Senate Tax Bill Will Permanently Raise Taxes on Working Americans to Fund Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

GOP Tax Plan | Senate Tax BillWhile Americans are gathering to give thanks this week, Senate Republicans are rushing to pass a tax plan that would give large tax cuts to the wealthy, drive up the federal deficit, and make it harder for working families, including millions of Latinos, to make ends meet.

Unfortunately, this is no surprise.

The Senate Republican tax bill is in lockstep with the strategy laid out in September in their tax framework and the recently passed House tax bill.

While they claim that the bill provides some tax benefits for working- and middle-class Americans, it does not. Analysis by the Center for American Progress found that the Senate proposal actually contains more than $750 billion in tax cuts for big corporations and wealthy business owners in the first decade alone.

Hispanic workers | GOP Tax Plan | Senate Tax BillThese tax breaks for the wealthy will be permanent and those aimed at the working- and middle-class will be temporary and expire after only eight years. And the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimated the bill would actually raise individual income taxes for households with incomes below $75,000 by a total of $60 billion in order to fuel permanent tax cuts for the wealthy.

Make no mistake: the Senate bill has the same harmful provisions seen in the Republican tax framework and the House bill. These bills are bad for the nation but will do particular harm to our working- and middle-class families, including millions of Latinos.

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As it stands, the Senate bill would:

  • Provide at least $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to the top 1%, leaving working-and middle-class Americans to fend for themselves. The richest 1% would get 28% of the tax cut in 2019, while the poorest 20% would only receive 2% of the tax cuts. What’s more, up to 11.7 million Latino families earning less than $75,000 would see a tax increase by 2027. This means that seven in 10 Latino families will pay more in taxes while the richest pay less.
  • Raise the cost of health care and increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 13 million. Senate Republicans include a provision to permanently eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s Individual Mandate to fund $300 billion—or about one-third—of permanent cuts given to corporations. Without the mandate, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that premiums for coverage in the individual market will increase by 10%. This means about seven million working and middle-class Americans will pay hundreds of dollars more for health insurance. About one million Latinos rely on health care coverage through the ACA healthcare marketplace. Increasing the cost of that coverage, would causing many to become uninsured.
  • Attack taxpaying immigrants and their children by threatening to restrict eligibility for refundable tax credits. By requiring a Social Security number, immigrants and families making significant tax contributions would lose critical tax credits for which they are now eligible. Jeopardizing the Child Tax Credit (CTC) threatens the well-being of hundreds of thousands of hardworking Latino families and children. In 2015, 19.8 million families received the CTC, and one-third of recipients were Latino. In that same year, the CTC kept nearly one million Latinos out of poverty, including more than 560,000 Latino children.

The harm of this tax bill doesn’t end there. The massive tax giveaways to the rich would balloon the deficit, and trigger massive spending cuts to key programs that help Latino families make ends meet, stay healthy, put food on the table, and keep a roof over their heads.

Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act funding could lead to reduced coverage and jeopardize access to critical health care services for millions of Latinos.

Drastically slashing the budgets of important programs like nutrition and housing, and restricting immigrant eligibility for refundable tax credits could push many of the more than six million Latino families that are lifted out of poverty through these programs back into or deeper into poverty.

Family | | GOP Tax Plan | Senate Tax BillTo be clear: President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ tax proposals puts the desires of the wealthy and corporations first, over the needs and at the expense of tens of millions of working Americans, families, and children.

Instead, they should be investing in the systems that benefit working families, not taking from them to pay for giant tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations.

As Congress and the administration continue to push their irresponsible tax bills, UnidosUS vows to continue fighting for tax reform that focuses squarely on the needs of working- and middle-class families in the United States.

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