Late-Night Senate Tax Vote May Be ‘Disastrous’ For New Jersey

While millions of New Jersey residents slept Friday night, the U.S. Senate reached into their pockets and stole thousands of dollars. That was the result of the furtive, middle-of-the night vote on the Trump administration’s long-heralded tax reform bill, according to the Garden State’s two U.S. Senators, Robert Menendez and Cory Booker.

The vote on the Senate version of the bill took place around 2 a.m. on Saturday, with little debate and no formal hearings. In fact, there’s a good chance that most senators never even read the full text of the $1.6 trillion legislation, which includes tax cuts that will mostly benefit corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

• See related article: Senate Passes Tax Bill, A Boon To The Wealthy And Businesses

Speaking early Saturday morning after the deed was done, Menendez said that there was no way that a single senator could have completely read the 500-page tax bill that was delivered to lawmakers just hours before the vote.

To make matters worse, the bill was riddled with a confusing mishmash of hand-marked scribbles, Menendez reported.

“Okay this is absurd,” he wrote in a Twitter post as he reviewed the legislation. “One page of the new GOP tax plan is crossed out with an 'X.' Another page is just a line. Is that a cross-out? Is this page part of the bill? Why am I asking these questions hours before we vote on it?”

The final vote was 51-49, with all 48 Democrats and a single Republican, Sen. Bob Corker, opposed. With the Senate bill passed, lawmakers will move to resolve the differences with the tax legislation already approved by the House of Representatives. Once Congress has reconciled the two versions, President Trump can then sign the final legislation into law.

“There you have it,” Menendez declared. “At 1:49 a.m. this morning, Senate Republicans sold out working people, students, seniors, millennials, and millions of middle class families, particularly in successful states like New Jersey. And for what? To hand big, fat permanent tax breaks to powerful special interests and multinational corporations.”

Menendez had proposed an amendment to the Senate bill that would have helped to protect many aspects of the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT), a vital tax break that experts say saves many middle-class New Jersey households thousands of dollars a year. The amendment failed along party lines with no Republican support.

Booker said that he did a little better than Menendez with the airdropped text of the bill… he actually made it to page 62. When he tried to lead a vote to give lawmakers more time to read the bill, every GOP senator voted no.

Booker called the tax bill “disastrous.”

“The idea that slashing taxes for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations will somehow magically result in more money and increased wages for the middle class is pure folly,” he argued. “Instead of a thoughtfully crafted, bipartisan plan that will truly lift wages and cut taxes for all Americans, Republicans have jammed through a disastrous proposal that lavishes tax cuts on corporations and the wealthiest and raises taxes on everyday Americans. In this perverse plan, the people who need a tax cut the least end up with the most, and those who truly need a tax cut get taken for a ride.”

Booker said that in the days and weeks to come, he plans to do everything he can to “ensure this embarrassment of a bill never becomes law.”

Across New Jersey, politicians and pundits lined up to take their turns kicking the tax reform bill.

Veteran GOP member of the U.S. House Rodney Frelinghuysen – who eventually voted “no” on the House version of the tax reform bill after a vocal outcry from his constituents – said that the Senate bill needed “big changes.”

“Unless there are significant positive changes in the final tax bill brought before the House and the Senate in coming weeks, I will oppose it due to very negative impacts it will have on so many of my fellow New Jerseyans,” Frelinghuysen said Friday.

• See related article: Rep. Frelinghuysen: 'Big Changes' Needed To Senate Tax Bill

Mikie Sherrill, one of the challengers for Frelinghuysen's congressional seat in 2018, said that the tax plan will hike taxes for the middle class.

"The passage of the Senate GOP tax bill is exactly the type of behavior from Washington that Americans have come to expect... a broken process where our Representatives pass sweeping legislation without our say, no matter the consequences," Sherrill said.

U.S. Congressman Donald Payne Jr., a Democrat who represents New Jersey's 10th District, called the Senate tax plan "an elitist scam that will give billionaires a break."

Payne suggested that for the cost of the corporate tax cuts, the United States could provide full tuition for low-income students at public colleges.

"At a time when the country should be making college more affordable and more accessible, the Republicans have used their tax scam to declare war on higher education," Payne said.

Goutam Jois, a Democrat running to represent New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, called the vote “shameful.”

“The party that once claimed to stand for fiscal responsibility today voted to add a trillion dollars of debt and raise taxes on the poor and middle class in order to give irresponsible tax cuts to billionaires,” Jois said. “It is absolutely shameful to ask more from struggling families to reward powerful campaign donors and those who are already benefiting the most from our economy.”

Nonprofit think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective issued a release on Saturday that blasted Saturday’s vote and tax proposal.

“With the U.S. Senate narrowly passing the GOP tax proposal today, Congress has moved one step closer to final approval of a damaging and costly plan that would harm millions of working Americans while rewarding profitable corporations, foreign investors and the country's wealthiest families,” the NJPP stated.

“The ball is now back in the court of New Jersey's House delegation - particularly our Republicans. Reps. Frelinghuysen, Lance, LoBiondo and Smith must stand firm and continue to vote against this plan, while Rep. MacArthur - the lone New Jersey member of Congress to vote 'yes' the first time around - needs to change course and put the working people of New Jersey first.”

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Main Photo: YouTube / Sen. Robert Menendez