SEARAC is outraged by Republican leaders’ tax proposals that would threaten Southeast Asian American families’ access to affordable health care and quality education.
Congressional leaders plan to bring a negotiated tax bill to a vote early next week. Both previously passed House and Senate tax bills would provide tax cuts to the wealthy, balloon the national deficit, and attack health and human services programs that sustain our most vulnerable community members.
SEARAC sent a letter to key Members of Congress to reject ANY tax bill that threatens the funding and stabilization of our education and health care systems.
Current versions of the tax bill would harm students by:
- Reducing or eliminating state and local tax (SALT) deductions, which could threaten future revenue flows to public K-12 schools from sales and property taxes;
- Repealing tax deductions for interest payments made on student loans;
- Treating graduate school tuition waivers as taxable income, greatly increasing the tax burden on students;
- The bills would also destabilize healthcare by:
- Eliminating the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which is essential for regulating the health care marketplace and stabilizing the overall cost of health care;
- Repealing the tax deduction for medical expenses;
- Making dramatic cuts to Medicaid, Mediare, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP);
- Many of these reforms harm low-income and middle class families and increase the deficit by more than $1.4 trillion.
The Senate and the House are currently negotiating details of the final tax bill, to be released on December 15th. Republican leaders are hoping to vote on this quickly, with the Senate voting as early as Monday or Tuesday. If the bill passes the Senate, the bill will head directly to the House almost immediately.
Don’t wait, contact your Senator and Representative today!
Hold Congress Accountable
1. Contact your Members of Congress to oppose the tax bill.
2. Text Congress!
Type the word “resist” to 50409. Resistbot will ask for your zip code to identify your Senators. You type whatever you want to say, the bot will format it into a letter and deliver a version of your message to you and your Senator. The next day, the bot will follow up to ask for your full address, confirm your House representative, and deliver the message to them as well.Unsure of what to say? Please use the following script to guide your text!
Sample Script:
“I’m your constituent from [City, State], and I urge you to oppose the tax bill. This proposed tax bill will harm students and put millions of Americans at risk of losing access to affordable health care. We cannot allow tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations at our families’ expense.”
3. Reach out to lee@searac.org if you need support or resources to mobilize action locally.
