Politics & Elections

McKee’s silence on GOP tax plan draws rebuke from RI Working Families Party

While Rhode Island State Representative Aaron Regunberg (Democrat, District 4, Providence), who is running for Lieutenant Governor, decried the GOP/Trump tax plan winding its way through the United States Senate, his opponent, incumbent Lieutenant Governor Daniel McKee, is staying quiet, saying through spokesman Mike Trainor, “His view is this is a national issue, a national debate best left to our national

Rhode Island News: McKee’s silence on GOP tax plan draws rebuke from RI Working Families Party

November 28, 2017, 10:51 am

By Steve Ahlquist

While Rhode Island State Representative Aaron Regunberg (Democrat, District 4, Providence), who is running for Lieutenant Governor, decried the GOP/Trump tax plan winding its way through the United States Senate, his opponent, incumbent Lieutenant Governor Daniel McKee, is staying quiet, saying through spokesman Mike Trainor, “His view is this is a national issue, a national debate best left to our national delegation.”

Speaking at the Rhode Island State House during an Indivisible Rhode Island rally against the GOP/Trump tax plan, Regunberg said he was “mad as hell.” He drew parallels between what is happening in Washington right now and how State House leadership has behaved in the recent past.

“The truth is, our state has engaged in the same trickle-down tax policies that are coming out of Washington,” said Regunberg. “Rhode Island cut income taxes on the wealthiest earners. Rhode Island cut the estate tax. Of course they said this would lead to jobs, but the jobs never came. What came was a big budget deficit along with cut to needed services and a bigger tax burden on middle class and working class families, just like in the Trump tax plan.”

The Rhode Island Working Families Party was quick to jump on McKee for his refusal to comment on a tax plan that is sure to harm most Rhode Islanders.

“The Trump administration’s tax scam is no more than a transfer of the hard-earned money of Rhode Island’s working women and men to big banks and the super wealthy,” said Rhode Island Working Families Party state director Georgia Hollister Isman. “Rhode Islanders might as well write a check right now to Wall Street. And worse, these huge giveaways will be paid for by cuts to health care and other critical programs. The effect of this proposal on Rhode Island tax policy and health care costs is huge. Every responsible state and local politician should say loud and clear that this so-called tax reform is a terrible deal for Rhode Island residents. We need our elected officials to stand up to Donald Trump and his Wall Street cronies, and fight for middle and working class Rhode Islanders. Dan McKee’s explicit refusal to comment on something that will have such a profound effect on state residents shows that he isn’t fighting for working families.”