Resolution - In Support of Hardworking Americans

WHEREAS, this global recession has spread economic stress across all income levels, with lower and middle-income Americans especially hard hit; and
 
WHEREAS, a frugal lifestyle and stretching the daily living expenses is a necessity for hardworking lower and middle income Americans; and
 
WHEREAS, governments should address budget shortfalls with a prudent combination of budget reductions and fair and broad-based revenue generators, not discriminatory taxes on food and/or non-alcoholic beverages; and
 
WHEREAS, the food and beverage tax burden on the lowest earning fifth of the population is already six times greater than the food and beverage tax burden on the highest earning fifth (US Department of Labor Consumer Expenditure Surveys 2007); and
 
WHEREAS, it is vital that public policy makers help hardworking Americans retain their tenuous hold on financial security by shielding them from even more burdensome new food and/or beverage taxes; and
 
WHEREAS, food and beverage expenditures represent a significantly higher share of household spending for these lower and middle-income Americans, rendering any proposed food and beverage taxes extremely regressive

 

Approved this 18th day of July 2009.

Rosa Rosales
LULAC National President