Pallone Remarks at Energy Hearing on GOP Tax Scam
Washington, D.C. – Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following opening remarks today at a Subcommittee on Energy hearing on "The Benefits of Tax Reform on the Energy Sector and Consumers:"
This hearing is nothing more than a blatant attempt by the Republican majority to tout its unpopular Tax Scam in the hopes that middle-class Americans – who are not seeing any substantial benefits from the new law – might just reconsider their opposition.
I wouldn't bet on it. The GOP tax scam remains enormously unpopular with the American people. They understand that the new law overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy and corporate interests, while saddling them with rising health care costs, higher taxes on middle class homeowners, and drowning their children in new debt.
In fact, a poll released by Monmouth University on Monday shows that the majority of Americans are not fooled by this scam – only 34 percent of the public approves of the Republican tax law. And, the poll found that it is actually becoming less popular with time – dropping six points in approval since late April.
Republicans are obviously focusing this hearing around businesses because it is businesses and their wealthy owners who reap the main benefits of the GOP tax scam, not middle-class wage earners or their families.
Since passage of the tax bill in December, real average hourly earnings have not budged. In fact, a recent Washington Post analysis of the data released by the Trump Administration's Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that real average hourly earnings year-over-year have actually gone down slightly. So, it's easy to see why Republicans don't want to focus on their bill's impact on real wages for working Americans.
Even if you are a middle-class family who thought you might benefit from the GOP tax scam, chances are the policies pushed by President Trump and Congressional Republicans have more than wiped out that benefit. For instance, health care premiums are on the rise thanks to the tax bill eliminating the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate. The Congressional Budget Office recently stated that the average premium for a benchmark plan is about 34 percent higher than it was in 2017. And CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation actually expect premiums for these plans to increase by an additional 15 percent from 2018 to 2019 as a result of the GOP tax bill's provisions.
From an energy perspective gas prices at the pump are also going up thanks in large part to President Trump's reckless Middle East policy and his rollback of fuel economy standards. In the last three months, those actions have helped feed a 40-cent spike in the price of gas. In fact, the price at the pump has risen nearly 25 percent since President Trump took office. Analysts at Morgan Stanley have estimated that the increase this year alone will probably devour a full third of any savings people might have seen from the GOP tax plan.
For those in my home state of New Jersey, the GOP tax scam has been particularly painful. The elimination of a huge portion of the state and local tax deduction is increasing taxes on people who already pay huge amounts of federal tax. It's not just New Jersey – the same is true for middle-income homeowners in New York, California, Illinois, Connecticut, Oregon, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Rhode Island. Taxpayers in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia will also feel the pinch.
Americans understand that the GOP tax scam bill is only rewarding the wealthiest among us, while drowning our children's future in a sea of debt. It has already increased the debt to $20 trillion, and CBO has predicted that annual budget deficits will start to hit the $1 trillion mark by 2020.
And what do Republicans do when they create deficits by cutting taxes without paying for it – propose cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Speaker Ryan's already talked about so-called reform of these popular programs. And now, the Republican budget proposal, unveiled just yesterday, includes drastic cuts to all three programs.
The Republican tax law is a scam that benefits the wealthy and the corporate interests. The American people are not fooled, and no rhetoric thrown out today is going to change that fact.
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