Golden votes ‘no’ on Smith-Wyden tax package

WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) today voted against the Smith-Wyden tax package and released the following statement:

“This bill is more of the same horse-trading that allows everyone to claim victory without any meaningful, long-term solutions to the challenges we purport to address,” Golden said. “To get to a ‘deal,’ we indulge each other’s worst impulses — like additional spending that grows the debt because it’s not paid for, and unnecessary corporate tax cuts that almost always fail to deliver on anything but boosted profits for CEOs and shareholders. 

“Under this bill, the Child Tax Credit continues to be poorly targeted. Wealthy households with incomes of up to $400,000 — the top 1.2 percent in our state — get the full benefit while the poorest Maine kids are still left behind. Many of the corporate tax breaks, which could end up outweighing the CTC five-to-one, are unnecessary at a time corporations are already seeing near-record profits.

“And when this bill is extended beyond its 2025 expiration — an outcome that nearly everyone in the Capitol expects — it will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the debt, jeopardizing our ability to keep promises like Social Security and Medicare. Just because a bill is bipartisan, doesn’t mean it’s good. We should be seeking out better, more direct ways to address poverty and support the economy than tweaks to the tax code. We can do better than this.” 

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