The House Tax Plan Is Out - Tell Your Members of Congress to Reject It

Well, it’s finally here. After weeks of speculation and delay, the House released its new tax proposal. Sadly, the real thing is little improvement over the iterations that came before it.

The plan would enact huge tax cuts for the rich, while offering middle-class families few benefits and leaving out low-income working families altogether. It even takes the Child Tax Credit away from some of our most vulnerable neighbors. Meanwhile, by adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit, it jeopardizes the future of essential basic health and nutrition programs for low-income Americans (see more below).

Call your representatives and senators TODAY and tell them to reject this reckless proposal that will enrich those at the top and make working-class Americans worse off.

Call (202) 224-3121 and leave this message:

“My name is _______________ and I am a constituent of Rep./Sen. ________________. House leaders’ new tax plan will add trillions to the deficit at the expense of working families, funded by slashing support for Medicaid, nutrition programs, education, and more. Meanwhile, the plan’s boost to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) leaves out 10 million children in low-income families and takes the CTC away from millions of children in immigrant families. It’s wrong to give special tax breaks to the wealthy and powerful at the expense of low-income families. Will you please tell Rep./Sen._____________ to reject this reckless plan?”

Because of the trillions in lost revenue this plan creates, huge budget deficits will result for years to come. With House and Senate leaders already eyeing “entitlement reform” next year, you can bet that current and future deficits will be used to justify major cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, the EITC, TANF, and other anti-poverty programs tens of millions of Americans rely on.

Here are some of the parts of the plan:

• Hurts low-income Americans by:
  • Threatening the future of critical basic assistance programs
  • Leaving 10 million children in low-income families out from an increase in the Child Tax Credit – while giving the CTC to wealthy families
  • Taking away the CTC from immigrant families – harming over 3 million children of taxpaying parents, the majority of whom are U.S. citizens, and 1 million of whom are young DREAMers
  • Raising their taxes by increasing the lowest tax bracket from 10 to 12 percent
• Helps the rich by:
  • Raising the income level for the highest tax rate from $400,000 to $1 million
  • Slashing corporate taxes from 35 percent to 20 percent
  • Repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax, which prevents rich taxpayers from using loopholes to avoid paying taxes
  • Lowering the “pass-through income” tax rate to 25 percent, thus incentivizing wealthy people to “incorporate” themselves and have their wages converted to pass-through income
  • Doubling the amount exempted from the estate tax to $11 million per person and then phasing out the estate tax entirely (the estate tax impacts only the richest 0.3% of estates each year)
  • Allowing wealthier families to claim the Child Tax Credit (from a $110,000 income limit per couple to a $230,000 income limit)

Will you make a call to your representatives and senators today? They need to hear from their constituents that we won’t stand for a tax scheme that benefits the wealthy at the expense of those living in poverty.