Tell Democrats: Repeal the Trump Tax Scam

Did you discover that your tax refunds are far smaller than expected?

Petition to Democratic elected officials and candidates: "You must repeal the Trump tax cuts that mostly benefit corporations and the richest 1%. It is time for corporations and the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. We need trillions of dollars in new revenues over the next 10 years to protect critical services like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which benefit working families, and to make new investments in education, housing, infrastructure, a Green New Deal and more, to meet our nation’s growing needs. We demand an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy few." Add your name:

The admission – buried in the latest economic forecast from the Trump administration – comes as many Americans are angrily discovering that their tax refunds are far smaller than expected, even as corporations hand their million-dollar handouts to rich shareholders.1,2  After making huge promises about the Trump Tax Scam's effects, the White House just admitted it won't actually deliver long-term growth. The Tax Scam was always immoral, and now America is seeing how many lies Trump told to get it passed. Every single Democrat must commit to repealing this monstrosity. Tell Democrats: Commit to repeal the Trump Tax Scam. Click here to sign the petition. Corporate Democrats already attacked commonsense proposals for a top 70 percent tax rate from progressive champions like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Before long, corporate Democrats will propose preserving huge chunks of the Tax Scam in a bid to appease donors. By 2020, it could be difficult for your average voter to distinguish between the party of Trump tax handouts for billionaires and the muddled opposition. There is no good reason for Democrats to preserve any part of this Tax Scam. It will kill jobs and lower wages by exacerbating income inequality and encouraging growth on Wall Street instead of Main Street.3 On top of that, it is: Heartless health care robbery. The Trump Tax Scam sabotages the Affordable Care Act protections keeping healthy people in insurance markets, which could end up costing 13 million people their health care.4 Horrifyingly unjust. The Trump Tax Scam is pouring gasoline on the already-raging fire of inequality in America. Multinational corporations are seeing massive tax handouts despite sitting on billions in offshore profits, while everyday Americans get pocket change. White Americans are disproportionately benefiting while communities of color struggle.5 An excuse for more cruel cuts. Even before handing trillions to the ultra-wealthy, Trump and the Trump Republicans in Congress began to insist that we must cut the earned benefits that tens of millions of people rely upon. Their phony deficit hysteria is a deliberate ploy to make Americans more dependent on Wall Street and corporate employers by destroying our earned benefits.6 Deeply unpopular. Only 33 percent of Americans support the Trump Tax Scam, even with a major Republican publicity push. If progressives lead the charge to point out the way the bill benefits multinational corporations at the expense of our communities, those numbers will only get worse.7 Democrats will fail if they become the party of tweaking the Trump Tax Scam. They must draw a clear, dividing line by promising to repeal the Trump Tax Scam in its entirety. Tell Democrats: Repeal the Trump Tax Scam. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/repeal-trump-tax-scam-2019/?t=9&akid=32136%2E3130208%2Ey0o5iE - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Jim Tankersley, "Trump’s Tax Cut Won’t Power the Growth He Predicts, Officials Concede," The New York Times, March 19, 2019. Ben Casselman and Jim Tankersley, "Faster Tax Cuts Could Be Backfiring on Republicans," The New York Times, March 19, 2019. Ryan Cooper, "Democrats need to unabashedly support raising taxes," The Week, Oct. 25, 2017. David Lazarus, “GOP tax bill also manages to needlessly screw up the healthcare system,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 19, 2017. Jim Tankersley, “'White Americans Gain the Most From Trump’s Tax Cuts, a Report Finds,” The New York Times, Oct. 11, 2018. Tara Golshan, “Top Republicans are already talking about cutting Medicare and Social Security next,” Vox, Dec. 18, 2017. Hannah Levintova, “Yes, Your Tax Refund Is Smaller,” Mother Jones, Feb. 28, 2019. More information:  Is a Tax Refund Ahead in Your 2019? Some Taxpayers Received a Tax Bill Instead - Fortune

Tell Congress: No holiday tax handouts for Wall Street

Petition to Congress: "Americans resoundingly rejected Republican tax policy in November. Congress should block the Brady tax bill, which is full of holiday handouts for wealthy special interests and preserves the Trump Tax Scam's incentives for outsourcing jobs." Add your name:

The Trump Tax Scam's handouts for wealthy corporations proved so ineffective and unpopular that the bill contributed to historic blowout losses for Republicans in the recent elections, with the largest gains for Democrats in the House of Representatives since 1974.1 So, of course, Republicans have responded with a new bill full of tax-handout holiday gifts for rich and well-connected elites.2 House Republican Kevin Brady recently introduced a new tax package full of handouts for Wall Street, and Republicans are expected to move it forward as soon as Thursday.3 We can't let that happen. Tell Congress: No holiday tax handouts for Wall Street. Click here to sign the petition. It is a rotten holiday season for General Motors workers. The company announced a few weeks ago that it is cutting 15 percent of its American workforce and shuttering five manufacturing plants.4 The 2017 Trump Tax Scam provides tax incentives for companies to do just this sort of outsourcing.5 But instead of ending Trump's outsourcing incentive, Republicans are trying to make it a very happy holiday season for well-connected elites, financiers and special interests. And in last-minute changes to the bill on Monday, Republicans added even more special interest tax breaks and language repealing a decades-old amendment that prohibits nonprofits from engaging in political activities. The new Brady tax package fails to repeal the worst of the Trump Tax Scam. In fact, it tinkers with a bill American voters soundly rejected at the polls. House Republicans are in such a rush to pass it without hearings or a chance for Democrats to adequately review its hundreds of pages that we are not even sure of the full extent of the damage it would do. But allies already know it "contains handouts and favors for narrowly tailored and wealthy special interests such as NASCAR race track owners, race-horse breeders, movie producers, venture capitalists, and paid tax prep companies."6 The end of year, lame-duck session of Congress creates intense pressure. Lobbyists press their advantage on members of Congress desperate to wrap up business and head out of town. We need a fierce response to make sure corporate Democrats stand strong and Republicans abandon their plans for yet more tax handouts for the wealthiest few. Tell Congress: No holiday tax handouts for Wall Street. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/brady_tax_2018?t=7&akid=30933%2E3130208%2Ew7G2YV -Josh Nelson, Co-Director, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Harry Enten, "Latest House results confirm 2018 wasn't a blue wave. It was a blue tsunami." CNN, Dec. 6, 2018. Jeff Stein, "House GOP’s lame-duck tax package would cost $55 billion, CBO says," The Washington Post, Nov. 28, 2018. Americans for Tax Fairness, "51 National Groups Oppose New Brady House Tax-Cut Package," Nov. 29, 2018. Soo Youn and Jeffrey Kirk, "General Motors to lay off 15 percent of workers, shutter 5 plants in North America," ABC News, Nov. 26, 2018. Americans for Tax Fairness, "51 National Groups Oppose New Brady House Tax-Cut Package." Ibid.

Call your representative before tomorrow's vote: Vote NO on the tax bill

Less than 72 hours ago -- on a Friday at 5:30 p.m. -- House and Senate leaders released the final version of a tax bill that will reshape the entire economy.

Tomorrow, with one working day to review more than 500 pages, your representative will likely vote on a bill that:

• Leaves 13 million fewer Americans with health care
• Adds $1.4 trillion to our debt
• Gives huge breaks to millionaires and wealthy corporations
• Ultimately makes many middle-class families pay more

This is unacceptable.

Call your representative before tomorrow's vote, and tell him or her to vote NO on this bill. OFA's call tool will connect you in just two clicks:

Make the call

- Saumya Narechania
Organizing for Action

NOTE from Desktop Activist Tucson: I left a personal message for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan using the link above. 

The Trump Tax Scam is now Trumpcare!

Make a call to key Senate Republicans: Stop Trump’s handout for the wealthy and big corporations

Donald Trump wants to reward tax-dodging corporations and the ultra-wealthy with a huge tax handout while raising taxes on everyone else and slashing the social safety net. Cruel and craven Republicans in the House voted this month to pass his bill, but a few key Senate Republicans have the power to stop it from becoming law and they need to hear from you. Can you make a call today? Click below for a sample script and the number to call:

Recently cruel and craven Republicans in the House voted in favor of a huge giveaway to corporations and the wealthiest Americans. Now the fight turns to the Senate, where the bill would sneakily repeal part of the Affordable Care Act.1 Senate Republicans may try to rush a vote on the Trump-Tax Scam-turned-Trumpcare as early as this week.2 The Trump tax scam would make deep cuts to the social safety net and raise taxes on middle- and lower-income families – all while giving Trump and his wealthy friends trillions in handouts.3,4 As we showed when we stopped Trumpcare, our collective action makes a difference, and now that the Trump Tax Scam is Trumpcare all over again, we must show up in force to stop this dumpster fire of a bill in its tracks. Call key Republican senators: 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. Will you call now to tell them we are watching and that it's unacceptable for them to do anything less than fully resist Trump’s tax scam? Call key Republican senators: No tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. Click the link below to get started with your calls. https://act.credoaction.com/call/Stop_Trump_Tax_Scam_Senate/?t=7&akid=26177%2E3130208%2EmLobc_ - Kaili Lambe CREDO Action from Working Assets Click below for a sample script and the number to call: References: Heather Long, “The House is voting on its tax bill Thursday. Here’s what is in it.” The Washington Post, Nov. 16, 2017. Ashley Killough and Lauren Fox, “Here are the Senate Republicans who will decide the fate of the tax bill,” CNN, Nov. 20, 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. Long, “The House is voting on its tax bill Thursday. Here’s what is in it.” 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.

Congress is expected to vote on a devastating tax plan before Thanksgiving. Call your rep now!

Where billionaires get their money 

Congress is expected to vote on a devastating tax plan before Thanksgiving. For millions of Americans, this certainly won’t be a time of thanks.

Unfortunately, the legislation represents more of the same policies we’ve been seeing—tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals and corporations alongside deep cuts to crucial programs on healthcare, education, nutrition, disaster relief, environmental programs, and other services that support our communities. Even deductions for high medical bills, including nursing home care and hospitalization, may disappear.

“Pass-through companies”—in which income "passes through" the business and ends up on the individual tax returns of the business owner and are thus taxed at the lower, individual level—stand to benefit in a big way. The Trump Organization is an example of a pass-through company.

The bill is anything but a so-called tax break for the middle class.

We will face:

• Up to half-a-trillion dollars cut from Medicare and Medicaid
• Substantial increase in the national debt with no way to pay it off
• Elimination of state and local tax deductions – designed to hit people who live in "blue" states the hardest
• Repeal of an itemized deduction for medical expenses – hitting people who rack up large medical bills because of the inadequacies of our health insurance system
• Repeal of the deduction for interest on student loans
• Repeal of the deduction for teachers purchasing classroom supplies
• Slashed incentives for wind energy and electric vehicles, while maintaining most of the permanent oil incentives and extending nuclear energy tax breaks

Big corporations and the 1% wealthiest people do not need up to $1.5 trillion in tax cuts! What we need is a tax bill that supports a truly green economy, in which social justice and environmental sustainability are the priorities.

We need to flood Congressional offices immediately with calls opposing the Republican tax plan and calling for an economy that supports prosperity for everyone. Wouldn’t that be real tax fairness?

Call today while negotiations over the tax bill are still in process – your action can make a difference!

1. Find your Representative in Congress
  
2. Call Capital Switchboard: 202-224-3121

Sample Phone Message:
Hello, my name is ______ from City/state. I am calling to urge Representative ______ to vote against the House tax bill. I am deeply concerned about the need to maintain support for crucial social and environmental programs. The wealthiest individuals and corporations in our country should pay their fair share of taxes, not less. I urge Representative _______ to oppose this bill and instead to support an economy that truly works for people and the planet – including support for healthcare, education, nutrition, disaster relief, environmental programs and community services. Thank you.

- Fran Teplitz, Green America  

Tell your Senators to reject Donald Trump and the GOP's tax plan that cuts taxes for the top 1 percent - at our expense

House Republicans have unveiled their tax plan, and you shouldn’t believe the hype.
 
They’ll tell you that high-income households won’t receive tax breaks. And that their tax plan will result in higher wages for working people. Both are false.
 
Thanks to another loophole they’ve added for so-called “pass-through” income, top 1 percent households will receive a massive tax cut. They call this a tax cut for small businesses. That’s also false. According to a recent Treasury Department report, 70 percent of “pass-through” income is claimed by the top 1 percent.
 
They’ll also claim that lower corporate tax rates will trickle-down to working people. But, across U.S. states, reductions in corporate tax rates are not associated with faster median wage growth. They result in a higher share of income going to the top 1 percent.

Stand with the EPI Policy Center and our partners in rejecting Donald Trump and Republican leaders’ tax plan that benefits corporations and the top 1 percent at the expense of working families. Write to your members of Congress today!
 
A big tax cut for the rich is just one half of the plan set out in the budget resolution approved by Republicans last month. The other half includes huge cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other valuable programs that help the most vulnerable.
 
Instead of tax breaks for hedge funds and private equity firms that are paid for with cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, we need a tax plan that invests in our country’s future.

Write to your members of Congress today and tell them to reject Donald Trump and Republican leaders’ tax plan that cuts taxes for the top 1 percent.
 
We should be crystal clear on this point: Claims that cutting taxes for rich businesses will trickle-down to boost the wages of typical Americans are baseless. This is a tax cut that starts with the rich and will stick with the rich. America is a rich country that can do much better for working families, but only if the “tax cuts for the rich, first and always” zealotry of today’s Republicans is rejected by the American people and defeated in the halls of Congress.
 
- Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute 

Participating organizations:

AFL-CIO
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund
Courage Campaign
CPD Action
Daily Kos
Demand Progress
Democracy for America
EPI Policy Center
People Demanding Action
People For the American Way
People’s Action
Tax March
The Nation

Petition to Stop the Republican tax plan!

Republican leaders are about to give their best friends and donors -- millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations -- a massive tax break. They plan on paying for these tax breaks by gutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, and other critical services that working families rely on.(1) And they’re trying to sell it all to the American people as “tax reform.”

The Republican tax plan is not only an attack on our health but on the very fabric of our well-being. But it’s not over yet! We’ll have to mobilize as vigilantly as we did in the fight to protect our health care to stop this blatant abuse of working families.

Sign the petition to reject Republican plans to cut Social Security, health care, and public education, while giving massive tax breaks to the rich and powerful.

Congress’ first vote on a tax proposal was held two days ago and the GOP is scrambling to try to push their Trump-Ryan tax plan through and set it on a fast-track.

Their proposed budgets would slash between $4 and $6 trillion from services that children, seniors, people with disabilities, and working people depend on. All while middle-class families will pay up to 25% more in taxes.(2)

Taxes increased and services cut to those that need the most assistance so that wealthy campaign donors can receive up to 80% in tax cuts!(3) This is a scam -- plain and simple. And we know Trump is no stranger to scamming.

As Senator Elizabeth Warren puts it, “Washington already works great for those who can afford to stash money in the Cayman Islands or ship jobs overseas. Now Donald Trump and Republican leaders want to rig the system even more.”(4) We won’t let the GOP continue to rig the system. We stopped their plan to kill our health care and we can stop their plan to rob us blind.

Sign our petition demanding that any tax plan Congress passes must require the wealthy and giant corporations to pay their fair share of taxes while protecting the American people's essential services.

People like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan are willing to take health care, affordable housing, quality education, job training, and food assistance away from millions of Americans. All to give massive tax breaks to billionaires and wealthy corporations.

$450 billion cut from Medicare. $1 trillion cut from Medicaid.(5) And that’s just health care. There’s also the billions of dollars they want to cut from programs that feed low-income children and seniors, provide job training to help lift people out of poverty, and support public education and college for the next generation to get ahead.

It’s way past time for the rich to pay their fair share so we can invest in our country’s future. A better and brighter America with exceptional schools, health care for all, affordable homes, staffed libraries, clean parks, new roads, and retirement funds. And it all depends on you. We must make our voices heard.

Help stop the Republican plan to cut essential services working families rely on while increasing their taxes to fund tax giveaways for the rich and wealthy.

-the Courage team

Footnotes
1. https://theintercept.com/2017/10/04/senate-budget-tax-cuts-medicare-medicaid-health-care/
2. http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/sites/default/files/publication/144971/a_preliminary_analysis_of_the_unified_framework_0.pdf
3. Refer to note
4. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-trillion-cut-from-social-security-medicare-medicaid-henley-haugh
5. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/29/16387518/senate-republicans-budget-cut-medicare