NJ-7 Democratic Congressional Candidate Linda Weber’s Statement on Senate Republicans Voting To Raise Taxes on Middle Class and Working Poor Families

It is unconscionable that Senate Republicans voted to prioritize the demands of corporate special interests and the ultra-wealthy while completely ignoring the needs of middle class families, workers, disabled Americans, seniors, students, and small businesses. Raising taxes on middle and lower-income Americans to fund tax cuts for corporations, who are already hoarding record amounts of cash, has nothing to do with growing the economy and everything to do with rewarding rich donors.

It has become increasingly difficult for working poor Americans to enter the middle class, which itself is shrinking. Millions of Americans are already forced to rely on public assistance despite working full-time jobs, and this irresponsible legislation will exacerbate this problem while massively increasing the deficit. Now is the time when we should be working to rebuild the ladder of opportunity by increasing the minimum wage and investing in education, job training, and infrastructure. We should not be giving tax cuts to those who don’t need them.

To make matters worse, we’ve learned that while Americans were denied any input on this legislation, 6,000 lobbyists were part of the secret negotiations. This is completely unacceptable in a democracy.

As destructive as this bill is, it is far worse for New Jersey where we already pay billions of dollars more in federal taxes than we get back.  Enough is enough. I am calling on Rep. Leonard Lance to oppose the final bill and lobby his Republican colleagues to fight it.