Perhaps one of the reasons Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) melted down this week in his Finance Committee over charges that the tax bill screws the middle class and poor people to give tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations is true. He knows it and can't answer for it.
Hatch can't justify the fact that the tax cuts he is making will force a $25 billion cut to Medicare in 2018—and every year after.
He can't justify the fact that he is proposing to kick 13 million people off their health insurance in order to make his tax cuts for corporations permanent. He can't justify the fact that he's trading health insurance for 13 million people for tax cuts that will put $100,000—every year—into the pockets of the top 0.1 percent of American earners.
He can't justify that fact that by 2027, everyone earning less than $75,000 a year will pay more in taxes. That by then, people earning $1 million or more will get the largest tax cuts. And that people making between $20,000 and $30,000 will see their taxes hiked 25.4 percent. That's not even counting the pain inflicted by the Obamacare individual mandate repeal. The resulting loss in the markets, the CBO says, would reduce the subsidies enrollees are getting as well as Medicaid spending by $57 billion. That's $57 billion worth of people not getting health care.
He'll be happy, however, to justify the attack on abortion rights in the bill. Because that's what tax policy is all about, right? Laying the groundwork for banning abortion.
There's hardly a piece of this bill that isn't complete crap, once again crafted behind closed doors with zero hearings and no participation of Democrats. We've been here before. It's Trumpcare all over again. We beat that. We can beat this. Your senators are going to be home next week—yep, they get a week off for Thanksgiving. Now would be a really good time to organize some protests outside their offices. And keep those phone lines jammed.
Jam your senators' phone lines at (202) 224-3121. Tell them to vote "no" on the Republican tax bill.
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