Hare: Tax Day a Reminder of the Urgent Need to Reinvest in the Needs of America's Working Families
As millions of Americans file their taxes today, Congressman Phil Hare (D-IL) released the following statement on the need to redirect taxpayers' money from the war in Iraq into critical domestic priorities.
"Our economy is in recession. We lost 80,000 jobs in March, the third consecutive month of rising unemployment.
"Since President Bush took office, the prices of health care and gasoline have doubled. College tuition has skyrocketed. Yet, the household median income has shrunk.
"Today, as taxpayers prepare to send more of their hard earned money to the federal government, many Americans are rightly concerned that the war in Iraq is robbing us of the ability to address these critical domestic challenges.
"In fact, a Washington Post-ABC News poll just released shows 70 percent of Americans disapprove of the President's handling of our economy.
"According to the National Priorities Project, 17th District taxpayers have already spent $1.1 billion in Iraq. For the same amount of money, we could provide 455,580 people with health care, build 7,908 affordable housing units, and give scholarships to 110,364 college students.
"For what we spend in just one hour in Iraq, we could make the upgrades necessary to bring Amtrak back to the Quad Cities.
"Tax day is a reminder that we need to redeploy our troops from Iraq so we can start reinvesting in our own important priorities."