Dems: GOP tax cut plan fails Trump’s own test

Democrats ripped the GOP tax plan on Saturday, saying it fails President Trump’s own test for tax reform as Republicans move on their top agenda item.

“We believe that the Republican tax cut framework failed to live up to the test that President Trump himself set for his tax plan when he said it would be focused on the middle class,” Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said during the Democrats’ weekly address.

“Democrats believe that the Republican tax plan is simply unfair and would further rig the tax code for the rich,” he continued. 

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The Trump administration has pushed back against Democratic criticism that its tax-reform plan would be more beneficial to the rich than it would to the middle class. 

Trump touted the plan as a “middle-class bill” in comments to reporters earlier this week. 

“We want to make sure that the middle class is the biggest beneficiary of the tax cuts and tax reform,” he said. “It’s a middle-class bill. That’s what we’re thinking of. That’s what I want.”

Trump said the tax reform plan would lower taxes for individuals and reduce the top rate for pass-through businesses taxed through the individual system. It would also repeal the estate tax, a move which is thought to favor the wealthy. 

A CBS News poll released Sunday found 58 percent said they believed the GOP-backed tax proposals would favor the rich, while just 18 percent said it would favor the middle class. 

Neal’s remarks come after the Senate voted 51-49 on Thursday to pass the fiscal 2018 budget, paving the way for Republicans in the upper chamber to pass tax reform and avoid a Democratic filibuster.

A last-minute amendment by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) adopting technical and procedural language from the House budget may speed up the budget’s final passage in the House. 

The budget did not get support from any Democrats in the upper chamber.

Democrats argue the budget would pave the way for a tax plan that would cut Medicare and Medicaid and raise taxes on middle-class Americans.