DeLauro Remarks on GOP Tax Scam

WASHINGTON, DC (December 19, 2017) – Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today spoke from the House Floor in opposition to the Republican tax scam bill, which cuts taxes for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations at the expense of middle class families.

Here are DeLauro's remarks, as prepared for delivery:

I rise in strong opposition to this Republican tax scam. The biggest economic challenge of our time is that too many people are in jobs that do not pay enough to live on. Wages are not keeping up with rising costs, and too many families struggle to make ends meet.

Meanwhile, big corporations, millionaires, and billionaires write the rules to make government work for them—and Republicans are their comrades in arms in rigging the game against the middle class.

Senator Orrin Hatch said, and I quote: "I have a rough time wanting to spend billion and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won't help themselves, won't lift a finger, and expect the federal government to do everything." This is the ugly truth of the Republican tax bill. This is what the vote was about. These are their values on display.

This final tax bill is even worse than we feared—it lowers the tax rate for the wealthiest people even more than either of the original bills—while repealing a key element of the Affordable Care Act, which will result in premium increases and 13 million people losing their insurance. Where are our values?

It also leaves behind vulnerable families with their shameful proposal for the Child Tax Credit—shutting out military families, rural families, large families, minimum wage earners, and those with the youngest children. And Republicans have raised the income limit on the credit to an amount that will make Members of Congress eligible—while low income families are excluded.

We should be reforming our tax system so that it encourages the creation of jobs here at home. This tax bill fails in every respect, and I strongly urge my colleagues to oppose it.