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).
In a post-election press conference, President Trump vacillated between subdued and combative as he called Tuesday's election ー in which Democrats took control of the House and several pivotal governorships ー a "very close-to-complete victory."
The Democrats may not have gotten quite the blue wave they were hoping for ー but for women in politics, Election Day was an indisputable success. "I think the night was better than you thought it would be going in. I'm seeing something like a pink tsunami, compared to that Democratic blue wave," Bustle senior political correspondent Erin Delmore told Cheddar on Wednesday.
Microsoft will continue to provide technology to U.S. agencies and the military, despite the objections raised by employees over how the products are being used, specifically with regard to immigration and border control. "We will be proactive in using our voice," said Microsoft President Brad Smith, speaking to Cheddar from the 2018 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. "We think we'll be more persuasive if we're engaged than if we withdraw."
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The 2018 Midterms may well go down in U.S. history as an election of firsts, with historic wins for Muslims, women, and LGBTQ candidates.
Michigan became the first Midwestern state to fully legalize recreational marijuana on Tuesday ー one of four states with marijuana-related legislation on the ballot in the 2018 midterms. Marijuana was one of the key issues up for review on multiple state ballots on Election Day Tuesday alongside criminal justice reform.
Americans woke up on Wednesday to a different political landscape ー if not the blue wave Democrats had hoped for. On the strength of female candidates and first-time voters, the Democrats successfully flipped the House of Representatives, gaining at least 23 seats, with more than a dozen yet to be called, according to the latest race calls from the Associated Press as of Wednesday morning.
Cheddar is following the election returns as they come in.
Political fixer-turned VC Bradley Tusk doesn't think it's sufficient to just bring voters to the polls ー he wants to bring the polls to them. "We know, fundamentally, democracy works when a lot of people vote, and it really doesn't work when very few people vote," Tusk told Cheddar on Tuesday.
The nation may get greener on Tuesday night. "There's a lot more senate and congressional races in which marijuana has become an issue than ever before," Cannabis Voter Project Director Sam D'Arcangelo told Cheddar's CannaBiz on Tuesday. "Marijuana now more than ever has become an issue that politicians are talking about."
