Nancy Pelosi, Ted Lieu blast GOP tax bill at Culver City town hall

CULVER CITY, Calif. (KABC) -- A barrage of social media messages are en route to Washington, D.C., urging a repeal of President Donald Trump's tax bill.

Democratic leaders on Wednesday urged voters at a Culver City town hall meeting to join in a rebellion against the Republican plan.

"Over 80 percent of the benefits go to the top 1 percent," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. "Eighty-six million middle-class families will see a tax increase while they advertise it as a middle-class bill."

Democrats say middle-class workers will suffer because today's tax cut could result in tomorrow's deficit, exposing major programs to the axe.

"It is going to result in deep cuts to Social Security, to Medicare, to all these critical programs that serve a lot of Americans," said Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of Torrance.

Republican opponents dispute predictions of doom.

"The bill did not make any direct changes to any of those programs, so it is speculative to claim that the bill will somehow lead to the weakening of those programs when Congress has taken no such action," said Scott Greenberg, a senior analyst with the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation.

The town hall participants on Wednesday, including the mother of a college-age student, say they fear long-term impacts.

"When we were growing up, the thought was, well, we can afford to work all our lives and still get by? I'm not sure the same is going to be true for him, and that is a huge concern of ours," said Jamie Wallace of Culver City.

Leaders say the next critical step is replacing Republican members of Congress.

"We gotta get people out to vote, we've got to get people out to vote. It starts here and you all are going to do the work," said Rep. Nanette Barragan of San Pedro.

The town hall was part of the "Repeal the Trump Tax" tour. It aims to hold 100 events nationwide on the weekend of April 14 to mark the one-year anniversary of the Tax March.