Expressing Support for Tax Policies That Support Working Families

Floor Speech

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Ms. SEWELL. Mr. Speaker, the big, ugly bill or, as it has been renamed, the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, is not working for families in my district. In fact, on this tax day, I cannot believe that my Republican colleagues are on the floor today celebrating a bill that is exploding the deficit by $4.2 trillion, deepening income inequality, stripping healthcare from working families, and taking food off the tables of needy children.

Mr. Speaker, every day I hear from my constituents around Alabama's Seventh Congressional District. They are talking about the fact that nothing seems affordable anymore. What do I say to the single mother in my district who is losing Medicaid coverage for her child because of this bill? What do I say to the elderly neighbor who no longer qualifies for SNAP or to the rural communities I represent who will lose their only hospital because of this bill?

I am deeply saddened because Republicans could have chosen another path. Instead of slashing $1 trillion from Medicaid, instead of slashing $500 billion from Medicare, they could have worked with Democrats to renew the fully refundable child tax credit that cut child poverty in half and expanded economic prosperity for communities across the Nation when Democrats were in the majority.

If my Republican colleagues wanted to help working families, they could stand up to President Trump and stop his reckless trade war that has created an affordability crisis.

Mr. Speaker, on this tax day, the American people are seeing exactly what happens when Republicans are in charge. We are seeing tariff wars. We are seeing real wars in the Middle East, tax giveaways for the wealthy, exploding deficits, and an attack on our essential healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

On this tax day, my constituents say enough is enough. This tax bill has been a devastation to the people that I represent, and on this tax day, I stand before you to say that working families tax cuts is a cut for working families and not a cut to the wealthy.

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