Meehan, Casey talk taxes and politics at Delco parade
MEDIA » Members of Congress were among the special guests to the Veteran’s Day Parade in Media on Friday and took the time to comment on the Senate tax overhaul introduced earlier this week.
U.S. Senator Bob Casey, D-Pa., and U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan, R-7 of Chadds Ford, both agreed that the wave of Democratic party victories on Tuesday certainly came from the top down.
“I think the opposition to the extreme right in Washington, but it’s also a product of all the hard work in Delaware County by Democrats for years organizing and building a strong party, getting good candidates and running strong campaigns,” Casey said of the two Democrats Brian Zidek and Kevin Madden who were elected to county council on Tuesday. “It’s not simply by what’s happening in Washington, but I think both factors were substantial.”
Casey said the shift to a Democratic majority of registered votes in Delco parallels the shift in Montgomery County.
“It’s encouraging and it shows that even in a county that has been pretty lopsided for years, you can still build a strong local party,” Casey said. “They finally broke through.”
Meehan agreed that President Donald Trump’s often divisive rhetoric may have compelled more Democrats to the polls than in recent years, but he also absorbed some blame in Congress as well.
“Clearly a factor was that the president played a role and clearly Congress played a role in that we’ve failed to deliver on the agenda that some people were concerned about,” Meehan said. “Some people clearly came out in response to their concerns about the tenor and tone of what comes out of Washington.”
The Senate tax bill that was highlighted by Senate Republicans this week said it would preserve tax breaks for mortgage interest and medical expenses, and would mark a flat 10 percent tax rate for lower earners.
However, it also aims to removed the state and local tax deduction entirely while delaying the enforcement of a 20 percent corporate tax rate until 2019.
“The middle needs a good break, they don’t need a couple hundred dollars, they need a real substantial cut,” Casey said. “We can do that if the process was bipartisan.”
Meehan said that the common goals between the House and Senate bills are the same, but the differing opinions on the state and local tax deduction will mean stark compromise on those issues.
“We’re fighting hard on the state and local tax issue and the property tax issue,” Meehan said. “There’s a lot of common ground and that’s what I think is going to be the result, but we’ll have to see what the Senate does this week.”
Casey said that if Congressional Republicans do not “stiffarm” Democrats out of the equation, then the bill could be totally bipartisan.
“We should start with a great cut for the middle class. We can also help corporations but not a trillion-and-a-half dollars that’s permanent, that’s too high of a cost,” Casey said. “We should give companies a break, but we should make sure we start with the middle class tax cut.”
Meehan agreed that the focus should start with offering relief to working-class Americans.
“It really pays attention to everyday people, hardworking Americans who are struggling as it stands, and it’s going to offer them tax relief and bring real dollars back to their pockets,” Meehan said.