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People called for government action to ensure affordable clean energy for all in Glasgow, Scotland on December 3, 2022.
People in dozens of cities across the United Kingdom hit the streets on Saturday to demand immediate government action to prevent thousands of struggling workers from freezing to death in their homes this winter.
Demonstrators drew attention to the worsening crisis of fuel poverty and called on lawmakers to pick up more of the tab for skyrocketing bills, fund home insulation, and accelerate clean energy production--all of which would be made easier by enacting a stronger tax on oil and gas corporations' windfall profits.
"People want sensible, practical solutions to permanently lower our energy costs."
Up to 45 million people in the U.K. are facing fuel poverty as temperatures drop, according to one recent study. Meanwhile, heavily subsidized fossil fuel giants are raking in record profits, which they use to block policies that would facilitate a green transition and dismantle their destructive industry.
Saturday's national day of action was organized by Warm This Winter, a coalition of more than 40 progressive advocacy groups urging immediate government intervention to slash energy bills now--through emergency grants and retrofitting--and to ramp up renewable power generation, which is essential to leaving behind increasingly expensive and planet-heating fossil fuels for good.
"As the nights draw in and more and more people face a difficult winter, we're uniting to show that it doesn't have to be this way--the solutions exist and we've known what they are for a long time," the coalition's website reads. "We demand action from this government to keep everyone warm this winter."
\u201c\ud83d\udea8 Today, as part of our national day of action, we\u2019re right on the government\u2019s doorstep in the heart of Westminster. \n\nAs the temperature drops, it\u2019s never been more important to make them hear our demands to be #WarmThisWinter.\u201d— Warm This Winter (@Warm This Winter) 1670071402
Tessa Khan of Uplift, one of the organizers of Saturday's rallies, said in a statement that "people only need to look at their bills to know that the U.K.'s energy system is broken."
"This Day of Action is to give a voice to those who want change from this government," said Khan. "Instead of spending billions of our money subsidizing gas fields and expensive gas imports, which will guarantee bills stay high for years, people want sensible, practical solutions to permanently lower our energy costs."
"People want those in fuel poverty given the support they need to stay warm this winter; they want help to insulate their homes; and they want this government to unblock onshore renewable energy, which will provide our homes with cheaper energy for years to come," Khan added. "This is about coming together to tell the government to look after the needs of British people, and not the needs of wealthy oil and gas companies."
\u201c#WarmThisWinter #FuelPoverty #PensionerPoverty #EndFuelPoverty\u201d— The NPC (@The NPC) 1670067198
Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Sana Yusuf noted that "the U.K. government has had all year to come up with solutions to help people facing extortionate living costs, yet its financial support scheme is not nearly enough to stop millions going cold this winter."
"Why there isn't a plan to insulate U.K. homes and boost the production of renewable energy beggars belief," Yusuf continued. "Both are popular with the public and can help to lower energy bills permanently.
"If government inaction has done anything," said Yusuf, "it's galvanized local communities who are turning out today because they know a better way forward exists."
\u201cCampaigners and communities across the country came together today with one message... \n\n\ud83d\udce2 WARM HOMES SHOULDN'T COST THE EARTH!\n\n#WarmThisWinter #UnitedForWarmHomes\u201d— Friends of the Earth (@Friends of the Earth) 1670084075
As part of the Warm This Winter day of action, Fuel Poverty Action and Don't Pay U.K.--which seeks to build support for a mass energy bill non-payment strike--organized a series of "warm-ups," wherein people who can't afford to heat their homes gathered in public space to spread messages such as, "Freeze profit, not people."
\u201c\u26a1\ufe0f Warm-up underway in the British Museum\n\nDon't Pay, @FuelPovAction and local campaign groups are warming up at the British Museum to highlight fuel poverty and demand an end to the profiteering fuelling the cost of living crisis.\n\n#TakeBackPower #WarmThisWinter\u201d— Don't Pay. (@Don't Pay.) 1670074878
"There is plenty of money to ensure that everyone can keep warm this winter," said Ruth London from Fuel Poverty Action. "It just needs to be taken from the oil and gas giants that are taking it from us."
Economic and environmental justice advocates have argued that providing adequate financial support to those in need and achieving a long-term solution to the dirty energy sector's life-threatening price gouging and pollution requires a break with the neoliberal policies that have exacerbated Britain's historic cost-of-living crisis.
Hours after lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party voted in late-October to make Rishi Sunak the U.K.'s third prime minister this year, Greenpeace activists occupied the lobby of Parliament and called for simultaneously tackling surging utility bills and the climate emergency by taxing fossil fuel profits and using the revenue to bankroll residential upgrades and expanded clean energy production.
"There is plenty of money to ensure that everyone can keep warm this winter. It just needs to be taken from the oil and gas giants that are taking it from us."
Earlier this year, the U.K. Treasury estimated that the nation's energy firms are on track to enjoy up to PS170 billion ($191.9 billion) in excess profits--defined as the gap between money made now and what would have been expected based on price forecasts prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine--over the next two years.
A 25% windfall tax on oil and gas producers approved in July is expected to raise PS5 billion ($5.6 billion) in its first year. However, the existing surtax on excess fossil fuel profits includes loopholes enabling companies to significantly reduce their tax bill by investing more in oil and gas extraction, which the industry claims will increase supply. The recently enacted windfall tax, which lasts through 2025, also exempts electricity generators, even though Treasury officials attribute approximately two-fifths of the PS170 billion in excess profits to such actors.
Given that winter energy bills are projected to triple compared with last year, calls have been mounting to increase the windfall tax rate on excess fossil fuel profits and extend it to electricity generators benefiting from rising oil and gas prices.
While his immediate predecessor, Liz Truss, ardently opposed windfall taxes--asserting that they "send the wrong message to investors"--Sunak introduced the current windfall tax in May when he was then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chancellor of the exchequer.
Noting that soaring energy prices and greenhouse gas pollution are both driven by fossil fuel dependence, Greenpeace U.K. in October implored Sunak to do the following "to lower our bills long-term and reduce our emissions":
"It's time we have a government that brings down bills for good and plays its part in tackling the climate crisis," said Greenpeace U.K., which is a member of the Warm This Winter coalition.
"Delay has cost lives. Chaos costs lives. And it will cost more lives this winter and every winter," the group stressed. "No one benefits except the oil and gas profiteers. If the government were on the people's side, the U.K. really could get on track to quitting oil, gas, and sky-high energy bills, forever."
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
People in dozens of cities across the United Kingdom hit the streets on Saturday to demand immediate government action to prevent thousands of struggling workers from freezing to death in their homes this winter.
Demonstrators drew attention to the worsening crisis of fuel poverty and called on lawmakers to pick up more of the tab for skyrocketing bills, fund home insulation, and accelerate clean energy production--all of which would be made easier by enacting a stronger tax on oil and gas corporations' windfall profits.
"People want sensible, practical solutions to permanently lower our energy costs."
Up to 45 million people in the U.K. are facing fuel poverty as temperatures drop, according to one recent study. Meanwhile, heavily subsidized fossil fuel giants are raking in record profits, which they use to block policies that would facilitate a green transition and dismantle their destructive industry.
Saturday's national day of action was organized by Warm This Winter, a coalition of more than 40 progressive advocacy groups urging immediate government intervention to slash energy bills now--through emergency grants and retrofitting--and to ramp up renewable power generation, which is essential to leaving behind increasingly expensive and planet-heating fossil fuels for good.
"As the nights draw in and more and more people face a difficult winter, we're uniting to show that it doesn't have to be this way--the solutions exist and we've known what they are for a long time," the coalition's website reads. "We demand action from this government to keep everyone warm this winter."
\u201c\ud83d\udea8 Today, as part of our national day of action, we\u2019re right on the government\u2019s doorstep in the heart of Westminster. \n\nAs the temperature drops, it\u2019s never been more important to make them hear our demands to be #WarmThisWinter.\u201d— Warm This Winter (@Warm This Winter) 1670071402
Tessa Khan of Uplift, one of the organizers of Saturday's rallies, said in a statement that "people only need to look at their bills to know that the U.K.'s energy system is broken."
"This Day of Action is to give a voice to those who want change from this government," said Khan. "Instead of spending billions of our money subsidizing gas fields and expensive gas imports, which will guarantee bills stay high for years, people want sensible, practical solutions to permanently lower our energy costs."
"People want those in fuel poverty given the support they need to stay warm this winter; they want help to insulate their homes; and they want this government to unblock onshore renewable energy, which will provide our homes with cheaper energy for years to come," Khan added. "This is about coming together to tell the government to look after the needs of British people, and not the needs of wealthy oil and gas companies."
\u201c#WarmThisWinter #FuelPoverty #PensionerPoverty #EndFuelPoverty\u201d— The NPC (@The NPC) 1670067198
Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Sana Yusuf noted that "the U.K. government has had all year to come up with solutions to help people facing extortionate living costs, yet its financial support scheme is not nearly enough to stop millions going cold this winter."
"Why there isn't a plan to insulate U.K. homes and boost the production of renewable energy beggars belief," Yusuf continued. "Both are popular with the public and can help to lower energy bills permanently.
"If government inaction has done anything," said Yusuf, "it's galvanized local communities who are turning out today because they know a better way forward exists."
\u201cCampaigners and communities across the country came together today with one message... \n\n\ud83d\udce2 WARM HOMES SHOULDN'T COST THE EARTH!\n\n#WarmThisWinter #UnitedForWarmHomes\u201d— Friends of the Earth (@Friends of the Earth) 1670084075
As part of the Warm This Winter day of action, Fuel Poverty Action and Don't Pay U.K.--which seeks to build support for a mass energy bill non-payment strike--organized a series of "warm-ups," wherein people who can't afford to heat their homes gathered in public space to spread messages such as, "Freeze profit, not people."
\u201c\u26a1\ufe0f Warm-up underway in the British Museum\n\nDon't Pay, @FuelPovAction and local campaign groups are warming up at the British Museum to highlight fuel poverty and demand an end to the profiteering fuelling the cost of living crisis.\n\n#TakeBackPower #WarmThisWinter\u201d— Don't Pay. (@Don't Pay.) 1670074878
"There is plenty of money to ensure that everyone can keep warm this winter," said Ruth London from Fuel Poverty Action. "It just needs to be taken from the oil and gas giants that are taking it from us."
Economic and environmental justice advocates have argued that providing adequate financial support to those in need and achieving a long-term solution to the dirty energy sector's life-threatening price gouging and pollution requires a break with the neoliberal policies that have exacerbated Britain's historic cost-of-living crisis.
Hours after lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party voted in late-October to make Rishi Sunak the U.K.'s third prime minister this year, Greenpeace activists occupied the lobby of Parliament and called for simultaneously tackling surging utility bills and the climate emergency by taxing fossil fuel profits and using the revenue to bankroll residential upgrades and expanded clean energy production.
"There is plenty of money to ensure that everyone can keep warm this winter. It just needs to be taken from the oil and gas giants that are taking it from us."
Earlier this year, the U.K. Treasury estimated that the nation's energy firms are on track to enjoy up to PS170 billion ($191.9 billion) in excess profits--defined as the gap between money made now and what would have been expected based on price forecasts prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine--over the next two years.
A 25% windfall tax on oil and gas producers approved in July is expected to raise PS5 billion ($5.6 billion) in its first year. However, the existing surtax on excess fossil fuel profits includes loopholes enabling companies to significantly reduce their tax bill by investing more in oil and gas extraction, which the industry claims will increase supply. The recently enacted windfall tax, which lasts through 2025, also exempts electricity generators, even though Treasury officials attribute approximately two-fifths of the PS170 billion in excess profits to such actors.
Given that winter energy bills are projected to triple compared with last year, calls have been mounting to increase the windfall tax rate on excess fossil fuel profits and extend it to electricity generators benefiting from rising oil and gas prices.
While his immediate predecessor, Liz Truss, ardently opposed windfall taxes--asserting that they "send the wrong message to investors"--Sunak introduced the current windfall tax in May when he was then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chancellor of the exchequer.
Noting that soaring energy prices and greenhouse gas pollution are both driven by fossil fuel dependence, Greenpeace U.K. in October implored Sunak to do the following "to lower our bills long-term and reduce our emissions":
"It's time we have a government that brings down bills for good and plays its part in tackling the climate crisis," said Greenpeace U.K., which is a member of the Warm This Winter coalition.
"Delay has cost lives. Chaos costs lives. And it will cost more lives this winter and every winter," the group stressed. "No one benefits except the oil and gas profiteers. If the government were on the people's side, the U.K. really could get on track to quitting oil, gas, and sky-high energy bills, forever."
People in dozens of cities across the United Kingdom hit the streets on Saturday to demand immediate government action to prevent thousands of struggling workers from freezing to death in their homes this winter.
Demonstrators drew attention to the worsening crisis of fuel poverty and called on lawmakers to pick up more of the tab for skyrocketing bills, fund home insulation, and accelerate clean energy production--all of which would be made easier by enacting a stronger tax on oil and gas corporations' windfall profits.
"People want sensible, practical solutions to permanently lower our energy costs."
Up to 45 million people in the U.K. are facing fuel poverty as temperatures drop, according to one recent study. Meanwhile, heavily subsidized fossil fuel giants are raking in record profits, which they use to block policies that would facilitate a green transition and dismantle their destructive industry.
Saturday's national day of action was organized by Warm This Winter, a coalition of more than 40 progressive advocacy groups urging immediate government intervention to slash energy bills now--through emergency grants and retrofitting--and to ramp up renewable power generation, which is essential to leaving behind increasingly expensive and planet-heating fossil fuels for good.
"As the nights draw in and more and more people face a difficult winter, we're uniting to show that it doesn't have to be this way--the solutions exist and we've known what they are for a long time," the coalition's website reads. "We demand action from this government to keep everyone warm this winter."
\u201c\ud83d\udea8 Today, as part of our national day of action, we\u2019re right on the government\u2019s doorstep in the heart of Westminster. \n\nAs the temperature drops, it\u2019s never been more important to make them hear our demands to be #WarmThisWinter.\u201d— Warm This Winter (@Warm This Winter) 1670071402
Tessa Khan of Uplift, one of the organizers of Saturday's rallies, said in a statement that "people only need to look at their bills to know that the U.K.'s energy system is broken."
"This Day of Action is to give a voice to those who want change from this government," said Khan. "Instead of spending billions of our money subsidizing gas fields and expensive gas imports, which will guarantee bills stay high for years, people want sensible, practical solutions to permanently lower our energy costs."
"People want those in fuel poverty given the support they need to stay warm this winter; they want help to insulate their homes; and they want this government to unblock onshore renewable energy, which will provide our homes with cheaper energy for years to come," Khan added. "This is about coming together to tell the government to look after the needs of British people, and not the needs of wealthy oil and gas companies."
\u201c#WarmThisWinter #FuelPoverty #PensionerPoverty #EndFuelPoverty\u201d— The NPC (@The NPC) 1670067198
Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Sana Yusuf noted that "the U.K. government has had all year to come up with solutions to help people facing extortionate living costs, yet its financial support scheme is not nearly enough to stop millions going cold this winter."
"Why there isn't a plan to insulate U.K. homes and boost the production of renewable energy beggars belief," Yusuf continued. "Both are popular with the public and can help to lower energy bills permanently.
"If government inaction has done anything," said Yusuf, "it's galvanized local communities who are turning out today because they know a better way forward exists."
\u201cCampaigners and communities across the country came together today with one message... \n\n\ud83d\udce2 WARM HOMES SHOULDN'T COST THE EARTH!\n\n#WarmThisWinter #UnitedForWarmHomes\u201d— Friends of the Earth (@Friends of the Earth) 1670084075
As part of the Warm This Winter day of action, Fuel Poverty Action and Don't Pay U.K.--which seeks to build support for a mass energy bill non-payment strike--organized a series of "warm-ups," wherein people who can't afford to heat their homes gathered in public space to spread messages such as, "Freeze profit, not people."
\u201c\u26a1\ufe0f Warm-up underway in the British Museum\n\nDon't Pay, @FuelPovAction and local campaign groups are warming up at the British Museum to highlight fuel poverty and demand an end to the profiteering fuelling the cost of living crisis.\n\n#TakeBackPower #WarmThisWinter\u201d— Don't Pay. (@Don't Pay.) 1670074878
"There is plenty of money to ensure that everyone can keep warm this winter," said Ruth London from Fuel Poverty Action. "It just needs to be taken from the oil and gas giants that are taking it from us."
Economic and environmental justice advocates have argued that providing adequate financial support to those in need and achieving a long-term solution to the dirty energy sector's life-threatening price gouging and pollution requires a break with the neoliberal policies that have exacerbated Britain's historic cost-of-living crisis.
Hours after lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party voted in late-October to make Rishi Sunak the U.K.'s third prime minister this year, Greenpeace activists occupied the lobby of Parliament and called for simultaneously tackling surging utility bills and the climate emergency by taxing fossil fuel profits and using the revenue to bankroll residential upgrades and expanded clean energy production.
"There is plenty of money to ensure that everyone can keep warm this winter. It just needs to be taken from the oil and gas giants that are taking it from us."
Earlier this year, the U.K. Treasury estimated that the nation's energy firms are on track to enjoy up to PS170 billion ($191.9 billion) in excess profits--defined as the gap between money made now and what would have been expected based on price forecasts prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine--over the next two years.
A 25% windfall tax on oil and gas producers approved in July is expected to raise PS5 billion ($5.6 billion) in its first year. However, the existing surtax on excess fossil fuel profits includes loopholes enabling companies to significantly reduce their tax bill by investing more in oil and gas extraction, which the industry claims will increase supply. The recently enacted windfall tax, which lasts through 2025, also exempts electricity generators, even though Treasury officials attribute approximately two-fifths of the PS170 billion in excess profits to such actors.
Given that winter energy bills are projected to triple compared with last year, calls have been mounting to increase the windfall tax rate on excess fossil fuel profits and extend it to electricity generators benefiting from rising oil and gas prices.
While his immediate predecessor, Liz Truss, ardently opposed windfall taxes--asserting that they "send the wrong message to investors"--Sunak introduced the current windfall tax in May when he was then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chancellor of the exchequer.
Noting that soaring energy prices and greenhouse gas pollution are both driven by fossil fuel dependence, Greenpeace U.K. in October implored Sunak to do the following "to lower our bills long-term and reduce our emissions":
"It's time we have a government that brings down bills for good and plays its part in tackling the climate crisis," said Greenpeace U.K., which is a member of the Warm This Winter coalition.
"Delay has cost lives. Chaos costs lives. And it will cost more lives this winter and every winter," the group stressed. "No one benefits except the oil and gas profiteers. If the government were on the people's side, the U.K. really could get on track to quitting oil, gas, and sky-high energy bills, forever."
"What AOC is doing is leadership—and people see that," said one observer.
A poll released Friday from the progressive think tank Data for Progress has Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez besting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, also a Democrat, by 19 points in a hypothetical matchup in the 2028 New York primary for a U.S. Senate seat.
According to the poll, which was was first shared exclusively with Politico, 55% of voters said they would cast a ballot for Ocasio-Cortez or leaned toward supporting her, and 36% said they would support Schumer or leaned toward supporting him, with 9% undecided.
The only subgroup that supported Schumer over Ocasio-Cortez were moderates, who favored Schumer 50%-35%, with 15% undecided. Ocasio-Cortez carried all other subgroups with an outright majority, except for voters over the age of 45, 49% of whom said they would support her or leaned toward supporting her.
The poll—while several years out from the actual race—comes in the wake of Schumer's decision to throw his support behind a Republican-backed spending bill in early March, a move that roiled his own party and prompted calls for him to step aside from his leadership position in the Senate.
The episode also sparked murmurs among some Democrats that Ocasio-Cortez should consider a primary bid against Schumer in 2028.
The poll was conducted March 26-31 and surveyed 767 likely Democratic primary voters in New York state. According to Data for Progress, the polling indicated that the hypothetical matchup between Ocasio-Cortez and Schumer is "relatively static" and does not shift when voters are offered more information about the respective candidates.
Ocasio-Cortez recently declined to speak about a potential run for Senate in 2028, according to Politico.
"Replacing Chuck Schumer with AOC would be an incredible upgrade. I guess we'll have to wait four more years…," wrote Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation.
Zephyr Teachout, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law, shared Politico's reporting on the poll and wrote: "Good morning to leadership and fighting oligarchy!"
"What I mean is that what AOC is doing is leadership—and people see that," added Teachout, who also highlighted that the poll found that an overwhelming majority of respondents, 84%, want their leaders to do more to resist the actions of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Another observer, market researcher Adam Carlson, highlighted that despite Schumer's loss in the hypothetical race, most respondent subgroups still view him favorably, according to the poll. Besides "very liberal" voters and those between ages 18-44, Schumer stands at over 50% "favorable" among all other subgroups surveyed.
"People just want a changing of the guard," said Carlson.
"Trade and tariff wars have no winners," said China's foreign ministry. "We urge the U.S. to stop doing the wrong thing."
The Chinese government on Friday responded to U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping new tariffs with 34% import duties on all American goods beginning next week, intensifying global blowback against the White House and accelerating a worldwide financial market tailspin.
China's tariffs on U.S. imports, which match the tariffs the Trump administration moved this week to impose on Chinese goods, are set to take effect on April 10. Trump's 34% tariffs on Chinese imports come on top of the 20% tariffs the U.S. president imposed earlier this year.
"The U.S. approach does not conform to international trade rules, seriously damages China's legitimate rights and interests, and is a typical unilateral bullying practice," China's Ministry of Finance said in a Friday statement.
Additionally, China's Commerce Ministry announced immediate export restrictions on rare earth materials and "added 16 entities from the U.S., including High Point Aerotechnologies and Universal Logistics Holdings Inc., to its export control list," according to the state-run China Daily.
"Under the new rule," the outlet reported, "Chinese companies are prohibited from exporting dual-use items to these 16 U.S. entities. Any ongoing related export activities should be immediately halted, said the Ministry of Commerce."
Retaliatory tariffs from the world's second-largest economy mark the latest step in a global trade war launched by the Trump White House, which—despite warnings of disastrous impacts for working-class U.S. households and the broader economy—plowed ahead this week with a 10% universal tariff on imports and larger tariffs on a number of trading partners, including China.
Following Trump's official tariff announcement, Beijing condemned the duties as "unacceptable" and vowed to "take measures as necessary to firmly defend [China's] legitimate interests."
"Trade and tariff wars have no winners. Protectionism leads nowhere," said the spokesperson for China's foreign ministry on Thursday. "We urge the U.S. to stop doing the wrong thing, and resolve trade differences with China and other countries through consultation with equality, respect, and mutual benefit."
Other nations hit by Trump's tariffs are expected to respond in the coming days.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters Thursday that the E.U. was "already finalizing the first package of countermeasures in response to tariffs on steel, and we are now preparing for further countermeasures to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail."
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed that "we are going to fight these tariffs with countermeasures."
"In a crisis, it's important to come together and it's essential to act with purpose and with force," Carney added. "And that's what we will do."
"What Republicans are trying to jam through Congress right now is a level of economic recklessness we’ve never seen before," said a group of Democratic lawmakers.
A new analysis indicates Republicans' plan to extend soon-to-expire provisions of their party's 2017 tax law, as well as their push to tack on additional tax breaks largely benefiting the rich and big corporations, would cost $7 trillion over the next decade, a figure that a group of congressional Democrats called "staggering."
The analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), published on Thursday, updates previous estimates that suggested the GOP effort to extend expiring provisions of the 2017 law would cost $4.6 trillion over a 10-year period. The new assessment shows that extending the law's temporary provisions—which disproportionately favored the wealthy—would cost $5.5 trillion over the next decade.
The projected cost of the GOP agenda balloons to $7 trillion after adding Senate Republicans' call for $1.5 trillion in additional tax cuts in the budget resolution they advanced in a party-line vote on Thursday. The GOP has come under fire for using an accounting trick to claim their proposed tax cuts would have no budgetary impact.
"The Republican handouts to billionaires and corporations will come at a staggering cost, and it's unconscionable that their plan to pay for those handouts includes kicking millions of Americans off their health insurance, hiking the cost of living with tariffs, and driving up child hunger," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said in a joint statement issued in response to the JCT figures.
"Even after making painful cuts that will inflict hardship on typical American families, Republicans will still risk sending us into a catastrophic debt spiral that does permanent harm to our economy," the Democrats added. "What Republicans are trying to jam through Congress right now is a level of economic recklessness we've never seen before."
The JCT's updated cost analysis came as President Donald Trump plowed ahead with what's been characterized as the biggest tax hike in U.S. history, one that will hit working-class Americans in the form of price increases on household staples and other goods.
Trump administration officials, not known for providing reliable numbers, have claimed the president's sweeping new tariffs could produce roughly $6 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade. The Trump tariffs have sent financial markets into a tailspin, heightened recession fears, and prompted swift retaliation from targeted nations, including China.
In an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday, Boyle—the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee—said Trump's tariffs represent "the single largest tax increase in American history."
"It's a tax that everyone will pay in this country, based on the goods that they buy," said Boyle. "However, it's also a tax that is highly regressive—the poorest amongst us will end up paying a higher percentage of their income."
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the analysis was conducted by the Congressional Budget Office. It was conducted by the Joint Committee on Taxation.