{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://issa.house.gov/news-room/press-releases/rep-issa-op-ed-oc-register-californians-deserve-tax-cut-too", "Rep. Issa Op-ed for OC Register: \"Californians Deserve A Tax Cut Too\"", "2017-11-20", "2017", "2017-11", "Republican", "House", "CA", "Darrell Issa", "I000056", "issa.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Californians deserve a tax cut too  The Orange County Register  \n\t\tBy: Congressman Darrell Issa  http://bit.ly/2zTqblx\n\tFederal tax reform moved forward this past week in Washington. Good news for most of the country. Not so much for us here in California.\n\nDone right, it would have spurred economic growth, allowed Californians to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks, enabled Americans to better save for the future, and helped dig hard-working families out of the mountain of tax increases piled on them in recent years.\nUnfortunately, I fear that the plan as approved could actually make the incredible burden our state\u2019s taxpayers feel even worse. I voted no because my constituents don\u2019t deserve a tax increase.\nWhile the world thinks living is easy in the land of sand and sun, the Southern California families and small businesses I know are putting in long hours and making tough sacrifices to make each day work. Californians have stayed late, picked up second shifts and worked hard in an honest effort to make ends meet, only to find themselves with less and less to show for it.\nThe tax plan approved this week would have made some good steps forward \u2014 simplifying the tax code, changing the corporate tax rate from the world\u2019s highest to be more globally competitive, and bringing down the rates for individual taxpayers \u2014 but I worry that even under the reduced tax rates, many across our state could be forced to pay more, not less, and for me that is simply unacceptable.\n\n\tFor taxpayers in our district, being able to deduct their state and local income taxes from their federal return is the first line of defense against the tax increase factory the Democrats have built in Sacramento. Democrats in our state Capitol have worked around the clock for years, churning out tax increases by the dozen on everything from gasoline, everyday purchases, paychecks \u2014 even plastic bags at the grocery store. Taken together, our state lawmakers have put Californians\u2019 taxes at the top of the list \u2014 highest income taxes in the country, highest sales taxes nationwide and now, thanks to the latest 12-cent-a-gallon gas tax hike, the highest gas prices anywhere in the land.\n\tFor Americans with leaders in their state Capitol less greedy than our own, eliminating the deduction makes little difference. But for us, eliminating the ability of Californians to deduct their hefty state and local taxes significantly compounds the substantial burdens already imposed on the taxpayers by our state. Even worse, eliminating the state and local tax deduction would assure that almost all of the bill\u2019s tax cuts would be distributed to other states \u2014 leaving California with the bill.\n\tHard-working Californians deserve to see a tax cut too.\n\t\n\t\tSome say the state and local tax deduction allows other states to subsidize Sacramento\u2019s bad tax policy. I\u2019d remind them that the numbers show it\u2019s actually quite the opposite. For every dollar California taxpayers send to Washington, the state receives less than a dollar back. Put another way: It\u2019s actually California taxpayers who already support spending for other states, even with the state and local tax deduction in place.\n\t\tRepublicans are right as they work to reduce taxes, revitalize our economy, make America competitive on a global scale again and fix our broken tax code, but any plan must benefit all taxpayers \u2014 no matter where they live. Californians aren\u2019t asking for a special handout, they just deserve their fair shake at the table.\n\t\tWe can do better for California than the plan that was approved this past week. That\u2019s why it didn\u2019t earn my support. But the process of overhauling our tax code is far from complete. As the bill moves forward to the Senate, I will continue fighting for changes that will ensure this bill returns money to all of our nation\u2019s taxpayers \u2014 Californians included.\n\t\tTax reform remains imperative. Let\u2019s get the details right and get this country moving again. http://www.ocregister.com/2017/11/17/californians-dont-deserve-a-tax-increase/", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://issa.house.gov/news-room/press-releases/rep-issa-op-ed-oc-register-californians-deserve-tax-cut-too"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9626299142837524, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}