WASHINGTON - Ways and Means Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) today made the following statement in response to the introduction of Republicans’ so-called jobs agenda:
“Republicans are trying to change the subject from their plan to end Medicare after Tuesday’s stunning public rebuke. In doing so, they’ve landed on a proposal equally distressing: a plan that would inevitably raise taxes on the middle class.
“We need tax reform, not loose talk from Republicans about reducing the top individual rate to 25 percent and creating a $2.9 trillion budget hole in the process that could only be filled by eliminating an array of tax benefits that helped grow the middle class, such as the mortgage interest deduction and the exclusion for employer provided healthcare. Republicans, meanwhile, insist on massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and continuing subsidies for big oil companies.
“After nearly a half year in charge, Republicans have not passed a single jobs bill. Instead they’ve tried to cover their tracks by masking a measure as a ‘jobs bill’ that passed out of the Ways and Means Committee two weeks ago and would end the guarantee of federal unemployment insurance for more than four million Americans still looking for work."
