California Labor Movement Blasts GOP Members of Congress for Selling Out Working People with Tax Vote

Statement by California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski

It’s a travesty that GOP members of Congress chose to mortgage California’s future to provide a huge gift to the big corporations and wealthy out-of-state donors who fund their campaigns.

Analysis after analysis confirms this bill is a disaster for California. It triggers automatic cuts to Medicare, undermines the Affordable Care Act, imperils Social Security, and increases taxes for many middle-class and low-income families just to give the wealthiest among us yet another undeserved advantage.

It’s no surprise that this awful bill is deeply unpopular. For weeks, constituents have been protesting at the California offices of GOP members of Congress only to have their concerns fall upon deaf ears. There was a constellation of reasons for California members to vote ‘no’ yet nearly all of California’s GOP delegation marched in lockstep with President Trump and the corporate lobbyists and DC politicians doing his bidding.

Due to a procedural error as a result of the GOP ramming this bill down the throats of Americans without due diligence, the House will vote again tomorrow. While I’d like to think California Republicans might develop a conscience overnight, we know better. Once in the pocket of corporate special interests, always in the pocket of corporate special interests.

Californians have a long memory. We won’t forget this betrayal at the hands of GOP congressmembers who sold us out for the most cynical of political reasons. The California labor movement is 100 percent committed to holding every California GOP member of Congress accountable for this vote. We’ll be talking to voters every day to ensure that Election Day 2018 is a day of reckoning for the politicians who chose to give their wealthy donors a huge gift at the expense of the hard-working families in their districts.