Crowley Criticizes GOP for Voting to Raise Taxes on American Families
Today, Congressman Joe Crowley (D-Queens, the Bronx), a Chief Deputy Whip in the U.S. House of Representatives, criticized Republicans for voting to increase taxes on hard-working, middle class American families. Included in the Republican Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act of 2011 (H.R. 4), a bill to repeal the onerous 1099 reporting provision in the Affordable Care Act (P.L.111-192), is a $25 billion tax increase on the middle class. The Republicans’ tax increase would mean that slight changes in income throughout the year could force middle-income families to owe significantly more taxes on their health benefits.
“Well, it certainly didn’t take long for Republicans to break their campaign pledge to not raise taxes on the American people. Republicans’ broken promise not only came fast and furious, it came on the backs of hard-working, middle class Americans,” said Congressman Crowley. “Repealing the 1099 provision should be about lifting a burden on America’s small-businesses, not about placing one on the middle-class. But today, Republicans chose to do just that – further burden hard-working American families.”
Crowley, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, spearheaded the effort to block Republicans from raising taxes on middle-income families as part of H.R. 4. Crowley offered an amendment to prevent any tax increases on the middle class during the Ways and Means Committee’s consideration of the Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011 (H.R. 705), a bill that was later incorporated into H.R. 4. Along a straight party-line vote, Republicans rejected the Crowley amendment and, in turn, rejected their own pledge to not raise taxes on American families.
Congressman Crowley is a seven-term representative from the 7th Congressional District of New York, which includes sections of Queens and the Bronx. He serves as chief deputy whip in the Democratic leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives and is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for all tax, trade and Social Security issues, as well as health and retirement security.
