“The American people deserve to understand why you are supporting even more deficit-busting tax giveaways for giant corporations, while also cheerleading Republican demands to inflict painful, job-killing austerity on everyone else in a pretense of ‘fiscal responsibility’.”
Republican tax cuts for wealthy and giant corporations added trillions to deficit; Republicans are now demanding cuts to critical programs for working families but also trillions in further tax breaks for the rich
Washington (May 26, 2023) – Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, sent a letter to the CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber), seeking answers about the organization’s continued alignment with Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives to extend tax cuts for wealthy and giant corporations, which have already contributed trillions to the national deficit – while, in the words of the Chamber’s chief policy officer, “cheerleading” House Republicans and their radical debt ceiling hostage demands to cut critical programs for working families.
“House Republicans are using the debt ceiling to hold the U.S. economy hostage and demand massive cuts to critical programs relied on by millions of hardworking Americans. At the same time, these Republicans plan to turn around and introduce a tax package next month that will reportedly include proposals to extend [Tax Cuts and Job Act] tax giveaways, which could add a staggering additional $3.5 trillion to the deficit. Meanwhile, the Chamber continues to lobby for these outrageous tax breaks for its giant corporate members… the Chamber appears to be fully in support of this shameless hypocrisy,” wrote the senators.
In the letter, the senators call out the Chamber and Republicans for working to extend their 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy and giant corporations, even in the midst of their supposed concerns about government debt. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TJCA), which the Chamber spent millions to pass, increased the deficit by $1.9 trillion in order to pay for tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the richest individuals and corporations.
Now, Republicans – who manufactured a debt ceiling crisis by passing trillion in tax cuts when they were in charge – are threatening to let the government default on these debts it already owes unless radical cuts are made to critical programs for working families. These radical demands include cutting almost every government program that Americans rely on by at least 22% and kicking millions of the poorest Americans off Medicaid, food stamps, and income assistance by applying work requirements that are ineffective at promoting employment but effective as red tape.
“[Republicans’ reported new tax package] would bring the total cost of these Republican tax cuts to over $5.4 trillion over 15 years. Republicans spent $1.9 trillion on the first 10 years of TCJA tax cuts – with the richest 20% of Americans getting 72% of the benefits, and the richest 1% alone getting 27% of the benefits. If not for those Trump tax cuts, along with the Bush tax cuts and their extensions, U.S. debt would actually be declining as a share of GDP. Now, Republican proposals to make temporary TCJA tax giveaways permanent would add an additional $3.5 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, according to a new estimate by the Congressional Budget Office. Once again, the richest 20% would receive nearly two-thirds of the tax cuts and the richest 5% nearly 40%,” continued the senators.
Given the Chamber’s apparent support for Republicans’ shameless hypocrisy of adding trillions to the national debt through tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations while holding critical programs for families hostage, the senators are asking the Chamber to answer, by June 2, 2023, a set of questions about its support for this plan and its continued efforts lobbying for it.
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