Sen. Cortez Masto calls out Republicans on tax cut she calls ‘a giveaway’

The following is a press release sent to the Sparks Tribune from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.

U.S. Senator Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) took to the Senate floor today to call out Congressional Republicans working to extend President-elect Donald Trump’s massive tax giveaway for billionaires in a way that will hurt middle class families in Nevada and across the country. Cortez Masto highlighted that she led her Democratic colleagues in a letter to Republican leadership urging them to work in a bipartisan manner to reauthorize this legislation in a way that reduces the deficit and protects hardworking Americans.

Below are her remarks as prepared for delivery:

M. President, I’m joining my colleagues on the Senate floor today to drawing attention to what really is happening here in Washington that has an impact on our individuals and families back home. 

You know, quite often I see so many decisions being made here in this bubble in Washington without any true regard or understanding of the impact on Main Street, where we all live and we come from. And what we’re talking about today, is that Donald Trump’s massive tax giveaway to billionaires is about to expire, and many of my Republican colleagues want to extend the bill at the expense of middle-class families across the country.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says reauthorizing the Trump tax bill as-is would add $4.6 trillion to our national debt. That would raise interest rates and make it more expensive for families to buy a home, send their kids to college, or start a business.

Based on how much my colleagues across the aisle have spent the last four years talking about our deficit, I would hope they would want to avoid adding trillions of dollars to it, regardless of who is in the White House.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Instead, my Republican colleagues have come up with two options for selling this legislation, that will mainly benefit the very wealthy in this country, to the American people. 

Let’s start with the first option. Republican leadership in the Senate has suggested that because they want to extend policy that currently exists, we should just ignore the cost of extending it. That $4 trillion increase in our deficit just doesn’t exist.

I know we all wish we could forget about the national debt sometimes, but that’s not what the American people sent us here to do, and that’s not what the American people do. I can tell you, every family across this country has to live within their means and manage their budget. My family, my grandparents, my parents, everybody. So we should be working together to address this issue.

The other option for reauthorizing the Trump tax bill as-is comes from House Republicans, who have suggested gutting Medicaid in order to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. I can’t stress this enough. Again, tax breaks for the very, very wealthy. The top 1%. On the backs of working families, on the backs of our middle class.

That’s just outrageous.

Padding the pockets of the top 1% at the expense of hardworking families is unacceptable, and my Democratic colleagues and I will not stand for it.

I urge Republican leadership to work in a bipartisan manner on this and find solutions that will benefit all Americans, not just CEOs and their board members. There’s a way we can come together to make sure our middle class benefits.

Let’s come together and build on spending reductions from the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act instead of targeting Americans’ health care. And let’s ensure the wealthiest pay their fair share to protect the middle class and their children from the exorbitant $5 trillion bill the Republicans are currently planning to send them.

Because I’ll tell you, the two options Republicans have come up with on their own don’t work for the people of Nevada.

But there is an option that works. I’m going to stress it one more time. This should not be a partisan issue. This should not be done just through reconciliation without any input from the Democrats. Because at the end of the day, our families are no different. Our communities are no different.

My firefighters in Nevada and are no different than the firefighters in your state. My hardworking laborers in my state, whether they come from the service industry and it’s somebody who is washing dishes in a restaurant in Nevada, is no different than that person washing dishes in some of my colleagues’ states. Everybody benefits if we come together in a bipartisan way.

Democrats are ready to do what we were elected to do and find bipartisan solutions that benefit all Americans. I hope my Republican colleagues will start this Congress off on the right foot and work with us to reduce the deficit and craft a tax policy that will promote the middle class.