Key Vote NO on Replacing the Sequester with Higher Taxes

Dear FreedomWorks member,

As one of our millions of FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your U.S. Senators and urge them to vote NO on the “American Family Economic Protection Act”, S. 388. This bill would replace much of the decreased spending of sequestration with tax increases on the highest income earners, while also exempting favored programs from any cuts.

There is simply no reason why the supposed sequester “cuts” should be offset or delayed at all.  The scheduled sequestration only trims 2.4 percent from overall federal outlays, which is less than the current yearly growth in spending. This means that under the supposedly “draconian” sequester, federal spending will still increase every year.  If anything, the sequester could be targeted more precisely to realize something more like real cuts in specific, wasteful programs, but the House passed such a reform last year and the Senate refused to even consider their proposal.

Furthermore, the Democrats’ continued attempts to pass the government’s excess spending off onto the rich through higher taxes make no economic sense.  The United States’ wealthiest income earners already pay over 70 percent of all income taxes, and history shows that further raising their rates will merely lead the wealthy to move their money into unproductive areas of the economy in order to avoid the crushing burden of taxation.  Instead Senate Democrats should be focusing their efforts on passing a budget (which they have failed to do for over 1,400 days) in order to address the historic overspending that has existed over the past five years.

Beyond just the tax increases, this bill also exempts all of the Department of Agriculture’s autopilot spending from sequestration and extends many favored agricultural programs. The USDA is rife with wasteful spending and corporate welfare, and its many entitlement programs should be prime candidates for major cuts rather than being exempted entirely.

The Senate and the President need to acknowledge that the federal government has a massive spending problem, and that economic growth and actual spending reforms, not increased taxes, are the way to a sustainable fiscal future.  

I urge you to call your U.S. Senators and ask them to vote NO on the “American Family Economic Protection Act”, S. 388. We may count the vote on this amendment as a KEY VOTE when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2013. The Economic Freedom Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of Congress with voting records that support economic freedom.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe

President and CEO

FreedomWorks