The tax cut bill being proposed by the GOP is not tax reform in any real way It's certainly not tax simplification What it really is...is a huge tax cut for the rich and corporations The claim was that the tax code was too complicated and that average people couldn't figure it out so it needed to be simplified. The "solution" of course is to "simplify" it by taking away deductions...for the middle class Gone would be deductions for State and local taxes medical expenses tuition payments Gone is the ACA individual mandate (how did that get in there?) which will cause healthcare premiums to go up an EXTRA 10% Tuition grants will now be taxed. If you have a job as a janitor at a college and get free tuition for your kids as part of that...it now gets taxed...heavily. You won't be able to send them even though tuition is free Of course deductions that affect the rich are still there. Golf courses still get their carve out Carried interest is still there And of course the inheritance tax is repealed (which only affects the richest of the rich) Somehow they are managing to pull money out of Medicare to pay for this In total...very few middle class people will see any tax cut. 20% of the middle class will get a tax INCREASE And this thing blows a 1.5 TRILLION dollar hole in the debt And when Gary Cohn asked a room full of CEOs how many of companies would expand because of the lowering of corporate taxes (also in this mess) about FIVE out of 50 raised their hands. Ya know what they'll do? Buy back stock to make their personal stock portfolio go up Yea...sign me up
Wait...this is THE reason that the GOP wanted Trump...so they could pass "tax reform" and none of the Trumpers want to talk about this?
Don't forget the proposed $1.5 trillion cut from Medicare and Medicaid. http://nprillinois.org/post/senate-gop-backs-budget-clears-way-tax-overhaul#stream/0 Guess who'll lose out with that. It won't be the GOP fat cat donors.
An this disaster puts Medicare at risk 25 billion in cuts now and moredrastic cuts down the road http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/cbo-republican-tax-plan-would-trigger-big-cuts-medicare
Hmm, it certainly is tax simplification, given the litany of eliminated deductions (which is fact just a tiny fraction of all eliminated deductions, loopholes etc) you've provided, if your tax return now is longer than a postcard, it will certainly be a major simplification. So according to even your leftist (undoubtedly skewed) data, 80% of the middle class will come out ahead and have more money in their pockets left, the elimination of deductions notwithstanding. Good to know but I do agree, they should try to make sure that the entire 100% of the middle class will benefit. PS lest we forget saving several hundred dollars in accounting fees, dozens of hours of documentation gathering and sleepless nights worrying about leaving money on the table or triggering an audit.
Having a tax return that is the size of a postcard isn't a real benefit when it is stamped PAY THE FOLLOWING Odd that all the deductions that have been removed are those used by the middle class huh? Golf course owners still get their deductions right? Carried interest is still there right? What deductions have been removed for anyone BUT the middle class?
It's a major simplification, which you claimed did not exist. As long as the middle class is better off at the end it is all that matters and according to your own (liberal skewed data) 80% of the middle class will keep more of their money. And I have already agreed that they should try to make sure that the entire middle class is.
Yea it "simplifies" it for the middle class and poor...by simply raising taxes on them. Wonderful Oh and the deduction for private jet use? Still there As long as the middle class is better off at the end it is all that matters Problem is...they're not
It appears that the GOP scheme to transfer wealth to the wealthiest wealthy that bloats the deficit is as big a stinker as the promised "something terrific!" Trump®Care that covers "everybody!" at "lower cost!" As abysmal as the regard for Trump and the GOP Congress is with Americans, it would be even worse if they were capable of passing their squalid confections.
This mess is about as popular as the ACA repeal that failed. Currently 24% for and 52% against. No wonder not even the Trumpers are defending this garbage
Perhaps the most understandable example of how the tax system really works is below. It explains how a guy who is coasting through life comes to the conclusion that he is being ripped off by the ones who are great producers and actually paying for his level of lifestyle, which of course he takes full credit for, even though he's being subsidized by the ones he criticizes. It a funny story, but more importantly- an economically accurate one. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this... The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20”. Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men ? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share? They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay. And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving). The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving). Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings. “I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,“but he got $10!” “Yeah, that's right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!” “That's true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!” “Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!” The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill! And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier. David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. — Professor of Economics.
Wasn't that the same silly story that Huckabee Sanders used for her justification of the tax bill? Of course, it ends with the poor billionaire being overtaxed and, like children on the playground, pack their toys and go home. we've heard that sob story millions of times while the same billionaires keep getting richer and the rest of us pound sand. BTW: What about the motivation of the vast majority, who struggle to pay rent and car payments while working full time, sometimes two jobs? Who cares about their motivation while the rich live like even kings could not have imagined 500 years ago?
They don't even try to defend this abomination of a tax bill anymore, because deep inside they know that it is going to tank the economy.
Which show very well that the right actually KNOWS it is true and doesn't want to get into it because they could only lose.
Now that's tax evasion- if you don't like the message; it's too long to read. Count yourself lucky.My accountant every year tells me how even the IRS doesn't know what it's doiong, and they change rules as late as April.... That's why I pay him, I don't have time and it's so ambiguous it's no wonder none of us understand it. The story is simple. Sorry you are overwhelmed.
Something I've noticed all my life is that regardless of which party you associate yourself with, anything the other party presents is some kind of dirty trick that will destroy the nation, or the poor, or jobs, or etc-etc. It would be interesting to see what would happen if they quit all the deceptions and evasion, and both sides dealt with reality. I probably won't live long enough to see that, and unless something amazing happens- neither will my grandchildren. There's a saying I heard once- "The amount of crap you get in your life will be directly equal to the amount you will tolerate.".. So long as we will tolerate it, the politicians will be shoveling it at us.
Guess what...the tax code is only being "simplified" for the middle class.The deductions for the rich largely remain in place. It costs me $125/ year to have my taxes done. I COULD do it on a tax program if I wanted to. The only thing "simple" about this plan is that it "simply" doesn't do ANYTHING for the middle class and poor and in 20% of households making less than $75K...it will RAISE your taxes. When a bunch of CEOs were asked if they would use this corporate tax cut to expand...only a handful said yes. Know what they're going to do? Buy back stock to drive up the value of the stock they already own... And the bottom line? As the Senate bill stands they will cause insurance premiums to go up an extra 10% by eliminating the mandate in the ACA Oh yea...and it will add 1.5 TRILLION to the debt. yea..great plan
And then...to add insult to injury...the GOP Congress will suddenly become deficit hawks again and insist that the 1.5 trillion they just added to the debt to give the rich and corporations their tax cut will have to be paid for. How will they do that? They'll take it out of the hide of the middle class of course. They'll attack Medicare and Medicaid
Right now most of us are getting our view of the tax plan from news. What you think you know depends of which bobble head told you what the law does. In truth, such things are invariably so ambiguous, so confusing, that even the lawyers and CPA's take months to figure them out- and you can I could read them several times and still not have a working understanding. People say government isn't a business, it can't run that way Correct, it isn't a business- a business has voluntary customers that get what they paid for. However, business has to make a profit in order to survive. If it fail to do so, it may prolong it's failure by borrowing and a number of maneuvers to stave off the inevitable, but it will fail. What we mean by "profit" is money left over after all the bills are paid. That's sound financial management. In government, money left over after the bills are paid is called a "surplus". Government's ability to survive while in the process of failure can be much longer than business- but it's demise is just as sure, if management doesn't apply sound financial policies instead of borrowing on the future. Sound management produces a surplus- stupidity does not. We had two small surplus years in 2000 and 2001. Not one since, and the deficits vastly out weight the surpluses. The per capita share (includes children) of debt in 2016 was $60,470 per person- about a quarter million for a family of four. Your taxes are paying interest on the national debt, just like you house payment pays mortgage interest. IF the nation were on a sound basis, that money could be used to reduce taxes with no reduction in services. We do not have sound financial management in Washington. I have no doubt whatsoever that the new tax plan is not a sound financial policy. From what I have heard it does have benefits for the middle class- but I have no confidence until I see it happen. I hope that it isa better plan than what is being left behind, and very importantly, I hope it is easier and less confusing to use. My income tax preparation cost is $500, and I couldn't do mine due to the complexity of the business issues. Every year, thing change- even the agents for the IRS are guessing about a lot of it. My accountant is very sharp, and he tells me that frequently.
I'm basing what I say mostly on the CBO score.. You admit how bad this plan is but want it anyway? That makes sense
In other words: -It is bad fiscal policy -We have to pass it to see how exactly middle class people will be affected -We HOPE that it will make tax filing easier -Even though it is sold as being a simplification, it is still too complex to know what will happen But, let's pass it anyway. You know what is absolutely certain, though: Trust fund babies, billionaires and golf club owners will see a huge windfall. Who does that description apply to?
Ya know. They could go out and learn new skills so they aren't struggling anymore. There are tons of good paying jobs out there for people that are willing to retrain and go get them. Six years ago I had to declare bankruptcy. My networth today is almost 7 figures and I'm due to break a hundred k this year without including my wife's income.
