Taxes are going up for thousands of Pennsylvania families if Donald Trump’s tax plan becomes law, while over 60% of the tax cuts would go right into the pockets of the richest one percent — those making more than half a million dollars a year.  That’s according to the independent economists at the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, and backed up by economic policy and tax experts from across the ideological spectrum. 

“The country should ignore the President’s lies on stage tonight, the truth is Donald Trump’s tax plan saves him bigly, forces working people to fork over more of their paycheck, and sends the national debt skyrocketing,” said American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah ahead of Trump’s speech in Harrisburg.  “It’s lose, lose, lose for the American people.”

Here is what economic policy and tax experts from across the ideological spectrum had to say about Trump’s tax plan: 

New York […]

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American Bridge released the following statement in response to Donald Trump’s event today at which he will make dishonest claims about his tax plan, which would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy but leave manufacturing workers behind. 
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“Today’s event is a con,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. “Wall Street lobbyists support this Republican tax proposal while the country’s largest labor union is fighting against it. That should tell Americans everything they need to know. Donald Trump’s tax plan is nothing more an effort to rig the U.S. economy in favor of the rich and large corporations while selling-out the middle class and those fighting to get into it – including manufacturing workers.  What’s more, ​Trump’s plan ​​​does not expand the earned income tax credit ​and ​fails to address ​tax breaks corporations can exploit when moving jobs overseas.”

Why Donald Trump’s tax plan is an insult to manufacturing workers and the middle class:

​​The […]

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American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after Republicans attached legislative language to their budget proposal that would bypass the need for the nonpartisan ​Congressional Budget ​Office to ​study the effects of their tax plan:

​”Republicans know their tax plan would further rig the U.S. economy in favor of the rich, and they want to keep that a secret from the American people. At the same time that the Tax Policy Center determined the tax proposal Donald Trump and Republicans wrote behind closed doors would give enormous new tax cuts to the rich while raising taxes on millions of middle class Americans, it turns out the GOP is trying to prevent Congress’s nonpartisan budget scorekeeper from warning the public about the plan’s consequences.  Republicans have already been caught lying about the fact that this tax plan would benefit Trump himself while also trying to hide the truth about corporate tax cuts for […]

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American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after news broke that the Treasury Department removed a study done by career economists concluding that reducing the corporate tax rate primarily benefits corporate shareholders, not workers, as Donald Trump and his cabinet have claimed. 

“The Trump Administration has already been caught lying about how much their tax plan will benefit the wealthiest Americans – including Donald Trump himself – and now they’re trying to suppress the work of nonpartisan, career Treasury economists because it contradicts their preferred fiction about corporate tax cuts not primarily benefiting shareholders over workers. It’s clear that the tax plan Donald Trump and congressional Republicans wrote behind closed-doors is designed to be a windfall for the rich and large corporations, further rigging the economy so that the middle class and those fighting to get into the middle class are left behind. This administration’s attempt to evade the truth will […]

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American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement responding to reports that the Trump Administration abruptly cancelled Department of Health & Human Services participation in events promoting the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges:

“The degree to which the Trump Administration is actively undermining the Affordable Care Act marketplaces that millions of Americans depend on is appalling, and this pattern exposes that Donald Trump’s real concern has never been improving access to care at all. Trump needs to come to grips with reality: the Affordable Care Act has been successful because it expanded health coverage to an unprecedented number of Americans and established life-changing protections for people suffering from preexisting conditions. It’s far past time for a bipartisan plan that puts Americans first to strengthen existing law – not sabotage it – so Trump can’t continue hurting innocent people this way.

Vox: Trump administration abruptly drops out of Obamacare events […]

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Donald Trump is actively sabotaging Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance marketplaces, and it is costing thepeople of Florida. Today, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced that, as a result of Trump destabilizing the market, premiums for individual coverage plans on the health insurance exchanges in Florida will increase by an average of 44.7% next year.

This news comes after Donald Trump has taken a host of executive actions that have harmed insurance markets and driven-up healthcare costs for Americans, including an executive order on Trump’s first day in office to compromise the effectiveness of the individual mandate, calling into question whether the mandate would be enforced at all, pulling an initial round of ACA enrollment ads that had already been paid for, and cutting the overall enrollment ad budget by 90% as well as community outreach funds by 40%.

Most damaging of all, Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold cost-sharing reductions (CSRs), which are critical in order for  Read more after the jump.

American Bridge President Jessica Mackler responded to the tax reform blueprint released by Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress with the following statement:

“Just like with their failed Trumpcare plans, Donald Trump and Republicans’ backwards values and priorities were exposed with this tax plan that will RAISE taxes on millions of middle class Americans in order to finance a breathtaking multi trillion dollar tax cut for the rich.

“Not only are they violating multiple pledges to the American people, Trump’s tax plan does not close the tax loophole that benefits companies which outsource American jobs and it contains no tax incentives for job retraining.

“Also, instead of delivering opportunity to millions of  struggling Americans, this plan would eliminate the estate tax, which only affects people with over $5 million, and which woul save Trump himself billons.”

“Any Republican who supports this pledge is choosing to help further rig the American economy in favor of the […]

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