Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada said Tuesday on "Nevada Newsmakers" that the major flaw of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts is the inequality they set up between large corporations and the working class.
After 2025, all individual tax cuts are set to expire under the tax policy adopted earlier this year. At the same time, corporate rate cuts are permanent.
“Why should the hardworking families and their tax breaks and more money in their pockets be temporary when everybody else’s is permanent?” she asked. “That is my concern.”
The inequity will eventually hurt the economy, she said.
Cortez Masto, Nevada’s former attorney general who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016, dismissed the conservative theory of “trickle-down” economics — that extra wealth at the top is pumped into the economy, providing wealth for lower-income earners and creating jobs.
“Trickle-down economics doesn’t work,” she said.
“I was looking at the statistics and we have seen over the past 30 years that wages have been flat but productivity has gone up,” Cortez Masto said. “Prior to that, we saw that when productivity went up, wages went up. But that has not happened in the last 30 years.”
Cortez Masto on the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings
Cortez-Masto has intently followed the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and is concerned that more documents about Kavanaugh’s past rulings and opinions have not been shared.
“Our duty is advise and consent,” she said. “We have these hearings for a reason. We want to understand their background, their experience and their opinions on matters. If they are shaped by their work experience, we should have access to those documents to help us form our questions and ask questions about this individual.
Cortez Masto said she wants “a balanced court that is going to protect the rights of all Americans.”
Cortez Masto said she would like the opportunity to have a one-on-one meeting with Kavanaugh.
“I have questions formulated. I have concerns about some of his background — where he came from, some of his opinions, some of the email traffic that I’ve seen back and forth. I want to be able to ask him in a meeting in my office where he stands on certain issues and that is part of the process.”