by Gigi Litovitch, Benjamin Hill and Lindsay Koshgarian

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s proposed tax plan for 2017 would be damaging to the most vulnerable in society and to our country’s budget.  Here are the 3 most important reasons why his plan is not “A Better Way” to manage the financial well-being of our country:

• Benefit the top 1% and severely hurt the poor. While Paul Ryan’s plan introduces tax cuts for all taxpayers, the top 1% would receive 60% of the tax cuts. While this seems unfair, the next piece of the puzzle shows just how oppressive these tax cuts would be for just about anyone who isn’t in the top 5%. Ryan’s own claims  about his tax plan are misleading: it relies entirely on disproven trickle-down economics and cuts public services. According to the Citizens for Tax Justice, the bottom 95% -- almost everyone in the country --  would actually lose a significant amount of money on this tax plan due to the cuts on public services, while the top 1% would gain on average a total of $134,741. And to add insult to to injury, it would…

• Cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent. While most corporations don’t pay anything close to a 35% tax rate, thanks to a complicated web of tax breaks, lowering the official rate all the way to 20% would ensure that corporations don’t have to pay their fair share anytime in the foreseeable future. And the plan gives this blessing to a low corporate tax rate even though it would…

• Increase the national debt. National debt is a highly debated topic, but we have yet to hear from someone who advocates for raising it unnecessarily. Paul Ryan himself has said that our debt of $19.2 trillion “...will weigh down our country like an anchor...”. Yet, he is still willing to put forward a tax plan that would single-handedly  increase the national debt by $4 trillion in the next ten years. This would be a reckless management of the budget, and a clear example of just how unrealistic and out of touch with our current financial reality his tax plan is.

Paul Ryan’s budget is downright irresponsible. Make sure your voice is heard so that we can protect our- personal and national- fiscal health. Contact Paul Ryan or your own representative and tell them what you think.

Gigi Litovich is working with NPP as a research and development student intern. She is a rising senior at Smith College, majoring in Government and minoring in Public Policy. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Gigi is interested in Latin American and Caribbean studies, social justice, and intersectional feminism. 

Benjamin Hill is workng with NPP as a research and communications intern. He is a rising sophomore at Middlebury College, and has studied math, economics and politics.