Toomey, Meehan praise tax cuts
Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. calls GOP reform bill ‘obscene’
It did not take long once the Senate passed a massive tax cut plan in the dead of the night for the responses to start pouring in. They were swift, primarily along party lines, after the U.S. Senate passed H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a $1.5 trillion tax bill, in the early morning hours Saturday.
“There it is at 1:51 a.m., a tax scheme written hastily behind closed doors has passed the Senate,” Democratic Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey tweeted. “The super-rich & corporate donors get their tax cuts while many middle-class families will pay more. Obscene.”
His counterpart, U.S. Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., disagreed.
“Passage of this pro-growth tax reform bill brings hardworking Pennsylvanians one step closer to seeing a direct pay raise and better job opportunities,” Toomey wrote in a statement. “Our bill directly lowers the tax burden for middle-income families and fun-
damentally restructures the business tax code so American workers and businesses can compete globally. It transforms one of the world’s worst business tax codes into one of the most competitive, making it easier for entrepreneurs to start new businesses and giving employers greater incentives to buy new capital equipment and bring operations home from overseas.”
Toomey said he anticipated widespread benefits from this legislation.
“I am confident these reforms will unleash a surge in economic growth and job creation,” Toomey said. “I hope the House and Senate soon come together to finish our work on this bill and deliver on our promise of a better and brighter economic future for all Americans.”
U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-7th Dist., spoke about the bill when the House approved its version of a tax reform measure last month.
“Middle-class families deserve tax relief, and that’s what this bill delivers,” said Meehan. “We double the standard deduction. We lower rates for middle-class families. And we preserve important deductions like mortgage interest, property taxes and charitable contributions. We add and expand tax credits that will help families make ends meet. For a middle-class family in Pennsylvania, your tax bill
will be lower and paying it will be simpler.
“We’ve streamlined a maze of education tax credits, and included my bipartisan bill to make apprenticeship programs more affordable. We give small businesses a break. And we rewrite the tax code for job creators, taking away incentives to send jobs and dollars overseas so we can put more Americans to work here at home. This legislation means higher wages, bigger paychecks, more jobs and faster growth for Pennsylvania,” he said.
Those vying for his position from the Democratic Party had other perspectives.
State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17th Dist., tweeted, “Apparently, the #GOP #TaxBill was physically written by lobbyists using whiteout, crayons & fingerpaint, with actual phrasing like “in case of ambiguity, just give more money to rich white dudes” & “deficit ... schmeficit.”
Another Democrat running for the 7th District seat, Drew McGinty, said the bill was a “blatant giveaway to corporations and the wealthiest Americans” while adding close to $2 trillion to the national debt.
“This morning around 2 a.m., greed and political ambition guided our representatives in the Senate to vote in favor of a tax bill that will continue to perpetuate a culture that favors corporate donors and the wealthiest of Americans of hardworking, middle-class Pennsylvanians,” he said. “It’s shameful and embarrassing
that this bill was passed without any hearings or due process. That is not how we pass legislation in America.”
Others were pleased the legislation passed the Senate and touted its highlights.
The National Federation of Independent Business President and CEO Juanita Duggan spoke of the Senate’s passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
“We are pleased to see the Senate pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which will provide significant tax relief to small businesses,” she said. “For small businesses, federal taxes are too high. The tax code is too complicated. Complying with the rules is too costly. According to our research, five of the top 10 problems for small business owners relate to the federal tax code. Tax reform is an economic imperative and it’s one step closer. We urge leaders in the House and Senate to reconcile their respective plans quickly so the president can sign tax reform into law this year.”
Here, in Pennsylvania, the measure is expected to generate 37,639 new jobs and residents will receive an extra $2,683 in aftertax income, according to the Tax Foundation.
In congruence with that, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christiana Purves chided Casey’s opposing vote.
“Pennsylvanians will remember Bob Casey’s vote against tax reform,” Purves said. “Casey has obstructed tax reform from the beginning
and voters have the opportunity to replace him in 2018 with someone who puts the best interest of Pennsylvanians ahead of partisan politics.”
Others said the plan was not beneficial to the poor and middle classes.
“Budgets are, it is frequently said, moral documents,” said Marc Stier, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. “If that is true, and we believe it is, then the tax plan adopted by the Senate today represents an extreme moral failure on the part of the Republican Party. At a time when incomes are becoming ever more unequal, the Republican tax plan will ultimately make the rich richer and the poor and middle class poorer. It will benefit corporations at the expense of families. And, because of the repeal of the individual mandate, it will cost 13 million people nationwide — and 500,000 in
Pennsylvania — health insurance leading to 1,000 to 2,000 premature deaths in our state alone.”
Antoinette Kraus, executive director of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, had a similar sentiment.
“The Senate Republican tax plan would provide enormous, permanent tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and large corporations while adding at least $1.5 trillion to the deficit,” she said. “These cuts will be paid for by tax increases
on middle-class families and increasing the number of uninsured Americans by 13 million and will later necessitate deep cuts to programs that benefit the most vulnerable, including Medicaid and Medicare.
“Pennsylvanians,” she continued, “do not support dismantling our health care system in order to fund a tax cut for the wealthiest. PHAN calls on our representatives in the House to reject this harmful bill when it returns to the House for consideration.”