Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village) issued the following statement today after the House vote on the Republican tax bill:

“Our country needs to update its tax system so more middle-class families and small businesses can get ahead. Sadly, the partisan tax bill we voted on today was a missed opportunity to achieve real, bipartisan reform that accomplishes those goals and simplifies the tax code.

“This bill raises taxes on 86 million middle-class households and will be especially painful here in California, where nearly 5.5 million taxpayers will see a tax increase. The legislation cuts back on the very popular state and local tax deductions that working families count on and puts limits on which kinds of disasters qualify for the property loss deduction that helps many in our state rebuild after terrible events, like wildfires and floods.

“More than 80 percent of the benefits in this bill go to the richest 1% of Americans, and to make matters worse, they pay for this windfall for the wealthy by exploding the debt by at least $1.5 trillion and sticking our grandchildren with the bill. Republicans are already talking about using this added debt as an excuse to cut Social Security and Medicare.

“Finally, this bill rips health insurance away from 13 million Americans and will raise healthcare premiums across the board, when we should be working to expand coverage and bring down costs.

“This tax bill is wrong for my constituents and wrong for America.”

Issues: , ,