Washington, D.C. — Seth Hanlon, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement today reacting to joint principles on tax reform released by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI); Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY); Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin; National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn; Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX):
The overriding priority of President Donald Trump and congressional Republican leaders is this: tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations—including a giant new loophole that would benefit Trump and his family—paid for by cutting health care, education, and other critical programs for working families. The working families whose incomes have stagnated over the past several decades are treated as afterthoughts and given no information about how Republican tax plans would affect them. But what’s clear is that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would be under greater threat if Republicans gave massive tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations.
The country would be better served by ensuring that corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes and investing in education, infrastructure, and other priorities that make our economy strong in the long term.
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