Reporter staff

Community members rallied in the rain on the Auburn City Hall Plaza last Saturday to oppose what they describe as a Congressional Republicans’ “tax giveaway” to the rich.

“The Republican tax bill is a $1.2 trillion disaster for working families,” said Marquese Averett, senior organizer for the South King County office of Fuse, a statewide, progressive advocacy organization. “We’re saying ‘no more’ to Republicans like Dino Rossi, who would be just another rubber stamp for Congressional Republicans’ corrupt agenda.”

Rossi is the Republican front-runner for the state’s 8th Congressional U.S. House seat that retiring Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn vacates at the end of the year.

In December, Trump and the Congressional Republicans passed a $1.2 trillion tax cut. Democrats say the tax cut will benefit corporations and the rich at the expense of working-class people.

Speakers like 8th Congressional Democatic candidate Shannon Hader, a longtime federal public health official, voiced their concern.

“Those are our dollars … and those dollars are our earned benefits like Social Security and Medicare,” Hader told the crowd. “ … Everybody here is dedicated to a different set of values and a future than what we are seeing in the current tax code. …. We need a change leadership in the House so we can change leadership in this country.”

Fuse rally leaders claim the Republicans’ national tax bill is particularly dangerous for Washington families because the state’s tax code is already one of the worst in the country. Low-income Washingtonians pay seven times more in state and local taxes than wealthy families, they say, which siphons money out of communities and makes it harder to invest in services people need to thrive.

Marquese Averett, senior organizer for the South King County office of Fuse, a statewide, progressive advocacy organization, talks at the rally. MARK KLAAS, Auburn Reporter

8th Congressional Democatic candidate Shannon Hader, of Auburn, addresses the crowd. MARK KLAAS, Auburn Reporter