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Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Rally Opposing The Republican Tax Plan

December 2, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: My friends are you ready for a fight?

Crowd: Yeah. 

Mayor: I want to thank Jennifer Jones Austin for her powerful voice. I want to thank Patrice Buffaloe for telling us what this means for working people everywhere. 

[Applause]

Have you ever heard the phrase “laughing all the way to the bank”? The CEO’s in that building are going to be laughing all the way to the bank if this bill passes. The richest people in America are going to get richer if this bill passes. 

[Booing] 

It makes no sense that after the great recession, after the great crash that hurt millions and millions of Americans and no one was ever held responsible in that building there. 

[Booing] 

They’re about to fleece us again. They’re about to take away from the working people, and the middle class of America again. But we have a chance to stop it. And we are ready to stop it, right?

Crowd: Yeah. 

Mayor: We’re New Yorkers, we are proud New Yorkers, we are streetwise New Yorkers. We remember things, like Three-card Monte. We know a scam when we see one. This is a tax scam. 

[Applause]

And it’s the scam to end all scams. In broad daylight they’re taking money from working people and handing it over to the wealthy that’s what’s happening here,

[Booing] 

For a decade in a our nation people of every background and every part of our country have recognized that growing inequality is destroying us. They understand that they see it. They understand that income inequality – rampant income inequality is un-American and doesn’t conform with our values. 

Well the Trump tax plan puts income inequality on steroids.

[Booing] 

Literarily, literally one of the biggest giveaways of wealth to the corporations and to the one percent in the history of the United States of America that’s what they are proposing. 

[Booing] 

Sixty percent, 60 percent of the benefits in this bill go to the top one percent.

[Booing] 

And who loses in the equation? Working people and the middle class people. 

[Booing] 

This plan will hurt students, this plan will hurt anyone that has college debt, this plan will hurt seniors, it will hurt homeowners, it will hurt people with medical challenges, it will hurt the vast majority of Americans. It will hurt hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers right away who will end up being double taxed. No matter how hard they work they will be double taxed. 

[Booing] 

And then they add insult to injury. You actually will see for a huge number working class, and middle class people you’ll see a tax increase right away and then those tax increases will get worse and worse for working people. But, but what a surprise, the tax breaks for corporations are permanent.  

[Booing] 

Now, now I want to be fair, I want to be fair, there is only one good thing about this plan. There is one good thing. It’s not law yet.

[Applause]

And there is an obstacle to this plan. You, you, the people of this city, the people of this state, the people of this country will not stand for it. 

[Applause]

Remember, remember how many times we were told the Affordable Care Act was going to be gone, was going to be dead. Everyone was not going to have health insurance anymore. But you stood up, you said wait not so fast. And you saved the Affordable Care Act. You did that. Now its time to rise up again, its time to get organized, its time to reach out to people in every state of the country and say we’re not going to let this happen. 

[Applause]

Who’s ready to get involved? 

[Applause] 

Who’s ready to get loud?

[Applause]

If you’re ready for action I want you to do something, I want you to go to stoptaxscam.comstoptaxscam.com today. Every single person here and millions more can participate in stopping this evil tax plan. We can do it, but we’ve only got a couple of weeks my friends. We’ve only got a couple of weeks. And if we don’t stop it, you’re going to see the biggest man made disaster that hit the American economy. You’re going to see people who have struggling to meet ends meet lose ground once again. We have to be the authors of history this time. So my friend’s I’ve got a simple question. Are you going to stop this tax scam? 

Crowd: Yes. 

[Applause] 

Mayor: If you’re going to join and stop it. I want you to say some simple words really, really loud. Stop the tax scam – let me hear you. Stop the tax scam –

Crowd: Stop the tax scam, stop the tax scam, stop the tax scam, stop the tax scam –

Mayor: Louder. 

Crowd: Stop the tax scam, stop the tax scam, stop the tax scam, stop the tax scam –

Mayor: I think they can hear you in that building. 

Crowd: Stop the tax scam, Stop the tax scam –

Mayor: I think they can hear you at the Trump fundraiser with the millionaires and the billionaires. I think they can hear you in the halls of Congress. Don’t stop fighting until we win. God bless you brothers and sisters. 

[Applause]

Now I am going to bring up one of great leaders of American labor, one of the great leaders of educators in this country, someone who never, ever backs down from a fight, the President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten. 

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