In Mesquite, Catherine Cortez Masto Kicks Off Middle Class Tax Cut Tour

Press Release

Yesterday, former Nevada Attorney General and U.S. Senate Candidate Catherine Cortez Masto campaigned in Mesquite where she unveiled her plan to provide tax relief to middle class families. Throughout this week, Cortez Masto will travel across the state talking to voters about why Nevada's middle class deserves a tax cut, not millionaires like Donald Trump.

"Our economy is slowly recovering from the economic crisis, but too many middle class families are still struggling to make ends meet," said Cortez Masto. "That's why I believe Nevada's working families should take home more of what they have earned with a $1,000 tax cut for middle class families.

"A middle class paycheck used to be enough for Nevadans to buy a house, send their kids to college, save for retirement, and take care of their family. Unfortunately, paychecks just don't go as far as they used to, and too few families are feeling the economic recovery."

Under Cortez Masto's plan, the middle class tax cut would be paid for by enacting common sense reforms like:

Ending taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil companies.
Ending tax breaks for corporations that ship American jobs overseas.
Passing the Buffett Rule so millionaires are no longer paying a lower effective tax rate than their administrative assistants.

"Unfortunately, my opponent, Congressman Heck, voted to protect taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil and tax breaks for corporations that ship American jobs overseas," Cortez Masto added. "This is a clear contrast in the choice to be Nevada's next Senator. While I want to give Nevada working families a tax cut, Congressman Heck has voted for budgets that cut taxes for people like Donald Trump while asking middle class families to foot the bill."

Cortez Masto will be traveling across the state this week touting her plan to cut taxes for middle class families; with stops in Mesquite, Reno, Carson City, and Elko among the places she will visit. For details on the tour, contact Press@CatherineCortezMasto.com.

Catherine Cortez Masto wants hard working families across Nevada to take home more of what they have earned. Paychecks just don't go as far as they used to, so a $1,000 in tax relief can go a long way for middle class families. This extra income in a year would go a long way to helping thousands of families across all 17 Nevada counties make ends meet. Below is a chart outlining the real impact that this relief can have on the incomes of middle class families across the state.

Catherine Cortez Masto proposes a tax plan that asks the wealthiest among us pay their fair share. Congressional Republicans continue to propose economic plans that rig the rules in favor of big corporations and special interests, with special loopholes for millionaires and billionaires. Cortez Masto's plan incentivizes investment in American jobs and American products. This plan ends special tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations, while providing real economic relief to middle class families by:

Passing the Buffett Rule ($72 billion over 10 years): This legislation would ensure millionaires pay at least 30% effective tax rate. Taxpayers earning over $2 million would be subject to a 30% minimum federal tax rate. The tax would be phased in for incomes between $1 million and $2 million, with those taxpayers paying a portion of the extra tax required to get them to a 30% effective tax rate.

Ending unnecessary tax subsidies for oil and gas companies ($24 billion over 10 years): The Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act would end unnecessary tax benefits for major integrated oil companies making over $1 billion per year in record profits. This legislation would repeal or limit deductions for income attributable to oil and natural gas, for intangible drilling and development costs, for the chemicals rigs use to increase the amount of oil that can be extracted from a well, and for the percentage depletion allowance that permits companies to recover the cost of their capital investment, even when the deduction exceeds the initial investment in a well.

Ending tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas ($140 million over 10 years): Embedded in the Bring Jobs Home Act, this provision would end the deductibility of moving operations overseas.

Ending taxpayer subsidies for extravagant CEO pay ($12 billion over 10 years): A Clinton-era reform capped the tax deductibility of executive compensation at $1 million, but with a loophole: the cap doesn't apply to "performance-based" pay. This led to the increased use of stock option-based compensation that greatly expanded CEO paychecks--but not improved performance. Executive compensation experts found that pay arrangements that rely heavily on "performance pay" encourage managers to focus excessively on the short term, motivating them to boost short-term results at the expense of long-term value. This would eliminate the "performance pay" exemption for the 5 highest paid executives in a company.

Treating Companies Managed and Controlled in the U.S. as U.S. Companies ($7 billion over ten years): Companies that are managed and controlled right here in the U.S. can avoid taxes by incorporating and setting up a P.O. Box in a tax haven overseas. In fact, 18,000 companies claim their headquarters are located inside a single five-story building in the Cayman Islands. Closing this loophole would save taxpayers almost $7 billion over ten years.

Source