Statement from Amy Blouin, Executive Director, Missouri Budget Project
Amy Blouin, Executive Director of the Missouri Budget Project, issued the following statement in response to today’s vote by the House of Representatives to pass its tax bill:
“Despite claims to the contrary, the damaging bill passed by the House today is a giveaway to special interests that will ultimately be paid for on the backs of working Missourians through higher taxes and cuts to services that help families get ahead.
Legislators are already calling for spending cuts next year that will undermine working families – and they’re using high deficits, which their tax bill made worse, to justify these cuts.
This is a one-two punch for working families, kids, seniors, and people with disabilities. Calls to cut nutrition assistance, disability insurance, and health care are a slap in the face to struggling families when Congress just voted for a bill that will increase the deficit by nearly $1.5 trillion.
Missourians want little more than to provide a better future for their families. But cuts to the safety net that helps Missourians meet their basic needs will make it harder for families struggling to provide for their children.
And because proposals to cut federal spending almost always involve shifting costs to state and local governments, it will put even more pressure on Missouri’s already stretched budget to fund community services that benefit everyone.
Members of Missouri’s Congressional delegation should commit now to opposing budget cuts that will further harm families struggling to get ahead by taking away nutrition, housing, health, or other assistance.”
The Senate is expected to vote on the tax bill as early as tonight.
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The Missouri Budget Project is nonprofit public policy analysis organization that analyzes state budget, tax, health and economic issues.
