President George W. Bush’s tax cut package, pushed through the Senate today with Vice President Richard Cheney’s tiebreaking vote, is a breathtaking rejection of America’s priorities and shameful embrace of tax-accounting gimmicks and giveaways to the very wealthy.

The tax cut's reported cost of $330 billion is a sham that misstates the true cost of the tax cut by as much as $550 billion. The sunsets Congress used to artificially restrict the amount of the tax cut is a sneaky move that punts to future lawmakers essential decisions about how to maintain vital government services while operating under the largest deficit in history.

But the worst gimmick about the $330 billion tax cut is it does not just cut taxes. To pay for the tax cuts, Congress had to approve budget cuts to health care, education and homeland security and borrow from Medicare and Social Security. For months, the public has urged Congress to strengthen the future of these priorities instead of committing needed resources to tax cuts for the rich.

This tax cut will do nothing to help the nation’s crippled economy. Since President Bush’s inauguration, the nation has lost more than 2 million jobs, the number of laid-off workers running out of jobless benefits is at its highest point in history and the states have been gripped by the worst fiscal crisis in 50 years, While the government as a whole is growing, the services working families rely on most are facing devastating cuts.

President Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress are calculating that tax cuts that benefit the wealthy will result in political victory. Sadly, working families across America are the losers.

Contact: Kathy Roeder (202) 637-5018