Tax Day

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SYKES. Mr. Speaker, last week was tax day. I probably don't have to remind most folks because it is a day that is both loved and lauded depending on who you are. For millions of Americans it is supposed to be a moment of relief, a chance to catch up, get ahead, and breathe a little easier because of the refunds that many expect.

But for far too many families, including my constituents in Ohio's 13th Congressional District, tax day was just another reminder that their money isn't going as far as it should.

While the President and House Republicans promised lower costs and bigger refunds, families are actually seeing grocery bills that are too high; gas prices that stretch their budgets; and rent, healthcare, housing, and everyday essentials that are taking up more and more of their paychecks.

When they finally get that tax refund, they will realize it doesn't go as far as promised, or they didn't get a tax refund at all, and it went nowhere.

That is not by accident.

Republican policies like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act gave massive tax breaks to millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations. The top 0.1 percent are receiving average tax cuts of more than $300,000. Meanwhile, Americans earning less than $50,000 a year are seeing their taxes go up.

Add in President Trump's lack of strategy on tariffs, which amounts to a national sales tax, and now families are paying more out of pocket while the wealthiest get a permanent tax break.

But that is not all. The one big, ugly bill also slashed a trillion dollars from Medicaid and cut billions to SNAP, jeopardizing healthcare and food for millions of Americans across the country and tens of thousands of my constituents.

And it is not just about coverage. It is about jobs. Hospitals and healthcare providers are the largest employers in Ohio's 13th District. When you cut funding at that scale you are not just hurting patients, you are threatening jobs, closing services, and weakening our local economy.

Mr. Speaker, we don't need to raise costs on working families to give more tax breaks to the wealthy. My Lowering Your Taxes Act expands the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit so working families can better afford childcare, groceries, housing, and other expenses. It would allow families to claim up to $3,600 per child, lift them out of poverty, and allow them to decide where their dollars are needed the most, while also expanding tax relief to workers who are often left out.

My No Tax on Overtime for All Workers Act makes a simple promise: If you work extra hours, you should be able to keep that extra pay because every extra hour on the job is time away from family, time spent working hard. That effort should be rewarded and not taxed, but because of the carelessly thrown together no tax on overtime provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, thousands of members of organized labor, the very people who built and made this country run, are excluded.

I have also worked with my colleagues, Republican and Democrat, through the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus to lower costs, strengthen supply chains, improve trade policy, and protect jobs in Ohio's 13th District, the birthplace of champions.

Trade policy should be strategic, not chaotic, and it should never leave American families paying the price.

I have called for restoring Congress' role in trade decisions because these choices are too important to be made without accountability.

There certainly is a need to ensure that American companies are able to compete with companies and goods from other countries with questionable labor practices, but what is happening with this administration is not the case. It is chaotic. It is expensive, and the national tax on goods costs way too much for the general American public.

At the end of the day, I will never stop advocating for my constituents and for the American public who deserve so much better than this.

We should all ask the question--because at the end of the day this is about who our economy works for--is it working for the families who are doing everything right, working hard, paying their taxes, going to work every day trying to get ahead; or is it working for the powerful and well-connected?

Well, I believe it should be working for the people, for the workers putting in overtime, parents trying to afford childcare, and families choosing between groceries and healthcare.

Working families deserve policies that lower costs and reward hard work and leaders who will fight for them every single day. I am that leader, and, Mr. Speaker, I call upon you and your majority to work alongside me.

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