Ron to middle-class taxpayers:

With the April 15 federal income tax filing deadline looming just next month, Ron heard from Oregonians who have been sucker-punched by the Trump administration with a new dose of financial anxiety.

During a Portland news conference last week with Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Ron reported Donald Trump’s Treasury Department made the choice with its new tax scheme to under-withhold taxes from millions more Americans than is typical.

Joining the lawmakers at the Hawthorne Auto Clinic in southeast Portland to share their experiences were middle-class Oregon taxpayers adjusting to the financial aftershocks of that Trump decision.

They spoke about the painful consequences of Trump injecting uncertainty into their annual financial decisions -- spending less on necessities or going into deeper debt to cover musts such as vehicle repair, health care for loved ones, home mortgages and more.

“If you are the CEO of a multinational corporation, you are sitting very pretty today – you got billions of dollars in tax relief under the Trump bill,” said Ron, the ranking Democrat on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee.

“But if you’re like these working Oregonians, Donald Trump has basically handed you a big new dose of financial anxiety,” he said. “The anxiety stems from the fact that millions of Americans are stunned to learn they’re not getting the refunds during tax filing season they used to, and many of them are telling us they owe the government money and they could be hit possibly with penalties.”

Ron stressed he is working to ensure taxpayers aren’t socked with unfair financial penalties for underpayment because of this Trump deception.