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PRESS RELEASE
You can tell a lot about a man’s priorities by watching his actions. Last week Randy Neugebauer showed that his priorities are to protect the interests of the wealthy donors who finance Republican campaigns, rather than the interests of the citizens of the 19th District.
The U.S. House of Representatives is going to meet only about 95 days this year. With all the problems our nation faces, last week the House spent some of that precious time rekindling the fight over the estate tax. The estate tax is essentially an inheritance tax imposed on people who inherit large amounts of wealth. Very few people ever have to worry about the estate tax – those that do can count themselves among the luckiest people in the world. For example, in 2004, only 30,276 estates were subject to the tax. In other words, the estate tax is a concern for less than one-half of one percent of American families.
This is hardly a pressing national problem. The tax raises substantial revenues for the federal government and affects only a relative handful of the wealthiest families in the world. Yet, Randy Neugebauer and the House Republicans voted last week on a “compromise” bill to essentially kill the estate tax. The Republican “compromise,” estimated to cost over $700 billion dollars over the coming decade, comes while our nation is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan and during a period of record deficits and a skyrocketing national debt.
This same estate tax bill was used to provide an estimated $900 million in tax breaks to the timber industry, a completely unnecessary tax give-away which has nothing to do with the estate tax, but reveals once again the utter disregard that Randy Neugebauer and the House Republicans hold for fiscal responsibility.
Just a few days ago my opponent voted against emergency appropriations for our fighting military men and women. Then he turns around and votes for a bill which gives $900 million in tax breaks to the timber industry, and another $760 billion to the wealthiest Americans. It’s too bad our children don’t make political contributions – maybe then our representatives would start to think about their interests.
The per capital income of District 19 is $16,111 and more than 71% of families earn less than $50,000 per year (source Census 2000). A bill to support only multi-millionaires is not a bill to support the people of District 19. Neugebauer claims to be fiscally conservative but just voted to drive this country more than three-quarters of a TRILLION dollars further into debt. This is just more evidence that we cannot trust Randy Neugebauer and the Republican Party with our money. We need sensible government.
Please help us bring the message of sensible government to the voters. Help us show that the power of individuals, joining together to work for change, can defeat the efforts of lobbyists and PACs to buy our government. Please contribute here to help us pay to spread our message. If you can make a commitment to stick with the campaign through November, a monthly contribution of even a small amount per month will go a long way toward buying television ads, radio announcements, yard signs, etc. I want to make monthly contributions.
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Finally, please forward this message to everyone you know who might be interested in sensible government.
Thank you,
Robert Ricketts
www.robertricketts.com
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