Click HERE to read in the Kingsport Times News
Two hundred fifty years ago, a group of farmers, tradesmen and citizen-statesmen signed their names to a document that changed the world. They didn't do it for glory. They did it because they were tired of working hard, earning their keep, and watching a distant government reach into their pockets without ever asking permission.
“No taxation without representation” wasn't just a slogan. It was the spark of a revolution.
Two hundred fifty years later, I think about that fight every time I talk with folks across East Tennessee, because in many ways, it's still the fight we're having today. For too long, Washington treated the American taxpayer like a blank check, and working families, seniors and small business owners footed the bill.
That's why, one year ago, I was proud to vote for the Working Families Tax Cuts legislation which President Trump signed into law. And one year in, the results are clear: this law is delivering on the promise our founders made in 1776, that the people who do the work should keep the fruits of their labor.
According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, American families and workers claimed $82 billion in individual tax relief in this law's first year alone, through the April filing deadline. Ninety-seven percent of filers received a tax cut. Ninety-six percent of those earners made under $200,000 a year, and nearly 70% made less than $100,000. This wasn't a tax cut for Washington insiders or Wall Street. It was a tax cut for the waitress in Greeneville working a double for tips, the lineman in Kingsport pulling overtime, and the grandmother in Elizabethton living on a fixed Social Security check.
As a pharmacist for more than 30 years before I ever set foot in Congress, I spent my career behind a counter, watching folks count out their co-pays and dread tax season. I know what it means when a law like this actually reaches a kitchen table — whether that's through no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, or a permanent 20% deduction that's helping small businesses across East Tennessee to reinvest, hire and grow for generations to come.
This law also made permanent the lower tax rates from President Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, preventing what would have been the single largest tax increase in American history. And tomorrow, it launches Trump Accounts, tax-deferred savings accounts created for children under the age of 18 that are designed to grow over time through investment earnings and provide a meaningful financial head start into adulthood.
I am a mother and a grandmother, and I was a small business owner before I was ever a member of Congress. I never forget that every dollar Washington spends is a dollar that someone in East Tennessee worked hard to earn. That is why I will always fight for policies that put more of that hard-earned money back where it belongs, in the pockets of the people who earned it, not in the hands of government bureaucrats.
Our founders didn't fight a revolution so that future generations could hand their freedom back to Washington one tax season at a time. As we celebrate 250 years of American independence, I can think of no better way to honor that legacy than continuing to fight for the same freedom they did: the freedom to keep what you earn.
Happy 250th birthday, America. Here's to the next 250 years and beyond!