At a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Wednesday, witnesses for corporate interests called for balancing the federal budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor while giving more and more tax breaks to the rich and large corporations.  Sen. Bernie Sanders, the panel’s ranking member, questioned the proposals he said would take from the poor and give to the rich.

Sanders questioned former Gov. John Engler, the head of the Business Roundtable, which represents the CEOs of many of some of the nation’s largest corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. “While these people tell us that we should cut Social Security for a senior in Vermont who doesn’t have the funds to heat her home or pay for her medicine, a study from the Institute for Policy Studies tells us that the CEOs of these major corporations in the Business Roundtable can expect a monthly retirement check of about $88,576.  In other words, people who are extremely wealthy are telling us to cut Social Security benefits for some of the most vulnerable people in America.  That’s advice that this senator will not accept,” said Sanders.

Senate and House Republicans are set to lay out their budget plans next week. Based on last year’s House-passed budget, Sanders said he expects Republicans to propose huge tax breaks for the wealthy and more cuts for health care, nutrition, education, heating assistance, food stamps, Meals on Wheels and affordable housing. “They also want to cut Social Security benefits for elderly seniors in Vermont and throughout the country struggling to survive on $14,000 or $15,000 a year or less, and to cut back on benefits for disabled veterans.  That is wrong, that is terribly wrong,” Sanders said.

Republicans in Congress who pay lip service to deficit and debt reduction ignore the fact that major, profitable corporations pay virtually no federal income taxes  in the United States.  General Electric, Verizon, and Boeing, for example, have exploited loopholes to evade taxes, according to Sanders.  He also said $100 billion a year in taxes are avoided by American companies and wealthy individuals stashing their profits in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and other tax havens.  “The situation has become so absurd that one five-story office building in the Cayman Islands is the ‘home’ of more than 18,000 corporations.  Maybe if we are serious about deficit reduction, rather than cutting Medicare or Social Security, we might want to examine that reality,” Sanders said.

Sanders said the best way to lower deficits is to create a full-employment economy with jobs that pay good wages.  “When people work and when people have jobs they pay taxes.  When people have jobs that pay them a livable wage they no longer need a variety of government programs. In fact, just think back to the last time we eliminated the deficit.  From 1998-2001, the budget was in surplus. It was because we had a full-employment economy.  Back then, wages were rising, consumers were spending, and businesses were scrambling to hire enough workers to keep up with demand.  Today, with real unemployment at about 11 percent, it is clear to me that if we are serious about not only addressing the declining middle class but also the deficit and debt, it is imperative that this Congress pass a massive federal jobs program putting millions of people back to work.  And, I think the fastest way to do that is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure – roads, bridges, water systems, airports, dams, levees, and expand broadband.”