Advertisements

During a cabinet meeting about Hurricane Irma, Donald Trump tried to use the hurricane as a reason for Congress to speed up and pass tax cuts for the wealthy.

Video:

Advertisements

Trump said that due to the hurricane, he is going to ask Congress to speed up the passage of tax reform, “I think now with what’s happened with the hurricane, I’m going to ask for a speedup. I wanted a speed up anyway, but now we need it even more so.”

While people are in harm’s way, Donald Trump is thinking about how he can use the situation to get a tax cut for himself and his rich cabinet. The President should have said that disaster relief has got to be the top priority in Congress, and if tax cuts have to wait, they will be delayed for as long as it takes.

That is what any president with the ability to feel empathy would say on the topic of tax reform. When a deadly storm is already damaging Florida, tax cuts shouldn’t be a part of any conversation. Nearly half of the cuts in Trump’s tax plan go to the top one percent of earners. Millions of low wage earning families will see their taxes go up under Trump.

The President’s tax plan has nothing to do with hurricane relief. It is all about redistributing wealth upwards to people like Donald Trump. The last thing that the victims of the last two hurricanes will need is a tax plan that will make their lives harder after they have already lost everything.