GOP tax plan a corporate giveaway disguised as reform

President Trump is telling lies. As he tried Wednesday to sell the “tax reform package” he told his audience that he would not benefit from this bill. As many things that come out of this president’s mouth, that is simply not true.

The current Republican tax bill would mostly benefit billionaires and millionaires like Trump, as well as wealthy corporations, all on the backs of middle-class and working-class Americans. 

{mosads}It is down to the wire with this harmful tax legislation. Americans need to rally against the GOP corporate and billionaire tax break bill disguised as tax reform. It will hurt most American middle-class families and workers who are the ones who need and deserve an economic break.  

Republicans hope to ram this bill through Congress this week in a desperate attempt to demonstrate that they can get something done, even if it does real harm to most Americans.  

Tax reform is a major undertaking, and it touches every corner of our economy. Americans deserve a real attempt to get it right. That is not what is happening here.  

This partisan Republican bill was written behind closed doors and had no input from Democrats. There have been no hearings on it, and from the beginning, Republicans showed their hand when they maneuvered to get this passed with a simple majority vote. They had no intention of making this a bipartisan effort.   

All of the nonpartisan analyses that have been done on this bill point to just how harmful it would be to most Americans — those not in the 1 percent or who lead big corporations.  

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office report released earlier this week said this bill will actually hurt poor people more than originally thought and that it would add $1.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.  

This Senate GOP tax bill would adversely affect those making $30,000 or less by 2019 and those making under $75,000 by 2027. It would also lead to rising health premiums and to 13 million more Americans being uninsured by 2027.

All of this would happen in order to fund a huge tax relief package for the wealthy and large corporations who do not need the help.

It would also hurt our efforts to shore up education, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs that middle-income Americans count on. The bill even goes as far as eliminating a tax deduction for teachers — all in order to give more money to those most well off.  

This tax plan also gives huge tax breaks on most foreign profits. But only big corporations would be able to really take advantage of this loophole, while small businesses would be at a disadvantage.

That’s why a majority of small business owners are skeptical of the Republican tax plan. They know it would benefit large corporations over small businesses.

This effort is truly cynical as it is clearly not an effort to reform our very complicated tax code the right way, with bipartisan input, so that it works for the majority of Americans who actually need tax relief.  

The fact that the Senate bill would make the tax giveaway to corporations permanent while sun-setting the tax cuts for individuals after 10 years, is a clear indication of where the GOP’s priorities lie — not with working Americans, single moms and dads or families trying to make ends meet. 

Every nonpartisan analysis of this bill indicates that the majority of Americans will be worse off economically after 10 years than if Congress had done absolutely nothing.  

Republicans will say that there are many gifts here for the middle class — increasing the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000, which is a good thing. But the rub is that in the long run, the middle class loses while millionaires, billionaires and especially corporations will be better off.  

The cynicism of this bill is so blatant that it also attempts to repeal the individual mandate, again in effort to loosen up money to give away to the rich. Meddling in our complicated health-care system in a bill that tries to “reform” our even more-complicated tax code is not a recipe for success or for long term progress.  

There is a reason why the more Americans learn about this bill, the less they like it. Polls show approval of this bill is low and keeps dropping the more voters learn about the details.  

If Republicans are serious about actual tax reform that helps Americans, they would not be obsessed with giving corporations huge tax cuts. After all, corporations are making record profits and more money will not make them invest in more jobs. 

Americans need to get engaged and call their senators and President Trump to tell them to stop lying about this bill.

Americans need to tell them not to give huge tax giveaways to the wealthy while making the middle-class pay for it. Everyone understands what fairness is. The GOP tax bill is the furthest thing from it.

Maria Cardona is a principal at the Dewey Square Group, a Democratic strategist and a CNN/CNN Español political commentator. Follow her on Twitter @MariaTCardona.