MEDIA RELEASE: Advocates gather at State Capitol to detail harm U.S. Senate Tax Plan

Raleigh (Nov. 29, 2017) — As the U.S. Senate began debate this afternoon the the tax plan that was passed by Committee yesterday, advocates and concerned citizens gathered at the State Capitol building in Raleigh to detail the harm of the tax plan.

“The Advent Season provides a heightened awareness of God’s justice breaking in creation through the birth of the Christ child,” said Jennifer Copeland, Executive Director of the NC Council of Churches. “These days are exactly the right time for a call to our nation’s leaders to craft a tax policy that provides justice for everyone. The current bills winding through the halls of Congress fall far short of God’s goal by offering policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy few at the expense of the majority middle and the lower least. These policies will do long term damage to our nation’s ability to invest in the well-being of all our families and communities. Eventually, this disproportionate investment will even have a detrimental effect on the wealthy few.”

“It is sad that despite the many failed efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and gut Medicaid this year, the Senate passed a tax bill out of committee yesterday that is nothing but a sneaky repeal of ACA which further threatens the health care of North Carolinians and people across the U.S.,” added Ciara Zachary, Public Policy Analyst with the Health Advocacy Project of the NC Justice Center.

The Congressional Budget Office, repealing the ACA’s individual mandate would lead to 13 million fewer people having health insurance and in North Carolina, over 400,000 fewer people would have coverage in 2025. This means that the uninsured rate for non-elderly adults would climb from 11 percent to 16 percent.

This sneaky repeal not only leads to a loss of coverage, but hurts the pockets of everyday people and families. Reports show that premiums would jump up 10 percent by 2019 and continuing to increase each year by 10 percent for the next decade. In North Carolina, middle-class families would especially feel the pain in their pockets as they would see an increase of $2,510.

Repealing the mandate also helps Trump’s ACA Sabotage as it would create further market instability and uncertainty, thus causing insurers to exit the market.”

“This plan will deliver the greatest benefit to the rich, raise taxes on many middle- and low-income taxpayers, and grow the federal deficit,” said Alexandra Sirota, Director of the Budget & Tax Center, a project of the NC Justice Center. “The harm to North Carolina will be felt in every community as an estimated 400,000 North Carolinians lose health insurance and investments are cut that connect people to jobs, connect businesses to markets, and strengthen our economy. North Carolina’s Congressional delegation must slow down their rush to pass an overhaul of the tax code that benefits so few and ensure that federal tax policy is not paving the way for more harm to our state.”

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Mel Umbarger, BTC Senior Communications Specialist, at mel@ncjustice.org.

The Budget & Tax Center conducts non-partisan analysis of state budget and tax policy and monitors economic conditions in the state. We produce timely and accessible research that contributes to policy discussions and public debate, with the goal of building a broader understanding of the role of policy in supporting economic opportunity for all.