Call Your Member of Congress TODAY: Urge NO on GOP Tax Bill

After scribbling in amendments to reflect behind closed-door deals, the Senate passed its fiscally irresponsible tax bill without a single Democratic vote. We have much to be angry about when it comes to this bill.

For starters, this tax bill will raise our deficit by at least $1 trillion to provide tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthiest individuals and corporations. That’s the loss of at least $100 billion each year for the next ten years. The loss of revenue will make it more likely that Congress will cut back on investments in services that provide food assistance, health care, and housing supports for low-income people.

We should also be angry about who wins and who loses in this tax bill. There are tax breaks for people who own private jets, a proposed elimination of the estate tax which only impacts the wealthiest families, and a permanent increase to corporate tax breaks. The losers: millions of middle and low-income households will pay more in taxes over the next ten years.

The Senate tax bill also threatens to end health insurance for 13 million Americans and would raise health insurance premiums by as much as 10%.

While the House and the Senate have been focused on rushing through a tax bill, there have been bigger priorities that have languished by the wayside. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) which has had bipartisan support in the past, expired on Sept. 30. Now, 9 million children, including 15,000 Washington kids, may lose their health insurance unless Congress acts to reauthorize CHIP, thereby releasing federal dollars to provide relief to overly-burdened state budgets. Additionally, we are at risk of a federal government shutdown this Friday, a risk that might have been avoided had there been a prioritization for bipartisan discussions instead of raising rancor with this highly partisan tax bill.

We should not and will not stand idly by and let this happen. The differences between the Senate and the House bill will need to be ironed out in a final agreement that will be reflected in a conference bill and then both the Senate and the House will need to vote again. A conference bill may come out by the end of this week. We need a groundswell of phone calls to Congressional members, urging them to reject this bill that places the burden on low and middle-income households, as well as on our children and grandchildren for years to come to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest. Please make your phone call now.

WHAT YOU CAN DO