Statement by Kerri Houston, Vice President of Policy for Frontiers of Freedom
National Tax Day Press Conference, National Press Club, Washington, DC

“When you work in public policy in Washington, you spend a lot of time with economists and tax policy analysts who throw a lot of raw numbers at you. If you are like me and can’t count past 10 without taking off your shoes, it is sometimes hard to understand what all this data means to regular people – i.e. not economists or tax policy analysts.

But it is easy to calculate the value to America today after three straight years of tax relief for all Americans.
Let me say that again for John Kerry who seems to have missed the point – ALL Americans - old, young, single, married, high income, middle income, low income, with rug rats and without, have more money in their wallets today as a direct result of the Administration’s tax cuts.

Tax policy is not some esoteric inside-the-beltway thing that only affects people who work in the White House or on Capitol Hill. One often hears the economy discussed in terms of “Real GDP,” or “Gross Domestic Product,” but I prefer to think about tax policy in terms of “Real RDP” - “Real Domestic Purchases.” Or as comedian George Carlin would say – stuff.

For example, although people may think that President Bush gave America’s senior citizens a prescription drug benefit in the Medicare Bill he recently signed, he’s really given them one every year for three years. According to the most recent figures from the Department of Health and Human Services, senior citizens with no drug coverage pay about $900 a year for their medicines.

The President gave 14 million senior citizens an average of $1,880 more money in 2003. He calls that tax relief; I call it two years of prescription drug coverage.

Forty-three million families with children will add an additional $2,090 to the family coffer. Last year a family of four earning $40,000 per year received an extra $1,933 in their family budget because of tax cuts. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, the average cost of a pair of sneakers is $38.88. (I swear someone there really calculates this!) That means that tax relief for this family would allow them to buy 49.71 pairs of new sneakers; or $241.61 cents per foot.

8 million single women raising children received an extra $360 or so. Perhaps that made Christmas a little nicer for the kids last year. Or just easier for Mom to pay some bills.

There is no degree of separation between tax policy and regular people. These are significant numbers that make significant differences for Americans and allow them to purchase significantly more stuff. When you take the time to count the cash, three years of tax cuts have really helped American families.

President Bush has asked Congress to make these tax cuts permanent. They need to get on with it. America still needs to buy more stuff.”