Tax

I support tax reform that helps individuals, working families, and communities, not corporations, the wealthy, and well-connected.  While I am in favor of tax reform, I opposed the Republican tax plan.  This plan claims to benefit the middle-class yet it suspends deductions for interest on home loans (which directly hinders current and future middle-class American homeowners).  Additionally, it effectively repeals the individual mandate, an important feature of the Affordable Care Act that helped millions of Americans obtain affordable health insurance.  Furthermore, the tax law offers only temporary increases to the child tax credit while creating permanent tax advantages for the wealthy.

While the tax law hurts many average Americans, it provides several tax benefits for the wealthiest Americans and corporations.  For example, it doubles the tax exemption from $5 million to $10 million and reduces the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%.  In addition, the tax law repeals the estate tax which is designed to provide tax relief to only the nation’s wealthiest 7,500 families, which make up less than one percent of Americans.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimate that this tax law will reduce revenue by over $1.6 billion and increase the deficit by over $1.5 billion over the next ten years.  At a time when more than six million minimum-wage American workers have not seen their wages increase, we, as a nation, cannot amass record federal deficits that would result in reductions in vital programs for poor and working-class Americans.

It is for these reasons that I voted NO on the Republican tax reform measure.  While I agree that we must find ways to modernize our tax code, this act is expected to have a tremendously negative impact on too many Americans.  I support real, comprehensive tax reform that allows more hard-working Americans to bring their money home without eliminating or limiting vital programs.