My Words are Flat and Harsh

U.S. Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) offered an amendment to the emergency supplemental bill that would help fund the war in Iraq by cutting off the enormous and irresponsible tax breaks for the richest one percent of Americans.

Watch the political video of Senator Biden as he explains how we can work to get a politcal solution to end the cycle of violence in Iraq. Joe Biden on Iraq war.

According to Biden, the first five years of the Administration’s latest cuts, set to begin this year, will cost the U.S. Government $27 billion and will grow to more than $150 billion over the next ten years. Additionally, these breaks apply only to those with the highest incomes; over 97 percent of the billions in tax breaks will go to the wealthiest one percent of Americans.

“The President’s record of tax cuts during a time of war is a record of utter disregard for our nation’s financial future,” said Biden. “It is a record of indifference to the price our children and grandchildren will pay to redeem our debt when it comes due. It is time for us to call a halt to this irresponsibility. It is time for us to pay for the choices we make. It is time to pay our bills.

“Last year alone, millionaires collected an average tax cut of $103,000 from the breaks enacted since 2001. With the new breaks set to begin this year, more than 99 percent of Americans will get nothing, zero, zip, zilch -- it will all go to the top one percent. This is the cherry on top of the whipped cream for the most blessed among us.

“My amendment says: No more of these giveaways until we can pay our bills, meet our responsibilities, face up to our own duties. If we miss the chance to take this small step back toward fiscal sanity, if we mock the sacrifice of our troops with gold-plated giveaways to those from whom nothing is asked and to whom so much has already been given, shame on us.”