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 University Professor Lily Batchelder: “I’m not seeing *anything* that benefits the lowest-income 35% of TPs, while the top 1% gets trillions of tax cuts. [Twitter, 9/27/2017]

New York University Law Professor, Former Special Assistant to President Obama for Economic Policy David Kamin: “In short, apparent changes will still leave a very regressive plan like before. And it will continue to be unless biz rates are higher.” [Twitter, 9/27/17]

Roosevelt Institute Fellow Michael Linden: “Including this proposal [Chained CPI] in a plan that is already skewed to the wealthy will make the whole thing slightly more skewed to the wealthy. /end” [Twitter, 9/27/17]

• Roosevelt Institute Fellow Michael Linden: “Higher rate + 2x standard deduction – personal exemption = higher effective and marginal rates for many.” [Twitter, 9/26/17]

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Senior Advisor Jacob Leibenluft:“Tax cuts for wealthy are clear: lower top rate, big corp tax cut, estate tax repeal, giant passthrough loophole” [Twitter, 9/27/17]

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Director of Federal Tax Policy Chuck Marr: “Emerging details of the “Big Six” Republican tax framework contradict President Trump’s September 13 promise that wealthy people “will not be gaining at all with this plan” and his suggestion that if their tax rates “have to go higher, they’ll go higher.”  In fact, the details suggest that the Republican tax effort remains aimed in substantial part at delivering large tax cuts to the nation’s most well-off people.” [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 9/26/2017]

• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Director of Federal Tax Policy Chuck Marr: “For working & middle class families, note how eager they are to talk about the standard deduction but less so about the personal exemption” [Twitter, 9/26/2017]

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Deputy Director of Federal Tax Policy Chye-Ching Huang and Vice President for Federal Fiscal Policy Joel Friedman: “Such a tax cut likely would ultimately hurt many Americans, because the resulting increase in deficits and debt would raise the pressure for cuts in programs that help low- and middle-income people or that produce long-term economic benefits.  The majority of Americans could ultimately lose more from the program cuts than they would gain from the tax cuts.” [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 9/26/2017]

Tax Policy Center Senior Fellow Steven M. Rosenthal: “Top aides to President Donald Trump argue that tax relief for the accumulated foreign earnings of US-based multinational corporations would be a boon for US workers. But data show that providing such a tax break, which is likely to be a key element of the tax plan being written by the White House and congressional Republicans, would mostly benefit high-income US taxpayers and foreigners, not US workers.” [Tax Policy Center, 9/25/2017]

Economic Policy Institute Director of Research Josh Bivens, and Budget Analyst Hunter Blair: “The utter fakeness of Republican claims to have sought a ‘middle-class’ tax cut can be seen all over their plan as well. For one, the lowest tax rate actually increases under their plan, from 10 to 12 percent. Republicans claim to have delivered relief to the middle-class by doubling the standard deduction (letting them hand-wave about ‘zero-tax brackets’). But the devil is always in the details— which are short in today’s plan—and the details of past Republican plans claw back the middle-class benefit of a larger standard deduction by getting rid of the personal exemption and head of household filing.” [Economic Policy Institute, 9/27/17]

• Economic Policy Institute Director of Research Josh Bivens, and Budget Analyst Hunter Blair: “Not only does it deliver big tax cuts for the rich, it actually pretty creatively ensures that the crumbs that fall to the middle class will be as small as possible….Today’s framework delivers absolutely no surprises: this isn’t tax reform; this is simply tax cuts for rich people.” [Economic Policy Institute, 9/27/17]

Josh Barro, Business Insider: “The supposed middle-class tax cut the GOP keeps talking about is a lie.” [Twitter, 9/27/2017]

University of Chicago Law School Assistant Professor Daniel Hemel:“Trump plan appears to raise taxes by >$900 on married couples w/2 children in lower-middle class (~$45k in income) 1/6″ [Twitter, 9/27/17]

University of Chicago Law School Assistant Professor Daniel Hemel: “For married couple w/2 kids & income <$79,583, Trump plan as currently described is net loss (4/4)” [Twitter, 9/27/17]

Washington Post Wonkblog Reporter Heather Long: “What’s in there for the rich? The wealthy get a tax cut….What’s in there for the middle class? This is the giant question mark.” [Washington Post, 9/27/2017]

Center for American Progress Director of Fiscal Policy Howard Stein: “Big Six tax plan DEFINITELY raises taxes for some moderate-income people & possibly many more depending on details.” [Twitter, 9/27/2017]

Americans for Tax Fairness Executive Director Frank Clemente: “The idea that this plan would help average Americans instead of the wealthy and big corporations has been a hoax all along…This isn’t ‘tax reform,’ it’s just a big giveaway to millionaires and corporations, and it won’t ‘trickle down’ to the rest of us.” [CNBC, 9/27/17]