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The
Green Party of New Jersey GREEN PLAN TO AID THE ECONOMY |
| For Immediate Release: Monday, January 13, 2003 Contact: Joe Fortunato, Green Party of New Jersey State Chair, 973-744-5958, josephfortunato@comcast.net Ted Glick, Green Party of New Jersey State Coordinator, 973-338-9214, glickforsenate2002@yahoo.com GREEN PARTY OF NEW JERSEY OFFERS ITS OWN PLAN TO AID THE ECONOMY WHILE DECRYING THE REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PROPOSALS The Green Party of New Jersey today submitted its own proposals to counter "the cynical farce" which is President Bush's economic plan and the countering Democratic plan "which is too little too late." Joe Fortunato, State Chairman, and Ted Glick, State Coordinator, made a joint statement reflecting GPNJ policies which form the basis for the platform of Green Party congressional candidates. The Green Party solution includes the payment of a near-living wage of $15 an hour, increasing unemployment benefits, greatly raising income taxes for the very wealthy while cutting taxes for the poor and middle class. While $15 an hour would provide minimal housing, food, transportation and health care for a single person, it is not quite adequate for a single parent with one child. Based on a calculation of a basic family budget for a family of 4 in New Jersey's capital city of Trenton, a living wage would be $19.42 an hour. It is important to note that a basic family budget comprises only the amounts a family needs to spend to feed, shelter, and clothe itself, get to work and school, and subsist in 21st century America. It includes no savings, no restaurant meals, no funds for emergencies--not even renters' insurance to protect against fire, flood or theft. Sharp cuts in the defense budget and closing of tax loopholes and other handouts to corporations and the super-rich could fund quality lifetime education which would put more people to work and would also allow workers to retrain to meet new job opportunities, said Fortunato and Glick. In addition, reductions in defense spending could fund research in sustainable energy technologies, as well as loan and grant programs for businesses providing or investing these technologies, creating job opportunities in a major new industry with a worldwide market. They joined with other critics in pointing out that Bush's proposal to eliminate taxes on dividends is a handout for the wealthy. Another feature – the additional tax rebates of an additional $400-per-child – "is a relative pittance that would do little to stimulate a decayed economy," they said. Other features including marriage penalty reductions, alternative minimum taxes, small business write-offs and funding for job training and other unemployment benefits are minuscule compared to the benefits the Bush plan offers to the wealthy, they continued. The Bush plan would provide $89,000 to the average taxpayer making more than $1 million but only $500 to the average taxpayer earning $40-50,000, they said. A counter proposal, offered by House Democrats, offers $136 billion in short term aid, including aid to the states and the jobless and rebates to all, but the effort is "a crazy-quilt of feel-good Band-Aids that will have no substantive effect on the gaping wounds of our abused economy," they said. "The Bush plan is a cynical farce and the Democratic plan is too little too late," they said and added: "The scores - possibly hundreds - of billions to be spent in an Iraqi war could be better used to bolster the economy. The elimination of a dividend tax would cost $364 billion in revenues over ten years. That money could be used for schools, hospitals, medical research, better medical care, housing and other benefits for all Americans." They also noted that the plan to eliminate dividend taxes would cost New Jersey municipalities millions yearly as tax-free municipal bonds compete with the stock market for investment dollars. In the longer term, the resulting federal deficit will also contribute to upward pressure on interest rates. For more information: Green Party of New Jersey |
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