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For Immediate Release
September, 27 2017, 12:00pm EDT
Contact:
Sam Quigley, [email protected], 202-446-0489
Patriotic Millionaires on "Trump's Trickle Down" Tax Plan
"It's somewhere between indefensible and obscene."
WASHINGTON
Today, the Patriotic Millionaires blasted the Trump Administration's just-released Tax Plan. The group, which includes hundreds of America's wealthiest citizens, released the following official statement:
"The Trump Tax Plan is nothing but a payoff to millionaires and multinational corporations. It is an embarrassment to history, common sense and decency that any elected official continues to perpetuate the total fraud of Trickle Down Economics. Time and again that epic lie has served as the justification for taking money that belongs to the American people and handing it over to a few thousand well-connected political donors. They pretend it is a philosophy. This is not a philosophy, this is a pay off."
The group went on to make several specific points about some of the details of the tax framework:
- On the reduction of the top rate: "Lowering the top rate for America's richest people in the face of already destabilizing inequality is irresponsible bordering on immoral."
- On the repatriation of profits: "The Administration has decided to reward companies for essentially stealing American taxpayers' money by hoarding it overseas. How is that good for the middle class?"
- On the reduction of the corporate tax rate: "Randall Stephenson, the chief executive of AT&T is wrong. The correlation between lower corporate tax rates and more jobs is not 'very, very tight,' it is nonexistent. From 2008-2015 the company paid an effective rate of 8%, they laid off 80,000 people, and Mr. Stephenson cashed in $124 million in stock options. Companies do not hire more people when you lower their tax rate, they overpay their already overpaid executives."
- On the elimination of the Estate tax: "We can't wait to hear President Trump try to explain how a $4 billion tax cut for Ivanka and Tiffany helps the middle class."
- On the elimination of the AMT: "The elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax will virtually guarantee that thousands of Americas wealthiest people will pay no tax at all. How will be left holding the bill for that lost revenue? The middle class."
- On the territorial tax system: "President Trump's big plan to boost the middle class starts by helping multinational corporations avoid paying any taxes at all? That is absurd."
- On reducing the number of tax brackets: "If anything, we need more tax brackets. Someone making $5 million, $10 million, or $50 million a year should definitely pay higher taxes than someone making $400,000 a year. How can we even debate this?"
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.
(202) 446-0489LATEST NEWS
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"We got people that work and repair the water mains and can't afford their water bill," said union leader Greg Boulware last week. "I don't want to be rich. We just want comfort inside the city that we serve daily."
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Philadelphia's largest municipal workers' strike in over 40 years is entering its second week after negotiations with the city broke down this weekend.
Over 9,000 sanitation workers, 911 dispatchers, water services workers, crossing guards, and other city employees walked off the job last week, demanding that the city increase their salary enough to meet the rising cost of living.
But even with trash piling up on the streets and other city services understaffed, Mayor Cherelle Parker (D) would not agree to the demands made by AFSCME District Council 33, Philadelphia's largest blue-collar union.
Parker has offered a pay increase of 8.75% over the next three years, which she described as historic.
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"It's not like as if our members are making $80,000, $90,000 a year," Boulware said. "A 2% increase on those would be significantly higher than it would be on somebody making $40,000-$45,000 a year. So, her math truly is not mathing, and you're clearly not paying attention to the working people that are going on in this city."
The average municipal worker in Philadelphia makes around $46,000, which is $15,000 less than the median income in the city and less than half of what a single adult needs to live comfortably, according to a study by SmartAsset.
"We got people that work and repair the water mains and can't afford their water bill," Boulware said at a rally last week. "We got people that repair the runways at the airport and can't afford a plane ticket. I don't want to be rich. We just want a comfort inside the city that we serve daily."
The union initially asked for an 8% raise for the next four years, which the city dismissed. This weekend, they pared their proposal down to 5%, but the city still did not budge.
Parker has insisted that her smaller proposed increases are merely what is "fiscally responsible," and that the city cannot afford to offer more.
The union has disputed this, pointing out that Parker herself is budgeted to receive a 9% increase to her salary of more than $240,000. That increase alone is nearly half the current salary that the average DC 33 member makes in a year.
As of Monday, negotiations have stalled, with no clear end in sight. With a throng of picketers behind him, Boulware told NBC 10, a local affiliate, that the union was working on a third proposal, and that negotiations may resume Tuesday. But he seemed to expect more obstinacy from the city.
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Despite the city's refusal to budge, momentum around the strike has continued to grow. On Friday, rapper LL Cool J dropped out of a 4th of July festival in the city, saying, "There is absolutely no way I can perform across a picket line."
Other AFSCME councils around Pennsylvania have joined pickets in solidarity. This includes Philadelphia's Council 47, which represents thousands of "white collar" city workers.
With mounds of trash accumulating on streets, sometimes becoming as "tall as people," the environmental activists with the Sunrise Movement have also joined in the effort to pressure the city. On Monday, activists hauled bags of trash into the lobby of City Hall, labeled with the words "Meet DC 33 Demands" written in yellow tape.
AFSCME, meanwhile, has stated its resolve to fight on as the strike has gained national attention.
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Border patrol walking McArthur park here in LA
[image or embed]
— Mel Buer (@melbuer.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) reacted angrily after seeing reports of the agents—some of whom had visible Border Protection patches—in the park and she went to the area to tell them to cease their operations.
"Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing—then, the MILITARY comes through," Bass wrote in a post on the social media website X. "The SECOND I heard about this, I went to the park to speak to the person in charge to tell them it needed to end NOW. Absolutely outrageous."
Additional videos posted on Bluesky by Buer showed angry Los Angeles residents following the agents as they drove slowly down the street away from the park while pelting them with verbal abuse.
"Get the fuck out of here!" one male resident can be heard shouting at the agents.
"You guys are a bunch of pussies!" yelled another.
Shortly after this, a woman can be heard scolding the agents: "You are not helping by snatching people!"
After Bass spoke with what I assume is a DHS rep, they packed shit up and headed out. The whole neighborhood turned out to chase them out of the park. Some fruit was thrown, alot of yelling
[image or embed]
— Mel Buer (@melbuer.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 2:29 PM
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Six major medical organizations on Monday filed a lawsuit against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alleging he is putting American children at "grave and immediate risk" because of his policy on vaccines.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit—including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Massachusetts Public Health Association, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine—charged that Kennedy earlier this year made a "baseless and uninformed policy decision" when he removed vaccinations against Covid-19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) official immunization schedule for "healthy" children and pregnant women.
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Should courts find that Kennedy's decision was "arbitrary and capricious" as alleged by the plaintiffs, they would have the power to enjoin the policy under the Administrative Procedures Act, which was also employed recently to halt planned mass layoffs at HHS. The medical organizations urged courts to declare Kennedy's policy change "unlawful" and demanded "the restoration of the Covid vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children ages six months to 17 years" of age.
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