{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398510", "Polis warns that the Republican tax plan will grow the national debt", "2017-12-19", "2017", "2017-12", "Democrat", "House", "CO", "Jared Polis", "P000598", "polis.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., opposed the Republican tax plan, which passed the House of Representatives again today on a party line vote. The plan is expected to increase the national debt by over $1.5 trillion and raise taxes for many.\r\nThe Republican tax scheme grows the national debt by over $1.5 trillion, providing handouts to corporations and special interests while hitting middle class families with tax hikes. It serves only to weaken the nations economy at a time when many are still trying to get ahead after the Great Recession. We cant afford to bankrupt the nation, and Coloradans cannot afford another recession,said Polis. Now it seems with the latest procedural error, which frankly is a result of rushing through a massive tax reform plan, Republicans have another shot to do what we should have done in the first place and reject this tax hike that only serves to grow the national debt. Lets not make tomorrow a nightmarish Groundhog Day.\r\nPolis has been raising alarms about the Republican plan all along, calling for a simplified tax code that grows the economy and eliminates special-interest loopholes.\r\nHe wrote anarticledetailing several problems with the Republican plan. The original bill in the House of Representatives eliminated the educator tax deduction, which allows teachers to claim a deduction of up to $250 for school supplies they purchased with their personal income, and Polis introduced an amendment to keep this deduction in place, which the final version of the bill does. This bill also now maintains the employer-sponsored tuition assistancetaxbenefit, which allows employees to receive up to $5,250 annually in education assistance thats excluded from gross income, in line with another of Poliss amendments. Additionally, Polis introduced an amendment to restore the private activity bonds that allow private companies to invest in their communities, and the final tax bill has kept those bonds in place.\r\nIn a final effort to introduce bipartisanship to the bill, Polis introduced an amendment in the form of a concurring resolution last night to level the playing field for the marijuana industry and kombucha businesses, remove outdated cryptocurrency restrictions, and limit deductions for lobbyists, but was rejected. As vice-chair of the Congressional Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), he has drafted and advocated for a detailed environmental tax policy plan, even penning anarticleto that effect.\r\nThirteen of Poliss other amendments to previous versions of the bill were also rejected along party line votes:\r\nEmployer-Provided Student Loan AssistanceAmendment: would have allowed employers to pay up to $5,250 toward an employees student loan paymentstax-free.\r\nUnborn Child 529 Beneficiary EligibilityAmendment: would have removed unborn children as eligible beneficiaries of 529 college savings accounts, only placed in thistaxplanas an embarrassingly transparent attempt to undermine womens rights and privacy.\r\nEmployer-Provided Tuition AssistanceAmendment: would have restored the employer-sponsored tuition assistancetaxbenefit, which allows employees to receive up to $5,250 annually in education assistance thats excluded from gross income.\r\nIncrease ChildTaxCreditAmendment: would have increased the childtaxcredit from $1,000 to $3,600 per child and index those dollars for inflation.\r\nCarbon FeeAmendment: states that a carbon fee should be included in anytaxreform to reduce taxes across the board and bring back millions of manufacturing jobs that are needed to build clean energy infrastructure and upgrade our grid.\r\nWind ProductionTaxCreditAmendment: would have reinstated the productiontaxcredit for the wind power industry to maintain the 100,000 jobs created since 2015 in the wind sector and spur further job growth.\r\nElectric VehiclesAmendment: would have helped promote technology, innovation, and a more sustainable energy source for powering motor vehicles.\r\nSolar EDGEAmendment: Based on Poliss Solar EDGE Act, it would have created a short-term surge of funding in small distributed generation solar systems, which allows companies to reach states that have been left out of this critical clean energy platform.\r\nExpensing of Intangible Drilling CostsAmendment: would have repealed one of the largest and most draconiantaxbreaks available to the oil industry- the expensing of intangible drilling costs, which allows companies to immediately deduct most of the costs of drilling a new well despite the fact that risks associated with drilling new wells are no longer present.\r\nMaster Limited Partnerships Amendments: Master Limited Partnerships, or MLPs, are a corporate form primarily used by natural resource firms to avoid corporate income taxes. The MLPamendmentwould have prohibited fossil fuel companies from using MLPs, and an alternativeamendmentwould have allowed MLPs to be used by renewable energy companies who currently are prohibited from such use by law.\r\nMarijuanaAmendment: would have protected small businesses and dispensaries in the State of Colorado from unsustainabletaxburdens by revising Section 280e of thetaxcode to exempt marijuana sales.\r\nCryptocurrencyTaxFairnessAmendment: Based on Poliss CryptocurrencyTaxFairness Act of 2017, it would have removed outdated restrictions on cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, and other methods of digital payment, allowing consumers to make small purchases with cryptocurrency up to $600 without burdensome reporting requirements.\r\nKombucha ActAmendment: Based on Poliss KOMBUCHA Act, it would have eased the burden on Kombucha manufacturers, and unleashed the power of an industry pioneered by small businesses and entrepreneurs to sell this probiotic, antioxidant tea.\r\nLimiting Deductions for Lobbying ExpendituresAmendment: would have ensured that lobbyists dont gettaxbreaks from wielding their influence over politicians and lawmakers by removing existing protections that allow lobbyists to avoid paying their full share of thetaxburden when meeting with members of Congress and their staffs.\r\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://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398510"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.941951923072338, "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"}