Anna Eshoo: “I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule, and I urge my colleagues…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule, and I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question so that the House can vote on my bipartisan legislation, the Presidential Tax Transparency Act. This bill codifies the longstanding, bipartisan tradition of Presidents and Presidential nominees disclosing their tax return information to the American people. The Republican majority and the President are currently working in overdrive to pass a distorted tax bill that will raise the taxes on 82 million middle class families. It takes one's breath away. I and many others have spoken at length about the harm this bill will do to the middle class, from targeting the mortgage interest deduction, to raising the cost of higher education and graduate school for student loans, to limiting the deductibility of State and local taxes. And, at a time when our country is recovering from several natural disasters, including major wildfires in California where 14,000 Californians have lost their homes, the House-passed bill eliminates the deduction for personal property losses resulting from natural disasters, which I find to be especially cruel. While it is very clear that the Republican tax bill will harm the middle class, it is less clear how the bill will benefit one taxpayer in particular, if he pays any taxes: the President of the United States of America. Mr.…”