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Congresswoman Gwen Moore Leads Ways and Means Committee in Marathan Rules Committee Consideration of Republicans’ Big Bonanza for Billionaires

Republicans are pushing through their Big Bonanza for Billionaires—a bill still being written in secret even as the Rules Committee began consideration in the early hours of this morning. Congresswoman Moore led the Ways and Means Committee Democrats portion of the hours long markup which has still not concluded and final text of the bill has still not yet been unveiled. In moving testimony, she said: 

“Let’s begin the analysis with a moral question. Should children go hungry or be left to suffer or die from treatable diseases? And if your answer to that, anybody, if your answer is no, then just sort of reason backwards from that precipice and if the justification for this bill sort of unravels. You know, I am so happy to be the last person to speak on this panel because we have heard from our colleagues and on other committees about the harms that this bill is going to do to millions and millions of our constituents, fellow Americans.

We’re going to cut $230 billion out of SNAP. We’re going to kick 13.7 million people off their health insurance. We’re going to trigger a half trillion dollar in cuts from Medicare. Those of us who are protecting seniors who are on this panel. We’re going to reduce educational opportunity for American children, who are least, least able. There are people, who, kids who just might not be chosen. I was one of those kids. I wasn’t chosen and I didn’t have any choice. And this is who were gonna take money from?  We’re sitting here bragging about so-called savings. And what are we gonna do with these savings? What are we gonna do with the savings? Are we going to take these savings and reduce our debt? Nope, we’re not gonna do that. These tax cuts are so massive that we don’t have enough kids to starve. We don’t have enough people to deny health care. So, we’re just going to ask Americans to finance tax cuts for billionaires on the national debt.”

Watch her full remarks here.

At Rules, House Democrats spoke on the more than 500 amendments they offered to this bloated and misguided bill (that Republicans were still negotiating behind closed doors even as the Committee met) to protect access to health care, food benefits, higher education, and clean energy tax credits, among many others.  House Republicans are expected to block all of those amendments, including the following offered or cosponsored by Rep. Moore:

• The Mom and Pop Tax Relief Act would provide needed reform to the 199A deduction, ensuring it can truly benefit small businesses.  This deduction has become a giveaway to the wealthy while providing truly small businesses with only modest tax relief.
• An amendment to boost the Child Tax Credit(CTC) that would allow our nation’s poorest children to benefit by making it fully refundable. While Republicans provide massive tax cuts to the wealthy, their proposal would leave out 17 million of our most vulnerable children from benefitting from the CTC. My proposal would invest in our future and give more families more resources to thrive. 
• An amendment that would allow for a narrow exception to the endowment tax to allow the Medical College of Wisconsin to continue its mission of educating health care professionals without being subjected to the tax. Congresswoman Moore’s amendment, would exempt universities that do not have undergrads—such as MCW—from the endowment tax. This amendment’s narrow exception would prevent long-term harm to efforts to train Wisconsin’s medical workforce and support for cutting-edge research.
• Another amendment would require community representatives be a part of any governing board or advisory board  for those entities seeking to make qualifying investments in opportunity zones. When investment proposals are moving forward, it is vital that community members have a seat at the table. Communities stand the benefit the most from opportunity zone investments when there is community input.  Her amendment would help opportunity zones better serve their original purpose and better serve areas that need it most.
• Another amendment would amend the new private school tax credit provision to mandate that students enrolled in private schools that benefit from the new tax credit must also take state standardized assessments and make the results of those assessments publicly available. This amendment would provide greater academic transparency for schools who benefit from a federal tax break.
• Congresswoman Moore cosponsored an amendment that would eliminate the provision to end the $200 transfer tax on gun silencers, another $1.4 billion needless giveaway tucked in the bill for the gun industry.