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Advocates released an analysis highlighting how this second
round to tax breaks, which will cost $3 trillion – 50
percent more than the $2 trillion of the first round of tax
breaks passed last December – helps the wealthiest Ohioans
at the expense of working families. The Institute on
Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) estimates that the
state’s richest one percent will receive an average tax cut
of $27,910 in 2026, the year the new tax cuts will become
effective – on top of the $40,190 tax cut they are receiving
this year.
“The new tax law was clearly good news for the rich and
corporations, but it did little to help the rest of us,”
said Rev. Steven Valles, pastor of the Parkwood Seventh Day
Adventist Church. “In fact, these kinds of tax breaks
further rig the economy against our families in favor of the
rich and corporations. Contrary to the propaganda we are
hearing, last year’s tax cuts did not raise wages, did not
create new good-paying jobs and certainly did not reduce
economic equality. Less than four percent of workers
nationwide saw any wage increase or bonus from last year’s
big tax bill.”
Weeks after the first tax cuts were enacted, the
administration’s budget proposed $1.3 trillion cuts in
Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, noted the
advocates. Congress has proposed cutting billions from SNAP,
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which
provides food to needy families. This summer the U.S. House
of Representatives – every single Republican in the Ohio
delegation – voted for a bill that would cut $20 billion
from SNAP over the next 10 years and leave two million
people without the food they need for themselves and their
families.
“Not only did the first round of tax cuts not help, they
hurt our families,” said Rev. John Walthal, pastor of Mt.
Ararat Baptist Church. “These tax breaks cost money and the
rest of us will be paying while the rich and Wall Street are
being rewarded with big breaks.
Noting that Congressional Republicans are making the second
round of tax breaks a high priority, Rev. James Willis,
president of Toledoans United for Social Action (TUSA) and
pastor of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, noted that
“they have done little to pass policies that would actually
help the nation’s working families by improving wages,
lowering the costs of prescription drugs, expanding
treatment for the opioid crisis, passing paid family medical
leave of affordable child care policies that would enable
people to take better care of their children and aging
relatives.”
The advocates noted that Washington elected officials,
particularly conservative Republicans, are always
complaining about deficits and congressional overspending.
“It’s clear these same politicians don’t mind spending –
they just don’t want to spend on our priorities,” said
Arthur Walker, co-president of TUSA and member of Friendship
Baptist Church. “Instead of serving their constituents, they
are serving their wealthy donors and corporations.”
The clergy leaders called on constituents to contact Ohio
congressional representatives and urge them to oppose this
latest measure to redirect money to the richest households
at the expense of those services that thousands of Ohioans
depend on every day.
“It’s just common sense that if we can afford tax breaks for
the rich and corporations – especially two huge rounds that
total nearly $5 trillion over the next two decades, then we
can afford the basics for struggling families in a nation
where we haven’t seen an increase in minimum wage in a
decade, where companies are rewarded for sending our jobs
overseas and where people working in low wage jobs can’t pay
the rent and feed their families despite working two jobs,”
said Rev. Marcia Dinkins, TUSA director. “We deserve better.
The last thing Ohio needs is more cuts to our Medicaid, food
stamps, education, housing and infrastructure so that
families making over a million dollars can get another big
tax break.”
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