Last year Republicans in Congress passed a corporate tax giveaway that ignored millions of hard-working Americans and promises to balloon our national debt.
Wealthy party donors like the Koch brothers reportedly spent $20 million to pass this GOP tax scam, and were rewarded with $1 billion in estimated annual tax savings.
Late last month, a Koch brother-backed group, absurdly named Americans for Prosperity, announced a new advertising campaign to attack my colleagues and me for supporting a spending bill that makes vital investments in our seniors, our children, and everyone in between. These advertisements are only a small chunk of the $400 million the group says it will spend influencing the 2018 elections.
That’s a frightening statistic. However, though you won’t hear me say this often, I’d actually like to thank the Koch brothers for informing South Floridians where I stand on this spending bill. It certainly was not a perfect bill. Yet, with the help of my fellow Democrats on the Appropriations Committee, we secured investments that will make America a stronger, safer, and healthier nation.
Our efforts resulted in a badly needed boost for essential governmental functions — defense, education, infrastructure, housing, veterans, and much more — that have been woefully underfunded since the passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011. Republicans and Democrats agreed that the situation was unacceptable. This year, we are finally beginning to reinvest in these vital national priorities.
For example, our legislation increased funding for Head Start and Pell Grants — helping our nation’s students get ahead and stay ahead. We included additional protections for our clean air, clean water, and national parks. We also enacted increases in elderly and disabled housing, and made $2 billion in infrastructure improvements to VA facilities and medical and mental health services for those who have served our nation with pride.
In short, this spending bill was a complete rejection of the cruel budget that President Trump asked Congress to support. His proposal would have stripped health care away from millions of Americans and wasted tens of billions of taxpayer dollars on an irrational and ineffective border wall.
Notably, the bill we passed also makes vital investments benefiting all Floridians, including financing for Everglades restoration, as well as funds for shore and crop protections and hurricane restoration efforts. Moreover, the Florida delegation fought to give NOAA — the agency that tracks hurricanes — a $234 million budget increase, despite Trump’s proposal to cut it.
I’m also proud that, as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, I was able to secure funding for many of the legislative issues I’ve fought for throughout my time in Congress. We protected programs that give young women the information they need to fight breast cancer, doubled the assistance given to help Holocaust survivors live with dignity, and made it possible to hire more law enforcement to combat online child exploitation across the nation.
So, why are the Koch brothers furious about these important investments? Well, according to their ad, “America can’t afford it.” That’s rich. (Pun intended.)
Remember, it was these same Koch brothers and their wealthy Republican friends who helped push through Trump’s tax giveaway that will add about $2 trillion to our nation’s debt over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That’s more than 14 times the amount that this spending bill boosts investments over last year.
What America actually can’t afford is massive handouts for Wall Street and giant corporations. This tax scam was written by wealthy Republican donors, for wealthy Republican donors.
Now the Koch brothers are using part of those same tax handouts to attack workers bargaining for better wages and working conditions, and to block rules designed to make polluters pay for their toxic waste.
As we get closer to the midterm elections, we can expect to hear even more from right-wing billionaires furiously protecting their own profits. Instead of shying away from those fights, we must expose their misleading, self-serving attacks and speak out for our middle class values that will help everyone get ahead.
I want to thank the Koch brothers for helping me let my constituents know about my support for our community priorities.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the U.S. Representative for Florida’s 23rd congressional district.
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