Rich taken care of

Here we go again. Congress is once again looking to enrich corporate America while ignoring the needs of struggling families. If you remember, in early 2013 Congress passed the so-called “fiscal cliff” tax cut. It made tax cuts for the wealthy and middle class permanent but tax cuts for low-income working Americans – specifically, improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) – were merely extended until 2017. If they expire, 12 million Americans, including 7 million children, will fall into poverty or fall deeper into poverty.

Now, the House of Representatives has passed another $300 billion tax giveaway to corporations, all of which will be added to the deficit. Is there language in this bill making the EITC and CTC improvements permanent? No, there is not. Many who voted for this new tax cut – Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, are you listening? – are the same people who repeatedly use deficit concerns to oppose funding anti-poverty programs.

I guess, for Congress, the deficit only matters when you’re poor.

I urge Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to oppose this tax bill and instead make the EITC and CTC improvements permanent and work toward a goal of ending poverty in America by 2030.

Debbie Detmer

Spokane