Terry Everett, April 23, 2003

America is facing challenges on a number of critical fronts from combating terrorists, and the rogue nations that support them, to reviving a sluggish national economy. Our military did not rout Saddam's forces in Iraq in just three weeks without a sound strategy. The same holds true for the battle to strengthen Americans' pocketbooks. The President's refined package of tax relief is aimed at creating more jobs and growing the economy.

Now that the major battles in Iraq are won, the national news media have already begun focusing attention on the President's next big task, jumpstarting the economy. As in Iraq, the political pundits are citing long odds against the President achieving his goals. While some in Congress are determined to thwart meaningful tax relief, they do so against the will of the American people. Recent polls have given the President a better than 70% approval rating and a clear majority favor his tax relief plan when they learn that it will create jobs and stimulate the economy.

If the President's economic growth plan is passed in full by Congress, it would help generate 510,000 new jobs by year's end and 1.4 million total new jobs by the close of 2004. The positive effects would not escape many taxpayers either. On average, 92 million Americans would receive a tax cut of $1,083 in 2003. Another 26 million taxpayers would get an average tax cut of $704 this year if we lift the unfair double taxation of dividends. Incidently, a recent New Models/The Winston Group poll notes that 77 percent of Americans favor eliminating this burdensome tax. America's seniors, who receive half of all dividend income and depend upon it for their retirement, would especially benefit.

Needless to say, Washington liberals would rather see this money spent on D.C. bureaucrats who they argue surely need it more than you do. They charge that America cannot possibly meet our national security needs and also enact further tax relief. It not only can be done, but has already been done successfully. In the 1960's, President Kennedy proposed across-the-board tax cuts even as America fought the Cold War. These tax cuts helped sustain an economic expansion despite the impact of the Vietnam War and greater domestic spending.

The President's tax relief and economic growth program has been criticized by many liberals as going too far, yet most of the tax cuts are already underway, having been approved in 2001. Unfortunately, they expire by 2010. The President wants to make them permanent; so do I.

Even though real tax relief has only been law for a few years the impact is already being felt. Last week, The Tax Foundation, a taxpayer watchdog group in Washington, D.C., released its annual "Tax Freedom Day" calculation. It determined that Americans are no longer working more days each year just to pay off their share of taxes. For the last two years in a row Tax Freedom Day remained at April 19th, which is the earliest such day since 1992. Specifically for Alabamians, Tax Freedom Day occurred on April 6th this year.

Regrettably, there are many members of the Democrat leadership who seek to sabotage any effort by the President to improve the economy in the mistaken belief that the American people will not see through this. Sadly, class warfare is alive and well among the Democrat leaders and presidential hopefuls.

This year, Congress will have its chance to vote on the President's job creation and economic growth plan. Everyone from seniors, to married couples, to parents, to small business owners, to millions of working Americans have a stake in its passage. America cannot afford to wait any longer for permanent tax relief.

Congressman Terry Everett represents the 2nd Congressional District of Alabama in the U.S. House of Representatives.