It turns out that Republicans don't need their mean-spirited healthcare bill to give huge tax cuts to the rich and big corporations.
While the Senate is still grappling with a Trumpcare bill that would kick 22 million people off of their healthcare, Paul Ryan and House Republicans are advancing a cruel budget that cuts Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education and other critical services for working people and older Americans....
The House GOP budget, passed late last night out of committee, is the first step to implementing Donald Trump’s disastrous tax and budget plans. It would eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)―handing $400 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. The AMT prevents rich people like Trump from using loopholes to sharply reduce or even eliminate their federal income taxes.
The GOP budget also sets the stage for deep corporate tax cuts―further padding the pockets of wealthy investors and corporate CEOs. It even calls for letting U.S. corporations off the hook for paying taxes on their offshore profits. That would give Pfizer, General Electric, Apple, Wall Street banks and other giant multinationals even more incentives than they have now to send jobs and profits offshore to dodge their fair share of taxes.
These tax cuts, which will cost trillions, would mostly be paid for by cutting more than $5 trillion from critical services all of us depend on. $500 billion from Medicare—gone! $1.5 trillion from Medicaid and other health programs—gone! A whopping $2.4 trillion from Pell grants, food stamps and other vital services for struggling families—gone! And $1.3 trillion from hundreds of other public investments, ranging from schools to highways to medical research and environmental protection—gone!
Congressman John Yarmuth (D-KY), Senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee, had this to say about the House Republican budget in answer to the question, Why are they doing this?:
“The answer is as simple as it is disgraceful. So that millionaires, billionaires, and wealthy corporations can get a tax cut. They have made the choice to give everyone in the top one percent a $240,000 tax cut while taking breakfast and lunch away from hungry school children. They have made the choice to give everyone in the top one-tenth-of-one percent of income a $1.4 million tax cut while cutting health care for seniors in nursing homes, low-income children, and the disabled.”
While we continue to beat back Trumpcare in the Senate, we need to stop this budget in the House! ...
Thank you for all that you do to create an economy and a tax system that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
Frank Clemente
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness