“Tax Reform for America” is a US Chamber of Commerce-backed astroturf group that features testimonials from “mom and pop” business owners who back Trump’s tax plan, which will overwhelmingly benefit the top 1% wealthiest in America at the expense of working people and the middle class.
Tax Reform for America’s poster child is Atlanta, Georgia’s Loretta Lepore, billed as a “small business owner” and “an ordinary American who would benefit from a tax cut,” and her testimonial for the site says “The tax system is so complex that it puts an undue burden on small businesses instead of allowing us to allocate resources back into our businesses and back into our people.”
What the site doesn’t mention is that Lepore’s business is consulting as a lobbyist to the largest corporations in America, including Oracle, who have parked $68,000,000,000 in untaxed offshore accounts and who will save billions by being able to repatriate that money under an amnesty program in the Trump tax plan.
The Tax Reform for America site is part of a campaign managed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest private sector lobbying organization in the country. The Chamber claims it is the “voice for business,” representing “mom-and-pop shops.” But the business association is largely funded by a relatively small number of massive corporate interests, including Fortune 100 firms such as Microsoft and Dow Chemical.
THE BIG SECRET BEHIND A “SMALL BUSINESS” PUSHING TRUMP’S TAX PLAN
[Lee Fang/The Intercept]