INDIANAPOLIS – The denizens of the “swamp-filled” counties surrounding Washington that Congressman Rokita has made a habit of deriding in speeches would be the biggest beneficiaries of the tax plan he and his Republican colleagues have supported.
Repeated non-partisan analyses of the McConnell tax plan have shown that its benefits will accrue to the wealthy, even though it will ultimately raise taxes on many middle class Americans. By 2027, the bill the Senate passed would force individuals earning between $40,000 and $50,000 to pay a combined $5.3 billion more every year, while Americans who make more than $1 million annually would receive $5.8 billion in tax cuts.
The regions that would benefit the most from the tax bill, then, would be those with the highest incomes—many of which are the collar counties of Washington, D.C. The top three wealthiest counties by median income, and eight of the top 20, are all in the Washington metro area, according to the Census Bureau. None of them are in Indiana.
When not voting for tax bills that help them, Congressman Rokita has campaigned against these counties as “the swamp,” routinely criticizing them in his stump speech. “In D.C., business is booming… because of the nature of a rigged system,” Congressman Rokita said in his announcement speech in August. “Yes, construction cranes that grow government and the rigged system are everywhere in Washington. Six of the ten wealthiest counties in America are in the D.C. suburbs.”
“Congressman Rokita likes to pretend he’s fighting off swamp creatures, but when he votes for rigged policies like the McConnell tax plan, he’s simply feeding them. Telling Hoosiers one thing and then going to Washington to do the exact opposite and pass a rigged tax bill that helps the very people you’ve been criticizing on the stump is the height of hypocrisy,” said Will Baskin-Gerwitz, Senior Media Strategist for the Indiana Democratic Party. “The wealth of the counties around Washington isn’t simply from a rigged system—it’s because Congressman Rokita and his Republican allies in Congress keep taking money out of the wallets of hard-working Hoosiers and giving it to them.”
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