Today, Senate Republicans passed their tax bill that harms working families, will blow a huge hole in the deficit, and I fear will lead to drastic cuts to vital programs in the years ahead. Yet again, our children and our communities will end up paying the price for irresponsible and immoral Republican tax giveaways.
There is another way the bill would impact New Mexico: Elimination of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. This deduction allows tax filers to deduct the taxes they pay in state and local taxes, which primarily impacts states like California and New York with higher incomes and higher amounts of progressivity in their tax structure. A report by the Democrats on the Senate Joint Economic Committee found that would reduce school funding by $94 million.
In six years, according to Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, the CFPB has responded to more than 1 million consumer complaints, reduced consumer debts by nearly $8 billion, provided protections from mortgage service and credit card fees, barred excessive interest rate hikes and limited predatory sales practices aimed at young consumers. Its enforcement action led to a $100 million penalty against Wells Fargo, whose employees were given incentives for opening phony accounts for customers without their knowledge.
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee, delivered the following statement at today’s hearing on the economic outlook with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
“I’m not opposed to a more competitive corporate tax system, but not one financed on the backs of middle-class families,” Heinrich, the ranking member of the congressional Joint Economic Committee, told the Journal. “The GOP plan takes away family tax deductions and exemptions and uses that money to cut corporate rates. I think they ought to find savings within the corporate tax code in order to finance corporate rate reduction, instead of their current plan that raises taxes on working families to do it.”
Under the current Senate bill, an individual in Ohio earning about $25,000 a year could get a tax cut of about $340. But, according to the nonpartisan Joint Economic Committee, a 27-year-old in Ohio, earning about $25,000 a year, would see their health insurance premiums increase by $395 a year. So, they are getting $340 in tax cuts. But paying $395 more for health insurance. They are now $55 in the hole. And for a family of four in Ohio earning $60,000 a year, they could expect a $630 tax cut under this bill. But the Joint Economic Committee says they are going to pay $1,431 more in health insurance premiums under this bill. So they are in the hole $800.
Republicans seem to believe we can afford massive amounts of additional deficit spending, because their tax planbusts the budget by $1.5 trillion over 10 years to provide more tax breaks for the wealthy and special interests. If Republicans insist on deficit spending, imagine if instead we invested in our people and communities.
Meanwhile a Nov. 15 Joint Economic Committee Democrats’ report faults the House tax package (H.R. 1) for putting an estimated 4.5 million jobs at risk over next 10 years by eliminating Private Activity Bonds, the New Markets Tax Credits, and the Historic Tax Credit Program.
Even with the struggles some veterans face transitioning to civilian life, the economic state of the veteran community is on an upward trend. Overall, the nation’s 20.5 million veterans earn more, experience lower unemployment, are more likely to have health insurance, and less likely to live in poverty than their non-veteran peers.
A report released by Democratic members of the Joint Economic Committee highlights causes of the increasing cost of college for many Americans. It identifies, among those, declining state support for public institutions, incentives for institutions at odds with keeping programs affordable, and failures in the regulatory system to hold programs failing students accountable.
