The following is a press release from the John Plumb for Congress campaign.

Reed has supported a $2,000 tax increase that would crush middle class families to pay for tax cuts for millionaires

Jamestown, N.Y. – Congressman Tom Reed’s attendance at the Republican National Convention is the latest sign that he is more focused on serving the special interests in Washington than representing families in the Southern Tier and Western New York.

Commander John Plumb, a fourth generation western New Yorker, U.S. Naval officer, and candidate for Congress in New York’s 23^rd Congressional District, stated:

“I was raised here in Western New York with strong values and was taught to put country, community, and service before self. That’s what I’ve done for twenty-two years as a U.S. Naval Officer, and it’s what we should expect from our leaders.

“Sadly, Congressman Tom Reed spends his time in Washington helping to create a rigged system that allows politicians like himself, millionaires, and special interests play by a different set of rules – all at the expense of families here in Western New York and the Southern Tier. As one example, he’s voted to crush working families with a $2,000 income tax increase all so millionaires could get special tax breaks.

“So it comes as no surprise that Congressman Reed has chosen to spend the week in Cleveland rubbing elbows with the special interests he does so much for instead of answering to the families here at home that he’s left behind.

“I’m proud to say that I’ll be spending the week of the DNC here at home, prioritizing the need to protect the jobs we have and create new ones throughout the region. We deserve leaders who are going to put middle class families in the Southern Tier and Western New York first – not someone who is going to rig the system against them.”

Background:

Tom Reed has voted in favor of millionaires and billionaires at the expense of working families. In 2014, he voted for the extreme budget which, as the New York Times wrote, “lowers the top tax rate to 25 percent for the wealthiest taxpayers, down from the current 39.6 percent, while raising taxes on middle-class families with children by an average of $2,000.”

John Plumb is a member of the United States Navy Reserve. Use of military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.