Stop Tax Crisis in Congress: Protect the Poor

We need to keep the pressure on to stop these bills that stand to hurt the most vulnerable among us!

From the National Council of Churches (http://www.ncccusa.org):

House, Senate Prepare to Begin Final Tax Negotiations Next Week

This week the Senate passed its tax proposal that by all accounts will result in massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy at the expense of programs to help the poor, students, and higher future taxes on less wealthy families. President Trump, Speaker Ryan, and others have unashamedly admitted that their next goal is “Welfare Reform”, code for cuts to vital programs needed by the poor to survive.

Several horrific measures could take effect soon, including:

• Repeal of the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act: results in higher premiums as young, healthy individuals drop their mandatory plans.
• After 10 years, 37.8 million households earning under $200,000 per year would face tax increases.
• According to the Office of Management and Budget, automatic budget cuts to abide by deficit rules (sequestration)  would result in cuts to farm aid, military retirees, Medicare, crime victims fund, and hundreds more programs.
• The repeal of the Johnson Amendment will open the flood gates for soft money to be channeled through churches to political candidates and reduce the trust that communities place in non-profit social service providers (many of them churches) that are vital to the poor.

The next step is for House and Senate negotiators to create a consensus bill that can be passed quickly and sent to President Trump for signature. The time to act is now. There is still time to head off these efforts, but not much. Your Member of Congress needs to hear from you now while they are considering their vote. We need to join our voices together to tell Congress that we love our neighbors, and we cannot let them be harmed by tax giveaways to those who don’t need them.

Here are some talking points from the Coalition on Human Needs.

Tell them we need a Faithful Budget now! (http://bit.ly/2hIAK4n)