AFT President Randi Weingarten on the Senate Passage of the GOP Tax Plan

WASHINGTON—Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten on the Senate passage of the GOP tax plan:

“Candidate Trump promised a tax plan with cuts for the middle class and tax increases for the wealthy. Now President Trump, with the help of House and Senate Republicans, is set to sign into law a tax bill that hits middle-class families with a tax increase and delivers 83 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent. That’s not populism, that’s plutocracy.

“The American people called Congress, rallied and made clear that they overwhelmingly oppose this bill. Study after study showed how this bill would benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle class, blow a hole in the deficit, rip healthcare away from millions of families and starve local public schools and services. Some CEOs even admitted that corporations wouldn’t use their tax breaks to create jobs or raise wages. But big donors and the rich demanded a tax break, and Trump and Republicans in Congress delivered. And as the bill made its way through Congress, even though we were able to mitigate some of the damage through our activism, the deal actually got sweeter for those at the top.

“Trump and Republicans in the House and Senate declared with this tax bill that they stand with their donors and the wealthy, and they will stop at nothing to create a new Gilded Age. They declared whose side they’re on, but next fall we the people can take matters into our own hands and vote for a new Congress that will stand with the working and middle class.”