What The Hell America!

To honor Tax Day, a watchdog group is highlighting research showing how 70% of congressional Republicans may see personal financial benefit from the party’s tax plan, now making its way through Congress, which would likely be paid for in part by deep cuts to Medicaid and through cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

According to Accountable.US, a progressive research and advocacy group, “270,000 households in many of the lowest-income Republican congressional districts could lose SNAP benefits while their representatives potentially save millions.”

“While millions prepare their returns, the Trump administration and their lackeys in Congress are eagerly seeking a way to rob their constituents of vital services and pay for tax giveaways to themselves, their billionaire donors, and mega corporations,” Tony Carrk, the group’s executive director, said in a statement Tuesday.

“Put simply: at a time when costs continue to rise for everyday Americans, this tax day, Congressional Republicans aren’t focused on making their constituents’ lives better; instead they’re focused on gutting programs Americans rely on and cutting taxes for those doing just fine.”

As part of its spending and tax plan, Republicans are aiming to extend expiring provisions of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a move that would disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

The provisions set to expire include a 20% deduction for “pass-through” businesses—whose owners report their share of profits as taxable income under the individual income tax—and the current estate tax exemption amount. If the estate tax TCJA exemption were to expire, the exemption would drop down to $7 million per individual, meaning more millionaires would be forced to pay federal estate tax.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D) also recently endorsed a full repeal of the estate tax, which is a tax applied to assets inherited by others when a wealthy person dies.

The pass-through deduction and estate tax are two benefits that are tilted toward the wealthy, according to Accountable.US, which focused on these two benefits when building their “Cash in Congress” database.

To compile the data, the group looked at lawmakers’ most recent federal annual disclosure, and counted them within the 70% of lawmakers set to gain from the tax plan if they are set to benefit from the pass-through deduction.

Some lawmakers are also poised to benefit from keeping the TCJA estate tax exemption amount in place. According to Accountable.US, 18% of Republican House members and 28% of Senate Republicans are wealthy enough that they are currently subject to the estate tax. They would also pay even less in estate taxes if the provision was fully repealed.

Specifically, the 10 wealthiest House Republicans are threatening Medicaid access for 1.7 million of their own constituents, among the poorest in their districts, according to a statement from the group when they launched the database last week.

Accountable.US also highlights the situation of individual members who may benefit.

Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is tasked with coming up with spending cuts that will likely impact Medicaid. Per Accountable.US, she could benefit from the repeal of the estate tax after reporting over $40 million in assets on her most recent annual financial disclosure.

Meanwhile, according to the group, her district has a median household income that is over 20,000 below the U.S. median household income, and 14.3% of adults have income below the poverty line. Over 35,000 of the households she represents receive SNAP benefits.