Is Buchanan dodging a town hall because tax plan is so bad?

Rep. Vern Buchanan has endorsed the Republican tax plan that is being rushed to a vote this week in the House, but he has made no attempt to hold a town hall to explain how this will affect the public. He wants to get this passed before his constituents understand it’s a bad plan.

The tax plan has been advertised as good for the middle class and small businesses, but it really repeals and phases out taxes the wealthy do not want to pay and passes that cost on to middle-class families.

Representative Buchanan plans to make working families and students pay the bill for those tax cuts by:

▪ Adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit. (Congress will then come back and say we must cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security because the deficit is too high.)

▪ Eliminating the medical health deductions for persons who have high medical bills (AARP is strongly opposed as this will hurt the elderly).

▪ Eliminating tax deductions for student loan debt and teachers’ out-of-pocket expenses for school supplies, ending tax credits for those who adopt children, and cutting mortgage deductions in half.

▪ Eliminating local and state tax deductions that will lead to cuts to public schools and result in overcrowded classrooms. (They will then say that our public schools are failing and must be dismantled.)

▪ Creating a national voucher scheme that steals funding from our public schools and gives it to for-profit corporations without public oversight.

This tax plan is a gift for the wealthy, and it will hurt working families, the elderly, our schools and our students.

This story was originally published November 18, 2017 at 12:38 PM with the headline "Is Buchanan dodging a town hall because tax plan is so bad?."