WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders will join progressive groups in Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan next week as part of a nationwide campaign to drum up grassroots opposition against the new Republican-backed tax law ahead of the midterm elections.
The Vermont independent will take direct aim at Trump-era Republicans’ signature legislative achievement in those three key states, two of which, Michigan and Wisconsin, were instrumental in the President’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.
Sanders, who already announced plans to stump for Pete D’Alessandro, a 2016 aide now running for Congress, on February 23 in Des Moines, Iowa, is scheduled to headline an event in Cedar Rapids that evening, before leading rallies the next two days in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Lansing, Michigan. He will also host a rally for Democrat Randy Bryce, who is running in Wisconsin’s first congressional district, home to House Speaker Paul Ryan, during his time in the state.
The tax law has seen an uptick in popularity since it was passed by Republicans in the House and Senate and signed by President Donald Trump in December. According to a Monmouth University poll released in January, 44% of Americans approve of the plan and 44% disapprove of it.
In a statement, Sanders ripped the tax bill, calling it “one of the worst pieces of legislation in the modern history of our country.”
The “TrumpTax Tour,” which has already criss-crossed the map calling for a repeal of the law, has drawn potential 2020 contenders like former Missouri Attorney General Jason Kander and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti along the way. Nevada Senate candidate Jacky Rosen, who will try to unseat Republican Sen. Dean Heller in November, joined up in Las Vegas last month.
The tax measure, which permanently slashed corporate rates, offered more modest cuts for middle class earners. All of the individual tax cuts in the law are scheduled to expire after 2025 and, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, a large majority of Americans making less than $200,000 should expect to see their tabs return to 2017 levels, or higher, in a decade.
“We need to keep (the cuts) unpopular and the only way we are going to do that is if we fight and don’t run away from it, and point out that it’s a looting of the federal government,” Not One Penny spokesman Tim Hogan told CNN. “Democrats, if they fight on this issue, will win. If they don’t, they will lose. It is Democrats’ job to define the tax bill and if they do not, the Koch brothers will.”
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. (Photo: CNN)
