The Top Reasons Why the Republican Tax Bill is Bad for Working People
By AFL-CIO Staff
Working people have forced the House GOP to stall the release of a bad and unpopular plan to slash taxes for the rich by cutting services and tax breaks for working families. America’s labor movement will fight every attempt by Donald Trump to give preference to millionaires and billionaires and hand working people the tab. Here are the top ways the Republican tax bill will hurt working people:
1. This bill is a job killer. The GOP tax bill would give companies a huge tax break for outsourcing. U.S. taxes on offshore profits would be eliminated, giving big corporations even more incentive to move jobs offshore.
2. Republicans are proposing to (partially) pay for tax cuts with drastic cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and education. The GOP budget includes $5 trillion in budget cuts, including $1.5 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, an increase in the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, and an end to Medicare’s guarantee of health coverage.
3. But the GOP tax bill still won't be paid for, so we can expect Republicans to demand more budget cuts that hurt working people in the future. The Republican budget allows for $1.5 trillion in tax cuts that are not paid for in the first decade, and these tax cuts are structured to cost even more in future decades. First the Wall Street millionaires throw themselves a party, then they stick the rest of us with the tab.
4. The GOP tax bill would increase taxes on many middle-class families, and most of its tax breaks would go to the top 1%. According to independent analysis of the previous version of the GOP tax plan, 30% of households making between $50,000 and $150,000 would pay more in taxes, while the richest 1% would walk away with 80% of the tax breaks. Republicans have made some adjustments to their tax bill, but it still is heavily weighted toward the top.
5. The GOP tax bill would punish states that make the kind of investments that create good jobs. Republicans are proposing to repeal the deduction for state and local income taxes, making it harder for states to raise enough money to invest in high-quality education, infrastructure and good jobs, and would lower property values.
6. The GOP tax bill would tax long-term care for seniors and people with disabilities. Eliminating the tax deduction for medical expenses would force many middle-class Americans who are chronically ill to pay thousands more in taxes each year and spend down their resources to qualify for Medicaid, and would prevent millions of Americans from deducting out-of-pocket medical or dental expenses from their taxes.
7. The GOP tax bill would kill construction jobs. Limiting the mortgage interest deduction at $500,000 would discourage construction of new houses.
***
Reposted from the AFL-CIO
