New Jersey Democrats Decry Republican Assault on the Working Poor

August 07, 2012

New Jersey Democrats Decry Republican Assault on the Working Poor

(Trenton)- Last month, Governor Chris Christie used his line item veto to eliminate an increase to the earned income tax credit from the budget passed by Democrats in the Legislature, refusing to provide the working poor with tax relief unless the wealthiest New Jerseyans got a tax cut as well.  Last week, the Tax Policy Center scored Mitt Romney’s ludicrous tax proposals and determined that Romney would have to reduce or eliminate 65% of itemized deductions like the earned income tax credit in order to provide a 20% tax cut for corporations and the very wealthy.  In Congress last week, House Republicans passed legislation to extend the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, paid for by reducing the earned income tax credit.   Assemblyman John Wisniewski, Chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, and Congressman Bill Pascrell held a press call to discuss the Republican assault on the working poor:

Assemblyman John Wisniewski: “The earned income tax credit is the most significant anti-poverty program this country has and Mitt Romney wants to reduce it so that people like him can get $5 trillion in additional tax breaks.  Governor Christie’s line item veto was cruel and unreasonable.  His decision reduced children living in poverty to a bargaining chip in his quest to hand the wealthy a tax cut New Jersey can’t afford right now.  Income inequality in this country is at an all-time high.  Mitt Romney and Chris Christie are fighting to give the small percentage of very wealthy Americans more and asking the working poor to make do with even less.”

Congressman Bill Pascrell: "The Earned Income Tax Credit helps millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of New Jersey's working poor purchase food, buy school supplies and pay the rent. Incredibly, Mitt Romney and Republicans in Congress want to gut this critical program in order to pay for billions of dollars in tax cuts for the extraordinarily wealthy.  We are living with the remnants of the last experiment in trickledown economics: a $5 trillion surplus turned into $10 trillion in debt, and 4.2% unemployment to losing 750,000 jobs a month.  Mitt Romney and his supporters in Congress just don't understand that asking the working poor and middle class to pay more so the very wealthy can pay less in taxes is bad economics and morally wrong."

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