Kamala Harris Opposed 2017 Trump Tax Cuts, Which Doubled Child Tax Credit

Vice President Kamala Harris voted against the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act when she was a senator in 2017, which doubled the child tax credit, a tax credit she now hopes to dramatically raise.

In 2017, Harris voted in lockstep with Senate Democrats to oppose the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which doubled the child tax credit to $2,000.

In a lengthy statement after voting to oppose the historic tax reform package, Harris wrote:

The tax plan approved tonight by my Republican colleagues is shameful. Tonight, corporations and the top 1% of Americans won at the expense of middle class families. This is wrong and does not reflect the best of who we are as a country.

At a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high and pay for workers has stagnated, my Republican colleagues have given corporations and the top 1% of Americans a permanent tax cut. This plan does this by adding $1 trillion to the deficit and asking workers and middle class families to pay for it. We should not explode the deficit and pull the rug out from the middle class to give billions to those who already have so much.

Under this bill, 572,000 tax payers making over $1 million a year will get $34 billion in tax cuts in a single year. If you’re a senior relying on Medicare, this tax plan puts you at risk by slashing Medicare by up to $410 billion over a decade, with more than $45 billion of those cuts hitting California. And because Senate Republicans couldn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act, they’re trying to take away the health care of millions of Americans and increase the premiums for millions of Californians, by repealing the individual mandate.

Instead of playing politics with people’s lives, we should be delivering for the American people who have spoken loud and clear that this isn’t what they want. There is a better way to reform our tax code, one that is bipartisan, transparent, and fair for all Americans. [Emphasis added]

Harris wrote in 2017, “The Republican tax bill that passed the Senate is a travesty. It gives even more tax breaks to the top 1% and permanently cuts corporate tax rates at the expense of middle class families. This isn’t what Americans wanted, and it’s up to us to fight back at the ballot box in 2018.”

The Republican tax bill that passed the Senate is a travesty. It gives even more tax breaks to the top 1% and permanently cuts corporate tax rates at the expense of middle class families. This isn’t what Americans wanted, and it’s up to us to fight back at the ballot box in 2018. https://t.co/TRlhFpZzzR

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 20, 2017

In 2019, Harris, then a contender for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, she called to “get rid of the whole” tax bill.

Now, Harris copied the Trump-Vance campaign policy proposal to dramatically expand the child tax credit. After Vance first called to expand the child tax credit to $5,000, Harris soon after called to expand the credit to $6,000.