Senate Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi hosted a press conference on April 15 at the San Francisco Labor Council to highlight the impact President Trump’s tax plan has had on California’s working families — a day before the federal tax deadline.
According to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, Trump’s tax plan — which has been in effect since December of last year — gave those with the highest income the biggest tax cuts, while middle and working class American families have experienced an increase in their income tax.
“It’s an absolute act of cruelty,” Pelosi said of the tax plan. “It is a dark cloud hanging over the capitol and our children’s future.”
The analysis reports that over the next decade, Trump’s tax policy will increase taxes on non-business individual income by $470 billion while reducing taxes on business income by $2.6 trillion.
Earlier this year, corporations including AT&T, Bank of America and Walmart gave a number of their employees a $1,000 bonus check.
In the case of Walmart, it had only given the bonus to employees who had been working there for over 20 years.
Critics have said that while these bonuses are helpful to those struggling with economic insecurity, it is a relatively small amount considering how much these corporations stand to benefit from the recent tax plan.
A recent article by USA Today reports that the number of companies giving and informing their workers of benefits has drastically slowed and that most of the tax savings are being given to corporate stock shareholders.
“It’s a scam,” Pelosi said. “A fraud — an opportunity cost for our country. Out of the S&P 500 companies, fewer than 45 of them have given benefits to their workers and 86 million middle-class American families will pay more in taxes under the life of this bill.”
Susan Solomon, the executive vice-president of the United Educators of San Francisco, also spoke at Sunday’s event, represented the teachers of San Francisco.
“Our students and families have taken a major hit from this tax bill,” Solomon said. “In this era of Betsy Devos and Donald Trump, we face a hurdle: a tax scam that will not touch the top one percent, but take thousands of dollars more from the pockets of dedicated educators who are trying to make a living.”
Solomon spoke in support of Proposition G, a local tax initiative on the June 5 ballot, that will seek to further fund educator salaries, along with implementing a number of additional benefits to the San Francisco Unified School District.
“While Trump’s tax plan did become law it did so without a single Democratic vote,” said Nicole Gill, the executive director of the Tax March.
The Tax March has connected with a coalition of more than 70 organizations united in fighting the GOP tax bill. On April 15 of last year, the Tax March was responsible for organizing the largest singleday grassroots mobilization of
Americans marching for tax reform and transparency.
Pelosi attacks Trump’s tax plan locally and abroad “Trump’s tax plan will fundamentally change our cities, our states and our country if we don’t repeal it,” Gill said. “A majority of American workers will see absolutely no benefit at all and many will end up paying more in taxes plus having to deal with rising health care premiums.”
Over the past three months, both Pelosi and Gill have hosted Trump tax town halls in communities across the country including in: Phoenix, Chicago and Houston. The town halls focused on connecting with middle-class families and individuals and informing them of the bill’s actions.
“We need to come together in a bipartisan way and write a tax bill that creates growth, generates good paying jobs and reduces the debt,”
Pelosi said. “This [current] tax bill has no future.”