{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://levin.house.gov/press-release/levin-statement-tax-conference", "Levin Statement on Tax Conference", "2017-12-12", "2017", "2017-12", "Democrat", "House", "MI", "Sander Levin", "L000263", "levin.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 12, 2017\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Contact: Nick Gwyn, (202) 225-4961\nLevin Statement on Tax Conference\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), a House conferee on the pending tax bill, HR 1, today issued the following statement regarding the House-Senate conference on the legislation:\n\u201cWhile the tax conference committee will not have its first official meeting until tomorrow, Republicans are meeting behind closed doors to finalize their bill -- discussing whether large corporations and the very wealthy will receive nearly all, or almost all, of the tax benefits.\u00a0 The middle class is dramatically being left behind, and in some cases, run over by the Republican tax bill.\u201d\nDemocrats will hold a forum on Wednesday to review the impact of GOP proposals on middle-class families and the U.S. economy.\u00a0 There are many areas of significant concern, including:\n \nThe enormous tilt of tax breaks to the very wealthy in both the House and Senate bills \u2013 the biggest tax windfall for the very rich in modern history;\nThe millions of middle-class families who will face tax increases either immediately given the elimination or reduction of tax credits for education, health care, and state and local taxes (the effect of which is masked by averaging tax changes across groups rather than individuals), or over time because of bracket creep under the new, reduced inflation measure for the tax brackets and/or the sunsetting of certain provisions.\nThe massive new tax loopholes that will be created, especially under provisions related to pass-through business income, and current loopholes that are not closed, such as the carried interest provision for wealthy investment managers, which President Trump promised to end.\nThe concern that provisions in these bills will increase, rather than reduce, the offshoring of US jobs and companies by increasing the incentive to move to tax havens.\nThe rise in health insurance premiums that the Congressional Budget Office projects will occur under the repeal of the individual mandate, and which AARP estimates will raise premiums in 2019 by an average of $1,500 for Americans aged 50-64.\nThe massive amount of new debt the GOP tax changes will generate even under the Joint Committee on Taxation\u2019s most optimistic projections.\u00a0\u00a0\nAnd finally, the pressure this debt will apply to cut Medicare and other essential programs.\n \n###", 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://levin.house.gov/press-release/levin-statement-tax-conference"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4951720368117094, "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"}