CHAMPAIGN — Although she said she hadn’t seen the details of the Republican tax plan, Sen. Tammy Duckworth said Friday that she believed it wasn’t fair to small- and medium-sized businesses and middle-income families.
“I do have some real concerns about the fact that the tax cuts for the top income earners and the tax cuts for the largest corporations remain permanent whereas the tax cuts for small and medium businesses and for middle-income families actually go away after five to 10 years,” the Democratic senator said after meeting with University of Illinois officials and touring the UI’s RailTEC facility in north Champaign. “I can’t see how I can support the bill as it stands.”
“For me, it has to be equitable. If you’re going to make the tax cuts permanent for the large mega corporations, then let’s take care of Main Street as well. And right now, Main Street is paying for Wall Street’s tax cuts, and that’s not right.”
Duckworth also downplayed the talk among some congressional Democrats about beginning an impeachment process against President Donald Trump.
“I think we’re better off talking about what are we going to do to pass CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program, whose funding has stalled in Congress), what are we going to do to pass a budget, what are we going to do to fund infrastructure,” she said.
Almost a third of the House Democrats last week voted to move forward with articles of impeachment, contending that the president has “brought disrepute, contempt, ridicule and disgrace on the presidency.”
But Duckworth said that talk of impeaching Trump is not “productive at this time for the people of Illinois or the people of this country. And frankly, we have a lot of hard work to do in a very small amount of time before the end of the year and even the first quarter of next year.
“There are investigations that are ongoing and let those move forward in an independent, third-party way. And … those of us in the legislative branch of government, we need to do our jobs and pass a spending bill.”
Illinois’ junior senator also said she favored an investigation into the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at the state-run Quincy Veterans’ Home.
“I have real concerns about their ability to safely care for and house our veterans,” said Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who in 2004 lost her legs and partial use of her right arm when the helicopter she was piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Duckworth, who was director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs during the administration of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said she had nothing to do with the problems at the Quincy home.
“There’s no part of my responsibility in the United States Senate that has to do with the Quincy Veterans’ Home, although I do everything I can to support veterans,” she said.
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