 and 2009, the bottom 20 percent of American earners paid just three-tenths of a percent of the total tax burden while the richest 20 percent paid 67.9 percent. And now the president and Congressional Democrats want us to force them to pay even more.
“I do not believe we need to raise income tax rates to find a successful approach to handling our debt. And I won’t support this legislation that raises tax rates without addressing the real driver of our debt – spending. Higher taxes are not a real answer to our fiscal problem in Washington. In fact, if we went even further to what President Obama wants and raised taxes on those who make $250,000 and more, it would only cover about eight and a half days of his bloated spending. We don’t have a revenue problem in this country — we have a spending problem,” stated Westmoreland.
