From Sandy Sorensen, Director
United Church of Christ Washington Office

The Senate is voting this week on a tax bill that will cause enormous harm. We don’t have a lot of time to stop this massive bill – congressional leaders want it on the President’s desk as soon as possible.

Please call your senators today and urge them to oppose the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Then contact your representative and say the same thing.

In our meetings with congressional offices, staffers tell us they aren’t hearing enough from constituents about this bill. We need to make more noise so members of Congress hear our outrage over this irresponsible and regressive legislation.

This tax bill is fundamentally flawed and cannot be fixed – in three big ways:

It is irresponsible, growing deficits by at least $1.5 trillion over the next decade. This will put enormous pressure on Congress to deeply cut essential programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), housing assistance, education, environmental protection, and everything else.
It is regressive, giving giant tax cuts to large corporations and the wealthiest households while raising taxes on everyone else. By the time it is fully enacted, all households earning less than $75,000 will see a tax increase. Those with incomes between $20,000 and $30,000 will face a tax hike of 25 percent! Meanwhile, millionaires would have $16,800added to their incomes.
It threatens health coverage for millions. By repealing the individual mandate to have health insurance, congressional leaders get more than $300 billion in savings to pay for the corporate tax cuts, but as a result, 13 million people will become uninsured and millions of people will see significant premium increases.

Your voice can make a powerful difference in the outcome of this legislation. We have to stop this bill’s momentum. Only a strong outcry from constituents like you can achieve that.

It is time to ramp up our advocacy as much as we can. Please speak up now to your senators and representative. Tell them to oppose the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Urge them instead to take a bipartisan approach to tax reform that won’t create enormous deficits or threaten future priorities.

In Solidarity,

Sandy Sorensen