DE GOP Poverty (?) Plan [Updated w/ link]
When I first heard about the DEGOP Senate’s poverty plan, I had to let it sink in a bit. I figured it was a plan for further increasing poverty, like all of their plans – only just a little more honest this time. Turns out….I was right. More of the same, tax cuts, private school vouchers for Tower Hill parents, etc. I’ll let John Daniello take it from here.
“While I’m glad that Senate Republicans have decided Delaware’s economic growth ought to include the very people their policies have left behind for generations, the sad fact is that their plan offers little in the way of solutions that would do anything to help the working poor,” he said.
“While Democrats have been proud to support efforts to reduce the tax burden on those living near or beneath the poverty line, the Republican plan of replacing proven safety net programs with a litany of tax credits for wealthy benefactors and corporations simply doesn’t add up.”
I guess Dave Burris is in there trying to shake things up a little with something that sounds like actual governing, but is really just warmed over trickle down.
Here is what the “plan” is missing:
1. Job creation incentives
2. Creating jobs that pay enough to support the employee and family
3. A minimum wage that makes number two possible
4. Creation and support for a public transportation system below the canal so that employees can get to and from their places of employment
How much of the Republican plan do you think the DelDems will adopt to appear bipartisan?
Mitch has a great list — this is also missing:
>> a real commitment to a world-class education for *all* Delaware kids so that they’ve got a better pathway to the kind of employment that might lift them out of poverty
>> an effective program that will help retrain folks left behind by plant closings and movement out of the state
The Earned Income Tax idea is already being sponsored by Paul Baumbach.
Offering tax incentives to the working poor just shows how out of touch the Republican party is.
Rep. John Kowalko
The morally challenged Republicans who release these headline-seeking, hypocritical plans with the regularity of a bowel movement to attract press attention and obscure from the public their total lack of solutions would be humorous if not so seriously damaging to people. It’s tragically ironic that the Republicans are interested in mending poverty gaps while continuing to lead the charge against raising the minimum wage that keeps people in the throes of poverty.
Rep. John Kowalko
A refundable EITC is nothing to sneeze at. But Republicans of course will insist it be “paid for” by cuts to services needed by those very EITC recipients.
Actually the “refundable” EITC is Rep. Paul Baumbach’s (Dem. 23rd) creation and bill.
Rep. John Kowalko
@John Kowalko–yes that was Paul’s bill–but even last year every single Representative and Senator I spoke to when arguing for that bill said, “We have to find a way to pay for it; we can’t just let these people stop paying taxes.”
Viewed in the context of supporting (1) lowering corporate income taxes; (2) raising taxes on seniors; (3) removing deductions/itemization to raise taxes on the middle class–all of which is the current “bi-partisan” stance, and viewed in the context that we already have projections sayings corporate tax returns will go flat and then down over the next several years …
… we have very little chance of seeing a refundable EITC without mandated cuts in services … and everybody in Leg Hall knows it.
the problem I have is not with the “poverty plan” which is nothing but a rehash of Republican illusions but the fact that Democrats do not have a visible plan with which to hold serve. In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king and to many voters the R’s will be judged king. It is not enough to belittle but rather Dems must challenge this view of poverty and present a better set of solutions– starting with raising the minimum wage!
Burris is the best thing to hit the GOP caucus in years. He cares about the future of the state. I stand with Dave!
“He cares about the future of the state.”
I bet he loves puppies and apple pie, too.