Group Delivers a Message to Rep. Woodall: Stop Putting Corporate Profits Ahead of the Middle Class

Lawrenceville – Local leaders from community groups and concerned citizens gathered at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center today.  The group criticized Representative Woodall for voting for a budget that makes major spending cuts while refusing to ask corporations to pay one more cent in taxes. Instead of balancing spending cuts with revenues, the Ryan budget gives corporations and the wealthiest Americans a $5.7 trillion tax cut. Representative Woodall’s vote in favor of the budget followed his vote to continue the sequester, $85 billion in federal spending cuts that are already in place. 

“Corporations like Wells Fargo and GE earn billions of dollars in profits annually, but Rep. Woodall refuses to ask them to pay one penny in taxes.  Instead, he voted to give corporations another tax break and asks Georgians to foot the bill.  Sequestration and further budget cuts—like the ones proposed in the Ryan Republican budget--come with dire consequences for our economy here in Georgia.  We are backtracking on critical investments in the very programs and services that are responsible for our economic recovery, and we’re doing it at the expense of working and middle class Georgians,” said Georgia Fair Share organizer, Jason Pfeifle.

The community leaders delivered their statements today in front of a large invoice detailing how much corporate tax loopholes are costing Georgians. They then delivered this bill to Representative Woodall who they charged with prioritizing corporations over the wellbeing of the middle class.  Instead of working to close corporate tax loopholes, Rep. Woodall has endorsed a budget plan that cuts funding for education programs like Head Start.  It is estimated that, here in Georgia, these cuts to Head Start would put approximately 1,700 jobs at risk and eliminate about 5,000 enrollment slots for low-income children.  In addition to cutting back on vital investments in education, the Ryan budget slashes funding for science and technology research and transportation infrastructure, both of which are absolutely critical to economic growth.

"The Ryan budget not only guts funding for Head Start, Pell grants, and Medicaid, but it also changes Medicare into a voucher program. If we take this one-sided approach to deficit reduction, then our children will have even less access to education and healthcare than we have had," said Hope Adams, a concerned mother.

“We certainly have a very large problem regarding the cost of healthcare in our country.  But the Republican plan for dealing with Medicare just shifts all of those costs onto middle class Americans rather than dealing with the underlying cause of the problem,” said Billy Pond, a retired local resident.

Recent research shows that the federal government loses around $90 billion annually -- and state governments about $40 billion -- to foreign tax havens that allow corporations to hide their profits abroad without taxation.  That is just one of the tax loopholes that companies like Wells Fargo and GE are using to pay no taxes.

“In a struggling economy, we all have to do our part. We can make sure corporations pay their fair share just like the rest of us, by closing the tax loopholes that are currently allowing the biggest corporations to pay no taxes on their record profits while the rest of us foot the bill,” said Jason Pfeifle.

“Rep. Woodall’s willingness to protect tax breaks for large corporations at the expense of small businesses and the middle class is unacceptable,” said MoveOn Gwinnett organizer, Steve Toggerson