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“Climate change is one of the greatest threats the global community will face in the 21st century, and we are already feeling its disastrous effects,” said Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee. “New Mexico and the Southwest face numerous economic challenges from climate change—including threats to crops, decreased water supplies and increased risk for wildfires. If we don’t act now on climate change, the financial threat to working families across this country will only grow. We must work to strengthen the thriving clean energy sector to mitigate the effects of climate change and create millions of jobs and economic opportunity.”
The previous Republican tax bill has been criticized for a number of things, including primarily helping the rich and costing $2.3 trillion. Last month Salon spoke with Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, about how the bill makes it easier for companies to send jobs overseas, even though President Donald Trump campaigned in 2016 on not offshoring American jobs.
“It’s time we quit this partisan experimentation and tackle the real issues Americans care about, like addressing inadequate wage growth and the high costs of education and health care. We should be building on programs like Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and Social Security, programs that nearly 40 percent of Americans depend on, not slashing them as my Republican colleagues have proposed.”
Wednesday’s report comes on the heels of a separate report by Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee last week warning that the Republicans’ proposed cuts in the fiscal year 2019 budget, in the amounts of $1.5 trillion to Medicaid and Obamacare tax credits and $537 billion to Medicare over the next decade, could result in additional financial burdens for beneficiaries. While the budget is still awaiting a final vote, Democrats warn that the cuts would cost beneficiaries an extra $3,000 a year per household.
Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee issued the study, based on calculations by the non-profit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, late last week. It shows that the estimated $2 trillion cost of the Bush and Trump-era tax cuts through 2025 is the same amount which Republicans have proposed cutting from Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Obamacare.
Beyond not paying for themselves, President Donald Trump's tax cuts now threaten to undermine one of his key campaign promises. A new report by the Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee in Congress reveals that by reducing the tax liability incurred by corporations, even when they move operations and jobs overseas, Trump's tax cuts could further endanger the jobs of the 15.4 million Americans who are vulnerable to offshoring.
“Instead of working to find real solutions to the problems working Americans and their families face today, it is clear the Republican tax law only exacerbates current economic challenges in our country in more ways than one,” said Senator Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee. “We’ve known that wages are stagnant and economic inequality is growing, but the Republican tax law gives massive tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations without the raises that working Americans were promised. Now we also know that there are 15.4 million American jobs that are potentially at risk of being offshored, and this tax law may only compound this issue. We cannot continue to ignore these challenges in the American economy. It’s time to find smart, forward-thinking policies that ensure everyone in this country has a fair shot at getting ahead.”
A new report released Wednesday by the Democratic Joint Economic Committee analyzing the budget resolution that House Republicans proposed earlier this summer shows that proposed cuts to Medicaid, Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act could result in significant income losses to 40 percent of Americans. According to the report, the average beneficiary would lose an average of $1,500 per year in services or tax credits, with that number doubling to $3,000 for the average household.
Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee are releasing a new report Wednesday calculating the impact of the GOP tax bill on the national debt and warning that Republicans may attempt deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the Affordable Care Act’s market subsidies to plug the hole. A copy of the report was shared with POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein. Citing House Republicans’ 2019 budget resolution, which slashes hundreds of billions of dollars from social safety net programs over a decade, the JEC report estimates that each of the 130 million people who depend on those programs would lose an average of $1,500 per year in services and tax credits should the cuts take effect. The report breaks down the potential impact by state, finding that West Virginia, New Mexico and Arkansas would be among the hardest hit.
Here’s what we know: Equality in the workplace (that includes equal pay and equal representation at all levels of organizations) could add between $2.1 trillion and $4.3 trillion to the U.S.’s GDP in the next decade. But estimates from the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee suggest that it’s going to take over 40 years to get there.