"Some billion-dollar corporations pay no income taxes at all."
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) was responding to
a letter he
received earlier this week from Republican members of the budget committee, who
criticized the chair for dedicating "significant time and attention to
climate issues" while purportedly neglecting "the impending budgetary
and fiscal crisis facing our nation."
In a written reply,
Whitehouse noted that "if not for the Bush tax cuts, their extensions, and
then the Trump tax cuts, the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio would be declining indefinitely."
The Bush administration's decision to launch the
so-called "war on terror"—which received bipartisan support in
Congress—also cost the U.S. upwards of $8 trillion, Brown University's
Costs of War project has estimated.
Whitehouse described Republicans' proposed solutions,
such as their balanced budget plan,
as "magical thinking," pointing to the Congressional Budget
Office's recent conclusion that the GOP push to
balance the federal budget within the next decade would not be possible without
cuts to Social Security and Medicare—programs that are currently in the
right-wing party's crosshairs.
"That wild notion would zero out all other federal spending and still not completely eliminate the deficit," Whitehouse wrote, observing that the GOP balanced budget plan would require the elimination of Medicaid, federal nutrition assistance, and other critical programs.
Whitehouse also defended his decision to focus a
significant portion of the committee's work on climate, arguing that "the
next fiscal emergencies will be climate-related, and similarly disastrous for
the federal budget, with cascading economy-wide 'systemic risks.'"
The U.S. has faced at least 23 billion-dollar extreme
weather disasters this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee are currently
investigating the climate-induced insurance crisis.
"We presented testimony from leading bankers,
insurance CEOs, top corporate advisory firms, mortgage lenders, and scientists
about these risks; you responded mostly with mockery, climate denial, and
fringe witnesses on the fossil fuel payroll," Whitehouse wrote Thursday.
The Democratic senator's exchange with his GOP
counterparts came as Republicans and some Democrats are demanding a
"fiscal commission" to craft legislative changes to the nation's
trust fund programs, which the GOP has characterized as key contributors to the
national debt. (Social Security is not a driver of federal deficits.)
Critics warn the fiscal commission would be a Trojan
horse for Social Security and Medicare cuts.
Whitehouse and other congressional Democrats have proposed legislation that
would extend Social Security's solvency for more than 75 years by raising taxes
on the wealthy. Republicans, for their part, have called for raising the retirement age while
working to shield rich tax dodgers.
"As we all know, the tax system is corrupted by
special interests, and million-dollar earners can pay lower tax rates than
plumbers and firefighters," Whitehouse wrote Thursday. "Some
billion-dollar corporations pay no income taxes at all. When you are willing to
engage seriously with this problem, let me know. There is a revenue side to the
deficit problem, and we can correct injustices at the same time."