Here’s your December 11 update on fighting the GOP tax bill.
Politico is reporting that the House of Representatives will not vote on the bill during the week of December 11. The December 8 story opens like so:
The House will not vote next week on a final agreement to rewrite the tax code, though House and Senate negotiators are expected to work through the weekend.
“It will not come up next week, but if it could, I would bring it up as soon as we come out of conference, because I do believe the American people are waiting for a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told colleagues late Thursday in remarks on the House floor.
Full story here:
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/08/final-tax-vote-schedule-timeline-287243
That means they’re going to work on the bill all week. And that means you need to keep calling, and keep urging your friends and family to call, too.
Here’s a December 10 Twitter thread from tax expert Michael Linden that you should see, which lays out what makes this week important:
This coming week is make-or-break for the GOP tax scam. If you have any interest in fighting this disastrous bill, follow along for a state-of-play update. Short version: we CAN still stop this thing. 1/
Here’s where we are: Both the Senate & House have passed versions of the GOP tax scam. They have a lot in common (huge tax cuts for the wealthy & corporations, tax hikes on millions of middle class families) but aren’t identical. 2/
To become law, the House & Senate have to pass identical bills. So to come up with ONE new version that both chambers can pass, the GOP has sent their bills to a “conference committee.” 3/
That Conference Committee is, right now, behind closed doors, ironing out the differences between the House & Senate bill. The bad news is that the bill is much more likely to get worse than it is to get better. 4/
Once the Conference Committee creates a new bill that they think can pass both chambers, both the House and the Senate will have to vote AGAIN. That’s our last chance to #KillTheBill. 5/
The Conference Committee is going to have precisely 1 “open” meeting (it’s not much more than a photo op), and that’ll be THIS WEDNESDAY, December 13th, at 2 PM. 6/
it’ll be only a matter of days before the FINAL vote in the House & Senate. Those votes could be as soon as Thursday, but likely will be early the week of the 18th. 7/
That means this week is CRITICAL. If we’re going to stop this bill, Congress needs to hear and feel the backlash. We can stop it either by flipping 10 GOP votes in the House or 2 GOP votes in the Senate. Tall orders, yes, but not impossible. 8/
Here’s a list of 50+ potentially flippable House GOPers. These all have some combination of the following characteristics: •From states that would be particularly hard hit •Voted against ACA repeal •Are in competitive 2018 races We need 10 of ‘em. 9/
And here are more things you might want to know:
There might be a GOP Tax Scam protest near you. Check this link to find out:
https://notonepenny.org/take-action/#events
In her December 6 update on fighting the GOP tax bill, Celeste Pewter (@Celeste_Pewter) offered talking points that you can use with friends, family, and co-workers:
8. Here are talking points you can include in any contact you share w/ friends/family/colleagues. Key point is that the impact on the deficit could eventually result in cuts in entitlement programs.
The Senate has chosen its lineup for the Tax Conference Committee. They will represent the Senate when trying to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the GOP tax bill.
If any of these Republicans are your senators, it is super-extra-important for you to call and make your opposition known.
Orrin Hatch of Utah
Mike Enzi of Wyoming
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
John Cornyn of Texas
John Thune of South Dakota
Rob Portman of Ohio
Tim Scott of South Carolina
Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania
Before that, the House GOP named its tax conference committee members. If any of these folks are your reps, it is super-extra-important for you to call (again, all are Republicans):
Kevin Brady of Texas
Devin Nunes of California
Peter Roskam of Illinois
Diane Black of Tennessee
Kristi Noem of South Dakota
Rob Bishop of Utah
Don Young of Alaska
Greg Walden of Oregon
John Shimkus of Illinois
Here also are several other folks aside from @MichaelSLinden, @Celeste_Pewter, @TopherSpiro, and @aslavitt who you should be following on Twitter to stay on top of the GOP tax bill, which is morphing constantly, like a suspect science experiment in a horror movie. Some of these people are old friends from the Trumpcare fights. Some are tax experts.
Ben Wikler @benwikler
Seth Hanlon @sethhanlon
Sunjeev Bery @sunjeevbery
Lily Batchelder @lilybatch
Greg Leiserson @gregleiserson
Chad Bolt @chadderr
In addition, you can call your members of Congress (MoCs) to ask them to defend Net Neutrality–that vote could come on December 14.
We’ve been beating the Net Neutrality drum all year. Below is a post that explains why we need to keep it, and contains a script you can use when calling your MoCs:
…and you can help Doug Jones in his campaign for the open Alabama Senate seat. The special election is Tuesday, December 12.
If Jones wins, the Republican head count in the Senate goes from 52-48 to 51-49, and makes it that much harder for them to pass that awful tax bill and any other nonsense they might try to sneak through.
It’s too late to send GOTV postcards to Alabama Democrats, but you can still spread the word about his campaign, donate to it, and support it in other ways. See our past posts on Doug Jones for more:
Here also are two more recent posts that relate to the GOP tax bill and its effects that you should see if you haven’t yet:
One last note, which we’ve stated before: Even if this bill ultimately implodes and never becomes law, we still need to vote out every Republican that we can in 2018. This whole process has been nothing less than legislative malpractice. They should be punished for aiding and abetting it. Period.
