Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer : ” We Democrats sent a letter to the Republican leadership and the president, saying that here were the three things we thought tax reform ought to have. 1) Tax breaks ought not to go to the 1% but ought to be focused on the middle class. 2) It ought not blow a hole in the deficit. And 3) it ought to be done in a bipartisan way, not through reconciliation.
Unfortunately, the Republican plan doesn’t agree with any of those. First, it’s completely focused on the wealthy and powerful. Not on the middle class. Second, it blows a huge hole in the deficit. And third, they said they’re going to do it through reconciliation. That’s a partisan process. It excludes Democrats. It’s the same process that led to the demise of health care. Speaker Ryan keeps saying it helps the middle class. That’s not true. What’s he saying and what the plan is are totally different.
Let me go over three quick points. 1) They get rid of the estate tax. The only people who benefit are the very wealthy, estates over $11 million. 5,000 estates will get over $3 million each. Second, they lower the top rate from 39 to 35. That affects the wealthy. 3) They raise the lowest rate from 10 to 12. That affects working people.
What Republicans are proposing is based on the ideological myth that tax cuts can create growth, but as was recently seen in Kansas, massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations don’t create growth. They explode deficits and trash the economy.”
