AFT’s Weingarten on Trump’s Cruel and Callous Tax Plan

WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten released the following statement responding to Donald Trump’s tax proposal:

“Everyone complains about taxes, but most of us want a tax code that is fair. Donald Trump’s tax proposal just makes it worse. It diverts federal funding from Medicare and Social Security for tax cuts for the wealthy. Indeed, the only winners we can discern are corporations and the rich, as ‘Trumptax’ lowers their tax bracket while raising rates for those who are the least well-off.

“By enshrining a loophole that lets hedge fund billionaires pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries, this proposal would further rig the economy in favor of the wealthy. And cutting the deductions for state and local taxes is catastrophic to every community and state that has invested in its schools and other services.

“This plan reflects what has been the president’s modus operandi since his campaign—promising to help working people but then hurting them by his administration’s actions. Income redistribution is a ‘third rail’ for many Republicans, but I guess not when that money is given to their rich friends.

“The president’s plan seems tailor-made to benefit himself and his businesses, but we don’t know because he hasn’t released his taxes. Trumpcare was defeated because millions of Americans rose up to stop attacks on the most vulnerable. Unless the president is prepared to work with Democrats and sensible Republicans on real tax reform that improves working people’s lives and ends handouts for the wealthy and corporations, today’s Trumptax plan will either catastrophically hurt working families or, hopefully, suffer the same fate as Trumpcare.”