Here’s a math problem that should make every parent furious: Amazon paid exactly $0 in federal taxes for two years while raking in $22 billion in profits. Meanwhile, House Republicans want to cut education funding by $24.6 billion—enough to eliminate 224,000 teachers from classrooms across America.
This isn’t coincidence. It’s the deliberate Republican playbook: cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy, then use the resulting budget shortfalls to justify slashing the public services that protect ordinary Americans.
The Great American Swindle in Numbers
The Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, costing us $1.3 trillion over a decade. Fortune 500 companies now pay an effective federal tax rate of just 11.3%—down from 21.2% before the cuts.
Who’s paying the price? Your family.
Those education cuts Republicans are pushing would strip Title I funding by 25%, leaving the neediest schools without resources. Up to 51,000 children would lose Head Start early education access. And under Project 2025, up to 20 million students could lose free school meals.
Meanwhile, the top 1% of households pocket an average of $61,000 annually from these tax cuts. Families earning under $90,000? They get less than $500.
The Deficit Lie That Justifies the Cuts
Republicans created this crisis on purpose. First, they hand out massive tax breaks to their corporate donors. Then they point to the resulting deficits and declare we “can’t afford” public education, healthcare, or infrastructure.
It’s fiscal gaslighting at its finest.
We’ve seen this movie before. In Kansas, Governor Sam Brownback’s tax cuts were supposed to create an economic miracle. Instead, they created a school funding crisis so severe that districts couldn’t afford to keep schools open five days a week. Oklahoma teachers went on strike in 2018 after a decade of education cuts following tax reductions left classrooms without basic supplies.
Your Community Pays the Price
While General Motors received a $104 million tax rebate in 2018—the same year it closed plants and laid off workers—your local school is probably dealing with:
- Overcrowded classrooms because they can’t hire enough teachers
- Outdated textbooks and crumbling buildings
- Eliminated art, music, and library programs
- Teachers spending their own money on classroom supplies
Texas, despite its oil wealth, ranks 43rd in per-pupil spending because of tax policy choices that prioritize corporate breaks over classroom investment. These aren’t accidents—they’re policy decisions that reveal exactly whose interests Republican politicians serve.
The Math That Doesn’t Lie
Here’s the bottom line: every dollar in corporate tax cuts has to be paid for somewhere else. When Amazon pays nothing while using roads built with your tax dollars, educated workers trained in schools funded by your community, and infrastructure maintained by public investment, you’re subsidizing their profits twice—once through the tax break, and again through the services they use for free.
Countries like Germany and France maintain corporate tax rates around 30% while providing world-class public education and healthcare. The idea that we can’t afford both prosperity and public investment is a lie designed to justify wealth transfers to those who need it least.
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
Democratic leaders understand that strong public services and fair taxation go hand in hand. When corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share, we can invest in the schools, infrastructure, and services that make communities thrive.
The choice in 2024 couldn’t be clearer. Republicans will continue cutting taxes for their corporate donors while your kids sit in underfunded classrooms with overworked teachers. Democrats will restore tax fairness and reinvest in the public services that protect and strengthen American families.
Your vote determines whether we keep subsidizing corporate welfare or start investing in your family’s future. The math is simple: choose leaders who will make corporations pay their fair share so your community gets the services you deserve.
Because your children’s education shouldn’t be sacrificed to pad Amazon’s profit margins.