AFT on GOP Tax Proposal

WASHINGTON—Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten on the GOP tax proposal:

“We have long said that Donald Trump campaigned as a populist but would govern as an elitist, and the GOP-Trump tax giveaway bill released today epitomizes this view. 

“Families need a tax code that is fair and doesn’t rig the economy further in favor of corporations and the rich. But Republicans have come up with a bill that does the exact opposite, handing out massive tax breaks and cutting services to help their wealthy friends—like the Koch and DeVos families—and making the middle class pay for it.

“Just do the math. They are paying for tax giveaways for big corporations by destroying the state and local deductions that middle-class families rely on to fund their local public schools, hospitals, and police and fire departments.

“And while Trump and the Republicans are massively cutting the corporate tax rate and maintaining corporate loopholes, they are raising taxes on the hardworking families in the lowest tax bracket.

“They are giving huge estate tax breaks to the Trump kids while taking away working families’ ability to deduct the costs of higher education, union dues and even the money educators spend on their classrooms.

“Because of this massive transfer of wealth to the already wealthy, many of the early reviewers are nixing this bill, including the National Association of Home Builders, the National Federation of Independent Business, and some Republican members of Congress.

“Trump said he would shake things up, but who would have thought he would hurt virtually every one of the millions who trusted him to help them? We will do everything we can to fight this bill. This is a ‘which-side-are-you-on?’ moment, and we are on the side of those who work hard to make a better life for themselves and their families. This bill fails that test.”