Sen. Chuck Grassley said Friday that he has both good news and bad news for Iowa taxpayers.
"The good news is that today is Tax Freedom Day for Iowans," Grassley said. "The bad news is that Iowans needed to work 117 days for the government this year before they began working for themselves."
According to the non-partisan Tax Foundation, Iowans – on average – will need to work from January 1 to April 27 to fulfill their obligations to state, local and federal treasuries.
Grassley said that Iowans fare better than the nation when considered as a whole. American taxpayers won't celebrate Tax Freedom Day until May 3, which is two weeks later than it was less than 10 years ago.
"I lend a sympathetic ear to those who feel their paychecks are milked by Uncle Sam for far too long," Grassley said. "Taxpayers are bogged down by a bigger tax burden than ever before. American workers and their families should be allowed to decide how to save, spend and invest more of their own money."
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley will work for bipartisan consensus on the president's tax relief plan. Since February, he has conducted committee hearings on every aspect of the Bush proposal to establish the basis for an across-the-board tax cut for individual tax payers. Almost all of the current and future tax surplus in Washington is the result of the tax increase advanced by President Clinton in 1993. Today, individual income tax collectors are at the highest level ever in U.S. history.
"In a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity, the federal government shouldn't be taking such a large chunk of working families' income," Grassley said. In 2000, the individual income taxes collected by the federal government were 10.2 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Yet, at the height of World War II, the federal taxes collected from individuals were only 9.4 percent of the GDP.
"It's time for Uncle Sam to tap the brakes and let workers, not the government, become the main beneficiaries of rising incomes," Grassley said. "I'm hopeful Washington can trim its tax and spending appetite and shave a few days off Tax Freedom Day 2002."