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Progressive Caucus Vice Chair Congresswoman Barbara Lee joined her caucus colleagues in unveiling a10-year, $900 billion tax cut that benefits all Americans equally.  

The “American People’s Dividend,” presented by the Progressive Caucus, proposes a $300 tax credit for every man, woman and child in America.  

The Progressive Caucus plan is part of a larger budget framework that will protect Social Security and Medicare, pay down the federal debt, provide tax credits, and vastly increase spending on education, health care, housing, alternative energy, and veterans programs. 

"It is evident that President Bush’s Plan will help the very rich far more than others," said Lee. "President Bush’s Tax Plan leaves out childless couples, senior citizens, stay-at-home mothers and the very poor." 

Economists agree that Bush’s tax cut plan will cost somewhere between $2.0 and $2.7 trillion rather than the $1.6 trillion claimed.  

The Bush Tax Plan uses almost the entire projected budget surplus for tax cuts, 43 percent of which go to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, while giving little to nothing to those in the lowest tax brackets. Under the Bush plan, a low-income family of four making less than $13,000 per year would receive less than $100 in tax credit. 

Under the American People’s Dividend, the same family would receive $300 hundred per person, amounting to $1,200 – a difference of $1,100. 

“President Bush’s Tax Plan is ‘Reaganomics’ revisited,” Lee said.  

“We learned during the 1980s that a huge tax cut for the wealthy, particularly when combined with a significant increase in military funding, leads to growing deficits and economic instability for the poorest Americans.”  

“‘Trickle Down Economics’ did not work then, and will not work as currently proposed by President Bush.  

“ Our tax plan will stimulate the economy, while protecting Social Security and Medicare, funding federal programs, and leaving enough money to pay off the long term national debt,” she said.  

“With the skyrocketing costs of housing, medicine, college education, and other important and necessary items, we must act now to benefit people who need this tax credit to enhance the quality of their lives,”Lee said.