Republican lawmakers joined President Donald Trump in cheering passage of the most significant overhaul of the federal tax system in three decades even as the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ domestic policy committee called on the president to work with Congress to fix “unacceptable problems” in the law.
In a statement issued Dec. 2, Bishop Dewane said, “Congress must act now to fix the fundamental flaws found in both bills, and choose the policy approaches that help individuals and families struggling within our society.”
In a Nov. 29 letter to senators, the leaders called the bill “fiscally irresponsible” and said that it “endangers our country’s economic health.” The letter added that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “disproportionately benefits the wealthy at the expense of vulnerable people and low-income families.”
Bishop Dewane, the chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, likes some of the provisions of the Senate’s tax bill, but those likes are dwarfed by items that he said run afoul of Catholic teaching.
