John,
The Billionaire Budget is built on a lie. The right-wing claims that we can’t afford Medicaid. That food assistance must be cut. That the real burden on society isn’t tax-dodging billionaires, but working people who can’t afford the sky high price of healthcare and rent, and need help feeding their kids.
We’ve seen this playbook before: create a deficit with trillions in tax giveaways mostly for the wealthy, then turn around and claim that services for working people must be slashed to “balance the budget.” But this year’s version is even more cynical. Because the cuts alone don’t pay for it. They want to tax you, too.
Trump is demanding more corporate handouts, fossil fuel giveaways, and the gutting of IRS enforcement. He wants to slash the corporate tax rate again, carve out special breaks for foreign-derived profits, repeal clean energy tax credits, and shower wealthy business owners with tax cuts.
But that’s not what the people want. That’s why we’re applying massive grassroots pressure, demanding no cuts to Medicaid and SNAP to pay for more tax cuts for the rich and large corporations. Of course, Donald Trump’s focus isn’t on working families―it’s on ensuring his billionaire buddies get the tax breaks they’ve been promised.
Now, some congressional Republicans are finally acknowledging that tax revenue is necessary in order to pay for our federal government’s basic functions. But they’re still not willing to tax the rich.
Instead, buried inside the House GOP’s budget plan is a new federal tax on car ownership. A $200 annual charge for electric vehicles. $100 for hybrids. Even gas-powered cars would get hit with a $20 yearly fee.[1] This would be a tax not based on income or wealth, but on whether you drive to work. Because cutting food and healthcare from working people wasn’t enough to cover the cost of giving more money to billionaires.
This is not just a cruel budget. It’s an incompetent one. And it’s our job to stop it. That’s why, together with our allies, we’ve generated over 500,000 messages to Congress opposing the GOP budget―and it’s making them nervous. Their timelines are slipping, and their donors are sweating. Now we need to ramp up the pressure.
Help power our campaign right now so we can shut this budget down before next week’s committee votes.
Republicans are proposing $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which covers 1 in 5 Americans. Another $230 billion in cuts to SNAP, which feeds over 40 million people.[2]
Then they throw in a tax on your car to close the gap that their billionaire tax breaks blew open. And yet somehow they still claim this is a “fiscally responsible” budget. It’s not fiscal policy. It’s class warfare.
We don’t need to tax nurses and teachers who drive to work. We need to tax the billionaire class that bought this Congress and now expects us to foot the bill.
Help us stop this reckless, immoral budget. Your contribution makes our next round of pressure possible.
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Together, let’s expose the lie, reject the cruelty, and end the era of government by and for billionaires.
David Kass
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund
[1] The Latest House Republican Car Tax Proposal Would Impose New Annual Costs on American Families
[2] ATF Statement on House GOP Advancing Budget Bill
