Tax Fairness: Educating Iowans on 2017 GOP Tax Law
Fairness for Iowa hosted an online panel with Iowans and advocates to discuss the GOP Tax Law
Des Moines, Iowa – Nearly 40 Iowans joined a tax fairness panel hosted by Fairness for Iowa on Thursday afternoon. Speakers informed Iowans on the ways the 2017 Republican Tax Law was heavily skewed to benefit corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
Maura Quint from Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) spoke on how the Republican Tax Law gave record-breaking tax breaks to the biggest corporations and the impact that has had on working people. She emphasized that learning about the effects of the current tax code is crucial to understanding how a more fair system can be created.
“At the time, Republicans were absolutely saying that these tax cuts would trickle down, that this would benefit everyone and be a middle class tax cut, which all sounds like a good thing,” Quint said. “But now we are well into the law and what they promised is not at all what is happening.”
Susie Oleson, a retired educator and small business owner from Greenfield, knows the real-world impacts of the Republican Tax Law well.
“Middle-class Iowans like me deserve to have a fair tax structure, but that isn’t happening under the 2017 Tax Law. The disproportionate benefits for wealthy corporations and the rich don’t make sense. The ultra-wealthy and CEOs need to pay their fair share in taxes so that the rest of us get some relief,” Oleson said.
Anne Discher, the executive director of Common Good Iowa, believes that if the wealthiest people and big corporations paid their fair share in taxes we could strengthen programs like Social Security and Medicare. She said that handouts to big corporations fail to help working-class people, with 84% of the benefit from corporate tax cuts going to the richest 20% of households in their first year.
“We’ve lost substantial revenue due to the 2017 tax cuts and those dollars are going into the pockets of the wealthiest folks and corporations,” Discher said. “Instead, a fairer tax code could drive historic poverty reduction, narrow the racial income gap, and keep funding in programs folks rely on for food assistance and health care.”
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