Statement
‘A Tax Plan Only a Billionaire Could Love’: Trump Proposal Is a Give-Away to the Wealthy and Corporations; the Childcare Components Are Inadequate At Best & the Proposal As a Whole Would Deepen Struggles for Moms and Families While Hurting Our Economy
April 26, 2017
Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996
Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO and Executive Director of MomsRising.org, a national online and on-the-ground organization of more than 1 million mothers and their families, on the Trump administration’s tax reform plan
“The tax proposal the Trump administration outlined today would be a disaster for the country. It rewards the wealthy and corporations while hurting moms, working families, and our economy. It would cut the corporate tax rate by 60 percent, losing $2.4 trillion over 10 years. That’s the five-year cost ($2.3 trillion) of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which serves children, seniors, people of color, people with disabilities, rural families, and families in need. In short, Trump’s plan would wreak havoc on our economy and punish families already struggling to get by, while giving free handouts to those who are already wealthy.
“Coupled with the budget proposal the Trump administration released earlier this year, this would create an all-out assault on seniors, people of color, LGBTQ families and other marginalized communities – massively redistributing wealth in a way that perpetuates and deepens social inequities.
“Rather than investing in working families, Trump’s tax plan lines the pockets of his rich friends and family – leaving everyday Americans to foot the bill. This is not the right direction for our country. Instead of another massive giveaway to the top 1 percent, we need a plan that boosts our economy overall by investing in working families and strengthening programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, while at the same time investing in programs that boost health care, education, nutrition and safety. In our consumer-fueled economy, if working families don’t have funds to spend, the whole economy suffers. The path that Trump is taking with his budget and tax plan leads in that destructive direction, which that has been proven harmful many times over.
“On childcare, the Trump plan is too little too late for too few. It offers not much more than false hope. Childcare now costs more than college in most states. So paying for childcare is a huge struggle for millions of families and Trump’s weak proposal would do little to assist those who are spending more than their mortgage to take care of their children each month. You can’t pay for high-quality childcare with money that you don’t have. Families need support when the childcare bill comes due – not a year later when they file their taxes. That’s why we need a national budget that invests money in programs (both existing and new) that address quality, affordability, access and strengthening the childcare workforce. Instead, this tax plan will line the pockets of corporations and the wealthy and produce huge deficits that, down the road, would result in cuts to the very programs that are providing childcare relief to families.
“This proposal not only would harm our economy, it threatens the wellbeing of women, communities of color, families, people who live in rural areas, and all those who struggle financially. Its enactment would be an absolute crisis for our nation, particularly for those who are in vulnerable communities, including: low-income families, people with disabilities, rural communities, and the elderly; with a compounding impact in Black, Latinx, Asian, Native American, and LGBTQ+ communities.
“This is a tax plan only a billionaire – who cares little about community or country – could love.”