Utah Rep. Blake Moore vigorously defended President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax proposal against Democratic criticism before dozing off during a vote during a marathon hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
Utah Rep. Blake Moore falls asleep during a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee (5/14/2025)
The tax proposal contains more than $5 trillion in tax breaks, and would make permanent the tax cuts approved by Congress during President Donald Trump’s first term.
At one point during the hearing, Moore bristled at Democrats characterizing the legislation as a massive financial giveaway to billionaires.
“I don’t know how to say this over and over again. I don’t know how to make this settle in. This is not a bill for billionaire relief,” Moore argued. “This is just rhetoric.”
Moore expplained the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the standard deduction, the amount that people can write off, which he claimed primarily benefits middle and lower income Americans. He added the proposal extends the $2,000 per child tax credit and temporarily raises it to $2,500 per child through 2028.
“Lower income, middle income Americans are getting a huge amount of tax relief through the extension of what was done in 2017, which is the majority of this bill,” Moore said.
The legislation also creates new tax cuts for tips and overtime pay, making good on promises President Trump made on the campaign trail.
Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), the ranking member on the committee, countered that Moore and his Republican colleagues were downplaying how much wealthy Americans stood to benefit from the bill.
“To equate $500 bucks for a child with hundreds of thousands of dollars that are going to go to individual filers at the top - billionaires - doesn’t make any sense under the magnifying glass of critical analysis. How can we say that this is relief for the little person who’s going to get a buck a day compared to people who are multimillionaires who are going to derive an enormous benefit,” Neal argued.
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), said Neal’s estimate of $1 per day for lower income households actually overstated the benefit.
“They actually get 72-cents a day vis-à-vis those on the other end that get $223 a day,” Thompson pointed out. “To suggest that somehow we’re making up numbers in order to make political points is absolutely ridiculous.”
According to the official analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation, people making more than $500,000 per year would see an aggregate tax cut of about $170 billion in 2027, compared to $59 billion for those earning between $30,000 and $80,000. The analysis does not account for a likely increase in the limit on deductions for state and local taxes, from $10,000 to $30,000, which would primarily benefit wealthier households.
At one point, Moore fell asleep in his chair and had to be woken up by Republican Michelle Fishbach (R-MN), who was seated next to him.
The tax portion of the bill advanced on a 26-19 party line vote. It will be combined with other provisions and sent to the House floor, where Republican leaders hope to push it through to final passage by Memorial Day.
