Will You Help Fight The GOP’s Tax Scam Plan?

This week Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer held an emergency conference call with a number of progressive organizations warning about the coming GOP tax scam plan. His message was clear: “This is the worst tax plan in history!”

Schumer’s call to action was to many of the same groups that played such an important role in defeating the Trump healthcare plan. Speakers representing Indivisible, Stand Up America, Not One Penny and Organizing for Action discussed what each group would be doing to defeat the Republican tax scam.

Schumer and each of these groups are asking their activists, as well as the public, to deluge their members of Congress with opposition calls. In Iowa, that means calling Senator Ernst, Senator Grassley, Congressmen Blum, King and Young.

The opposition to the Trump/Republican tax scam is coming from a broad coalition of progressives and conservatives. In the debate last week between Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz, the tax plan was a key point of disagreement.

Sanders called the GOP tax plan a “Robin Hood proposal in reverse. They are taking from the working families and the poor and they are giving to the rich. It’s a proposal that must be defeated.”

Robert Reich, Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton, described the GOP plan as a “cruel joke.”

“Trump and conservatives in Congress are planning a big tax cut for millionaires and billionaires,” Reich said. “To justify it they’re using the oldest song in their playbook: claiming tax cuts on the rich will trickle down to working families in the form of stronger economic growth. Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.”

According to the Tax Policy Center, “the GOP tax framework would spread tax cuts across all income groups, with the richest Americans seeing the biggest windfall.”

The Tax Policy Center provides some key talking points to refute the GOP plan when talking to your MOC.

1. It’s a budget buster! Republicans have long claimed their primary concern is reducing the deficit. “This GOP package would blow a $2.4 trillion hole in the federal budget. That’s the finding of an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, which crunched the numbers to come up with a preliminary estimate of the plan’s costs and beneficiaries. “The federal debt would rise by at least $3 trillion over the first decade and by at least $6.6 trillion” in 20 years.
2. The biggest winner would be the richest 1 percent of U.S. taxpayers! Those taxpayers making over $730,000 would get an 8.5% cut in their taxes. The highest income taxpayers that have annual income in excess of $3.7 million would get an average tax cut of 16.9%.
3. The greatest benefits would go to profitable companies. Corporations would see some $2.6 trillion in tax savings over a decade. Cutting corporate taxes rates from 35% to 20% would be a massive cut to revenues and lead to a larger deficit.
4. This GOP plan would hurt middle income taxpayers! Trump and the Republicans claim their tax plan would benefit middle class taxpayers. The Tax Policy Center says, “The worst news for middle-class taxpayers is that they would see a tax increase over 10 years, according to the analysis. That includes some 10 percent of low-income households — more than a quarter of the middle class.” Note: Both Senator Corker and Flake both politely said this week that Trump lies! Senator Corker said this week Trump is “utterly untruthful.” Senator Flake reiterated saying Trump is “dangerous and untruthful.”
5. The elimination of the estate tax would blow a massive hole in the budget and it only applies to the richest Americans. The GOP claims it would help small businesses and farmers. However, the first $11 million of an estate for a married couple is already exempt from estate taxes. Beneficiaries only pay tax on the amount in excess of $11 million. Eliminating the estate tax would benefit only the richest individuals. Only 1 in 500 families pay any estate tax. In 2013 only 20 small businesses or farms paid any estate tax.
6. The 401(K) is under attack as well. Republicans are proposing to reduce the maximum amount of pretax dollars a worker can contribute from $18,000 to $2400. Currently, nearly 1/5 of Americans retirement is invested in 401(k) accounts. The effect of cutting the amount that can be invested is a direct assault on middle class retirement opportunities.

The Trump/Republican tax scam must be stopped. It’s up to every progressive to talk to their members of Congress and oppose this monstrous giveaway to the richest Americans and the most profitable companies. This can be stopped if we raise our voices.

by Rick Smith
Posted 10/26/17