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).
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These are the top stories, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 500 points higher on Wednesday, following a Midterm election that returned the U.S. House to Democratic Party control. But Samantha Azzarello, global market strategist for JPMorgan ETFS, told Cheddar not to expect an overheated market in the next Congress. "We're not going to have another pop and another overheating of growth in 2019 and 2020," she said.
President Trump announced on Twitter on Wednesday that Jeff Sessions will be resigning and Matthew G. Whitaker, chief of staff to Sessions will be the new Acting AG. President Trump declined to comment on Sessions only an hour before in his post-election presser.
Voters in San Francisco gave overwhelming support on Tuesday to a measure that would tax big tech for the sake of the homeless. And not everyone in the Silicon Valley stronghold is happy.
