{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sablan.house.gov/how-federal-tax-hurts-us", "How federal tax hurts us", "2017-12-17", "2017", "2017-12", "Democrat", "House", "MP", "Gregorio Sablan", "S001177", "sablan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "How federal tax hurts us                                           \n              Dec 17, 2017      \t\t        \t    \n      \t            \n                    \n                                            \n          \n        \n        \n            \n    \n  \n    \n    \n    We do not pay federal income taxes in the Marianas, so why am I opposed to H.R. 1, the Republican tax bill now on the verge of passage? First, the Commonwealth Government will lose revenues. The Commonwealth income tax code mirrors the federal internal revenue code. So, if H.R. 1 reduces federal revenues,as the bipartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimates, then the Commonwealth will also suffer lower revenues. Second, when the federal government cuts its revenues by $1.445 trillion, as H.R. 1 will do, then Congress will have to cut spending or allow our national debt to grow. Speaker Paul Ryan has already signaled that he intends to cut spending. Specifically, he wants to cut entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, which serve upwards of 18,000 of us in the Marianas. But there will also be pressure to cut other federal programs in education, housing, help for the disabled, and infrastructure from which the Commonwealth government typicallyreceives more than $100 millionannually. \nThe only way to make up those revenue losses will be for the Commonwealth to raise taxes locally. I am not opposed to tax reform in principle, but it must be revenue neutral to prevent these harms to the people I represent. H.R. 1 does not meet that test, so I oppose it.", 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://sablan.house.gov/how-federal-tax-hurts-us"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8503780700266361, "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"}