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Chellie Pingree Organizes Portland Roundtable In Opposition Of GOP Tax Plan

Abukar Adan
/
Maine Public
Chellie Pingree, at microphone, organized a roundtable discussion on the GOP tax plan in Portland on Monday.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine’s 1st District convened a roundtable discussion at the Portland City Hall on Monday with Mainers who say they will be harmed by the GOP tax plan.

Pingree says she’s concerned that the proposed tax cuts amount to a giveaway to corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

“They’re dropping the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent — that’s about a $5 trillion benefit to some of the wealthiest people in the country. They’re eliminating $3 trillion in tax cuts and then there will be $1 trillion-$2 trillion in the deficit,” she says.

Pingree says Republicans would need to find ways to pay for the tax breaks and that it would be the middle class that suffers the most.

Among those brought in for the roundtable was recent college graduate Jonathan Brown, who says he relies on student loan interest deductions. Brown says the GOP tax plan would disincentivize education.

“Down in Washington, if this bill passes, would further discourage students to go to college and to have the financial means and the ability to feel as though they are capable of affording college tuition,” he says.

Jodie Hall, who has a son with disabilities, says her family had relied heavily on deductions from significant medical expenses, which the GOP plan would undo.

“Doing away with deductions from this tax credits — that impacts an already marginalized part of the population further,” she says. “It’s a significant negative impact for families like us.”

The roundtable discussion comes as the House prepares to take up the tax plan later this week.