WASHINGTON (CNS) – The chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development likes some of the provisions of the Senate’s tax bill, but those likes are dwarfed by items that he said run afoul of Catholic teaching.

“The Senate proposal is fundamentally flawed as written and requires amendment,” said Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Fla. in a letter to senators, who are expected to take up consideration of the bill.

Bishop Dewane cited St. John XXIII’s encyclical “Mater et Magistra,” which said that “decisions about taxation involve fundamental concerns of ‘justice and equity,’” and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which said public spending should serve as “an instrument of development and solidarity.”

And that is where the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as the bill is called, falls short. The bill, “as written, will raise income taxes on the working poor while simultaneously providing a large tax cut to the wealthy,” Bishop Dewane said. “Tax breaks for the financially secure, including millionaires and billionaires, should not be made possible by increased taxes to families struggling to meet their daily needs.”

Among the many shortcomings Bishop Dewane highlighted for senators in his letter:

• “The bill eliminates multiple deductions for work expenses, such as deductions for union dues and expenses, work clothes and uniforms, and work-related education” he said.
• With the repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual insurance mandate in the bill, “tax reform should not become the vehicle for a partial health care reform that fails to address significant problems in our health care system while exacerbating other difficulties,” Bishop Dewane said.
• “This bill appears to make families that have several children worse off. One of the most significant problems for larger families is the elimination of the personal exemption,” he added. “A change in the tax code should not place families in a worse situation because they have welcomed the gift of life.”