Ten Years Later: $1.35 TRILLION in lost revenue to the Bush Tax Cuts

Ten Years Later and We Lost WHAT?!?

On June 7, 2011 President George  W. Bush signed a bill cutting taxes by $1.35 trillion over ten years. This would be the first of several tax cuts that Bush would sign, which would end up costing a total of two and a half trillion dollars over a decade. 

Here in Rhode Island our legislators pushed through similar tax breaks for the wealthy. The alternative flat tax cost the state over $100 million in lost revenue, and last year's tax personal income tax gave our state's top earners a 4.1% tax break. 

Proponents of these tax cuts, including the Chamber of Commerce and some of our elected officials, promised that the wealthy would create jobs with their tax breaks, but the numbers tell a different story. Rhode Island’s official unemployment rate in June 2001 was 4.4 percent. Today the seasonally adjusted rate has more than doubled to 10.9 percent. 

But it doesn't have to be this way. By setting our priorities straight, we can raise the revenue we need to invest in education for our children and avoid devestating cuts to health care for seniors, children and people with disabilities.

We must close corporate tax loopholes by passing combined reporting, push back attempts to gut our corporate tax rate, and require our state's top earners to give back 1% of their irresponsible tax breaks!

Contact your legislators and let them know that 10 years of tax giveaways is too long!