Pelosi Remarks at Press Event on the Ryan-McConnell Middle Class Tax Hike From Ending the State & Local Tax Deduction

Contact: Ashley Etienne/Henry Connelly, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Ways & Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA) and heartland House Democrats in highlighting the disastrous effects of the Ryan-McConnell plan to end the state and local tax deduction, raising taxes on families across America. Below are the Leader's remarks:

Leader Pelosi. Good afternoon, everyone. I thought that we were going to be led, and we will momentarily, in this presentation by the distinguished Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Richard Neal joined by [Congressman] Lloyd Doggett who is a Subcommittee Ranking Member and Congressman Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, Congresswoman Betty McCollum of Minnesota and Congressman Brad Schneider of Illinois. We are hoping to be joined by Congresswoman Joyce Beatty also of Ohio – they are marking up in her committee but hopefully she will join us.

We are here to talk about the Ryan and McConnell tax framework. It is not tax reform so let us not use any misnomers here. It is a deficit-exploding, multi-trillion dollar tax-giveaway to the wealthiest that raises taxes on the middle class across America. The GOP plan to end state and local tax deductions is an insidious effort to raise taxes on middle class families – again, across America.

Half the people who would be hit earned a household income of under $100,000. In my state of California, more than six million households who use this deduction spread through blue districts and red districts and California Republicans unwisely choose to support this and have their way – these families, their constituents, could see their tax exposure increase by thousands of dollars.

But this is a GOP tax increase that threatens families, again, across America with hard impacts in America's heartland. Middle class families and home-owners will suffer. Schools – support for schools and first-responders, important priorities our constituents depend on us for will suffer.

Local communities will feel the pain just so the GOP can hand trillions of dollars of tax breaks to the wealthiest. We call on Republicans in every state across the country to oppose any effort to eliminate or limit – or limit and I repeat the limit – state and local tax deductions.

With that, I am pleased to yield with gratitude to our Distinguished Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Richard Neal of Massachusetts.

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Leader Pelosi. On that score, I would just like to say this: our colleagues Mr. [Richard] Neal and Mr. [Lloyd] Doggett have said, ‘it's not a jack-in-the-box, this is about public visibility as to what the possibilities are.' And the reason they are not having a hearing is that they do not want the public to know. They want the public to see just the fake ads they have on TV representing that this is about the middle class – even confusing the President of the United States. So the hearings are about information, data, evidence as to what the impact is of any particular policy but it is also about the public's right to know how they are affected.

So we want to give leverage to the middle class in this debate. This is not about Democrats or Republicans, this is about the middle class in our country and the more they know about what is at stake in these bills for them, the stronger the hand will be for those who are there for the middle class – Mr. [Richard] Neal and the Democrats Members of the Ways and Means to have a product that will create good paying jobs, create growth in our country and not increase the deficit.

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