Republicans celebrated their first legislative win of the year Wednesday, after both houses of Congress passed a sweeping tax reform package.
But one Democratic congresswoman told Cheddar there’s still hope for constituents who remain opposed to the bill.
“Stay mobilized, let your voice be heard,” Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) said Wednesday morning, after the Senate voted, but before the House reconvened. “Nothing is permanent but death and taxes, and we can do something about these taxes and we can do something about the makeup of this Congress.”
The president and his party leaders gathered Wednesday afternoon to praise the benefits of the tax system overhaul, which drops the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, nearly doubles the standard deduction for individuals, and lowers the tax rate for most income brackets.
While the GOP says the long-overdue changes will provide a boost to the economy, Democrats dispute that claim and say the bill will largely benefit the wealthiest Americans and balloon the deficit.
The bill does appear to be broadly unpopular. A recent CNN poll found that 55 percent of respondents opposed the legislation, a 10 percentage point increase since last month. Still, it passed the House by a vote of 224-201 Wednesday afternoon, with only 12 Republican naysayers.
Republicans also took to Twitter to cheer the victory. President Donald Trump posted a gif that read “Tax Cut for Christmas”.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rep-bonnie-watson-coleman-d-nj-says-voters-can-change-the-makeup-of-congress-in-2018).
SEIU President Mary Kay Henry talked to Cheddar about how the Strike for Black Lives will fight for the causes of racial and economic justice simultaneously.
Teams of military medics were deployed in Texas and California to help hospitals deluged by coronavirus patients. Miami area authorities, meanwhile, began stepping up enforcement Friday of a mask requirement.
The ruse discovered Wednesday included bogus tweets from Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires.
Target and CVS Health have joined the list of the nation’s largest retailers that will require customers to wear masks as cases of COVID-19 spike.
The politicization of school reopenings by Trump has scared off teachers who before were "overwhelmingly" in support of heading back in the fall, Randi Weingarten told Cheddar.
Jamaal Bowman appeared to topple Rep. Eliot Engel, a 16-term incumbent, for the Democratic nomination in the 16th Congressional district, though Engel is now suing to challenge the validity of mail-in ballots.
Mayor Muriel Bowser weighs in on the Washington Redskins name change after the organization faced opposition from sponsors and advertisers.
The three nations alleged Thursday that hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear and believed to be part of the Russian intelligence service, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical coronavirus research institutions involved in vaccine development.
Advertising agencies are expressing concerns about the potential for TikTok to share user data with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance — something the social media platform flatly denies is happening.
The number of laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits remained stuck at 1.3 million last week, an historically high level that indicates many companies are still cutting jobs as the viral outbreak intensifies.
