Tell Your Republican Senator: #NoJonesNoVote

Doug Jones was elected to represent Alabama in the US Senate on December 12, 2017—but he won’t be seated until early January. The people of Alabama deserve to have their duly elected Senator vote on the Tax Scam, not a lame duck Senator appointed by a Governor that resigned in disgrace.

Remember: this is a bill that repeals a key feature of the Affordable Care Act, leaving 13 million more people uninsured and spiking premiums an extra 10%. It gives huge tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations while RAISING taxes on 83 million families. And it adds $1 trillion to the deficit, which will force deep cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and more down the road.

The Tax Scam is currently being finalized by the “Conference Committee,” a group of members from the House and Senate that are resolving the differences between the House and Senate bills. Both the House and Senate have to take one more vote on the final version of the bill that the Conference Committee produces. Your Senator should refuse to cast a final vote on the Tax Scam “conference report” until Doug Jones is seated. Call them at 1-855-980-2350 today.

SAMPLE CALL DIALOGUE

Caller: Hello! My name is [___] and I’m calling from [part of state]. I want [Senator] to refuse to take a final vote on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act until the new duly-elected Senator from Alabama is seated.

Staffer: Senator [___] is in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and thinks the American people can’t wait to reform our broken, complex tax code. There is no need to wait until the New Year to vote on it.

Caller: That’s terrible. The people of Alabama deserve to have their voices heard and be represented by the Senator they elected. Keep in mind that [Senator] helped Mitch McConnell keep a Supreme Court seat vacant so that “the people could decide.” Well, here the people have decided and their will should be respected. After Scott Brown was elected in a special election in Massachusetts, there were no further votes on the Affordable Care Act until he was seated. That’s the approach [Senator] should follow here.

Staffer: Thank you. I’ll let the Senator know your thoughts.

Caller: Yes please do, and please take down my contact information so you can let me know what the Senator decides to do. He/she can do the right thing with his/her vote alone. I will be watching to see that he/she does.

- Indivisible 

GOP Tax Conference starts next week, but Conservative groups are already lobbying tax conferees. Time for a counter attack!

Somehow I got on a conservative e-mail list. I got an e-mail entitled our "Our Spending Problem." What they are referring to is our social safety net, Obamacare, the EPA, and tax deductions for medical expenses and student loan interest.  Essentially anything that might cost multi-billion dollar corporations any profit. I am posting it here so you will know what we are up against in fighting the GOP tax plan.

Included is a link to the letter that the Club for Growth president wrote to the tax conferees that Speaker Ryan and Majority Mitch McConnell appointed. I think we should write our own letters in response. 

The Honorable Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, 230 United States Capital, Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Paul Ryan, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives, H-232, The Capital, Washington, D.C. 2015

We can also call or e-mail the tax conferees listed below. This is all out war. We are fighting for the America we love - against greedy corporations and billionaires who have a stranglehold on our government. #GOPtaxscam

Jana Segal

Club for Growth e-mail about :

This week in Washington, Congress passed a stopgap measure to fund the government for another two weeks.  This is another way of saying that once again, Congress has chosen to kick the can down the road setting themselves up for a series of last-minute funding battles right before Christmas. 

Delaying tough decisions never bodes well for taxpayers who have to pay for all the spending.  Club for Growth will continue to do what we do best on this front and that is to fight to curb wasteful spending and seek to implement spending caps, not to mention spending cuts.

What the most recent tax reform discussions have reminded us is that Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem, it’s got a spending problem.

The Latest on Tax Reform

On the topic of tax reform, here’s the latest from this week.  On Monday, Speaker Ryan named the Republican House members who will serve as tax conferees.  This list includes: Kevin Brady (TX), Devin Nunes (CA), Peter Roskam (IL), Diane Black (TN), Kristi Noem (SD), Rob Bishop (UT), Greg Walden (OR), John Shimkus (IL), and Don Young (AK).

On Wednesday, Leader Mitch McConnell announced the Senate Republicans who would comprise the tax conference.  Those members include: Orrin Hatch (UT), Mike Enzi (WY), Lisa Murkowski (AK), John Cornyn (TX), John Thune (SD), Pat Toomey (PA), Tim Scott (SC), and Rob Portman (OH).
 
While the first conference meetings are not expected until next week at the earliest, Club for Growth was ready to weigh in on what factors the conferees should be (or not be) considering. 

Club for Growth led the pack in urging conferees to further cut individual rates and keep the corporate tax rate at 20 percent. 

Below is an excerpt of the letter Club for Growth President David McIntosh penned.

“As conference discussions begin, Club for Growth wants to ensure that the most significant pro-growth provisions in the House and Senate legislation are preserved and not lost in an effort to appease special interests pleading to retain their particular tax benefit.  In other words, we want to make sure that what comes out of the conference committee is more pro-growth and not less than what went into it.”

- David McIntosh

The letter went on to draw a line in the sand on a few policy areas.  As Club for Growth President David McIntosh noted, “Club for Growth urges the conferees not to increase any marginal tax rates.

• Stand firm and keep the corporate rate at 20 percent.
• Adopt at least the Senate’s top individual marginal tax rate and reject the House’s proposal.  Further reductions in the top individual rate would create even more economic growth.
• Include the Senate’s repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate.”

In his conclusion, McIntosh explained that “Conference meetings inevitably require tradeoffs to rectify the differences between the legislative texts.  In making those tradeoffs, Club for Growth strongly urges conferees to stand strong and fight for the most pro-growth policies that benefit all Americans and not diminish them by giving in to class warfare or social engineering arguments.”

You can read the letter in its entirety here.

On Friday, Club for Growth joined with over twenty other conservative groups calling for the corporate rate to remain at the 20 percent rate.  As the letter explained,

“The U.S. House of Representatives passed a tax cut bill with this exact rate cut. The U.S. Senate passed a tax cut bill with this exact rate cut. We strongly urge the conference committee to report a tax cut bill with this exact rate cut.”

We remain hopeful that the conference committee will do what is in the best interest of American taxpayers and companies.  Club for Growth will continue to keep you posted on all the latest tax updates in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned!

More information:

Business Week Article: The conference committee has barely started, and the GOP tax bill already has some big problems

CNN Politics Article: Where Congress stands on GOP tax plan, shutdown

Be sure to watch the video (on the page from the link above) about Section 520l of the tax plan that will roll back campaign finance laws by rolling back the Johnson amendment. It will allow corporations to write off their bribes to politicians.

Do or die effort to stop #GOPtaxcam

In the dead of night last Friday, all but one Senate Republican voted to approve their version of the cruelest, most economically destructive tax bill in recent memory. Now the bill, which attacks the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in addition to raising taxes on millions of working people and families while giving tax cuts to corporations, and the super-rich (not to mention sacrificing our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), heads back to the House for conference. 

That means we have another chance to fight back. If we can flip at least 11 of the House members who voted for the House version of the bill, we can stop this bill. Many reports indicate that call volumes still haven’t reached the high levels Congress received during the ACA fight; we simply have to flood our representatives with calls, emails, and visits so they understand the potential consequences of selling out most of their constituents for the benefit of their wealthiest donors.

• Dial 202-224-3121 to call your rep today and every day, urging him or her to vote NO on this tax bill, which would force women and families to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.
• Are you represented by the House members listed below, or do you know someone who is? It’s especially urgent that these representatives get tons of calls urging them to vote NO on the tax bill.
  • Mike Coffman (CO); Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL); John Katko (NY); Michael Turner (OH), David Joynce (OH); Ryan Costello (PA); Patrick Meehan (PA); Brian Fitzpatrick (PA); Charlie Dent (PA); Will Hurd (TX); Barbara Comstock (VA); Jaime Herrera Buetler (WA); Dave Reichert (WA)

Sen. Sanders: This Tax Bill Will Be Remembered As One Of The Greatest Robberies In American History

Watch video: Sen. Bernie Sanders stood up for the American People about this criminal bill.

Sen. Sanders wrote:

I believe that historians will look back at the early morning hours of Dec. 2, 2017, and conclude that it was one of the great acts of thievery in the history of the United States.

Let me be very clear about what is happening here. It is an extraordinarily cynical "two-step" process. First, Republicans are looting the Treasury. They are stealing trillions of dollars from the American people in order to give huge tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations. Second, as their tax breaks increase the deficit by $1.4 trillion, they will come back and, in the name of "deficit reduction," propose major cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, nutrition, affordable housing and other programs desperately needed by the shrinking middle class.

This is class warfare, led by the Koch brothers and other wealthy Republican campaign contributors. More for the rich. Less for working families. Our job now is to stand up and fight back.

That is why last weekend I spoke to large crowds in Louisville, Kentucky, Dayton and Akron, Ohio, and Reading, Pennsylvania. Over 5,000 people took time out of their weekend to attend these high energy meetings in person and almost one million watched on-line. At these rallies activists heard not only from me, but from working people, DREAMers, nurses, Planned Parenthood patients and others about how this tax bill would negatively impact them, their kids, their parents and the future of our country.

Everyone made it absolutely clear that we need to keep fighting against this disastrous piece of legislation and not stop until we defeat it.

This legislation now goes to something called a "conference committee" where the House and Senate work out the differences between their respective bills. Then, the bill comes back for final passage. That means we probably have about three or four weeks to educate and organize the American people to defeat this dangerous bill. Please, get on the phone to your House and Senate members. Email them. Spread the word to your friends by social media. Talk to your co-workers. In the midst of massive income and wealth inequality, this country does not need more tax breaks for billionaires.

I will not stop until we defeat this disastrous piece of legislation. But I cannot do it alone.

- Senator Bernie Sanders

Here's a good summary of the Tax bill from Bernie. 

*Note from Desktop Activist Tucson-

We can help Bernie by getting the word out any way we can and by contacting our members of Congress.

Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard, where you'll be connected with the office of one your senators.

(202) 224-3121

Here's another way to contact our members of Congress about the Tax Bill:

http://stoptrumptaxcuts.org/action/?refcode=e20171205_StopTaxBill_core

Here is an 800 number to call  Rep. McSally:

888-654-1854.

 Arizonans, here's an easy way to tweet our Senators about the #GOPtaxscam

Time to take back our country

Our Senators have disregarded the will of the people. In this time of great income inequality, both houses have passed tax plans that give huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations at the expense of the rest of us.

These tax plans will increase the deficit by 1.4 trillion dollars which will lead to dismantling vital social safety nets such as medicaid, medicare and even social security. Remember the uproar when they tried to dismantle the Affordable Care Act? This bill has a sneaky provision that would destroy it. But it's not only the elderly who will suffer. Students would no longer be able to deduct the interest from their college loans. Tuition waivers for graduate students would be considered taxable income. This bill would also be devastating to our wildlife. Despite whole species going extinct everyday from lack of habitats, this bill would allow oil companies to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

This bill disregards the needs of the American people. It increases the financial divide by handing over billions of dollars to the richest people the planet has ever known. They will have even more expendable income to buy our politicians. They will end up privatizing our decaying infrastructure - including our depleted waterways. They will OWN US.

We can't take this lying down. We have got to do everything we can to stop this disastrous tax bill from destroying the country as we know it. Fortunately, there is still time while the bill is being worked on in the conference committee. You can reach your House members at the Whitehouse switchboard: (202) 224-3121. Ask them not to pass either version of the bill as they now stand, but to work with Democrats to construct a bill that addresses the needs of individuals and families.

This is just the first step. We need a government that represents the people. Time to get organized and stand up for America!

Stop the Trump Tax Scam: Call Sens. McCain and Flake

Sens. McCain and Flake just voted to give corporations and the ultra-wealthy a huge tax give-away, but the Trump Tax Scam is not law yet. With enough pressure Sens. McCain and Flake can still stop Trump's plan to slash the corporate tax rate while raising taxes on seniors and working families. Can you make a call today? Click below for a sample script and the number to call:

Republicans – including Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake – just voted to advance the Trump Tax Scam. This fight is still far from over. Even though every single Republican in the Senate voted to move this huge corporate give-away forward, we can still stop the Trump Tax Scam.1 Sens. McCain and Flake's constituents know that they just voted to advance a bill that will hurt middle- and lower-income families while giving Trump and his wealthiest friends a huge tax handout.2,3,4 We need to show them what overwhelming opposition looks like. As we showed when we stopped Trumpcare, our collective action makes a difference. Now we must ramp up the pressure on Sens. McCain and Flake to stop this dumpster fire of a bill in its tracks. Call Sens. McCain and Flake: No tax handouts for the wealthy and big corporations. Click here to get started with your calls. Republicans are desperate to deliver a win to their corporate donors, and the Trump Tax Scam is a massive handout to corporations and the wealthiest Americans. They are trying to pull the wool over their constituents' eyes with the false promise of tax cuts for working Americans, but in reality, the Trump Tax Scam would be devastating.5 The Trump Tax Scam would: Repeal the deduction for state and local taxes, used by the majority of middle class taxpayers, and strain budgets for local services 6 Allow massive amounts of wealth to accumulate untaxed by raising the cap and then eliminating the estate tax – a tax paid only by the ultra-wealthy.7 Slash the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to just 20 percent – less than what most workers would pay.8 Allow tax dodgers to get away with refusing to pay their fair share by eliminating the alternative minimum tax, which has been a safeguard against the ultra-wealthy like Donald Trump paying virtually nothing in taxes.9 Sneakily undermine health care by repealing the individual mandate.10 Increase the burden of health care costs by eliminating the deduction for out-of-pocket medical expenses.11 Strike an intentional blow to abortion rights and lay the groundwork for banning abortion outright by enshrining the language “unborn child” into the federal tax code.12 Make higher education even more unaffordable by eliminating the deduction for student loan interest and ending exemptions for graduate students paid for research work or teaching while in school.13 Reduce incentives for consumers to purchase clean energy vehicles.14 Jeopardize the fragile natural environment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by opening it up to drilling in order to pay for corporate tax handouts.15 Republicans need to know that going along with Trump’s greedy and cruel tax plan will be devastating for everyone but the 1%. CREDO activists made more than 10,000 calls to key House Republicans, and two of them voted the right way.16 We need just three Republicans to stand up to Trump in the Senate – and Sens. McCain and Flake could be the deciding vote. Will you call now to tell them we are watching and that it is unacceptable for them to do anything less than fully resist Trump’s tax scam? Call key Sens. McCain and Flake: No tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. Click the link below to get started with your calls. https://act.credoaction.com/call/trump-taxes-calls-2017/?t=7&akid=26205%2E3130208%2EMA7R_D Kaili Lambe, Director of Organizing CREDO Action from Working Assets Click below for a sample script and the number to call: References: U.S. Senate, “Roll Call Vote 115th Congress - 1st Session," accessed Nov. 29, 2017. Jonathan Easley, “Poll: Majority oppose GOP tax-reform bill,” The Hill, Nov. 16, 2017. Alan Rappaport, “Republicans May Use Cuts in Entitlement Programs to Reduce Deficit,” The New York Times, Nov. 15, 2017. Binyamin Appelbaum, “Trump Tax Plan Benefits Wealthy, Including Trump,” The New York Times, Sept. 27, 2017. Josh Barro, “Here's how the Trump tax plan would raise taxes on many middle-income families,” Business Insider, Sept. 28, 2017. Michael Leachman, "House Tax Bill’s Changes to State and Local Tax Deductions Would Hurt States,” The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Nov 2. 2017. Long, “The House is voting on its tax bill Thursday. Here’s what is in it.” Americans for Tax Fairness, “13 Terrible Things About the House Republican Tax Plan,” Nov. 2 2017. Appelbaum, “Republicans May Use Cuts in Entitlement Programs to Reduce Deficit.” Jennifer Haberkorn, Seung Min Kim and Bernie Becker, “Senate GOP adding Obamacare mandate repeal to tax bill, senators say,” POLITICO, Nov. 14, 2017. Americans for Tax Fairness, “13 Terrible Things About the House Republican Tax Plan.” Charles P. Pierce, "This Tax Bill Isn't Just Bad Economics. It's Got a Backdoor Anti-Abortion Measure, Too," Esquire, Nov. 3, 2017. Heather Long, “The House is voting on its tax bill Thursday. Here’s what is in it.” The Washington Post, Nov. 16, 2017. Ibid. Dino Grandoni, “The Energy 202: ANWR drilling is one step closer to happening,” The Washington Post, Nov. 16, 2017. K.K. Rebecca Lai, Wilson Andrews and Alicia Parlapiano, “How Every Member Voted on the House Tax Bill,” The New York Times, Nov. 16, 2017.

#GOPtaxscam up for a vote today! Contact your senators now!

This is it. The #GOPtaxscam is supposed to go for a vote in the Senate TODAY. Time to bombard them with faxes, tweets, facebook posts and messages on their websites! 

Call 202-224-3121 to tell your Senators to vote no.

Click here to send a letter to your senators today. - Scripts from Trumptaxscam.org

*to tweet - see links below

If you have a cell phone, you can contact your senators on RESISTBOT.
Text the word resist to 50409 and answer the questions it asks. You'll be talking to a bot, not a person when you text, so answer just as asked or it won't understand you. 

Arizona constituents: When I tried to call Sen. Flake's office Wednesday afternoon the mail box was full. (520) 575-8633. They are answering today!  Time we bombard Sens. Flake and McCain with phone calls, faxes, tweets and messages! Let's make 'em listen to us!

You can fax for free on the internet at:  freefax.com

Here's Sen. Flake's fax numbers: 

Washington, D.C. Office fax: 202-228-0515
Phoenix Office fax: 602-840-4092
Tucson Office fax: 520-797-3232

Tweet Flake at: @SenFlakeStaff

Here's Sen. Flake's website contact form:
https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-jeff

Sen. McCain's phone: (520) 670-6334
Here's Sen. McCain's fax numbers:

Phoenix Office fax: (855) 952-8702
Tucson Office fax: (855) 952-8702
Washington Office fax: (202) 228-2862

Tweet him @SenJohnMcCain

Here's Sen. McCain's website contact form:
https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form

----

Six key senators haven’t decided whether or not to support a tax bill that puts health coverage on the line for millions — and they could cast a deciding vote this week.

Our Arizona senators are two of the six senators — so make sure you speak out today. These key lawmakers need to hear from as many of us as possible before they vote. Here's an easy way to tweet them — to make sure they reject any tax bill that puts health coverage at risk.

GOP tax scam passed out of the committee and is heading to the Senate floor for a vote TOMORROW (Thurs. Nov 30)

In case you had any question on how it works...

This is it. If it passes, it will give the wealthiest Americans a huge tax cut on the backs of American workers, students, and retirees.(1) For millions of people, it will sacrifice the American Dream so that even more of our country's wealth will flow to the 1%.

We can win this battle against the GOP-Trump tax cuts. Numerous GOP senators have vacillated in their support of this bill. Even GOP voters hate this bill -- this tax cut is less popular than the last tax increase!(2)

Why? Besides making the rich richer while taxing the working and middle classes more, the bill’s Obamacare provision would lead to 13 million more uninsured people and a 10% increase in the cost of insurance premiums.(3) That’s bad news for all of us.

But despite how unpopular this horrible bill is, a number of Senate Republicans who had previously opposed the bill now appear to be caving to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump.(4) 

- the Courage Campaign

 

Footnotes:
1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2017/11/29/how-the-gop-tax-plan-scrooges-middle-class-retired-and-poor/#11bcd5fe6c1e
2. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-gop-tax-cuts-are-even-more-unpopular-than-past-tax-hikes
3. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/collins-individual-mandate-tax-bill-reinsurance-alexander-murray
4. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/362249-trump-opens-gop-eyes-on-tax-reform

NOTE from Desktop Activist:

When I tried to call Sen. Flake's office Wednesday afternoon the mail box was full. (520) 575-8633. Hopefully, they've emptied it by today.  How about we bombard Sens. Flake and McCain with faxes, tweets and messages! Let's make 'em listen to us!

Here's Sen. Flake's fax numbers:

Washington, D.C. Office fax: 202-228-0515
Phoenix Office fax: 602-840-4092
Tucson Office fax: 520-797-3232

Tweet Flake at: @SenFlakeStaff

Here's Sen. Flake's website contact form:
https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-jeff

Here's Sen. McCain's fax numbers:

Phoenix Office fax: (855) 952-8702
Tucson Office fax: (855) 952-8702
Washington Office fax: (202) 228-2862

Tweet him @SenJohnMcCain

Here's Sen. McCain's website contact form:
https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form

Click here to send a letter to your senators today.

Scripts from Trumptaxscam.org

Six key senators haven’t decided whether or not to support a tax bill that puts health coverage on the line for millions — and they could cast a deciding vote this week.

Our Arizona senators are two of the six senators — so make sure you speak out today. These key lawmakers need to hear from as many of us as possible before they vote. Here's an easy way to tweet them — to make sure they reject any tax bill that puts health coverage at risk.

Sens. McCain and Flake: Listen to our calls!

All week, you’ve made calls, you’ve shown up… you’ve gotten loud. Now it’s time for us to get M-A-D.

Yesterday, in a razor-thin, party-line vote, the Senate Budget Committee passed the #TrumpTaxScam out of committee 12 votes to 11. The bill now heads to the Senate floor where it’s likely Members will vote on a Motion to Proceed (a pre-vote vote) this afternoon and will likely take a final vote on the bill this week.

We’re going to be honest, this will be close. It appears that Republicans have the votes to pass this wretched bill and they could vote on the full Senate floor as early as Friday afternoon. But this is the same exact scenario we experienced right before defeating the health care repeal in July. We can still do this.

Senators Flake and McCain must keep hearing from you. In Arizona alone, 1,017,100 families will see a tax increase by 2027. On top of that, 282,000 families would lose their health coverage by 2025 and many others would see their premiums increase by $2,060 in 2019.

We’re running out of time to stop this bill. So keep up the hard work:

1. Show up. Visit your Senator’s in-district office as often as you can between now and the final vote. Use our event organizing guide to plan your event and then register your event so others can find it here.
   
2. Make a call. Jam those phone lines. Get your friends and family to call. Make sure your voice is counted before your Senators go to vote.

Use our call scripts to inform your conversation with Senators Flake and McCain, and let them know just how much you hate this bill. We’ve set up a toll-free number (1-855-980-2350) to make it easier to call your Senators. It’ll randomly dial one of your Senators on the first call. Then, if you call back, you’ll get your other Senator.

- Indivisible 

Fight for a humane tax plan and healthcare: Share your personal story with these maverick senators

First, Senator Ron Johnson, an arch-conservative from Wisconsin, came out against the Republican Party's misguided plan to cut taxes for the wealthy and sabotage Obamacare.1 Then, 13 Republicans voted against the House tax bill. Now, Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski seem to be leaning our way, and a new analysis shows the Senate tax plan will actually RAISE taxes on the poor and the middle class--a huge political blow to the bill's chances.2,3

If Sens. Collins, Murkowski, and Johnson vote no, the bill is dead. That's why we're making Senate phones ring off the hook in Washington, D.C., and organizing our members in key states to tell their stories about what this tax DEFORM plan would mean for them.

Desperate for a win, Senator Mitch McConnell and Trump are pushing to pass their rich-person giveaway when they come back after Thanksgiving. That means we've got just one week to raise hell in Maine, Arizona, Nevada, and Alaska--the same kind of organizing that helped us kill Trumpcare earlier this year.

But just like this summer, we have to keep the pressure on senators from these states. We've got the cold hard facts: 13 million will lose their health insurance.4 Americans earning less than $75,000 a year will see their taxes INCREASE.5

We have to back up those facts with the stories of real people, real voters, who can't afford for this dangerous tax plan to become law.

- UltraViolet Action

Sources:

1. GOP tax plan in trouble after Republican senator says he won’t back it, The Washington Post, November 15, 2017
2. Why Republicans may have lost Susan Collins in their tax reform fight, Bangor Daily News, November 16, 2017
3. Murkowski Tax Vote Contingent on Stabilizing Individual Health Insurance Market, Roll Call, November 17, 2017
4. Repealing the Individual Health Insurance Mandate: An Updated Estimate, Congressional Budget Office, November 8, 2017
5. $1.5 Trillion Tax Cut Passed by House in Mostly Party-Line Vote, The New York Times, November 16, 2017

Does the #GOPTaxPlan treat corporations and individuals the same in terms of who gets to keep deductions and who doesn’t? Nope, not even close. WATCH VIDEO.

Contact Republican Senators Susan Collins
https://www.collins.senate.gov/contact
Washington office (202)224-2523

Contact Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski
https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/contact/email

Phone: (202)-224-6665
Fax: (202)-224-5301

Tax reform roadblocks emerge in Senate: Sens. John McCain and Lisa Murkowski have been wildcards, avoiding taking a public position on the proposal.

Senator McCain is also also a key player in this fight. 

You can contact Sen. McCain at his Tucson Office:

(520) 670-6334
Fax: (855) 952-8702

One way to reach him is to share you personal stories on his website:

https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form

Here's mine for inspiration:

Dear Senator McCain,

I live in Tucson where so many of your constituents are living paycheck to paycheck. They are one medical emergency from going bankrupt and losing their homes. Everyday I see more and more homeless people - some vets, some people who had to quit their jobs to care for a sick loved one, some who had a medical emergency. I'm urging you to take care of vulnerable Tucsonans. It is just heartless to pass a huge tax cut for the wealthiest Americans on the back of the most vulnerable. Why are you raising taxes on married couples who make less that $19050 a year? When my husband left me, I struggled to get by on spousal support. No one would hire me because I had been a stay at home mom. I could have easily become homeless. So many of us are just one emergency away from being homeless.

My parents in Missouri are just getting by on their limited retirement plan and social security.  My dad recently had gallbladder surgery. He could not have had that surgery without the help of Medicare.  They finally had to get a home health aide. That is also paid for by Medicare. This immoral tax plan even cuts the dependent deduction that enables families to take care of their elderly parents at home AND the deduction for their medical expenses. How are people supposed to get by? 

Senator McCain, please, don't take away our healthcare or make it even harder on the poor. I know you are a moral man; vote your conscious. Vote no on that cruel tax bill.

The GOP sneaks bad bills that the public fought into their tax reform bill

Will the GOP tax plan bring back jobs? 

The GOP has found a way to sneak the bad bills that the public fought into their tax reform bill - all under the guise of giving us a tax cut. This includes allowing drilling in our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, cutting the EV tax credit that makes clean vehicles affordable, limiting the ability of clean energy developers to use solar and wind tax credits (while fossil fuel companies still get theirs), cutting tax deductions for student loan interest, and not just dismantling Obamacare, but defunding Medicare and Medicaid!

The truth is that this tax plan will benefit big corporations and billionaires at the expense of the working class. After this irresponsible tax cut raises the deficit by $1.7 trillion, the GOP will use that as an excuse to cut even more vital services for the American people.

And for what? The taxes for the poorest Americans will actually go up. Married couples making less than $19,050 will pay 2% more. The taxes for the lower and middle class will increase steadily after 5 years. But the tax cuts for the wealthiest people the planet has ever known, will last FOREVER.

The 1% already has 90% of the wealth in America. But that isn't enough for them. They have invested millions of dollars in bribing our politicians. The GOP tax bill is their big payoff.

This will increase wealth inequality and give them even more power over our government and the American people. And they have no intention of giving anything to the American people. Look at the cabinet that Trump nominated. His choice to head the Department of Labor was Carl's Jr. CEO Andy Puzder who fought raising the minimum wage and cheated managers out of overtime pay.

They say this tax bill will bring companies back. Then why does it include a provision allowing companies to deduct moving expenses for relocating abroad? This tax bill won't bring back companies until the GOP succeeds in making the US "competitive" - which is code for paying us slave wages and dismantling worker protections. For a temporary minimal tax cut, are we willing to give up the protections that our ancestors sacrificed for?

When they say "Make America Great Again" is that code for going back to a time when a privileged few benefited from slavery?

Don't believe your bought and sold Representatives. (Rep. McSally, I mean you.) Do your own research on how the average American will fare with the new tax code.

Call your representatives, right now, and demand a better tax plan

This morning, Congressional leaders finally showed the American people their tax bill -- the one they were supposed to show us yesterday, and have been talking about behind closed doors for months.

So why the delay?

They've been afraid to show us what's inside ... and now, we know why.

We already knew this plan would cut taxes for rich people and corporations, and that's still true. But to pay for these unnecessary cuts, the money has to come from somewhere -- and Congress and the White House want it to come from hardworking middle-class families.

We can't let that happen. It's on all of us to call our representatives, right now, and demand a better tax plan CLICK HERE to be connected to your rep.

Here's how this plan could affect you:

1. If you're one of the millions of Americans who count on Medicaid, Medicare, and other middle-class programs ... this plan sets the stage for draconian cuts down the road, by adding $1.5 trillion to our deficit over the next decade.


2. If you claim certain deductions on your federal taxes because you are paying off student loans, or because you've incurred medical expenses, or because you pay your fair share in state income taxes ... this plan will take away your right to claim them.


3. If you're looking to buy a house ... a new cap would be placed on how much mortgage interest you'd be able to deduct.


4. If you get a tax credit because you're retired on disability, or because you have adopted children ... those vanish under this bill.

These moves aren't "closing loopholes," as Congressional leaders have claimed.

They're hurting millions of Americans, all so they can give tax breaks to huge corporations that don't need them. And, allow families worth more than $5 million to not pay a dollar of taxes on their estates.

This is what a bad process leads to: an equally bad bill. We shouldn't be surprised -- but it's up to us to make sure this doesn't go a step further.

Call your representative now to demand a better tax plan:

Rep. McSally

Tucson office
Phone: (520) 881-3588
Fax: (520) 322-9490

Washington, DC Office
Phone: (202) 225-2542
Fax: (202) 225-0378

https://mcsally.house.gov/contact