Issue Position: Expanding Economic Opportunity

Issue Position

"A vibrant, growing economy is at the heart of the American dream." - Nita Lowey

Nita Lowey is determined to provide all Americans with an opportunity to succeed. Nita has fought to create new, high-paying jobs and to spur private sector investment. She has consistently supported responsible tax cuts to help families raise children, afford college, or pay for medical expenses. And Nita has voted to reduce the federal budget deficit, so that we don't burden our children and grandchildren with debt.

Obtaining Tax Relief for Families & Investors

Nita Lowey has been a strong, consistent supporter of tax cuts for working and middle class families. Nita cosponsored legislation to provide millions of additional families with a child tax credit and also introduced legislation to eliminate the estate tax for 99.6% of estate holders. And Nita voted to reform the Alternative Minimum Tax, so that millions of taxpayers will not be hit unfairly by higher tax bills.

Helping Families Afford College Tuition

Education is the key to individual success and to the future of our national economy, but the high cost of tuition can be terrible burden for many students and their parents. Nita Lowey fought for a four-fold increase in the contribution limit to education IRAs and also supported legislation to allow tax-free withdrawals for pre-paid tuition accounts. And Nita fought to extend the Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning tax credits to help middle class families afford college tuition for their children.

Spurring Investment

Nita Lowey understands that investment in new and existing businesses is essential to job creation and a productive economy. She voted to provide businesses with $32 billion in tax incentives to encourage new capital investments. Nita cosponsored legislation to cut capital gains taxes for small business investments. And Nita supported the Community Renewal Act, which provided $26 billion in tax incentives to promote private investment in impoverished inner cities and rural areas.

Closing Unfair Tax Shelters

Companies that play by the rules shouldn't have to face unfair competition from those that establish phony overseas headquarters in order to escape their tax obligations in the United States. Abusive tax shelters of this kind have cost Americans billions of dollars, placing a strain on individual taxpayers and on responsible corporations. Nita has cosponsored legislation to end this practice and to prevent the government from doing business with companies that abuse tax loopholes.

Tax Fairness For Our Men and Women in Uniform

No group of citizens deserves tax relief more than our men and women in the Armed Forces. Nita Lowey was proud to vote for the Armed Forces Tax Fairness Act, which would provide military families with relief from capital gains taxes on home sales, offer a new exemption from the death gratuity, and provide a new tax deduction for the cost of service-related travel, meals, and lodging for members of the National Guard and Reserves.

Helping Working Families Escape Poverty

No full-time worker should live in poverty. That is why Nita Lowey is such a strong support of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC.) Nita is leading efforts to make it easier for eligible workers to qualify for the EITC by opposing burdensome new application requirements and by ensuring that tax forms are easily accessible for all Americans, including Spanish speakers.

Moving From Welfare to Work

Nita Lowey believes that welfare should be a way up, not a way of life. That is why she supported the landmark welfare reform law that established time limits for welfare benefits and encouraged transition from dependency to work. Nita voted to extend the Welfare to Work Tax Credit that provides businesses with powerful incentives to employ welfare recipients. And Nita supports extending the Work Opportunity Credit, which encourages the establishment of programs to train and recruit public assistance recipients for private sector employment.

Cracking Down on Corporate Fraud & Abuse

With more Americans than ever before invested in the stock market, corporate leaders have a responsibility to uphold the highest ethical standards. Nita Lowey supported new laws to hold executives accountable for defrauding investors, destroying documents, or mismanaging company pension funds. And Nita believes we must do more to strengthen oversight by the accounting industry and by federal regulators such as the Security and Exchange Commission.

Reducing The Federal Deficit

Nita Lowey understands that government must live within its means, and that reducing the federal budget deficit contributes to long-term economic growth. Nita also knows that the federal debt will be a burden on our children and a threat to the stability of programs like Social Security and Medicare. That is why Nita was a strong supporter of the economic policies that produced record budget surpluses in the 1990s and why she opposed the irresponsible budgets of recent years that added hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal government's annual deficit.

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