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Cynthia McKinney
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"I have accepted as the platform of the Power to the People Campaign, the 10-Point Draft Manifesto of the Reconstruction Movement...Among its many specific public policy planks, the Draft Manifesto calls for repealing the Bush tax cuts, and making corporations and the rich pay their fair share of taxes."
Adopted the Progressive Caucus' "American People's Dividend" that reads: "President Bush argues that upper income people pay a larger share of the taxes, therefore they should get a larger tax cut. We disagree. These people have significantly benefited from the economic boom of the 1990s, while those in the bottom range of incomes have received little benefit."
[McKinney] believes that tax relief must flow to those who need it the most, the working class and people with limited incomes. [She] received 100 percent approval rating from Citizens for Tax Justice, as a champion of progressive and fair taxation.
Chicago Tribune Issues Comparison
"If this Congress wants to truly balance the budget and satisfy the needs of working Americans, it should vote to pass the Congressional Black Caucus alternative budget."
[McKinney] believes that tax relief must flow to those who need it the most, the working class and people with limited incomes. [She] received 100 percent approval rating from Citizens for Tax Justice, as a champion of progressive and fair taxation.
Chicago Tribune Issues Comparison
Voted NO on the Death Tax Elimination Bill of 2001, which would gradually phaseout the estate and gift taxes over a 10-year period.
Voted YES on a bill that would reduce taxes for married couple by approximately $195 billion over 10 years by removing provisions that make taxes for married couples higher than those for two single people.
Voted NO to decreasing the number of people that will be required to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
Voted NO to reduce federal spending by $56.1 billion over five years by retaining a reduced tax rate on capital gains and dividends
Voted NO on a bill that would allow more individuals to receive immediate $300 refunds, and lower the capital gains tax rate from 20% to 18%.
“Agreeing with Ms. McKinney's proposals, Greens said that the White House and Congress must: Pay for the massive transfer of wealth without placing the greater burden on working people and the poor. Those who made huge profits from the financial policies that led to the meltdown should be expected to pay for the major portion of the bailout…. Stop appointing Treasury Secretaries, Federal Reserve board members, and other top financial policy-makers whose chief loyalties are to the major financial corporations from which they're recruited. Restructure semi-private and private institutions like the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac to be owned, run, and staffed strictly for the public interest…. Impose a moratorium on foreclosures now before increases in the adjustable rate mortgage interest increases take effect; eliminate all adjustable rate mortgages; renegotiate the latter as 30- or 40-year loans; establish new mortgage lending practices to end predatory and discriminatory practices. Promote an economy that's based on sustainability rather than on lending and borrowing beyond one's means…. Establish criteria and construction goals for affordable housing; massively increase funding for housing programs that assist tenants (e.g., Section 8, public housing) that have been slashed repeatedly since the Reagan Administration. Recognize shelter as a right according to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, to which the US is a signatory.”
"The crisis was staved off for a time for some of our major finance engines when they were able to obtain bridge funding from certain sovereign wealth funds. That option grows increasingly dim as The Federal Reserve is becoming the lender of last resort. This means that the people are becoming the owners of the primary instruments of U.S. capital and finance. This now means that the people have a say in how these instruments are to be used and what their priorities ought to be...While banks are failing all around us and the U.S. taxpayer is drenched with news of billion-dollar bailouts for "selected" companies, the Congress, which has utterly failed in its twin responsibilities of setting policy and Executive Branch oversight, plans to adjourn instead of setting new policies; lessening the impact of the economic freefall on innocent victims; or stopping war, expansion of war, new war, and occupation...And since the Congress plans to adjourn early and leave these problems to The Federal Reserve, The Federal Reserve should operate in the interests of the U.S. taxpayer and not the interests of the private, international bankers that it currently represents. This, of course means that The Federal Reserve, too, must undergo a fundamental ownership and mission change."
The collapse and bailout of financial institutions expose the lies behind deregulation and the free-market ideology; Greens insist that the burden of the $900 billion bailout not be placed on working Americans.
"Last week and this week, I've put out a 14-point plan that I think would address the financial crisis that our country is experiencing and immediately some things that congress could do to address the concerns of average ordinary citizens…The policy that I recommend is that we nationalize the Federal Reserve and establish a publicly owned banking system, so that the government is the issuer of our currency and that the debt that is incurred is to the American people."