Sen. Tom Cotton says "every income group" will "see a tax cut" under Senate bill
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday that every American will see a tax cut under the Senate Republican's proposed overhaul of the nation's tax code.
"Every income group under the Senate bill will see a tax cut," urged Cotton, touting an aspect of the GOP's tax bill that repeals the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act.
Cotton called the mandate in the health care law the "most hated" part of Obamacare and a "tax on working families and poor Americans."
According to congressional estimates, targeting the mandate in the tax legislation would save an estimated $338 billion, over a decade, that could be used to help pay for deep cuts in corporate tax rates and other tax benefits under the plan.
"It fines an American family. They can't afford their insurance. Insurance that Obamacare made unaffordable in the first place. So this bill doesn't cut a single dime from Medicaid. It doesn't cut a single dime from the insurance subsidies. It doesn't change a single regulation under Obamacare," said Cotton.
He said that the proposed language in the tax bill "simply says the IRS cannot fine you if you cannot afford health insurance."
"So this has no impact on anyone who wants to get health insurance under Obamacare's individual exchanges, or under the Medicaid expansion, under their employer's plan," added Cotton.
Cotton also spoke about sexual harassment and assault, following allegations of sexual misconduct against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore and new accusations against Democratic Sen. Al Franken.
"Let me take a step back from Roy Moore and speak in general about sexual harassment and sexual assault. It's a very serious matter," Cotton said Sunday. "It has no place on the job, no place in our society. I think sadly too many women have faced that over the course of their lives. And it's not a partisan issue. There are misbehaving men in both the Democratic and Republican parties. And unfortunately there are female victims in both parties as well."
Cotton called the recent rise in the number of women coming forward with allegations a "good change in the norms and the expectations of our society."
But while he wouldn't say if he would vote to expel Moore from the Senate if Moore were to win the Alabama race, Cotton joined the chorus of other top Republicans, and the White House, in saying that it is up to voters to decide Moore's fate.
"I'm not going to speculate about hypotheticals about what may happen should he win. We're only three weeks out from the election. He made it pretty clear this week that he's not going to step aside. So as you said in your intro, it's going to be up to the people of Alabama to make that decision," added Cotton.
Moore has decried allegations against him as "fake news," saying the women have no evidence to support their claims.
When asked if "new norms" should cause a reevaluation of claims of assault allegations against President Trump, Cotton said that Americans had their say in the election.
"I think what's important is that we take all these things seriously and that we move forward. In each individual case we have people who are charged with weighing the evidence, whether it's a court of law in a sexual harassment case, whether it's the Senate Ethics Committee," Cotton said, adding, "but it's hard to generalize."
