Dear Editor:

Last week, the Senate passed the new tax bill by a vote of 51-49. This bill had already passed the house, so now it will be re-worked through both chambers and voted on again, and then on to be signed by the president, if it passes.

No Democrat voted for this bill. Why?

This bill is long over due.

The bill will give tax relief to hard-working families, reduce and make filling out our taxes more simple, give more child credit, lower the business tax from 35 to 20 percent, which will give businesses a great opportunity to create more jobs, and those that have moved off shore the opportunity to come back to a changed country, which is for the better and more improved. Everyone should want to see changes that will improve their lives and the lives of their families.

Now, we will look at why the 49 Democratic senators voted no. None of the 49 wanted the “middle class” to receive tax relief.

Let us look at the leader of the house Democrats, which is Rep. Nancy Pelosi. They have said many times that the reason for not supporting this bill is that it will most likely help the wealthy.

They must not even consider that most middle class families will be able to keep around $2,200 more of their hard-earned income. The paragraph above leads me to believe that they don’t care about the middle class.

Sometimes a person says one thing and they do just the opposite. Pelosi has stated numerous times that she doesn’t want to help the rich get richer. Pelosi’s words point in one direction, but her actions go in the opposite direction. For example, she has successfully gained $66 billion to build a supersonic rail system between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Calif. in her state that she represents. California has the best economy in the nation. In this area, one can find Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Disney Land, actors, several professional teams and the list of wealthy people goes on and on.

If Pelosi didn’t support the tax bill to keep from helping the wealthy, then why did she rob the poor — the other 49 states — to support the rich in her state? California is the richest state in the union. Building this rail system was and is a want, not a need, for some of the richest people in the world. Why not let these millionaires and billionaires pay for their own transportation? At a time when our infrastructure is in shambles, she wants to take from poor states that have needs to support a want for her state.

Pelosi and Chuck Schumer want people to believe that they are now concerned about our national debt. This massive debt was created by them, along with former President Barack Obama. The $66 billion dollars on the rail system is only a down payment on what the total cost of completing it will be.

Pelosi and Schumer insist that the tax bill could add a trillion dollars to the national debt over a 10-year period. Pelosi, Schumer, Obama and other democratic senators added over $11 trillion to our national debt in just eight years.

Pelosi’s pet project has just increased our national debt by one-fifteenth of a trillion dollars just to appease the wealthy in her state. This project of hers will probably cost well over a trillion dollars before it is complete. This $66 billion could build the wall between Mexico and the U.S., and still have about $50 billion left over for building and repairing, and replacing the infrastructure of all of our states. The building of the wall would help to curtail the free flow of drugs, which is killing our people on a massive scale, instead it is going to the wealthy in California. Another question: Where did this money come from? Do you think that this money may have been removed from Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid? Congress has removed funds from these accounts many times in the past to support their wants. No one should pretend to want to help the middle class while ripping them off to make the wealthy in her state happy.

Leon Chavers

7221 Circle Rd.

Walnut Hill, Fla. 32568-5329