Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly spoke on the Senate floor today expressing his disappointment and explaining why he will oppose the tax hike legislation put forward by Senator Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan. From the beginning, Donnelly has shown his willingness to work with the president on tax reform. Over the last several months, Donnelly traveled with the President to Indiana on Air Force One, attended Vice President Pence’s speech in Anderson, and participated in multiple meetings with the White House.
Donnelly agreed with the president’s goals of reforming the tax code in a way that overwhelmingly supports the middle class and prevents the outsourcing of American jobs. The McConnell/Ryan bill, however, does not reflect these priorities and instead would result in a tax hike for many Hoosier middle class families and fails to crack down on corporations that outsource jobs to foreign countries.
To see a highlight from Donnelly’s speech, click here.
To see Donnelly’s full speech in the Senate, click here.
Donnelly said, in part, in his speech, “The reasons I oppose this bill are plain and simple, clear and commonsense: Instead of providing a tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the middle class, this bill cuts taxes for the wealthiest Americans while raising taxes on a majority of families making less than $75,000 in the coming years. Instead of closing tax loopholes like the shameful one that allows Wall Street hedge fund managers to pay a lower tax rate than a Hoosier firefighter, than a Hoosier teacher, than a Hoosier policeman, or a Hoosier steelworker…This bill preserves these giveaways…”
“And instead of protecting American jobs by adopting provisions from my End Outsourcing Act, an effort that President Trump has told me on numerous occasions that he is all in on and he supports, instead this tax hike bill does zero to claw back tax breaks and incentives awarded to corporations that later decide to outsource American jobs.”
