Schumer, Wyden Reveal True Cost Of Republicans’ “Big, Ugly Betrayal”: $4.2 TRILLION In Tax Giveaways To The Ultra-Rich Paid For On The Backs Of American Families

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) released the following statement today on the new estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation that the Republican tax plan costs $4.2 trillion when measured against current law, the traditional accounting method for tax policy in Congress: 

“As anybody with two eyes, a calculator and a basic understanding of taxes already knew, Senate Republicans are covering up trillions of dollars’ worth of giveaways to corporations and the wealthy in their tax plan. Republicans claim their plan costs only $440 billion, but this new analysis shows it actually costs nearly 10 times that much -- more than $4.2 trillion. The Republicans want to rig the process and flout the rules, but Congress cannot operate in a world where one plus one equals whatever the Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee says it does. Numbers have meaning, and although the Republicans’ budget math might be fake, the harm they do to the lives of millions of Americans who stand to lose their health care and food assistance will be very real.” 

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