House Republicans are Stealing Your Kids’ Piggy Bank and Giving it to the Kochs, the Mercers and the Trumps

House Republicans unveiled their Tax Cuts and Jobs Act last week and it is actually worse than we feared. There are so many different reasons to oppose this bill that we are just going to list some of the more objectionable provisions and let you pick out the ones that personally affect you. Look it over, pick three or four and call your Representatives and tell them to vote NO!

Equally important, we say: NO TAX CUTS UNTIL PRESIDENT TRUMP RELEASES HIS TAX RETURNS! American citizens deserve to know how the President would win or lose under this law.

Whose taxes get cut?

  1. Billionaires, heirs and real estate developers get massive tax cuts. Based on what we know about his taxes, the Trump family stands to gain as much as $1 Billion.
  2. Corporate taxes get cut dramatically. Not just on the basic rate which is cut almost in half, but over and over again in policy after policy.
  3. Do you get a tax cut? Maybe. A small one, perhaps, but only for a few years. After that you’ll probably get a tax increase. Even Speaker Paul Ryan’s “typical family of four” only gets a tax cut in the first 5 years; after that they pay more.

Who pays more in taxes?

  1. Our children and our grandchildren will pay for this giant giveaway to the rich since it adds $1.5 TRILLION to the national debt. Middle income families will pay more to service the national debt than they will save on their tax bill.
  2. Any family between $20,000 and $40,000 will pay increased taxes.
  3. Scholarship and graduate students will pay taxes on tuition waivers and some scholarships. Interest on student loans will no longer be deductible. This will harm low and moderate income students making higher education more expensive for countless young adults.
  4. People who exceed 10% of their income in medical expenses will no longer be able to deduct these expenses. This includes the very sick, the chronically ill and those getting long term care, including seniors, and the disabled.
  5. Most people who itemize deductions and live in a state with income tax or high property taxes will pay more.

What “tax reforms” in the bill are just old fashioned bribes?

  1. In order to get the vote of independent-minded Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. In exchange for a mere $37.5 million over ten years, Republicans will destroy a nearly pristine wilderness. The revenue is minuscule; the damage is incalculable.
  2. Deep in the bill is the repeal of the so-called “Johnson Amendment”—a 50-year-old policy that requires churches and other houses of worship to refrain from partisan politics from the pulpit to remain tax exempt. This is a trade-off for hard-right conservatives upset by the blatant budgetary irresponsibility with a gift to the Religious Right.

What is not being done in this phony “tax reform”?

All these new taxes will raise upwards of $2 TRILLION in new government revenues in addition to the $1.5 TRILLION of new debt. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, these revenues go to corporations and the very wealthy. Instead, that money should:

  1. Go toward infrastructure overhaul to improve roads, bridges, airports, railroads, and internet service.
  2. Be used to help eliminate excessive student loan debt and pay for the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
  3. Restore and protect our national parks that 331 million people visit yearly.

Call To Action

Call ALL your members of Congress and urge them to:

  1. Require President Trump to release his own tax returns before ANY tax legislation is considered. There can be no compromise on this!
  2. Stand firm in resisting those parts of the proposed tax reform legislation that hurt the environment, young people, the middle class and the sick or elderly.
  3. Insist that legislation of this magnitude be considered under “regular order,” not in the span of several weeks with little or no input from Democrats. Tell them to do their jobs as legislators: to hold hearings, consider the viewpoints of those who might disagree and come to meaningful compromise that benefits everyone.