John,

Due to Republican intransigence, Congress is poised to pass yet another short-term, stopgap spending bill to keep the government running. While this will thankfully avoid a government shutdown, it is no way to govern.

For over a year, Congress has renewed Trump-era spending levels, locking in flat funding for critical programs including housing, nutrition, and education. In fact, according to our allies at the Coalition on Human Needs:

“A review of more than 190 programs of particular importance to people with low and moderate incomes finds that 130 programs―or two-thirds%―lost ground in 2021 compared with 2010 with one-third of those programs receiving cuts of 20% or more, when taking inflation into account.”

Thankfully, President Biden’s 2022 budget proposal, and appropriations bills passed by the U.S. House, reflect needed increases over Trump-era spending.

Write to your members of Congress right now and demand they pass a 2022 spending bill that reflects the needs of low-income and working people. Another year of Trump-era spending levels is unacceptable.

On K-12 education for low-income communities, President Biden’s proposal more than doubles Trump-era spending levels, increasing from less than $17 billion to $36.5 billion.

Health and Human Services Department nutrition spending for the elderly is worth about $50 million less now than it was in 2010. President Biden’s proposed budget would restore those losses and increase funding more than $360 million beyond inflation-adjusted fiscal year 2010 levels. That’s important because last month 2.6 million people over age 65 said their households didn’t always have enough to eat in the previous 7 days.

Let’s put these modest proposed amounts of spending for children, seniors and working families in perspective based on Americans for Tax Fairness research:

• Last year Elon Musk (Tesla) got $118 billion richer―six times more than Biden’s proposed increase in education spending that would benefit millions of kids.[1]

• Larry Page (Alphabet/Google) and Mark Zuckerberg (Meta/Facebook) got $47 billion and $20 billion richer, respectively―how many more billions does a billionaire really need to live on?

• America’s top 10 billionaires got a total of $1 billion richer EACH DAY over the last 22 months of the pandemic.[2]

Yet, the richest 400 billionaires are paying an effective federal income tax rate of about 8%, according to a White House analysis![3] That's lower than most teachers, nurses, truck drivers, plumbers—and political activists like me—pay.  

Meanwhile, as housing costs increase, funding for housing programs for the elderly and people with disabilities has declined by 15% and 38%, respectively, since 2010. Biden’s budget would increase this critical funding to address soaring costs.

Write to your members of Congress today and tell them to pass a 2022 spending bill immediately that reflects the needs of low-income and working people.

More than a year into Joe Biden’s presidency, and at a time of rising out-of-pocket costs for individuals and families, Congress’ inaction is hurting those most in need.

Thank you,

Frank Clemente
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

[1] “America’s Billionaires Got $1 Trillion Richer Last Year,” Americans for Tax Fairness, Jan. 4, 2022

[2] “Top 10 American Billionaires Get $1 Billion Richer Every Day,” Americans for Tax Fairness, Jan. 19, 2022