Moore: Trump tax proposal for special interests, super wealthy

In response to the release of the Trump Administration’s 2017 tax proposal, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, issued this statement:

The Trump administration’s long-awaited outline for tax reform highlights the president’s allegiance to special interests and the super wealthy through massive tax cuts for powerful corporations.

Despite claims from the White House’s chief economic advisor that such a proposal will stimulate growth and create jobs, it is clear that the only result of this plan will be a steep increase in our country’s deficit while leaving working- and middle-class families in the dust.

We’ve seen these bad ideas before and the reality never matches the rhetoric.

Recently, Kansas implemented comparable business tax ideas, and the outcome was a stagnant economy, a downgraded credit rating, and a fiscal crisis that will plague the state for generations to come.

President Donald Trump also is proposing a “tax holiday” for businesses, to bring money back to the United States that has been kept sheltered overseas.

President George W. Bush implemented the same idea in 2004, but it failed miserably in creating economic growth.

There was no investment in employees, infrastructure, or expansion; rather, the special tax rates were used to enrich corporate shareholders.

The president’s tax outline fails to address any safeguards to stop abusive corporate practices like earnings stripping, transfer pricing or corporate inversions.

Put simply, this effort clears the way for corporations to abuse wide-open tax loopholes. I am more than willing to engage with my colleagues across the aisle, but I simply cannot support tax reform that so blatantly favors the wealthiest individuals and entities in our country while completely ignoring the rest of us.