Bill would also raise taxes on U.S. businesses that operate overseas, and helps public teachers unions raise another $40 million to donate to Democrats.
August 4th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today condemned the Senate for voting to proceed to “legislation that promises to spend $26.1 billion to balance bankrupt state budgets like New York and California, and eliminate the foreign income tax credit that helps U.S. businesses to compete abroad and bring capital back home.”
The bill included $16.1 billion for state Medicaid spending, and $10 billion for public teachers funding, which Wilson said will help fund political spending by public teachers unions with “a minimum $40 million.”
“Harry Reid’s Senate today voted to increase unemployment and reduce future capital investment into the U.S. to pay teachers union bosses in a few key states,” Wilson said, noting that the bill will limit the use of the Section 956 foreign income tax credits for profits generated overseas, “money which now will simply not be repatriated into the economy.”
The cloture vote on the legislation was 61 to 38, with Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe joining all 59 Senate Democrats.
“The American people will be harangued over the next few weeks about what a wonderful thing the Senate has done when, in reality, we have drastically increased the burden on American workers, taxpayers, and businesses,” Wilson added.
“Out of the estimated 3.3 million public school teachers nationwide, teachers unions were expecting 160,000 layoffs this year — just 4.8 percent of all teachers. 38.1 percent of those layoffs are centered in just three states: 9,000 in New Jersey, 16,000 in New York and 36,000 in California,” Wilson noted.
“If you take those 160,000 teachers, and assumed only half are unionized — which is very conservative — with contributions to state and local unions averaging $300 per teacher, and another $162 per teacher to the National Education Association or $190 per teacher to the American Federation of Teachers, and the Senate just voted to give $40 million to the public teachers unions’ political coffers, which will be mobilized into campaign ads, direct mail, phone banks, you name it, all to elect Democrats,” Wilson concluded.
Attachments:
“The Reverse Smoot-Hawley Act,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, August 4th, 2010.
“Special Research Report from Americans for Limited Government on the Report, ‘Unfair Advantage,’” Americans for Limited Government, August 2010.
“Radical Left-Wing Non-Profits Aligned with Sen. Levin Falsely Posture as Small Business Advocates,” by Kevin Mooney, August 3rd, 2010.
“The Return of the States Bailout,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, August 2nd, 2010.
Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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