We Get Tricked, They Get Treats: Stop the Rich and Corporations from Winning the Tax Fight
Prepare yourself for some truly scary news: Last week, the Senate passed its budget resolution calling for $1.5 trillion (yes, trillion with a “t”) to be added to the deficit over the next decade in order to pay for tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires, and wealthy corporations. (Prominent economic analyses say the ultimate tax plan is likely to come with a much larger price tag—adding a likely estimated $2.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years.)
Even more chilling, both the House and Senate budget resolutions contain what are called “reconciliation instructions” that provide for a partisan fast-track procedure that will allow corresponding tax legislation to be passed in the Senate with a bare majority, overruling the ability for senators to filibuster the measures. (Think back to the zombie Trumpcare fight, which used the same partisan maneuver, where new iterations of bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act kept popping up only to be fought back and defeated.) Speaking of health care, the just-passed Senate resolution outlined a planned cut of $1 trillion from Medicaid and $473 billion from Medicare. And, a hidden threat in the Senate budget resolution is language meant to open up the Arctic National Refuge for drilling.
The House is expected this week to rubberstamp the Senate-passed budget resolution, according to a deal that was struck at the very tail end of the Senate’s traditional marathon budget amendment voting session, nicknamed “vote-a-rama.” Otherwise, the non-binding budget resolutions would go to conference committee, so this frightening development has further shortened the timeline that we have to stop this cruel tax plan from coming to life.
Luckily YOU can join the army of activists who are ready to do what it takes to beat back the corporate tax dodgers, 1-percenters and their “Gucci Gulch” lobbyists who want to suck the life blood of tax revenue out of this country. The phone is your sword! All you have to do is call 877-795-7862.
The urgency of this fight means that representatives and senators need to be hearing in-person from constituents in their hometowns! You can join one of the many events around the country where everyday citizens are standing up to Big Business and the wealthy elite by demanding that their elected officials not give a single cent in tax cuts to millionaires, billionaires, or wealthy corporations.
Why not get into the Halloween spirit and do a little “cause-play” and don a millionaire/billionaire costume to shine a light on this dark plan to defund our nation’s coffers in order to pad the pockets of the well-to-do? For inspiration, here’s a Facebook live from outside a Senate Finance hearing where Public Citizen, Americans for Tax Fairness, and the Take on Wall Street campaign used this over-the-top tactic to bring attention to the intended recipients of the Trump-GOP tax cut plan.
It’s not hard to imagine the horrors that will come if we have to slash government services in order to pay for tax handouts to the wealthy and corporations: senior citizens going hungry, kids missing out on a proper education, crumbling bridges and other dangerous infrastructure—the list goes on.
There is big money at stake for the rich and they’re not going to back down without a fight. Now is not the time to think the battle will be won without you.
If this tax plan goes through, there’s no disputing the result: we all get tricked while corporations and the rich get their treats.