Sen. Cruz Announces Support for Senate Tax Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Friday evening announced his intention to vote in favor of the Senate’s tax reform bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Sen. Cruz also filed an amendment to the bill under consideration that would expand school choice by expanding the definition of the popular 529 College Savings Plans. 

“The Senate’s tax reform bill takes a significant step toward fulfilling our promise to provide tax relief for American families across our country,” said Sen. Cruz. “This bill significantly lowers our corporate tax rate – currently the highest in the developed world – which will bring needed jobs back to America and up to $2.9 trillion in capital back to our economy. Most importantly, this legislation brings relief to working families, doubling the child tax credit and providing rate cuts for individual taxpayers in all brackets.

“I am particularly proud of three specific items that I fought aggressively to include. First, repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate. Not only does this bring immediate and significant relief to 6.5 million Americans unfairly fined each year by the IRS for not being able to afford health insurance, but it also provides for $338 billion over ten years to go toward even more individual tax relief. That is a huge victory for working Americans that allows us to set the stage to repeal Obamacare next year. Second, mitigating the effect of eliminating the State and Local Tax (SALT) property tax deduction by allowing people to deduct up to $10,000 in property taxes. While ideally this bill would have cut rates enough to allow for full repeal of SALT deductibility, that is not the case, and therefore to prevent raising taxes on Americans in high-tax cities and states, it was crucial that the deduction for up to $10,000 in property taxes was included. Third, we were able to avoid a proposed and terribly misguided $350-500 billion tax hike that was being proposed in the final hours of debate that would have all but nullified much of the tax relief intended for working Americans.

“The bill also moves the ball forward on several key priorities I have pushed for throughout this legislative effort. While there are other provisions for which I advocated that I would have liked to see included – specifically more rate cuts and consolidation of the brackets on the individual side, a complete end to the death tax, and full repeal of the AMT – the result of what passed the Senate today will improve outcomes for American people and American job creators. I will continue working to fight for 28 million Texans and all Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money and spend it as they wish, not as the federal government wishes.”

Additionally on Friday, Sen. Cruz filed an amendment to the bill that seeks to expand school choice by expanding  popular 529 College Savings Plans to include K-12 elementary and secondary school tuition for public, private, and religious schools, and also to include K-12 educational expenses for homeschool students. Adding homeschoolers and expanding 529’s would help ensure that each child receives an education that meets their individual needs, instead of being forced into a one-size-fits-all approach to education. Currently, more than 75% of 529 savings plans are from families making $150,000 or less, and this expansion of the 529 program to help K-12 expenses will further help hardworking Americans and their families save and prepare for their children’s future educational expenses.

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