Fetterman, McCormick comment on Trump tax bill
After the U.S. Senate passed a GOP-designed budget reconciliation bill by a 51-50 vote, the two U.S. Senators for Pennsylvania find themselves at odds along their party lines.
The bill, known as H.R. 1, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was passed by a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday, July 1. Now that it has passed through the Senate, it must again be voted on by the House of Representatives before being signed into law.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat, voted against the bill, while U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, a Republican, voted in favor. After the vote, both senators issued statements on the matter.
“I am proud to support this bill because it would deliver continued tax relief to millions of Pennsylvania families and prevent the largest tax increase in American history,” McCormick said in his Tuesday release. “This bill also delivers on many of the promises that both President Trump and I made — to secure our nation’s border and bolster our national defense to keep Americans safe, and to unleash American energy potential and lower costs for consumers.”
McCormick lauded some of the bills features, including an increase to the child tax credit, the doubling of the standard deduction, an employer-paid family and medical leave tax credit, and making the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent.
“No bill is perfect, but these provisions will make a real difference in the lives of people working hard to make ends meet and raise their families across the Commonwealth,” McCormick continued. “I also believe that the historic investments in the border, law enforcement and defense will benefit all Pennsylvanians in the coming years, as will the important provisions that will unleash Pennsylvania energy.”
Meanwhile, Fetterman issued a statement on his vote against the bill.
He said the bill will add $4 trillion to the national debt, raise mortgage payments and small-business loan costs, remove $930 billion from Medicaid, kick 450,000 Pennsylvanians off their health insurance, threaten rural hospitals and nursing homes, and raise grocery costs for 40 million Americans.
“My colleagues on the other side of the aisle wrote and passed this 940-page bill without giving us time to read it,” Fetterman said in a Tuesday release. “I’ll keep fighting to protect health care, defend nutrition assistance, block giveaways for billionaires and prevent trillions more added to our national debt. This bill is now in the hands of my colleagues in the House where, hopefully, a handful of Republicans will put their constituents before campaign donors and shut this down.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly’s office declined to provide comment until the U.S. House of Representatives has a chance to vote on the bill as well.
