ACTION ALERT: U.S. Senate Expected to Vote on Tax Bill as Early as Thursday

The Senate GOP tax plan would have devastating impacts for Ohio women and their families. The bill would:

• Give massive tax cuts to wealthy individuals and corporations paid for largely by shifting away resources to low- and moderate-income individuals through cuts to critical programs and services helping women and their families;
• Add at least $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit; 
• Repeal the student loan interest deduction in the House version of the bill, which would increase the financial burden of student loan debt for college students.
• Include a poorly crafted provision offering companies a small tax credit for providing employees with as little as two weeks of paid family and medical leave in the Senate version of the bill. Liberal and conservative researchers have stated that this kind of policy is untested and expensive, while unlikely to result in any real benefit. This is not the kind of paid leave policy that working women need, want, or deserve; and
• Limit Child Tax Credits (CTC), including childcare provisions that fall short of providing real relief for low- and moderate-income families.

And to be clear, this tax bill is also a health bill. It dismantles a key component of the Affordable Care Act by removing the penalty fees associated with the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) legal requirement to buy health insurance, effectively repealing the individual mandate. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 13 million fewer people would have health insurance by 2027 as a result.

For more on how the tax bill would impact health care, read a guest blog post from advocate and public health policy expert, Allison Russo. You can read the full post here.