Indian American Congress Members Appalled by Tax Bill Passage
India-West Staff Reporter
Dec 28, 2017
Following the passage of the polarizing tax bill by party lines Dec. 20, many Democrats, including Indian American members of Congress, have spoken out against the tax law rewrite.
The House Dec. 19 passed the bill along to Senate who, in the early hours of Dec. 20, passed the legislation on a 51-to-48 vote.
Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents the Silicon Valley area of California, said the bill will increase deficits by $1.5 trillion over the next decades and favors corporations and the rich, all while doing nothing for the middle class.
“This is flawed policy that will increase income inequality in our nation even further,” Khanna said in a statement. “In my state of California, not to mention the rest of the country, families will be forced to pay taxes twice on much of their income by scaling back their ability to write off state and local taxes.”
The 17th Congressional District representative added that he “will continue to fight in Congress for legislation that helps working families.”
Khanna noted his GAIN Act bill introduced with Sen. Sherrod Brown promises to roughly double the earned income tax credit for working families and increase the credit for childless workers almost six-fold.
“I am disappointed that the tax bill demonstrates Republicans think it’s better to serve the interests of the very wealthy than everyday people,” Khanna added.
Fellow freshman Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called the tax bill the “GOP Tax Scam” and deemed it an “all-out war on any idea of opportunity in this country.”
“It’s a massive tax break for the ultra-wealthy on the backs of middle class families. It’s outrageous that Republicans in the House voted to pass this love letter to their largest donors and corporations,” Jayapal said following the House passage and before the Senate vote.
“Despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, this tax scam dismantles the Affordable Care Act, throwing 13 million people off their healthcare,” Jayapal added. “It eliminates most of the state and local tax deduction, short-changing communities and resulting in as much as $152 billion in cuts to education funding over the next decade.
Jayapal noted that 80 percent of all tax benefits in this bill go to the top 1 percent.
“With this heist, Republicans have branded themselves as the party of billionaires and giant corporations—they are robbing the American people and showing zero remorse,” she said.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said that the Republican-led tax bill “just wrote a check the middle class shouldn’t have to cash.”
“The tax bill Republicans just jammed through would add nearly $1.5 trillion to the national debt while raising taxes on working families, and destabilizing our healthcare system by leaving 13 million more Americans without insurance,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement. “This legislation is a ticking tax bomb: millions of middle-class families could see their taxes increase over the next decade as state and local tax deductions and other middle-class provisions get dramatically scaled back.”
Added Krishnamoorthi, “Working families and small businesses are the heart of our country, and House Republicans just passed legislation that brings them nothing but tax increases, higher insurance premiums and massive debt.”
Photo Credit: India West