Last night in the darkness of misinformation and subterfuge, the Senate passed the sweeping tax reform bill we’ve warned against.
It is utterly heartless, pushing up taxes for lower income people while giving massive tax breaks to wealthy corporations. It won’t create jobs – if the rich already have the lion’s share of the money and haven’t yet done that, what makes us think they will do it now? Many corporate leaders already said the windfall from tax cuts will go not to more jobs but to stockholders. Yes, a few pensioners, widows and orphans may get a bit more, but stockholders are largely other corporations, so it’s a lovely “scratch my back” reciprocity. It has little benefit for the sick, children, elders, workers, or anyone already living on the edges of our society.
There are many hardships for us written into this bill. But the fight for justice is not over.
Next week the Senate Bill and its equally heartless House bill must either go to Conference Committee to be reconciled (looking for agreements on how to do us further harm, no doubt) or the House must accept the Senate version as is. Either way our attention must turn to the House to fight, once again, for some justice.
Rev. Dr. William Barber who created and led North Carolina’s “Moral Mondays” at their Capitol, wrote yesterday:
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. (Isaiah 10:1-4)
We must bring the same condemnation and outcry to our work.
Please continue to call your Representatives at 202-224-3121 or go to our link http://www.churchimpact.org/take-action.html to get your District Office numbers if the Washington Capitol office is not responding.
Never give up. Never back down. Never lose heart. We are on the side of justice, and while the Arc of Justice bends slowly, it does bend indeed. But it needs our help and it’s needed now as never before!
Thank you!