Congressman John Katko
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following passage in the U.S. House of Representatives today (Nov. 16) of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, U.S. Rep. John Katko released the following statement:
“Since I first began running for Congress, I’ve advocated for comprehensive tax reform to ensure working families in Central New York can take home more of what they earn and to level the playing field so our local businesses can compete on the world stage. Today, I cast my vote in favor of a bill to start the process of making those promises a reality.
“The tax reform legislation before the House today, while not perfect, is a good start. I’ve carefully reviewed this bill and consulted with local families, small business owners, and individuals throughout our community. Their message was clear: our tax code is too complex and it places an unfair burden on working families. Congress must act to change the status quo. Presented today with a bill that provides tax cuts for the vast majority of working families in my district and which will allow our local businesses the opportunity to invest in our workforce, I chose to vote yes.
“This process is far from over. As the Senate develops and votes on its own bill and both houses work to send a final measure to the President’s desk, I will continue to put Central New York’s interests first.”
Congressman Katko represents the 24th Congressional District of New York, which includes all of Onondaga, Cayuga, and Wayne counties and the western portion of Oswego County.
For more information visit https://katko.house.gov or www.facebook.com/RepJohnKatko.
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It’s class warfare. The rich have their direct representatives in power and they are using it to cut their own taxes (at a time of already massive wealth and income inequality … at a time when taxes on the rich should be significantly raised, not lowered).
Americans had a chance in 2016 to elect Bernie Sanders and instead they selected the billionaire representative of billionaire interests, Mr. Trump.
Other New York Republican representatives, Stefanik and Faso for example, voted against this measure which benefits the megarich at the expense of the rest of the country.
Mr. Katko sided with the rich.
There will be an election here in 2018 for the House seat Mr. Katko holds. If you think the people of this region should support the class war the rich are fighting against the rest of us then you’ll likely support his reelection. If you think it might be time for the people of America to stand up and take what the rich have stolen, to reverse the worst wealth and income inequality since the 1920’s and the Gilded Age, then another choice will have to be made.
Abviously, “Anonymous” (above) is a Democrat. I so am tired of the divisive strategy of the political left and the ignorance of many who represent them.
The effort to divide this country began under our last U.S. President, and our US Senators have continued to just obstruct any progress that can be made to make the common man’s life any easier.
I am so tired of the the race-bating and the class warfare by the Democrats.
Every issue before us is not always about rich vs poor, black vs. white, or male vs female.
I finally have one reason to re-elect Congressman Katko.
More socialist rantings from a pie in the sky liberal practicing the worst type of leftist class warfare. “If there is someone who is richer than I am, then I am entitled to his money”
Thank you Rep. Katko for your proper vote.
Katko sold us out. Vote Katko out.
The leaking pipeline is owned by the same people who told Katko, approve this or you’ll never get another campaign donation. They don’t care about America. They only care about their personal wealth. They don’ care about Americans, they only care about themselves. Now Katko is owned by them. Katko sold us out. Vote Katko out.
I would suggest Kato goes back to his office and take one last look around because he’s going to get the boot but good. When people of the 24th see how much their federal tax liability is going to increase, they will have a heart attack. Thanks Katko.
Comprehensive tax reform??? I think you jumped too quick on this “bill of goods” you could have waited out for a better tax plan that would have really help your constituents. All of them. I think you could have waited for a better deal. The CBO says this will cost the people in any state with higher taxes. Thanks. Plus I’m still waiting for all the jobs and money from the Reagan era trickle down economics. Haven’t gotten any yet. In case you haven’t noticed Mr Katko we here in Oswego County live in one of the highest poverty in NY state so when are you and the rest of the conservatives going to start bringing quality jobs to our county and your district. We haven’t seen any industry here since Miller’s and they’ve been gone for over 20 years. We don’t need tax reform we need JOBS.
Thank you for keeping one promise made to your constituents. Don’t let the Democrats scare you.
“the effort to divide the country” is Barack Obama’s fault?
The United States has been divided through its entire history: Federalists and Republicans, North and South, Slave and Free, Abolitionists and slaveowners, progressives and conservatives, racists and non-racists, etc.
The country is always divided, so blaming the division on the one African American occupant of the White House reveals quite a lot about the person who made that comment.
On class warfare, working Americans are not the ones who have made inequality the worst it’s been since before the Great Depression … that’s on the rich and their representatives (of both corporate parties). Efforts by billionaires to buy Republican politicians and order them to cut taxes is class warfare … Democrats, progressives, and socialists who respond to the assault the rich have waged against the middle-class and the rest of the U.S. population is simply a response to that war from above.
And on the second right-wing comment, there is much evidence to suggest that democratic societies function much better when there is more broad-based prosperity. For the past 40 years, the rich have gotten obscenely richer (again, richer than at anytime in our history save perhaps the 1920’s or 1870’s-1890’s) and the middle-class has been decimated.
Now Republicans can choose to ignore that history and to make excuses for the destructive policies of the rich and their Republican servants (and corporate Democratic … I’m a Bernie Sanders-style democratic socialist, not a “Democrat”) but the American people suffering with lower wages, fewer benefits, unaffordable healthcare, and the rest, simply know too much.
The attempt to say we’re coming after the rich because we “resent their success” instead of the real reason: they’ve concentrated so much wealth and power in their own hands that democracy and justice in this country are literally being destroyed, is similarly fallacious. The system is rigged for their benefit. The rich have taken almost all of the new wealth over the past 40 years and they’ve bought much of the American government. It seems to me that a rational American citizen would look at that and want to change it … for some reason Republican voters want the rich to take even more while punishing the rest of the American people. It’s simply illogical. Citizens used to understand that aristocracy based on wealth is not a good thing … many of today’s Republicans apparently want to live in a society ruled by billionaires and corporate greed … it’s such a puzzling philosophy.
Sounds like the usual whining and moaning from the “angry snowflakes”. Bernie didn’t stand a chance…the DNC and Hillary made sure of that. As for taxes, now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the individual mandate in Obamacare is “a tax”, it looks like that may be the way to get rid of it as well…”by cutting taxes”. Interesting how “words” can sometimes come back to haunt you.
re:Joe and Annonymous….We’re still looking for the “Shovel Ready” jobs that Obama promised along with the ones Hillary promised when she was a NYS Senator. Remember those words? Another case of all talk and no action.
Furthermore, both the Industrial Revolution and modern technology have contributed to some benefitting more from it than others. Without investment by the wealthy, we would still be living in the 17th century, and most people wouldn’t even have jobs. And by comparison, you may be better off than you actually think.
Wizard, I agree with you. The reason Bernie is an Independent, and the reason a lot of us, including myself, couldn’t actually vote for him in the New York primary, was because we are not, or are no longer, registered Democrats. That’s also a party that has sold itself to Wall Street, the military-industrial complex, corporate interests, and the 1 Percent.
It’s just that Republicans are much more blatant and direct about it.
Republicans actually invade Iraq and carry out obvious war crimes (and commit torture, and operate the gulag at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, etc.).
Republicans will simply hand their billionaire sponsors huge sums of money via “tax cuts.”
Will deny climate change, etc.
So, as corrupt corporate parties go, the Democrats are generally better on most issues. That’s their attraction to the majority of American voters (George W. Bush and Donald Trump both gained the office with the 2nd highest national vote total … extreme right-wing government has twice been forced upon a country that didn’t vote for it … and of course imposed on the rest of the world as well … the United States is the only country on Earth not participating in the Paris effort to at least pretend we’re serious about human survival in light of the climate crisis. We are the only people on Earth against it due solely to Republican fanaticism.)
And you are more than welcome to worship the rich. People who like Bernie Sanders (polls show he is far and away the most popular American politician), are not interested in praising the private corporate and financial institutions which have created so much needless social misery among our people, the American people.
We as a class of people, Democrats and Republicans and everyone else too … the regular everyday working people of the United States … have ceded far too much power, wealth, and privilege to what Bernie calls ‘the billionaire class.’
The president today is literally a billionaire. And he’s pursuing massive tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit billionaires and millionaires … as Americans struggle with so much ‘want,’ as Franklin Roosevelt used to say.
We should have national healthcare for all our citizens … completely detached from a person’s employment. Citizen = Healthcare … just like everywhere else humans have tried to build semi-decent societies. Republicans and their supporters scream for private insurance companies, and other enormous profit-maximizing entities, to run American healthcare. Ok, so we have an inefficient, wasteful, comparatively ineffective healthcare system which even after Obamacare (whatever one thinks of Obamacare) fails to insure tens of millions of American citizens. How are our people supposed to compete with people around the world who don’t have to worry about having and affording healthcare?
You talk about taxes. That’s just one sliver of our economic existence. Bernie said to Ted Cruz if 80 percent of the tax cuts went to the people, instead of the oligarchs, we’d be all for tax cuts.
But giving the most profitable corporations and individuals in human history billions of additional dollars when the American people as a whole are being systematically robbed … that’s just unthinkable to people who are not of the Republican persuasion.
Inequality is creating huge problems for the American people. Wall Street crashed the economy in 2008 and produced widespread economic suffering. Americans, again paraphrasing Bernie, know they’re working longer hours for lower wages while those at the top take unprecedented amounts for themselves.
And people recognize the wealth accumulation at the top as injustice. Billionaire oligarchy is not what any self-respecting small-d democratic society should put up with. But we the people are divided in two. Those who vote Democratic (or Green or Bernie) generally understand what’s wrong and what needs to change. People who vote Republican have more muddled thinking when trying to justify their support for the even more oligarchic and destructive of the two ruling parties.
But then yes, the individual mandate, I agree it should not be in effect. Bernie Sanders Democrats, progressives, socialists are not fans of Obamacare … there were some decent things in it amid the larger horrible piece of legislation that it was. If Democrats were not owned by corporations and Wall Street, then there wouldn’t be an individual mandate.
re: Anonymous
“If Socialists understood economics, they wouldn’t be socialists”
-Friedrich Von Hayek nobel prize economist
Thank you Rep. Katko for your proper vote
(So sorry for my previous typos on my smartphone)
Our last president and the current leaders of his party believe they represent illegal immigrants, not the people who elected them to office. It is utterly amazing! And the arrogance of our last president, as he told his Republican opponent, “….elections have consequences, John (McCain).” O’Bama criticized law enforcement, generalized his grandmother’s racial fears to white people in general; but he was most dedicated to undermining the values that made this nation great, and he was concerned that everyone be able to choose which ever restroom (men’s or women’s) that they wanted to use. I’d say his priorities and his party’s are out of whack. That’s why they have fallen out of power. They no longer represent the interests of the middle class, but Hollywood and the media.
re: Anonymous..”A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away”. I believe that’s a Thomas Jefferson quote.
As for billionairs, so isn’t Bill Gates and George Soros. Sir Paul McCartney is close to being one as well, with an estimated worth of 760 million dollars, and still makes $15,000 per day from a company The Beatles owned 50 years ago. Do you think you’re entitled to royalties from his songs and all Beatle related product being sold, if he was an American? Should Hollywood actors be entitled to the money they make? What about national league sports players in the NFL, MLB, and NBA? Where do you draw the line on income…with a teachers salary? How about a doctor? Naturally these people are going to make more money than a ditch-digger or fast food worker. These people are paying more in taxes in just one year than most Bernie Sanders voters will pay in a lifetime, even if and when the tax rate gets reduced for them.
As for elections, both Hillary and Al Gore apparently forgot about the electorial college. That’s how elections are won in the USA,..not by mob rule. Nothing was “forced upon the country”.
There was actually a time in our history when the rich cared about our country. Three actually paid our national debt. Not today. It’s all about me me me. Let’s see in a couple of years who’s on the right side of this so called tax cut. If it brings in jobs then let’s see how many “high paying jobs”we get in Oswego Mr. Katko. I’m sure not any. You also ran on bringing jobs to the 24th district. We haven’t see any here in Oswego. The Nuke plants will be closing and then we’ll be stuck with all there waste just like when the coal plant closed and left us with a vanadium dump called Brightbeck park….
Well ok Wizard, quoting Hayek and labeling democracy “mob rule” demonstrates how well the owners have trained you.
The 65,844,610 people who voted for Clinton are “the mob” but the 62,979,636 people who voted for Trump are not “the mob.”
That’s logical (lol). What you mean to say is the undemocratic mechanism from our 18th century Constitution works to the benefit of the Republican Party, an extreme right-wing organization unable to win democratic elections without gerrymandering, a corrupt campaign finance system, and an elitist mechanism called the Electoral College.
Well Anonymous, without the electoral college, candidates would tend to focus only on the large urban areas where liberals typically reside. That would almost result in a Democrat win every time. Why spend money and time campaining in Wyoming when you can reach far more voters in NYC? Furthermore, why should elections only be determined by urban voters, if that scenerio was to happen without the electoral college? Additionally, as liberals often tend to be younger voters and conservatives older (wisdom usually increases with age as idealism turns into reality), without the electoral college they would typically (or naturally) represent the majority as older people died off each year. And guess where they tend to live? Yup, you guessed it, in the larger urban areas. So, if anything, the election is rigged in their favor WITHOUT the electoral college. As for “mobs”, it’s also pretty clear who generally fits into this discription as well. Lets name a few, shall we? How about the “Occupy Wall Street Movement”, or BLM? How about Antifa, and that whole crowd of statue destroyers? How about college student protesters across the country who often fight the social norm on almost every given front whenever they don’t agree with something? I guess you could call that “mob rule” to some extent, by organising a mechanism to overtake or change something, not to mention a highly liberal bias media in the vast majority of instances that often supports and perpetuates it. . Hmmm….”Community Organizer”..does that sound familiar?
As for you Joe, while there may have been a time when three people were able to pay the national debt, that certainly isn’t the case today. But then again, there probably are a few “democrat billionairs” out there somewhere but I don’t see them stepping forward to do so either, do you? For that matter, I doubt they send the IRS anymore than they have to at tax time, despite the fact that they could do so. Who were they anyhow…perhaps the ones you label as “racists” today?
Lol the wizard and taxed you sound like you lost it in 2008 and that it started going once civil rights hit have fun navigating the future ?
Wizard, you are not going to change the mind of Anonymous. Facts are stubborn things.
As Bill Clinton said in 1992, “…it’s the economy, stupid.”
The middle class is not being represented by the Democrats and some Republicans. I hope Congressman Katko doesn’t bail on tax reform.
Response:
As our elections stand now, candidates focus on the same handful of “swing states” in every election. That’s what the Electoral College, in practice, hundreds of years later, actually does. It makes votes in certain states more important than votes in other states. It is the antithesis of democracy.
One hundred years ago, progressive Americans struggled and achieved direct election of U.S. Senators. Today’s task for those who prefer democracy to aristocracy/oligarchy/plutocracy is to achieve direct election of the U.S. president.
Wyoming happens to have a very small population … its share in the electoral outcome should be marginal. That’s called democracy. Vermont’s population is pretty small too. Why should people who happen to live in a particular place have a disproportionate share of the voting power? One American citizen, one vote. In fact, popular democratic elections (like all the other democracies have) would open up campaigning across America as citizens of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, etc. would not have the extreme impact they have on our elections under the current unjust system.
Your post amounts to, “Democracy means my Republican side loses … because most of the people in the country disagree with us on political issues … therefore we must employ a blatantly elitist, oligarchic device … the Electoral College … to overcome the threat democracy poses to billionaire/corporate/Wall Street/Pentagon rule. And I, as a Republican, must twist logic and employ arguments that would have defended the French aristocracy during the French Revolution, the Czar during the Russian Revolution, and the British during the American Revolution. All power to the 1 Percent! Even as I watch my friends and neighbors lose middle class living standards. I want to live under an hereditary aristocracy of wealth. Billionaire families should have more wealth and more political power. The most profitable corporations in world history, who are hoarding and concentrating wealth at unprecedented levels, should have more and the people of America less.”
re: Annonymous..-“Why should people who happen to live in a particular place have a disproportionate share of the voting power?”
Well, that’s so that “only the largest population areas don’t decide elections” and then “dictate policy as a result”. Much like the Civil War, the South didn’t have the same chances of winning due to geography and population, along with the other advantages that the North also had, such as industry. It’s actually a valid comparison as to why one area would have an advantage over another. If you really want equality, why not have Wyoming have the same amount of electoral votes as NY? Whoever takes the most states wins, with all states being treated equal. After all, isn’t that what you want is “equality”?