On Saturday [December 9, 2017] afternoon several dozen people gathered on Court Square in Harrisonburg to rally against current Republican attempts at tax reform. WMRA’s Christopher Clymer Kurtz reports.
It was cold and snowy, so rally organizer Brent Finnegan got right to the point:
BRENT FINNEGAN: The billionaires who have bought off our government have left us out of the process. We’ve been left out in the cold, and we want back in, and we want a government that represents the interests of everyone.
[Cheering]
Rockingham County and Harrisonburg residents there expressed worry about the tax legislation’s effect on health care affordability, social security, education loans and teachers. There were broader concerns, too:
SHARI SCOLFIELD: This tax bill is being thrust through so quickly that people aren’t aware of what a travesty it is. The time to hit the streets is now, absolutely.
MICHAEL SNELL-FEIKEMA: You just look at the way this tax bill was put through. That was not a democratic process. Having no hearings. Not making any effort to have a look at the facts, and create the kind of deliberative process that democracies are based on.
JOANNE BENNER: It’s just a class warfare issue in my mind, that the tax breaks for the poor and the middle class are going to expire, and the ones for the wealthy and corporations are permanent. And that’s just wrong.
Finnegan encouraged ongoing telephone calls of protest.
FINNEGAN: Even though Bob Goodlatte is retiring, he is still our representative and he still has to listen to us.