Fair Taxation
I strongly believe that Congress needs to make fiscal responsibility a priority. I support rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending in order to bring down the deficit, but we also need to raise adequate revenues in order to pay for the priorities we have as a nation. Those priorities include safe food and water, defense and homeland security, education and health care, and infrastructure investments that help build economic growth and opportunity for all. As we evaluate our nation's needs and look to see how more revenue can be raised, I think we should first ask more from those who can afford to pay more. The middle class and those who aspire to it have already been sacrificing for years, while less and less has been asked from millionaires and billionaires and highly-profitable corporations that ship American jobs overseas.
I was a strong supporter of allowing the Bush tax cuts for income above $250,000 a year to expire, while extending tax cuts for middle-class and low-income families. I continue to believe that we should raise additional revenues by reforming the corporate tax code and ending tax breaks for off-shoring jobs and profits. The #GOPTaxScam from President Trump and Congressional Republicans has resulted in boons for super-rich and corporations, while working families continue to wait for their promised tax relief.
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WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the House Democratic Caucus Task Force on Aging and Families, released the following statement after House Republicans voted to pass their reconciliation bill:
On Friday, I voted in favor of a continuing resolution to keep our government open and funded. While the continuing resolution did not include everything I had initially wanted, we could not let the government shut down. A government shutdown right before the holidays would have forced our troops to work without pay, harmed small businesses, risked air travel disruptions, endangered access to food assistance for millions of mothers and their children, and so much more.
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) released the following statement on the continuing resolution to keep government programs and services functioning until March 14, 2025:
We are in a fiscal crisis because of the tax cuts that were given to the ultra-wealthy, and now some of my colleagues want to make devastating cuts to our vital programs. They never discuss the morality of these cuts. The Affordable Care Act and Social Security are lifesaving programs. We must keep fighting.
For my entire career, I have worked to advance reproductive freedom. I will always remember the horrifying story of my friend’s back-alley abortion pre-Roe v. Wade. Roe was not the beginning of women having abortions, it was the end of women dying from abortions.
Last week, the Arizona Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to enforce an antiquated law that bans nearly all abortions in the state. This cruel ban was first enacted in 1864—more than 150 years ago, before Arizona was even a state and well before women had secured the right to vote.
As I have said many times before, we live in the richest country in the world at the richest moment in history. Yet, many Americans are unable to feel the full magnitude of our wealth. One of the biggest problems we face is income inequality. As big corporations continue to rake in record profits, there are many families struggling to put food on the table. For this reason, I was one of the 70 members who voted against a $78 billion tax bill that came before the House of Representatives.
Last week, Republicans on the House Budget Committee hosted a hearing centered around the idea of creating a so-called “fiscal commission.” The hearing made it crystal clear what their real goal is: decimate Social Security and Medicare behind closed doors. Over a decade ago, I served on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, better known as the Bowles-Simpson Commission. That commission failed, but not before its co-chairs tried to make deep cuts to the American people’s hard-earned Social Security and Medicare benefits.
I recently became aware of two alarming and hateful acts in my district. The first incident occurred late last week in the Devonshire neighborhood of Skokie when numerous ‘We Stand with Israel’ signs were vandalized and shredded apart. The second display occurred at a rally in Evanston on Saturday where the antisemitic Hamas flag was flaunted. I wholeheartedly condemn these actions.