It may be a terrible tax "overhaul", but you have to acknowledge that they're going fast.
Is this perhaps because the tax bill so clearly benefits the mega-wealthy, whereas the net benefit of the healthcare bill to the very rich wasn't as clear?
9
Hurray the GOP is going to pay for their tax cuts! Bad news is you will pay for it through your health insurance and cuts in Medicaid.
7
Ya know, police officers and state trooper have a ticket-worthy term for this kind of a maneuver if your on the road. It's called driving too fast for conditions. You get a ticket, then you slow down and drive sensibly. Can anyone pull over this car wreck of a Congress over to the side of the road?
12
My congressman, Rep. Ron Estes, has done nothing but tout this plan with his lies. He was the Kansas State treasurer before he was elected to Congress, by a narrow margin. He knows first-hand what this tax boondoggle will do for the country. I don't know whose pocket he's in, but I have a pretty good idea.
15
Three of the main objectives of the right wing corporate fascists (aka the GOP) that stole the election in 2016 are to eliminate Obamacare, eliminate any environmental regulations that block the fossil fuel industry from poisoning the planet, and to eliminate taxes on the wealthiest people including the super-rich that own the Republican Party. Republicans do not a care how much they hurt the little guy, how many poor die in the streets. what damage they cause to the planet fore generations to come or that they have as their so-called leader the most ignorant, evil con man to ever occupy the Oval Office.
26
I'm sorry, but Congress needs to be fired. This is not a government for the people and by the people. This is an embarrassment to the American people and we deserve much better.
9
Regarding this travesty of a budget--as well as dubious choices for federal judgeships and the cowardly Twitter silence regarding the sad and grotesque decision to allow the importation of "sport killed" elephants--why in the world did we allow Donald Trump to reenter the country after his recent promotional tour of Asia for Trump golf courses and resorts? I have read and re-read the Constitution, and though it has plenty to say about the responsibilities of the three branches of our government, it mentions nothing about allowing a fool who inhabits the White House to live on the mainland of the country. He could have been relegated to Puerto Rico or Guam and still remained head of the executive branch. Why shouldn't the American people take as many liberties with the country as the Trump family seems to be?
5
Democrats will make some deal with Sen. Lisa Murkowski over ANWR to get her to Vote No on this TAX bill, if she makes The third Republican No.
3
"Only the Little People pay taxes," as ultra-wealthy hotel heiress Leona Helmsley said. Congress, you have punished working people far too long. Please replace the personal income tax on workers with a new federal tax on real estate, stocks, bonds, cash deposits, luxury items, and other tangible assets. Tax evaders can't hide ALL their real estate on a small island off the British Isles or in the Caribbean! And one more request: Congress, please give retired workers living on meager Social Security a RETROACTIVE cost of living adjustment equal to the raises you have given yourselves and federal employees all these years....please give us enough to buy a few cups of senior coffee at McDonalds....
1
Eliminating the mandate (to purchase insurance or pay a fine) is a step backward. For two reasons, the result will be higher premiums for those who continue to purchase insurance through the exchanges: (1) because the risk pool will be “sicker” and result in more claims for service; and (2) because providers will cost shift uncompensated care for the uninsured to those with insurance by negotiated higher rates with payers to offset that uncompensated care, resulting in higher unit costs per claim. So, more claims and higher costs per claim. I don’t know if the public fully understands this: the Republican plan to end the mandate means that those who purchase insurance will, through higher rates, be “carrying” the estimated 13 million who don’t purchase. The mandate is fair. Yes, the penalty is expensive. But purchase or penalty everyone then shares the burden of our expensive healthcare system — which is the root problem. Eliminating the mandate is bad policy and should not be in the tax bill.
12
"The very rich are different from you and me."----opening line from "The Great Gatsby." Yes, they have friends in Congress, unlike us po' folks. "Only the Little People pay taxes," as the late, ultra-wealthy hotel heiress Leona Helmsley said, when she was accused of tax evasion. Leona, you were an honest woman! Congress, you have punished working people far too long. Please replace the personal income tax on workers with a new federal tax on real estate, stocks, bonds, cash deposits, luxury items, and other tangible assets. Tax evaders can't hide ALL their real estate on a small island off the British Isles or in the Caribbean! And one more request: Congress, please give retired workers living on meager Social Security a RETROACTIVE cost of living adjustment equal to the raises you have given yourselves and federal employees all these years....please give us enough to buy a few cups of senior coffee at McDonalds....
13
The Republican House tax bill hurts the future, too. It taxes waived tuition for the graduate students who teach classes and maintain labs for their universities. The House bill wants to tax the waived tuition as income even though it's NOT money the grad students actually have. Their actual income is the small salary they're paid for their work at the university, and that salary gives them a far smaller income than is suggested by this House bill. The daughter of friend of mine is pursuing an engineering doctorate, and she did the math. She found that if the value of her waived tuition is called income, she'll be paying about $13,000 in taxes on a real income of about $20,000. She won't be able to live on what's left over. She and other grad students will be forced to quit, jettisoning the careers they were working toward. And their quitting will deprive other students of the classes these grad students now teach. Universities get all lot of classes taught cheaply this way instead of hiring professors and paying them full salaries. So the grad students would go away, as would their future careers, and undergrads wouldn't have the classes those grad students used to teach. Higher education fuels the future, and you'd think politicians would know that. But, hey, who cares about the future? Certainly the Republicans don't. Pretty stupid!
17
I am beginning to wonder if the Republicans, like Trump, are engaged in a giant conspiracy to destroy the United States. This tax bill will presage loss of medical care, infrastructure, education, the environment, and the value of the dollar. It helps multinational corporations continue to keep profits over seas and helps Trump and his billionaire cronies to continue to amass wealth generationally.
20
Something tells me, after years of working in the banking industry, that large corporations - if given a tax cut - will not be so inspired to pass on the savings in terms of higher wages. Bank tellers making a living way? Not gonna happen. And this is just one example.
10
I picked up this tid bit form a cpa commenter on the WSJ
the bill includes:
Like treating net rental income from real estate as being a trade or business and subject to self-employment tax for people for whom this is their major source of income. Think retirees.
2
"Perhaps when people get hungry enough and angry enough, a Robespierre for the modern age will arise."--Mark Smith, Dallas
I don't want to see their heads in a basket, Mark; I want to see them in orange jumpsuits, anticipating long years without their yachts, their filets mignons, and their families. I want to see their kiddies, who had been expecting to live on Easy Street without working a day in their coddled lives, out earning a living at a job based on merit rather than legacy.
6
This Republican idea that they have to pass "something" is just stupid and both of the these bills (Senate & House) would be horrible for for this county if either were to pass. It would be analogous to a police officer hunting down a murderer but can't find him. And he says well I have to arrest "someone" so he arrests the first person he sees. This is not meaningful "tax reform" it's paying off their wealthy donors and corporations. And millions of people will lose their healthcare. Don't do it!
5
Leave it tonthe GOP to take care of their 1% rich masters at the expense of all of America.
6
The Republican leadership only responds to direct orders from their major donors. Let the people be damned.
5
You can get an idea of how the tax bills will effect your taxes at https://willmytaxesgodown.com
4
This president's daily influences consist of wealthy donors who have his ear, those same that are in his cabinet, right wing television media, and conservative congress. He uses these influences to affirm his bottom line, mainly his self-perception of daily adoration that is his due, the Trump Ego, and the Trump bank account. He is sure that only his gut opinions are what counts. These are all elements to aid his con. He is schooled, as a decades long real estate con artist in Manhattan, in manipulating information to serve his bottom line, his self-image, and taking vengeance of any of his so-called enemies. Because President Obama showed him for the fool he is publicly, anything that the Obama administration accomplished must be undone. In the long run, his approach will be seen as crazy, harmful and against human decency. He abhors people, reading, art, healthy food, music, animals, planetary health, and yes even children as they are all naturally cuter than he. He is jealous of anyone who gets more air coverage, that's why he degrades Tillerson, and any cabinet member that usurps his 24 hours media command. May all beings and good things on earth survive his tenure.
6
What I cannot understand is why it is in any way legal for large companies and wealthy individuals to park money offshore specifically to avoid taxes. They should bring all this money back, at preferential tax rates if necessary, but then should face criminal penalties for moving money offshore in the future.
7
Correct me if I am wrong, but this tax “bill” is pure evil.
We have a Congress that is lying to the people to profit for themselves and their friends while betraying the vast majority of the country.
People elected them to represent them, and they are saying “but I can get away with this”.
This is where GOP, greed over people, has taken us.
9
njglea - I took your advice and called
Dean Heller's office to encourage him
to vote against this unnecessary,
travesty of a bill. The line was busy,
but I will keep trying until I get
through.
Let's 'light up' the Congressional
switchboard just in time for the
Holidays!
7
When do the Republicans add the amendment to make Trump President for Life?
7
Looking at the bigger picture, the Tax Bill yet again represents a document written by the Republican Plutocrats for the admitted purpose of rewarding other Plutocrats. The bill has been rushed through in secret with few Senators knowing what is in it with the expectation that they will vote on it in a week.
Trump and the Republican elite expect all Rep's to vote for the bill because of their party affiliation, not because they favor the bill. For exactly the same reason they expect, and not surprisingly will get, no votes from all Democrats.
Senator McCain lectured us a few months ago in the context of the healthcare bill that this is not the way our founding fathers expected Congress to work. The writers of the Constitution had the expectation that the Senate would be a "deliberative body", meaning that they would debate, discuss, and COMPROMISE.
The plutocrats shoving a bill down the throats of the population with virtually no debate is NOT the way our form of government was meant to run.
11
The real name for this tax bill is, "The Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Poorer".
8
Hey Congress and the Orange one, if you are for this very poor excuse of wealth transfer you better be for retirement. I vote and I remember!
10
Please note -- remember every name who approves this mean-spirited and sloppy bill that will cost those of us not in the top 1% money. The middle class is now subject to further enrichment of billionaires, millionaires, and profit-full corporations. And, blue states are now pin-pointed for punitive taxes. The back-door attempt to destroy Obamacare over the wishes of the people of this country is authoritarian and despotic. If Republicans vote for this, they need to state on record how they are representing the will of the people with this destructive and vindictive act.
13
Curious if any other Republican senators will have the courage to put the good of the country and our citizens over the desires of the wealthy to have ... even more than they already do.
7
The Republicans plan to give corporations a huge tax break in exchange for what exactly? The guarantee that they will spend the money to create jobs? No, just the thought that they will. If the Republicans are going to hand over my hard earned money, I would like to be assured that it will not be spent on executive salaries, technology to replace people, or shareholder dividends. I can see going into debt on an infrastructure bill that by its nature would require jobs to be created, even if only temporarily. But this? If you fall for it, I have a bridge to sell you.
14
Hello Pelosi, Hello Schumer!?!
Where is the well thought out, cohesive, progressive Democratic alternative?
3
how is it possible that such a big change in the tax code doesn't require at least 60 votes in the senate?
4
The usual suspects point to the broad shortcomings of the Republican bill. But Mr. Johnson's objection is different. He points out that small businesses do not benefit from the current proposal, and that is undeniably true. Both parties claim to champion small businesses, in part because their numbers are huge. That the Republicans have ignored S corps is revealing. They talk Ma and Pa, but when the chips are down, they are all about Exxon. Mr. Johnson has attacked the party regulars for this. and his criticism is spot on. The Democrats would do well to follow his lead and argue the insincerity of Republican small business policy.
Mr. Johnson has handed the Democrats a sledge hammer They should use it. Imagine if the Chamber of Commerce went Democrat. That would be a fatal blow to the Republicans.
25
I saw a brief clip yesterday of a Wall Street Journal reporter asking a group of corporate leaders for a show of hands, if they intended to re-invest their big tax cut. Very few hands went up. Yet Republicans are trying to sell their tax cut bill as "reform" and as a boon for workers and the middle class. I guess their corporate sponsors just revealed the Republican deception on this front.
20
To find the clip and stories on it Google 'cohn show hands'.
1
We were told the Reagan tax cuts would spur job creation and higher wages. It was a lie then and it is a lie now. Every last penny corporations save will go the the executives and shareholders as a windfall. The rest of us are being told to grab out ankles.
5
If the ACA is repealed the next move by the GOP, if they are in power long enough mind you, will be to eliminate the ability of destitute people with serious medical problems to show up at emergency rooms to get treatment at government expense.
Why should those freeloaders get something we have already taken from the middle class?
By then there will undoubtedly be many of the destitute who used to be in the middle class but became unemployed as corporations cut millions of jobs via technological change then banking all of their cash to pay dividends to the other class in America - the ultra rich.
10
Ely, you can bet your yellow submarine on that.
I know Trump is a given, but are most of the republicans in Congress working for Putin too? How much do they plan to tear up our country and the majority of its people? Putin and his professional hackers must really enjoy watching the United States turn into a banana republic right before their eyes. I'll bet he breaks into a robust belly laugh every time he hears Trump say, "Make American great again."
16
One can hope that the Republicans mentioned in the article will make a stand against this reckless plundering of the middle class and the poor for the enrichment of Republicans big donors and Trump. One can hope that Republican House members from Blue States will not allow the Republican establishment to punish tax payers that live elusively from donor states. And the zombie like resolve of the Republicans to destroy the ACA. There will be attempts to attack the US safety net, particularly Medicaid, to pay for these fat cats selfish delusion that rich can never be rich enough. These tax cuts are going forward during the greatest Wall Street run in history and steady growth of the economy.
4
Facts that the republicans who push for this "tax bill" don't want you to know:
Corporate share of federal tax revenue has dropped by two-thirds in 60 years, from 32% in 1952 to 10% in 2013.
General Electric, Boeing, Verizon and 23 other profitable Fortune 500 firms paid no federal income taxes from 2008 to 2012.
288 big and profitable Fortune 500 corporations paid an average effective federal tax rate of just 19.4% from 2008 to 2012.
Profitable corporations paid U.S. income taxes amounting to just 12.6% of worldwide income in 2010.
U.S. corporations dodge $90 billion a year in income taxes by shifting profits to subsidiaries — often no more than post office boxes — in tax havens.
U.S. corporations officially hold $2.1 trillion in profits offshore — much of it in tax havens — that have not yet been taxed here.
29
I am puzzled why the Republicans would introduce a bill without first ensuring that all of its members (Senators) will support it. That was not the case in this instance or the members were lying. Which is it?
3
Members will not know what's in it until after they vote on it. That's how they do things in the Republican swamp.
December 7,1941 is the correct date of the Pearl Harbor attack.
2
"Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, came out against both chambers’ tax plans on Wednesday, saying that the bills favored corporations over small businesses..."
Thank You Senator Johnson for doing what is Correct for the Country, and not just for your party ! We the People Need More Congressmen to Stand Up and be Counted.
8
But he is still OK with stiffing blue state workers.
3
Hey Paul Ryan! That's your Senator from Wisconsin calling! Your Republican Senator from Wisconsin who realizes that you, Paul, may very well not get re-elected and he may not want to be associated with yet another of your poorly drawn, ill-conceived, unfair proposals. Good luck! Anr remember Americans, you have a choice: Randy Bryce for Congress in Wisconsin.
#replacepaulryan
16
Republicans' increasing desperation is really in full swing now. Trying to pile on everything they've ever wanted into this single piece of legislation is both astounding and laughable. What else are they going to dig up and tack on to the tax bill? Maybe, just maybe it would be better for the American taxpayers they purport to represent that they work out a bill that both sides can agree to rather than continually trying to outmaneuver they other side with cheap procedural tricks and obfuscation. As usual, bad form.
8
With all the regulations being eliminated or rolled back -- environmental, financial, investment, consumer, healthcare, pharmaceutical, etc. -- and no consequences for offshore tax havens, why do corporations and their wealthy investors need even more tax breaks? This is trickle-up economics at its disgustingly worse.
13
The proposed adding the removal of the ACA mandate to the tax bill would cause millions to lose their health care. The young healthy would let their policies lapse. This would force the insurance companies to drastically increase premiums for those that remain. Many of those will drop their coverage for inability to pay the premium. Which would cause a death spiral in individuals leaving the ACA.
An where do the Republicans think these individuals will go for coverage? Answer, the nearest county hospital. The burden for this indigent care will go to the state and other private insurers, who will raise their premiums. An we have to remember how the Republicans plan to pay for their tax plan, cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. Which public demand for will be greatly increased by their tax bill.
So please call, write, or visit your representatives in congress and let them know how horrible this tax bill truly is.
11
The bill should be directed to eliminate all the subsidies given to support the rich such as electric cars which are so expensive that a common man cannot even think of buying them.This has been going on since Obama years.How come democrats did not think about it what they were doing! It is clear that there are faults which can be brought out in both the parties which hurts the average people at the expense of rich. Media should bring these things out for public benefit immediately
The accompanying photograph to this article is indeed worth 1000 words. The look of disdain in the face of Senator Orin Hatch says all you need to know. To paraphrase the line from a famous movie, it is as if Senator Hatch is thinking his colleague, Senator Ron Wyden, as an insect to crush under his foot
3
Sneaky Orrin Hatch hatched the new idea of dismantling Affordable Healthcare Act to be attached to this new Tax Cutting for Rich Bill. The Republican congress members are trying to fool the middle class by the false slogan of cutting tax for them. These guys (and gals) can lie shamelessly. I hope that there will be few more courageous senators like Ron Johnson . My expectation with Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, John McCain, Bob Corker and Jeff Flake is very high because they are maverick politicians who can put the interest of their voters above the interest of their party and the donors.
7
Release Trumps tax returns!
12
It boggles the mind that so many people who have so much more than they could ever use or spend want so much more, more, more. Grasping for more is the cause of all suffering - even for those who have so much. Hungry ghosts, hungry ghosts, ever grasping, never satisfied, obese yet malnourished.
23
January 5, 1941, is "remembered as a date that will live in infamy" when the Japanese made a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Even though that occurred more than 75 years ago, it still resonates as a dastardly act, clothed in secrecy. The passage of this Republican tax bill, which should be entitled a "Plutocratic Relief Act, will be remembered in the same way as the 1941 attack.
Here's my recommendation for the Democrats' version of tax reform:
1. Make the corporate tax reduction temporary to make sure the Republican assertion that giving the corporations a tax break will grow the economy and increase middle class workers' wages.
2. Provide a provision to repatriate trillions of dollars the multinational corporations have hidden from US taxation contrary to the current law. The recommended rate would be one-third of profits held overseas as the tax code sets forth, plus a an added sum for punishment for evasion of US taxes.
3. Abolish the loopholes used for the past 20 years by multinational corporations.
4. Pass a provision for universal healthcare so millions of American workers who have not been able to earn a decent living wage will be fairly compensated by universal healthcare.
5. Establish a tariff of one-third of multinational corporations' profits earned overseas if they continue to bring products back in to the US for sale.
6. Repeal Citizens United, which favors a plutocracy in place of our democracy.
16
You're way off on that date Donald it was December 7 1941.
I thought Pearl Harbor was 12/7/1941???
The problem in a nutshell is not in the Capitol but over on K street. The lobbyists are all over the weak congressional leaders demanding a payoff for the past election.
How many candidates, Trump at the top, have promised to get rid of the lobbyists and their power. Well, here they are surrendering and stopping the tax bill. Yuch.
9
The gop tax bill is ‘america last’. It is a massive redistibution of wealth to trump, gop donors and the ultrawealthy. Many millions will loose health insurance. Student tuition will spike further.
14
Some Republicans might be coming to their senses and realizing that these tax plans put another burden on the middle and lower class while benefiting corporations and the wealthy. The 'trickle down' approach as invented by the Regan administration does not work. If we got out of the Middle East and stopped being war mongers around the world we would save a lot of money.
13
Are Republicans that dumb, beholden or desperate? Because they are not following their own playbook of smaller government, less debt and more states rights.
Attention all Senators - if you vote yea on this bill, the next time you run for reelection you can bet your nea's will far exceed your yeas. Then you will have to live within your own poor plan.
9
Gazbo, in answer to your query? The answer is a big yes they are that dumb.
3
Summary:
Tax cuts for middle class are -temporary-.
Eliminating tax deductions for middle class are -permanent-.
Tax cuts for corporations are -permanent-.
Eliminating any tax deductions for corporations are largely non-existent right from the start.
So it's very clear to see this bill is yet another GOP wealth transfer from the middle class to the wealthy. It provides already cash-bloated corporations with even more middle class wealth they can use to pursue more stock buy backs and pay out larger dividends to their wealthy stockholders.
It marries very nicely with the GOP effort to eliminate regulations from banks so those banks can pay larger dividends to their wealthy stockholders.
19
Let's see... It was Abraham Lincoln, an iconic President who held our Country together, who was Republican and who was attributed with saying, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
We seem to be getting closer to another King George III moment with "taxation (for the middle class) without representation" by the Republicans in Congress.
The entire middle class can't be all fooled much longer.
24
So they cut a bunch of personal deductions (most of which are phased out for wealthy folks so it will largely impact middle class taxpayers) but made sure the code is business friendly (?).
And they're selling it to the lower income folks through their campaign of misinformation. Suddenly the regular people I know are talking about the evils of socialism (the very things they actually get from the government, including their paychecks & free benefits for their children).
SAD
8
Being from Wisconsin, I have never supported Senator Johnson. But on his objection to the tax bill he is absolutely correct!! This tax bill can only create growth if small businesses get most of the tax benefits, not the big donor corporations. It can salvage a very bad bill. But Senator Johnson is going to cave in in exchange for vague promises and to save the desperate Republican need for any legislation to pass. He should stick to his convictions and hold out but he will not do it.
5
Let us hope that we will be witness to the Death of the GOP come 2018. That day cannot come soon enough.
" A plague o' both your houses" spoken by Mercutio in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
13
The inequity is striking. Imagine if you will a scale where 1% of the American pie outweighs the other 99%. That's what the Trump-GOP tax plan does to the American citizenry . . .
11
Since the individual mandate adds to federal revenue by requiring people to have health insurance or pay a fine, could someone explain how eliminating it increases revenue?
8
@Observer, it doesn’t increase revenue. It decreases spending. Less pay out for subsidized health insurance for those who can’t afford to pay.
Less payout to help the poor get healthcare and more to give to the GOP donors who want their donations reimbursed who can afford healthcare and DONT CARE about all Americans.
3
Time for us ordinary Americans in the hinterlands to rise up again (as we did with healthcare repeal) and tell Republicans in Congress "no way" on the tax bill. Get those calls, letters, emails, marches, etc., going!
Better we have no bill than the atrocities the House and Senate Republicans are hoping we'll swallow. They appear to have lost any semblance of regard for the country and are flailing about in panic to "get something done" and appease rich contributors. Meanwhile, the middle class watches--and will deliver its verdict beginning in 2018.
14
Enrollment in ACA has surged despite the fact that the White House has kept open enrollment a secret. This should be a clear message to Congress of its popularity and that their attempts to undermine it are misguided. That ship has sailed!
8
It's funny how the GOP so often rails against the "takers" who benefit at the expense of "the rest of us". Meanwhile, they pretend that the uninsured who show up in ERs (for care the hospital is required by law to give even when they know they won't be paid for it) aren't taking.
The uninsured (except the independently very wealthy) don't (can't) pay for the health care they receive. The rest of us pay for it for them through extraordinarily high prices and huge year to year increases in costs. This should be an anathema to these libertarians and defenders against "takers". Somehow, it's totally ignored.
9
I have never witnessed such a naked and corrupt grab for money by corporations and the wealthy from those lesser advantaged.
This tax scheme is 3 Card Monte. It has no cohesive or consistent rationale.
Donald Trump owns 535 LLCs and refused to put his personal assets in a blind trust as is the norm.
Under the GOP proposal, these LLCs and other pass through entities are entitled to pay half the tax rate of those earning the same income from wages. Why?
What is the rationale other than it directly benefits the President who will sign the legislation?
Also, the cost of phasing out estate taxes is worth almost as much as the entire tax cut for individuals making less than $800k a year.
Why are dishwashers and janitors forced to pay payroll taxes, but if you inherit a billion dollars you pay nothing in taxes?
Double taxation of state and local taxes, taxing the cost of medical care and insurance, and massive deficit spending to shift $1 trillion to the richest people and corporations is appalling, unethical and indefensible.
22
Lisa Murkowski used to have a soul. And every once in a while one of its dying embers would glow for a bit and warm her conscious just enough and she would vote as if people mattered. But now it seems that the dark side, as bequeathed to her by her father, has finally taken over completely. She gave her soul away to the crude oil barons and will step on the hearts of Americans once and for all. She is a disgrace and a pity.
13
She's in good company.
7
I love how college educated folks seem to disproportionately favor Democrats, so the Republican bill makes it harder to pay for college.
10
They are playing the long game. We can only hope that the frog will jump out of the pot before we are all cooked. VOTE in 2018. And make your voice heard now.
7
Let's see, they threw in the demolition of the ACA mandate and opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil drilling. Heck I don't see whats stopping them from adding legalization of slavery to this tax bill. Then it'll really be the good ole days again! Yeeee haw!!!
13
Where is the “reform” in this
“Donor Party Tax Bill” ?
15
Maybe it should be called "Donner Party Tax Bill."
8
So true! The GOP can have it both ways!
Large corporations closed factories and other facilities and moved the work to countries where wages were lower, thus reducing their costs by cutting and reducing the number of jobs available to Americans to whom they would have to pay higher wages. Their executives are rewarded for cost cutting moves NOT for job creating moves. Now these same corporations are cash rich as a result of taking jobs away from Americans. But these ‘poor’ so-called individuals, according to Citizens United, need tax cuts. So in the USA of today, we have a Congress rushing to enrich them even further. I say let them have their tax cut on the condition that they create a thousand jobs for each percent of their tax cut. Let them earn it like I’ve earned my social security, no ‘entitlement’ after 50 years of work.
21
Gee - what's not to like?
Bankrupt the country to give handouts to the wealthiest people on earth, and in exchange we get tax increases for us working stiffs, and we get to live in cardboard boxes when we are old since the Medicare and Social Security we paid for all our lives pays for the wealthfare handouts.
Republicans are running up against the walls of their own fictions. They have told voters their lies for so long they actually thought they could make them into policy.
13
Too bad so many believe those lies, isn't it? Gerrymandering has to be 'reformed' so Congress really IS representative of the people.
4
Come on, people. Ron Johnson is a very large Koch owned - like almost all Rs in Congress & state legislatures - empty suit, looking to get on camera as much as my state's Lindsey Graham.
Can't you find a better class of congressmen and senators to interview?
2
The proponents of this tax-jack bill better think twice about returning to their hometown districts anytime soon. And perhaps seriously consider having their town-hall meetings from an extremely remote location, like maybe Gitmo.
5
A Republican with a conscience! How Refreshing !!!
You are all dogs howling at the moon. What makes you think anyone in the GOP gives a care what the readers of NYTs think? Think again.
2
Two areas I would like to juxtapose:
The Republican bills do not end the Carried Interest that allows hedge fund millionaires to have their millions taxed as capital gains instead of regular incomes.
The bills seek to remove a deduction college debt interest payments and tax some free tuition benefits as income (see article in today's paper.)
Think about that for a minute. Our young people are already groaning under college debt burden, and the Republicans want to turn the screws tighter; but the Republicans would never dare to ask hedge fund millionaires to pay their fair share. They know no shame.
7
Under the Trump administration,
I feel a war coming on. This tax bill
is designed to reduce the number of young people enrolled in college, increase the number of young people who join the military,
and puts boots on the ground...overseas. War stimulates the economy, thins out the
...population.
This GOP plan does nothing for
the 99%.
Make the 1% pay for the government budget and let the 99% opt out of the tax system. No representation, no taxation.
Excuse me, Orrin Hatch. Ron Wyden is speaking on behalf of average Americans. You are speaking on behalf of the big-bucks donors who have threatened to pull campaign funding if you don't give them a tax cut.
7
Let''s be clear. This bill is designed to punish Democratic voters to give money to Republican donors
This bill is not just unfair to all but the richest Americans, it is also destructive of our social institutions. It clearly is designed to punish all areas of the United States that support Democrats. Thus this is an extraordinarily partisan bill.
--It will destroy the ACA and throw 13 million out of insurance. The ACA Medicaid expansion is overwhelmingly in Blue states
--It will make graduate education nearly impossible as it taxes tuition benefits for graduate students. Students generally vote Democratic
--It cruelly removes Susan Collins' sponsored provision allowing elementary and high-school teachers who purchase supplies to deduct these costs. (Schools are already so underfunded that low-wage teachers have to do this to maintain their classrooms). Teachers vote Democratic
--It eliminates deductions for adoption--so much for the anti-abortion crowd who tout adoption as an alternative.!
--One provision allows religious institutions to maintain their tax-exempt status while sponsoring political candidates. This gigantic loophole almost certainly will be abused. Imagine the Church of Rush Limbaugh or the Cathedral of Steve Bannon
--It eliminates deductions for state and local taxes. This disproportionately affects Democratic leaning states and Democratic voting urban areas.
The list goes on and on. This bill will make all our lives substantially worse.
18
This bill is all about getting to a point (quickly) where Medicare,Medicaid and SS can be cut, because it will cost more than $1.5 trillion.
6
To believe Ron Johnson is a no vote is to believe that the moon is made of green cheese.
3
It's amazing how nobodies suddenly can be somebodies once they go to Washington DC. Cinderella could learn a thing or two from Susan Collins. Please let us know more about what kind of shoes she wears.
Ms.Collins is greatly respected in Maine. Up here we don't consider her a "nobody" and we appreciate her voting on the issues, not along party lines.
1
The RIGHT thing, for the benefit of "Republican" sheep, is to do what benefits the NATION the most, NOT your warped, partisan political organization. Show some intelligence and force the issue - work across the aisle and start a new trend! YOU are in the driver's seat, temporarily. If you have any sense of legacy, you are about to ruin it for yourself and your progeny.
2
Between the donor class and their republican lackeys ,they will kill the goose who laid the golden egg, i.e the middle class)
2
Hooray for Ron Johnson!
Is it possible for these bozos in DC to work together? Between parties, within parties, between Senate and House. This has been going on for over 10 years now. Before, if you didn't like something, you got an exception or a 'win' not related to the bill.
Now, we just have a bunch of idiots that are too afraid of not being re-elected to make a decision or take a stand.
It's not that tough -
1) mandate that all citizens have at least catastrophic insurance.
2) provide Medicaid to the poor and disabled; where poor is defined as 150% of the poverty level.
3) subsidize insurance for those that do not recieve it through their employer, but only if the are at 3x the poverty level
4) prohibit policy cancellation within the calendar year for all those that are not on their employers policy
5) stop the sharing of personal information across insurance companies (re-enact HIPPA as written)
6) force any insurance company that offers healthcare policies to insure from a risk pool all those that are on Medicaid or subsidized insurance OR who have pre-existing conditions
Done
1
“It’s conceivable they could come up with some last-minute numbers that don’t look so bad,” said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California..."That don't look so bad"...Really? Is this how our Congress is governing?
4
Collins, Corker and McCain would do the country a great service to abstain on this bill and hold out for a stripped down version that excludes the punitive and giveaway features that GOP leadership is cramming through.
A simpler bill with corporate and individual rate cuts, a higher standard deduction, AMT repeal and a higher estate tax exemption would sail through both houses. It's all the other garbage that the GOP tax wonks have thrown in that will doom them -- and galvanize Dem opposition in the midterms. Forget the passthrough nonsense, the SALT controversy, the ACA mandate, the nickel and dime clawbacks and other gimmicks. Save those for ideological debate next year.
1
Repealing the AMT is another sop to the rich. As the leaking of the first two pages of Trump's tax return showed, it was only because of the AMT the he paid any income tax at all.
The Republican establishment, whether by design or not, is turning the US into a third world country. The chief characteristics of the developing world are great income inequality, no social services, mediocre infrastructure, weak public educational systems, and disregard for the environment. The Republican vision for America embraces all of these characteristics. The US will be a militarily strong nation with an impoverished illiterate population living in an industrially poisoned environment.
12
The Chinese are laser focused. They plan in five, ten and twenty year visions.
USA wastes it’s time fighting amongst themselves.
In 30 years,the length of a mortgage, the Chinese have lifted 300 million of their people out of poverty and into the middle class.
In 30 years the USA has virtually eliminated most of it’s middle class.
We really really got to get this dirty money out of our political system.
We the common Americans have to do this, our elected officials on both sides of the isle are addicted to this dirty money, no different then drug addicts and it deforms their sense of what’s good for our country and our people. .
5
At this point, this is a full on pork-barrel bonanza, with no benefit to the middle-class and piling onto the deficits. It is mind boggling how the same people that screamed bloody murder for years about deficits and spending do a 180 when it sutis their needs and never blink an eye. And that is with individual tax reductions expiring after 10 years, which are puny to begin with. In other words, a MASSIVE TAX INCREASE on the middle class while handing out bags of money to the richest in this country.
3
Maybe some in Congress are actually going to do for the guy on Main St what Trump was elected to do - protect and serve them.
Irony abounds. I hope the numbers are there to thwart this grand heist of America. Fingers crossed.
1
Unfortunately, this "tax bill" is the latest incarnation of an ongoing attempt to give away billions of dollars to the "for-profit" health companies and insurance companies, once again under the auspices of "repealing ObamaCare."
You can see this for yourself at the Library of Congress research web-site, http://thomas.loc.gov, which every day provides the updated text of everything that Congress is doing on-the-record.
I grow weary of continuing to see this, because I know plainly that a healthy percentage of this "Thanksgiving gift," once it finally slips through in some form, will wind up in the pockets of those who voted for it.
Can't we have REAL health-care in this country, like they have in (say ...) Cuba?
3
The Republicans have updated the concept of Compassionate Conservatism:
"Our goal is to kill you by removing healthcare so that you won't have to face tax increases in 2027."
4
A red-letter day! Ron Johnson finally did something that is not an embarrassment to Wisconsin.
4
I have read and heard a bit more about Johnson's rejection of the bill and it seems he has made a good decision for bad reasons. It's not the damage the bill would do to health care, but the fact that the tax provisions don't favor the rich over the middle class nearly enough for his taste.
Now that's the Ron Johnson we all know and love!
I have spent a lot of time around corporate boards, and recently, on calls discussing what companies should be considering when it comes to tax reform windfalls. I can say not one time has giving the money back to employees come up. I think Americans understand this by now: Corporate executives believe their goal is to maximize shareholder value, and that is about it. Everything they decide to do with any extra tax savings will be spent buying back stock, paying dividends, paying down debt, maybe doing a big merger or acquisition. Or they will sit on the cash, which is what many of them have been doing with their record profits already. Nobody talks about worker salaries and benefits, or hiring extra people with extra cash. I think they must think we are really stupid, because I cannot believe that the Republicans selling this idea really believe it themselves. Many of them are former businesspeople and surely they know better.
8
Poor people voted against their own self interest, repeal of ACA, because they believed its called Obamacare so it must be bad. Likewise, Trump & Co use the same superficial pitch to get the GOP to believe that they will get re elected if only they can get money from their donors, so to get money, they have to pass something. Anything.
Maybe in the old days, boys, but not anymore. America is awake now. Like it or not, Women are the new majority and they are not stupid. Hurt their children? Nothing will make them madder!! And they will not forget.
Like poor people supporting ACA repeal, GOP congressmen are signing their own career death warrant. Apparently they have already forgotten what happened in VA two weeks ago. Buy all the ads you want to- nobody believes you boys anymore. Women will mske sure that you are voted out of office in 2018 and the White House in 2020. There will be no second chances.
Whether they are Poor or Powerful, sometimes you can't save people from themselves. When they realize what they voted for, it will be too late..
5
They didn't come to drain the swamp; they came to drain the treasury.
8
If Corporations are People why not tax them like people based solely on their income with all deductions removed as offered in this Bill.
I hope that someday there will a lawyer who will successfully argue to SCOTUS that because they, SCOTUS, decided that Corporations are People, their tax rates and deductions should mirror those imposed on all of the people.
...And pigs can fly.
3
So many awful things in these Republican bills. Democrats should howl about the health care repeal, but not be diverted from the other mean spirited proposals. Republicans talk about "average" taxpayers, but what is the old saying that you can drown in a lake with an average water depth of 6 inches. Many will drown next year if the Republicans have their way. And it won't be the Trump family, Mnuchin, Cohn, etc. Taking away the deductions for state and local taxes, mortgage interest, and medical expenses will put many families in a "cash flow crunch" while heaping piles of new cash on millionaires and corporations. We did financial planning to afford our home and now the Republicans are sweeping the rug out from under us NEXT YEAR with no warning. May have to sell the house to meet cash flow needs. No transition period and no grandfather provisions for owner-occupied homes. It's a "fall off the cliff" policy.
Republicans talk about doubling the standard deduction, but conveniently ignore that they are eliminating personal exemptions. It is not clear what this might do to larger families. It seems a family of 4 could lose under this proposal.
Last week's photo in the Times of Mnuchin, Cohn, Hatch, and McConnell smiling when Hatch unveiled his "mean" proposal illustrates the heartlessness of these so-called policymakers. Return to "regular order" have hearings and get input from experts and stakeholders. Please John McCain, Susan Collins, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Ron Johnson!!
2
The GOP is pure evil genius: Take out blue collar middle America positions on abortion, God and guns to win votes, but peel back the veneer and all you see are juicy tax breaks, elimination of the estate tax, and the continuation of the carried interest loophole for the Uber wealthy.
Talk about a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
And yet, the Democrats can’t Capitalize.
If the Democrats don’t win the house in 2018, this will be the ultimate political failure.
Susan Collins should really just run as a Democrat, she loves playing the centrist role just a bit too frequently.
FINALLY!
A Republican who rejects this farce of Legislation.
For as much carping as the republicans did about the ACA, I'd note that the Democratic Party, when presenting the ground work for the ACA, held debates in three House committees and two Senate committees, and subject to hours of bipartisan debate that allowed for the introduction of amendments.
https://www.snopes.com/aca-versus-ahca/
This sham of a *tax* bill?
No CBO scoring
No open debate
No amendments permitted.
Senator Johnson, I pray you are one of many who stand up to stop trump and his foolish minions as they seek to blow up our national deficit and steal healthcare from 13 Million Americans.
3
MAGA!!: You can have a bill that destroys the ACA and cuts taxes for the uber rich. OR, (if you prefer): A Tax Cut for the Extremely Wealthy, and maybe, slightly, temporarily for a portion of the middle class, And End Affordable Health Care.
You choose, Freedom of Choice. MAGA!! Trump America.
2
"...2025 expiration date for individual tax cuts, even as they would make the corporate tax cut permanent."
Can't they in the future just repeal a "permanent corporate tax cut"?
And if what they really want is a reduction of corporate tax, which they say will increase growth of every kind, why don't they just reduce the corporate tax rate?
Why are they messing around with all the other provisions?
what a bunch of liars.
3
Even while opposing the Senate tax bill now Senator Johnson might change his mind on voting at the last moment, as he has done earlier.
1
I heard Hatch sidestep questions about why we're not getting input from the Congressional Budget Office about this bill. He basically said we're just going to move ahead on it. Dems need to loop video of such deflections in every campaign til they control the Senate.
5
The government at present is over-influenced by conservative religious hacks and it is time we stood up against their attempts to control American politics and thought. America is the land of the free and there is no place for religious dogmatism in government---at least not according to the Constitution. Let everyone follow their own heart and believe what they will, be they Christian or other. That is an American value and it must stand and we must support it.
8
Trump and other Republicans are parroting the old Republican lie that "tax cuts will grow the economy."
When Reagan was elected the national debt was $990 billion. Reagan "cut taxes to grow the economy." Bush I was elected and "cut taxes to grow the conomy." Bush II was elected and cut taxes by more than anyone before "to growe the economy.
All we got from Republican tax cuts for the rich was insanely massive exploding debt and the biggest Republican recession ever, "the Great Recession," and negative private sector jobs growth over the eight years of Bush II.
Trump now claims the "biggest tax cut ever!" will grow the economy and create jobs. Trump and the Republicans will only take more from the working poor by raising the top marginal rate in the bottom tax bracket from 10% to 12%. Trump and the Republicans will stick it to the Middle Class by ditching deductibility of state and local taxes, student loan interest, of medical expenses and of supplies paid for by teachers for classroom use so most of us pay more in overall taxes. Only corporate tax giveaways are permanent so the GOP needs only its Senate votes to pass the bill.
Millions more working poor and Middle Class Americans will also lose health insurance and access to quality and affordable healthcare by gutting the Affordable Care Act individual mandate so the 1% and corporations can get the TRILLIONS in new tax giveaways they bought the Republican Congress to get.
Trump and the Republicans are lying, again.
5
Business leaders testified yesterday to the opposite. They said point blank tax cuts would go to executive bonuses, not jobs.
Thanks to President Obama the economy has been growing for 9 years. We are at essentially full employment. Businesses are flush with cash.
We do not need anything to get the economy going. We do need a very small upper-upper income tax INCREASE to balance the budget.
2
The Republicans would increase middle class taxes, increase the deficit and cut Medicare and Social Security – all to fulfill promises to wealthy interests, including large corporations and hedge fund managers.
An opEd today points out that, where the majority of voters are white, Trump wins. I presume, based on the fact that the people of Alabama would apparently rather put a child molester in the Senate than a Democrat, that this is true of all Republican districts. The whiter they are, the more willing to vote for Republicans, regardless of the economic consequences.
What this suggests is that it is futile for the Democratic Party to court these voters, because they are motivated by racial stereotypes to such a degree that they will allow themselves to be stabbed in the back, front and sides economically, rather than vote for a party that embraces diversity.
The Democrats won two weeks ago because of the revulsion that the suburban middle class feels toward Trump. The victories were in VA and NY, states that are diverse. Our goal for next year should be to win every seat in such districts.
I await the results of the SCOTUS gerrymandering case, because I think that Kennedy’s vote is pivotal and he is leaning toward declaring gerrymandering unconstitutional. That will not help us in 2018, but may tip the scale in future elections, reflecting the will of the majority of American voters, which is away from white racism and toward a more just, equitable society.
6
Two reasons bill should be voted down:
First once again GOP trying to appease their base with a repeal of the ACA penalty for lack of insurance. SCOTUS said this is a valid tax. It should be tripled to force everyone to have coverage. The tax should go directly to cover unfunded emergency room care mandated by Reagancare or EMTALA. The mandate and penalty is the incentive for everyone to have coverage. There should also be a heavy tax for employers who do not provide health care coverage or reimbursements for employees.
Second there is a hidden form of corporate welfare built into the bill with a 60% increase in EITC payments for children of the working poor. This compensates workers whose employers refuse to pay a living wage. It circumvents raising the minimum wage. But there is a cynical trap for the EITC applicants in this bill with mandatory audits of income for any applicants.
Maybe instead there should be mandatory audits for billionaires like Trump who pay little or no taxes.
5
I think it's time to revisit the way the federal government functions. There was a great interactive chart yesterday in this paper that explained the impact of the new proposed rules for corporations versus individuals. What you learn by examining this chart is that the taxation system ludicrously complicated, but more importantly, that the mere fact that Congress is interested in imposing such drastic changes points to something severely wrong with the way the US government is being managed. Programs should not be turned on or off like flipped switches. Continuity is important. And that suggests that many of these programs are being controlled at the wrong level. The states should have more individuak control over them.
My proposed changes: A) Make corporate taxation a federal issue for companies that want to market and sell products out of state, otherwise leave taxation to each state; B) set individual taxes at the state level; (C) make tax collection a state concern. Allow the federal government to set tax quotas for each state but make each state individually responsible for tax collection.
This design removes the power of the federal government to be such a force for disruption. States should have more control over their programs.
I'm a little puzzled, and more than a little troubled, but the fact the GOP's proposed 'redistribution of wealth to wealthy' plan includes a provision that doesn't seem to be garnering much attention: the elimination of the medical expense deduction. Not content with pushing millions of middle and lower income Americans back into the ranks of the uninsured by sabotaging the ACA's individual mandate, the GOP seeks to punish them even further by taking away the possibility of recouping even a few meager cents on the healthcare dollars they've been forced to spend come April 15th. So much for "Compassionate Conservatism."
5
Apparently Ron Johnson said the same thing about not supporting the health care bill at the beginning and then switched back again to vote for it. He must have been holding out for some special "gimme" for his constituents which was eventually met.
3
So, none of the Republican senators speaking out against the bill have doubts because their middle-class constituents will bear the brunt of paying for breaks for the wealthy. Their complaints are about the deficit or the affect on small businesses. Not a word about all those middle-class families struggling for their kids who will only see their tax burden increased, while the richest of the rich and corporations get breaks and save hundreds of thousands on their taxes. Can't even one Republican act in the best interests of the millions of regular, middle-class families in their state?
4
By all means put our country into $20 trillion dollar debt while trillion dollar industries get tax cuts and the middle class bear even more of the burden of supporting our economy. Congress isn't worried about their own health care as it is the best available, and there are many GOP members who will benefit under the tax plan due to their status of individual wealth. These same people are paying it forward to all their obscenely wealthy donors who are buying this plan through their large donations.
America will be owned and controlled by the one percent who will control all the wealth. This will effectively silence the majority of Americans and we will have no government or democracy to protect our interests and our health. Thank you Senator Johnson for your stand against the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer.
3
2 questions-
- why don't they need a supermajority in the senate?
- why does individual mandate repeal save the government money? Isn't that another tax cut?
3
How can they possibly pass something that is so wildly unpopular? If they do I will lose all faith in our government officials and we'll need to do a clean sweep coming voting day.
4
THIS IS JUST THE FIRST DEFECTOR. Others on the growing list could well include John McCain, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Bob Corker and Jeff Flake. All of them have every reason to vote independently and to do what's needed to protect the 99%.
4
We have to stop believing that folks like Collins, Murkowski, Flake, Corker, and even McCain are working for their constituents and not for the donors who own them.
Each of them has at one time or another pretended to have their constituencies interests driving their vote, but now Murkowski is backing off to appease her oil and gas billionaires; Collins will look the other way as the upper middle income in her state pay for her tax break for the Kochs and pretend that stripping health insurance from 10 million people is ok because the Medicaid cuts won't happen until next year. Flake and Corker are simply hoping to position themselves as 'true conservatives' hoping to either be at the forefront of the restructured GOP and therefore they will vote for anything the billionaires want. McCain has a death sentence hanging over his head, so he'll vote for this bill just after he complains about it for a few news cycles.
2
Chris Cuomo (CNN) spoke to Ron Johnson this morning. He's not against this bill because the middle class will not get a bigger and better tax cut. He's against the suggested new corporate tax rate. He doesn't think it's enough. Don't be fooled by this guy.
4
Frankly the tax plan is just plain insulting. I believe the GOP will ultimately step away from it as it is/was a major error in policy.
1
Johnson needs to get on board and give the GOP a win before he and his party become irrelevant. After failing to repeal ACA despite promising to do so for years, they risk a full scale rebellion of voters come 2018. Pass the bill, senators!
This bill, as it has evolved, has turned into a 'sham'. I supported the need for tax reform. I even recognise that the USA corporate tax rates are unfortunately too low given how other countries are willing to placate business interests. However, when business cuts are made permanent but individuals' are only temporary, with a 'wink' that it will be hard to eliminate them once enacted, I have to wonder why some business tax cuts could not be given the same status. Then to get close enough to 'balancing the books' (but still creating huge new national debt) by eliminating the individual health insurance mandate (which is only fair to require unless someone can prove they have enough wealth to not need at least catastrophic insurance), then the whole process is a sham and a litmus test to see who in congress still really represents the people.
2
It is obvious the rich need a tax break. Someone bid 450 million dollars to buy a Da Vinci painting. If that person is an American, he or she will need help paying for it.
5
Hadn't even considered Johnson as a senator who would oppose this bill. Figure that McCain almost has to after his very public stand on procedure and bipartisanship. There must be one or two more, right?
1
Taxi on graduate student tuition wavers will destroy the US leadership in science.
4
Tax cuts that increase national debt. Is this the correct manner for balancing budgets. Why not eliminate Social Security or outsource our military or eliminate funding for toilet paper in government buildings... If we want to shake things up draining the swamp might as well throw everything in the bill. Funny thing about draining low lying areas, drain the muck and it just fills back in with more muck.
Maybe instead of rushing to vote on a hastily drafted bill behind closed doors, lawmakers create a truly bipartisan study group and create an unbiased reform bill that has meaning, Just a thought. An honest days work for an honest salary.
2
Johnson? Puzzling - how do we know he's not just angling for a "Wisconsin windfall"?
1
Where is the Democrats version? The one that raises taxes on capital gains and carried interest and provides funds for infrastructure project?
2
If one of the reasons McCain voted against the Senate's repeal and replace healthcare bill was because it was not developed under Regular Order, how on earth can he vote for this sweeping piece of legislation that also came about without Regular Order. More than the healthcare bill, this "tax reform" will affect every single American and should have been the product of bi-partisian efforts, not rushed through so the administration could finally claim a "win."
Will McCain suddenly decide that a "win" is more important than legislation produced through Regular Order? Is a "win" worth trading logical consistency and his integrity? Is a "win" worth making healthcare insurance unaffordable to millions of people?
1
Tinkle-down economics. They're peeing on us, folks, and telling us it's raining. And us with no umbrella.
7
I am so sick and tired of those in Congress that keep harping on the Individual Mandate in the ACA. Why?
Because prior to the ACA, the last data I saw, I was paying about 30% of my monthly payment to my health plan (Kaiser) was going to cover indigent care.
The dirty little secret is that any health organization that takes a penny of federal money, and all do, that they must by law take care of anyone that walks through the ER door.
Why the hell am I forced to subsidize people who “choose” to take the risk they will not get sick? The “choice” argument is pure crap.
I am all for getting ride of the mandate as long as Congress passes a law that states that no care of any kind is required by any health organization to anyone who is not part of that plan or paying cash up front.
I am taxed at a 30% rate every month a premium is paid. I want that 30% back in my pocket if everyone else is allowed to opt out of the health care system.
4
JD, unfortunately the general feeling in civilized nations is that we don’t let people die in the street because they’re “stupid”, or “careless”, or “retarded” - or anything else.
That has many ramifications, and there’s no perfect answer. If you have a better solution, let’s hear it. But we won’t, knowlingly, let people die in the street.
2
For decades I did my own taxes, as long as my income was entirely (or almost so) wages and interest and my deductions were state and local taxes (income, sales, gasoline), mortgage interest, and, rarely, medical expenses. Typically, I took over the dining room table for a weekend to complete the task. More than 90% of the time I filed for a refund. I'm sure I "over paid" by Trumpian standards, not getting back any more than the figure I came up with. When my figures showed I owed money, I wrote a check.
Now comes the part that many people may have a difficult time believing: I never complained.
Over the last decade or so, I have turned my tax-related documents over to an accountant. I have stock in three companies, so dividends are now part of the picture. I am retired and my wife is still working, so our combined income kicks my Social Security into the mix. A small pension (barely enough to pay the electric and water bill). Required minimum distributions from my IRA. She charges me about $300 for her work, files my taxes electronically and I either get a refund or I write a check.
I still don't complain. My wife and I are comfortable. We are not rich and we worry about health insurance (her employer is ending hers because she works part-time [they won't give her a full-time position] and failed by 2 1/2 days out of a full year to put in enough time to qualify for that benefit).
But, if the Republicans have their way, next year I'll be raising holy hell.
39
Me, too!
2
Please raise holy hell now--call your representative and senators over and over-- and get your friends and family in Texas to do so as well. If this tax plan goes through, next year will be too late.
2
Good Job, Senator Johnson, even if you are against the bill because it doesn't give enough to "business and investors".
Any reason is good enough to prevent this Robber Baron disaster from falling on the shoulders of the Good People of The United States of America -even those ill-informed fox so-called news Con Don supporters.
WE THE PEOPLE must demand that socially conscious senators and house representatives who do not want to see The United States of America destroyed in WW3, which would be catastrophically destructive both economically and physically, vote NO on this or any "tax reform" bill while the Robber Barons control OUR government.
WE THE PEOPLE must also elect/hire socially conscious women and men who will purge corrupt individuals from OUR governments at every level and tax back 100% of the Robber Baron stolen wealth.
NOW is the time. Call your U.S. senators and house representatives and tell them to vote NO. NO. NO!
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
https://www.house.gov/representatives/
20
Its just unbelievable that McConnell thought he could get away with this, after the lesson from healthcare. Discarding regular order, trying to ram thru a bill when you have little margin for error was just foolish. Perhaps we will be done with him after this debacle.
22
He's shining up his bona fides to move into the world of lobbying or finance after the wackos in his party take his seat from him.
1
I understand that the Republican Congress is beholden to wealthy donors, like the Koch Brothers, the Mercer Family, the Wall Streeters, and the Adelsons.
The Republican Congress is marching in lockstep to the tune of these donors.
So the question for the donors: Is the redistribution of wealth upward promoted by this tax legislation really in your best long term interests? Short term, yes. But increasing income inequality never has a happy ending long term.
29
How can people who are so rich that they drop the entire yearly salaries of multiple people without even blinking an eye be so greedy?
2
The French Revolution in 1789, deposing and executing the reigning monarchs and executing much of the nobility, was a relatively recent event in the long march of history. Perhaps when people get hungry enough and angry enough, a Robespierre for the modern age will arise.
Republicans tell us that repealing the Obamacare mandate would save 300 million dollars. Right, if we can save this amount why not do it. There is a tiny little problem that our compassionate friends fail to mention: the millions upon millions of people who would lose health coverage and the many more that would have their insurance rates skyrocket. But, that's a small price to pay since the money will be spent on those poor millionaires with the pressing problem of deciding in which fiscal paradise to park the extra money.
23
Any member of Congress who votes for either one of these bills does not deserve to represent the American people. Only the wealthy--both individuals and corporation--benefit from the passage of this travesty. The other 99 percent of us will have higher tax bills and 13 million of us will lose health insurance. It's time to say no American voters. It's time to take these partisan politicians out of Congress and send them back to the real world where they belong.
58
What in the world made you ever think that members of Congress represented the interests of anyone but their own? Of course they will pander to the wealthy - where do you think they get the money to run (fi not hide)? Someone just suggested that the members of Congress wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we will know who their sponsors really are.
It isn't a swamp. It's a sewer.
Gee, what's not to like about a bill that transfers wealth from the middle class to the rich? Even proposing such a thing might just bring out the broom in 2018.
37
For 2018 you are going to need a plumber's helper, not a broom.
I suggest a Roto Rooter.
This Bill appears to have been written in Russia. Seriously. It is the only way it makes any sense.
I am wondering if Putin has Compromising intelligence on the entire Republican Establishment, including the President, and Putin is the one telling them how to do the most damage to the county.
This Bill, if passed, will take the country back 100 Years.
40
A projected $660 billion deficit this year.
Urgent need for $1+ trillion infrastructure spending.
Urgent need to re-train and relocate those losing jobs to technology & globalization.
Urgent need to re-vamp education, as we fall behind the rest of the educated countries.
...and these mental midgets want to give a needless tax break to the wealthy & corporations which are reporting record profits??
....adding insult to injury: the middle-class are taking it in the shorts to pay for it all.
55
We don't just have to sit here and take this nonsense while the R's continue looting us to pay off their rich donors.
Call your congressperson today, tomorrow, and every day.
And call every person you know in Alabama and tell them to get to the polls and vote in the upcoming election to check this insanity!
28
I agree, Terry. With one additional note. WRITE your congresspersons. A letter is considered much more serious than a call. Put it on your letterhead if you have it. Believe me, this really works. Local and Washington addresses are readily available online.
1
When is the electorate going to retire all these old men that have made a livelihood in public life for the past 35+ years?
Vote 2018
31
Agree but the young ones in the House and running for Senate, the Reps that appear to be running for Flake's seat, are even more partisan and crazy Money has made themviable candidates. Gorsich of Supreme Court is relatively young and he has arcane beliefs, The Federalist Society made sure he was their kind of guy.
It is going to take more than just voting the old guard out. It is going to take getting the billionaires out of politics and finding and supporting candidates in both parties who aren't beholden to a small group of rich radical right.
get us back to the messy, slow process of governance. Maybe then paying taxes won't seem like a big bill that pays for McConnell, Ryan, Trump and the nuts in his cabinet to rip off taxpayers.
1
Whatever happened to the dire need to restore our crumbling and out-of-date infrastructure? Why is our Congress' highest priority a huge, debt exploding tax cut for corporations and wealthy people who don't even need one? The sensible thing to do would be to raise taxes on the most profitable corporations and the wealthiest individuals and use the revenue to invest in education, health care, infrastructure and all the other things that would really make America great again.
33
Corporations already pay 35% in taxes. They will continue to horde money outside the U.S.
Many corporations pay no income tax at all even though they are profitable. Very few, if any, pay 35% after all their deductions and exemptions. The average corporation pays around 14%. Real tax reform would include ways to prevent corporations and individuals from avoiding paying their fair share of taxes by sheltering their profits in locations outside the U.S.
2
Wisconsin is a high tax state, so Senator Johnson is simply looking out for the interests of his constituents. I would imagine that Senator Baldwin will be doing the same thing as Wisconsin's Junior Senator. Senators Grassley and Ernst in nearby Iowa should also be looking very hard at this bill and the economic fallout that will impact Iowans.
18
Sorry. That would be nice if it were true. But Ron Johnson's concerns have nothing to do with how his constituents are treated in this bill. His objection is to the way the benefits for pass-through businesses are treated vis-a-vis cuts for large corporations.
Surely it's just coincidence that he retains a significant interest in a pass-through that he thinks won't benefit enough from the cuts.
Ron Johnson, worried about the working class in Wisconsin? Best laught I've had in weeks.
In the end, Johnson will roll with the party and support the bill. He talks the talk but never walks the walk. In red state Wisconsin he understands where he has to ultimately be on any important Republican bill.
5
The GOP efforts to destroy Affordable Care have a sinister agenda beyond trying to erase President Obama's legacy. In the UK, life expectancy has flatlined due to Conservative austerity cuts in benefits and healthcare. At the same time, the Financial Times has reported that 310 billion pounds was saved from old age pension expenditures due to "excess deaths."
This, of course, is part of the GOP plan!
18
I guess those internal swing state polls show that citizens aren’t too keen on paying more taxes so already wealthy corporates can have it. You’d think this would be obvious.
8
Perhaps, if the impact hits the voters before the 2018 elections, they will wake up to what is happening!
Voter revolution is coming!
Many thanks to the renegade Republicans who are trying to prevent our party from being tagged as the party that raised taxes on the middle class and caused millions of people to lose their health insurance.
10
The A.C.A. requires that insurers accept all individuals who apply for health insurance in the marketplace. The Act also prohibits insurers from charging individuals more based on their personal health.
The Act generally requires individuals to maintain health insurance or make a payment to the IRS if they don't. Congress provided an exemption from this coverage requirement for anyone who has to spend more than 8% of his or her income on health insurance. Congress also sought to make insurance more affordable for the nonexempt by giving refundable tax credits to individuals with household incomes of 100% to 400% of the federal poverty line.
These pieces of the A.C.A. puzzle are interlocking. They have been compared to a three-legged stool which cannot stand if one of its legs is cut-off. This is what Trump and the GOP are trying to do: cut-off the coverage-requirement leg in order to, in effect, "repeal" the A.C.A. (through tax reform). But their approach is devious, underhanded, and irresponsible. It is also arguably unconstitutional.
Maurice F. Baggiano, Member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court
23
To GOP Senators not named Collins or Johnson (and, hopefully, McCain):
The GOP is going after the most vulnerable Americans, in an attempt to keep them destitute and without healthcare, simply to provide wealthy donors with tax cuts. Joe Welch’s words are once again germane: Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged the [GOP’s] cruelty or [their] recklessness. Has [the GOP] no sense of decency?
There has not been a single supply side/trickle down/voodoo economics tax cut that has paid for itself—your party knows this. The lies are everywhere in the selling of this fraud upon America. The most dishonest part of the GOP “plan” is that increasing the deficit is the actual intent of this legislation—to later feed the argument that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid simply “must be cut.” Likewise, how can infrastructure (and many other) needs be met, as the GOP “plan” drives up deficits?
Senator, why are you in Congress if you support the clear goal of the GOP to serve only 1% of Americans? If you have any sense of decency, how can you possibly be a party to this scheme to intentionally damage America and Americans?
17
& we continue to argue over how to pay for health care, not why it costs way more here in the United States than anywhere in the developed world. Inflated pharmaceutical costs created by companies that spend more on advertising then on research, hospital systems whose charges have little in common with the cost of providing care, medical code gamesmanship between providers and insurers that has created a whole new class of parasites milking the health care dollars. Need I go on? Like so much of American style capitalism we argue over crumbs while a segment of our society walks away with the bread. In arguments like this the real middle class & the poor end up behaving like dogs fighting over scraps while the 20% (not 1%) who own the political system walk away with their tax cuts in hand. As the Donald would say "sad"!
11
Before we all start jumping on the thanking Ron Johnson bandwagon, let's not forget that he has a definite self-interest here. Johnson helped found Pacur, a plastic-fabrication company. Pacur is a limited-liability company, which is a type of pass-through business. Although Johnson stepped down as Pacur’s CEO when he was elected, he retains an ownership stake in the company.
He has also come out and said that his plan is to treat all business (including c corps) as pass-thrus. RoJo's problem isn't with insane corporate tax cuts, he's just salty that he's not getting a big enough benefit from them.
8
Corporations need permanent tax cuts so they can plan ahead? But us plain old people, we don't need to plan ahead? We spent two decades putting money into a 529 plan for our son's college (He's graduated! Yea!!). 2025 is eight years away. What do other parents do when they don't know that the little extra bit they're putting away for their childrens' education isn't going to get eaten up by the taxes?
Mr. Mnuchin's ignorance of how the rest of us live and budget is staggering. Though not surprising, given that he and his wife need not be troubled by finding a way to save a little bit at a time for a long time. This is what comes of the idea that the rich are best qualified to determine financial policy. His empathy for corporations may be touching, but it is a touch of Versailles.
12
Mnuchin knows exactly how the rest of us live. Why would he care?
I am amazed, a senator who is going to look out for the citizens first. Will they dump trump next?
2
The tax bill is a cheat. In the first place ALL Americans should have health insurance as it exists in other civilized western countries. Thus if the Republicans don't like the mandate they should replace it with a national healthcare system that would protect children and poor families. Next, rich corporate society dies not need a tax break. The middle class should not be supporting the rich---that is unconscionable and openly corrupt fascist politics, showing favoritism to those who don't and never have deserved it.
9
It all about who controls the piggy bank.
4
In the Sicilian version of revenge, you don't just kill the guilty party, you wipe out their entire family, their entire village, burn it to the ground, and then salt the earth, so that nothing grows there.
Looking forward to the day when the underclass rise up and extract such a revenge on the 0.1%.
8
While all this distraction of Fake Tax Bill & attempt to investigate the Clintons.Tillerson has approved a contract for the security at the US embassy in Moscow to a Russian company with close ties to Putin & the KGB.......I hope the NYT follows this very bizarre arrangement.
4
Way to bury the lede. THIS was the lede (in the third graf). Tell your reporters and editors about the inverted pyramid for doG's sake. #SMH Here is the lede:
"Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, came out against both chambers’ tax plans on Wednesday, saying that the bills favored corporations over small businesses and other so-called pass-through entities, whose owners pay taxes on profits through the tax code for individuals."
1
My name is Ron Johnson, I come from Wisconsin....just had to say this.
3
Stop playing games! We are not idiots! A tax bill is about taxes, Not Health Care.
Any Bill that tries to sneak in a Snake should be rejected.
15
Mitch and Paul, I bet Boehner has plenty of room in that motorhome. He looked really happy whistling his way down the road, last we saw! Zip-a-de-do-da boys!
6
The GOP...greedy old party is at it again....their ONLY concern is make the super rich richer and get the money from, who, where and how ever possible....period... that's who they are that's what they stand for.
11
$400 million for a possible Leonardo painting at auction..and NO ONE including Paul Krugman to my knowledge is calling for the reinstitution of the LUXURY TAX put into effect by George WH Bush taken away by the friend of Wall Street and Banksters WJ Clinton and not considered so far as I know by any president since.
UNBELIEVABLE -- nothing but nonsense. Oh that Carry through whatever....
How do you know a politician is lying?? (His lips are moving!!)
7
Finally - a Republican who is not retiring with the spine to stand up to this piece of legislative trash. That's one of 52. One! And where are the other "courageous" ones who announced their intentions to step down before speaking out? It's time to pipe up again, Senators Flake, Corker and McCain. The four people above are all it would take to torpedo this inconceivable pile of garbage.
8
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, thank you!!!
4
The headline and body of this article is alarmist and false. Senator Johnson is hopeful and working on fixes that will win his support. The Times has lost its factual vigor in a race to poor judgment publication.
1
Thank God for the few good men and women in this atrociously greedy Grand Old Party.
4
Wishful thinking.
Hope they can stop this farce ! BV, NC
1
Welfare for wealthy individuals, corporate owners and stockholders, or a continuity of social services for the rest of us? To steal our tax resources, or not to steal them?, that is the question. Since the Republican't Congress, in all its vaunted wisdom, has demonstrably contrived a Rube Goldberg bill that could not pass a quiz in Economics 101, we can only conclude, again, that they are tools and toadies of the ruling class, and do not work for 100% of America.
There is sufficient money out there to resolve many budget, debt, infrastructure and tax shortfalls. One look at the "Trump budget" and we conclude it's being HORRIBLY, INCOMPETENTLY managed, for the benefit of a few power centers. This bill would do little or nothing to disprove that. It does prove, however, that the elites, their agents in Congress, and the spasmodic sycophant occupant of the White House have ceded trade, diplomatic and planetary health to international rivals. Now these "wise men" explicitly demand greatly expanded legislative access to the resources to be found within U.S. borders. This is a huge heist in the disguise of ideology, the great majority of citizens be damned.
I'll wax crudely: let this be the well-deserved suicide of the Republican party.
11
If Republicans continue to make the government a terrible institution, not funding it makes perfect sense.
We should be making our government better and funding it. That means tax increases. Why are we sending people to the government who's ambition is to increase spending and reduce effective government services and regulations?
The middle class and the rich should be paying more in taxes and we should have a government that functions, provides high quality services, regulates to improve the safety of food, water and medicine and builds a world class public infrastructure. Not to mention comes up with an affordable manner to provide health care to all Americans to protect us from the ravages of sickness and possible pandemic which could wipe out our country in short order.
Conceptually tax cuts when we are at full employment and have expanding deficits and growing national debt is an utterly absurd concept.
This tax reform is based on bankrupting the heir's of families who get sick and can't buy insurance so that a handful of people like out President can leave a tax free estate to their heir's. How it has any public support or the support of anyone in Congress is nothing less than national insanity.
10
As a libertarian leaning individual I hope this tax bill does not pass. This “helps” very few people and will further complicate our system. Our tax system needs a complete CTRL ALT DELETE.
8
Good for Ron Johnson. How about a few more Republicans with some integrity?
10
Johnson doesn’t have integrity, read his reasoning. It’s all about business, as though only small business drives the economy. It’s about demand stupid. This tax plan hurts people the most who have the least disposable income, but spend the highest amount of what they have to live. We should be taxing the rich, giving it to the poor and middle class, and allowing profits from their increase disposable income to “trickle” up.
2
My husband and I together make between $60K and $95K per year. I have health insurance through and employer, he does not. This year we are poised to pay a $2000 penalty for his lack of insurance. To insure him on my policy would cost us $6K/year, so the penalty is the lesser of 2 evils. We are active and healthy. We own a home with a mortgage. We have some debt, but not terrible. We have small savings. We're the people the tax mandate and current tax policies are hurting. Repeal the mandate. Ensure mortgage interest deductions are good and solid. Help us not be destitute as we look less than 7 years away from retirement.
4
You say you are "active and healthy", but illness or accidents can happen to anyone.
With your combined salaries you would be better off to make sure you paid the $6,000, even if you give up a few luxuries.
Lack of insurance? That's what is wrong with this country. While you enjoy your four thousand dollars in savings, he gets sick or has an accident, and everyone pays for his cardiac care or whatever. Ultimately, all uninsured end up in the pool. No one knows when they will no longer be "active and healthy". Your post shows how incredibly selfish and stupid Americans have become.
Without universal health care, we just slip further and further into highest cost per capita and worst outcomes globally in healthcare.
I came here in 1971 from Canada with Norwegian family. With the instability in the job market, and declining company-provided insurance, we are doomed unless we start thinking about all of us, not just how we keep ourselves "active and healthy" in our tiny, little worlds. The countries today with the highest standards of living don't even need the mortgage interest deduction.
1
Shannon: What you're really saying is that you intend to free-ride on the generosity of your fellow taxpayers. As soon as your husband has a major accident or serious illness, my guess is you'll come crying to the government for ACA coverage because it doesn't have a pre-existing conditions clause. The solution for sharpies such as yourself is to make you wait for a new ACA policy for as long as you played insurance roulette. For example, if you voluntarily didn't have health insurance for three years then you pay all your medical expenses out-of-pocket for three years and only after that period of time can you apply for ACA coverage.
2
The games Congress plays! Sneak in repealing the individual mandate, and drilling in Alaska, promise tax cuts to the wealthy and maybe nobody will notice!
I'm liking Ron Wyden more and more - he's not a flashy personality, but I'm impressed with his integrity!
9
This tax bill will literally ruin the country, but hey, Trump is giving it to Russia and China anyhow, so who cares, right?
11
Of all the proposed changes, the most corrosive are the ones targeting blue states (mortgage and local tax deductions) who would now send even more money to red states, particularly in the south.
This is not just dirty politics, it will engender resentment and hatred for the south as northerners pay ever more of their hard earned money to supplement the red states' inability to take care of their own.
Writing these resentments into the tax code will further divide an already fractured nation. Look for candidates promoting secession to do well down the line especially in California. Thanks, Trump.
22
The fact that I am getting lots of expensive pop up ads for this tax overhaul makes me suspect the motives of the wealthy donors pushing for this, and the pols who benefit from the donors. We have seen billionaires behaving altruistically in the past and they typically do not push for secretive reforms, they say loudly “raise our taxes”
4
Before they commit further havoc I think it's time for these nitwit legislators who seem to have zero expertise in regard to taxes and a whole host of subjects that they mouth off about, to take their summer recess.
Bye bye. We'll call you when we need some new laws passed. Congress was never intended to be a full-time job.
6
This bill just like all recent so called healthcare bill needs to fail. This is bad not good for the country. These clowns the GOP have long forgotten there oath of office. They are suppose to defend and protect all Americans. So how is it protecting Americans by making them poorer by having to pay more and helping strip them of what meager protections they have against the corporations. Corporations are not people sorry to break it to you GOP.
31
Is it possible at this juncture that Republicans are deluded, in the clinical sense of the term?
22
No, they are just vicious black-hearts.
As a Southerner and a Tennesean it shames me that Bob Coorker is not behind this tax reform plan. I am glad that he will retire from the Senate and no longer represent the Volunteer State. Get lost, Bob Corker, its time for you to go and be replaced by someone hopefully that can lead the nation in the direction that it should be led, as it must be led, as it will be led.
2
It would take more than Mr. Corker to depart the Senate. The House is a dark, murky swamp as much of the Senate is, along with the current occupant in the White House.
None of these three entities exhibit any leadership. None. Nada. Zip.
2
I don't know your financial position but most average Americans would like a bill that helps us more than it helps the millionaires. This bill should be bipartisan and not drafted by bribing Senators with things like opening up ANWR to drilling and taking healthcare away from 13 million Americans to fund tax cuts designed to benefit the wealthy, wall street and corporations who have trillions in overseas accounts. Sorry for the run on sentence. Have a good day.
6
What exactly about this proposed 'tax reform' bill do you like? I'm still looking for it.
1
Republicans are re-creating the Middle Ages, when only the poor paid taxes and the local lords lived in luxury. It is amazing that party leaders lack any moral sense, and that party voters lack any brains. They should be watching ´In the Name of the Rose´ to see what follows: ruin, poverty, superstition and despotism. There is no democracy when money is concentrated at the top, and poverty supports the super-good life of the rulers.
37
That's exactly how it feels! I was asking myself the other day, what's the end game here???
3
Repeal of the individual mandate results in runaway prices for health insurance.
This results in at least 13 million Americans losing their health insurance.
And 13 million Americans losing their hesth insurance gives Orrin Hatch the money to help out the needy rich.
Tens off thousands of Americans are going to die so that wealthy people get a huge tax cut.
The Republican plan is immoral and un-Christian
27
I woke up and called my Congressman Patrick Meehan - PA7th - but his mailbox was full. Of what I'm not sure but I know what the bill he helped write is full of. I called his local office and begged him to reconsider voting for this insanity. I doubt he will change since Party loyalty now trumps all constituent interests and he is falsely protected by a very undemocratic gerrymandered district.
Have these elected leaders no decency?
31
Trump's new tax bill is to make 1% richer and the poor poorer. And since he didn't get enough support to pass his lousy trump care, he is deceptively trying to get rid of ACA, by attaching it to his tax bill. Deceptive to the core.
19
While all our congressional folks get the full benefits of a Gold Star health-care plan, our OUR dime, we the people face health-care initiatives and COBRA designed to make Americans poor. (Contrast most other modern countries who have already figured out Universal Health Care.) Nobody should have to lose one's house to pay for the exorbitant premiums that keep going skyward in an effort to have affordable care, in the event of an illness. When did this country go SO off the rails? Decades ago, your employer gave health-care insurance as a perk; but doctors weren't gouging their patients with heavy bills, either. And if you were truly indigent, you were able to get help. No. This country is in a downward spiral under the current crop of representatives. It's time to weed out these pesky GOP charlatans with their shallow roots and find new ways to address health care in this country. Otherwise, it's all a bunch of manure.
21
This tax bill is a rare histrionic opportunity for the fractured GOP to solidify their support in their home districts. One may freely propose, vote for, and for against a full menu of bizarre ideas that resonate with the singular predispositions of one's base.
It is another example of how Congress fractures when voting becomes non-representative. Coming at the same time that Alabama is holding a special election that emphatically deprives voters of the right to select a candidate, this shallow tax debate has become an incumbents' audition for the 2018 midterms.
It suggests that 2018 is morphing into a constitutional clash over the question of whether the Congress represents the entire United States, or merely offers a states' rights podium for declaring independence from the settled legal meanings of the federal constitution.
A battle over expelling Roy Moore from the Senate will essentially be a replay of the secession debate led by the Alabama-based President of the Confederacy.
2
This is highway robbery to Medicare for the rich-to the tune of $400 billion. Shame on the GOP to even suggest it.
12
Thank you NYT for such a through forensic analysis and for showing us where “Every Tax Cut and Tax Increase in the House G.O.P. Bill and What It Would Cost”
It felt like watching an autopsy and seeing all the bullet holes and damage to the body.
The GOP now resembles a psychiatric patient with suicidal ideation of self harm.
This is madness.
15
Elimination of tuition tax breaks is easy to justify. Educated people (not the rich) are "elites," and everyone knows that education is nothing but a gateway to the twin sins of liberalism and homosexuality. So, if we make education more expensive, fewer people will get an education and we'll have fewer gays and liberal elites. That will not only increase the GOP voter base, it will have the added benefit of increasing the labor pool for the coal mines, which we all know are vital to the nation's interest. MAGA!
22
I'm disgusted with my fellow citizens for their lack of vision with respect to the tax bill. All they can do is worry about Trump and their own petty concerns. They have voted into office major losers that represent them, people like Democrat Socialist Ron Wyden on the Senate finance committee, a guy who married into big money and is now worried about the 'middle class.' In fact, all the rich Democratic socialists and lunatics (Maxine Waters) are just limousine liberals and anti-anything the Republicans bring up. This goes for losers John McCaine, Bob Corker and Susan Collins, Democratic wolves in Republican clothing. Trump has the proper vision but if his minions are so short-sighted that they can't comprehend a big tax break to the people that actually pay most of the taxes (corporations and the top 10%), then who suffers? We do until and unless we vote these Dems out of office in 2018.
2
The only thing ai can say to this is that you must either be a corporation or a member of the 'top 10%.'
WOW! All I can say is what universe are you living in? Clearly, it isn't the one the rest of the world is in.
Young men and women die for us. We can accept the small sacrifice of a mandate to stay alive.
3
It just keeps getting work-take health care away from 13 million to give tax breaks to the wealthiest in the US. "Mean" !!!
7
First, the GOP, after much barking and many promises, has been woefully unprepared for what is 9 years. Now, they have a hodge podge plan that basically only gives money to the 1%.
Because they lack the skills of being nuanced liars, they've been completely exposed as just liars. Not only has giving huge tax breaks to the wealthy never created jobs, expatriating funds do not go to the government but back to the corporations in stock options and now they're trying to shove ACA through the black door when Americans had given a collective sigh that it was settled weeks ago.
It's telling and scary when Cohn asked business leaders which ones would create jobs and trickle those savings to their employees. They sat on their hands. At least, for once, they were honest.
So, please, Senators Collins, Murkowski, Flake, Corker, Johnson, McCain stop this in its tracks. History will put you on the right side and be a profile of placing the well being of your fellow citizens above going with something terrible to be able to place the R next to your name.
The tax cuts that blue states get are given back to the country in education, research, technology and world renowned hospitals. And we're talking the middle class in these states. If the GOP truly wants to give small business and the middle class tax cuts, just do it. But this is ONLY about wealthy corporations and the top 1%.
Senators, voters are not going to punish you for a NO vote.
19
Are the elephants trying to throw #45 a "bone" to soothe his ego?
Why do the elephants always want to keep the 99% "in their place"?
GOP or are y'all still Grand or just trying fool the public?
Please vote 2018!
6
And the Democratic party says....nothing. And they wonder why they lose elections.
5
They should be coming out in droves denouncing this bill and informing the people what bad about it and putting forward their ideas for tax reform. Let us see some of these new, young democrats and give them some national attention and name recognition.
1
You can out lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig. That's what this tax bill is, a fleecing of the middles class. Robin Hood in reverse - robbing the poor and middle class to pay the rich. 1 Republican has seen the light. Now some more Republicans need to see through this charade of a bill. The Republicans are showing their true colors and it isn't pretty.
5
It is difficult for me to believe that legislation, such as this tax plan, would even be devised in the first place. It is nothing short of a brazen attempt to further distribute additional wealth to the top 1% of the country and ignoring other serious problems throughout the country. The Republican party has become seriously dysfunctional.
8
Republicans have successfully used the cudgel of social issues -- abortion, gun rights, gay rights, religion -- to misguide lower education, lower information Americans to vote against their own interests. It defies reason. It defies market theories. It defies consciousness. However, it defines Republicanism and that is the enemy of the middle class and poor today.
6
By ending the ACA individual mandate, Republicans are telling Americans that health insurance is unnecessary. This is news to me. My entire adult life, I have made employment decisions based on needing health insurance. It has never been an option not to have health insurance. It is the responsible thing to do: responsible to my myself, to my family, and to healthcare insurance costs for everyone.
Obviously Republicans think otherwise. I was talking to a relative (who is a Republican voter) who proudly described how her husband and she did not pay for health insurance when their were young and instead put that money into investments. She presented this as a clever option. I politely didn’t say anything but was thinking: what does this say about people- like myself when a young adult- who pay for their own health insurance plan when their job does not provide one because it is the responsible thing to do? Are we fools?! This is what Republicans are promoting: every person look out for their own interests, their own pocket book, and gamble at others’ expense. Republicans want to go back to an unfair system that the ACA put an end to.
7
Eye Spy My little Eye and I See A Republican Tax Crow Bar - lets breakup the middle class even further until there is none left and get back to Middle Ages. We need another Enlightenment to get out of this political mess.
5
Dear Senate Republicans—reject this bill. Go represent the people and not your billionaire donors. Know that if you lose your corporate donors, there are other things you can do. There is life after politics.
9
Have you noticed that the three main pillars of the Republican Party are:
Corporations
The Rich
and
Rural, poorly educated whites?
None of whom pay their fair share of taxes!
Yet they rail about how they don't want THEIR taxes going to support THOSE PEOPLE. What taxes, exactly?
Racism and class warfare are the heartbeat of the Republican Party.
6
Big money donors are telling the GOP to cut their taxes or else they will be shut off - they want their return on investment.
The middle class pays for these proposed tax cuts for these billionaires and large corporations.
Raising the National Debt by 1.5 Trillion dollars ensures that future generations will help pay for these proposed tax cuts as well.
Are we going to let the GOP get away with this sham ?
1
If the republicans were serious about the deficit they would reduce the bombs and bullets budget by 50%. The 2016 budget for the US was $611 BILLION the next largest was China at $215 BILLION. Ours is the largest in the world larger than the next 8 countries combines! Here is the link from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/04/24/the-top-15-countri....
With companies and the rich stashing their money off shore a tax cut is for them is insulting to the rest of us who actually have to WORK for a living. Especially those of us in blue states that this abomination seems to target. Don't forget that we are the ones that are paying the bills for the rest of the country and republicans are making every effort to stab us in the heart while holding us up.
Remember this in 2018. RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE!
3
The successful PAC is clearly the best investment going. The Kochs et.al. have thrown a few hundred millions to get a Republican majority. They will reap billions. When you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras.
Why are the Democrats not screaming bloody murder and actually explaining to people why this will work for almost no one but the very rich and huge, multinational corporations and foreign investors? With a few pithy soundbites, the likes of which Republicans are so good at and Dems just can't get the hang of. Or is it the NYT and WaPo and others who do not cover what they say, therefore repeating the mistakes of the campaign where 95 percent of coverage was Trump? We know where that led us. Neither Dems or media have learned anything. This should be a no brainer to get many people off the Trump and even the Republican wagon. Alas, another opportunity wasted.
2
I think the Democrats are “screaming bloody murder”,but it is not being reported.
Does anyone out there realize the death spiral we in as a country?. Lets block every bill and win the next election. Then the GOP will block everything the Dems propose when they gain control.
Our country is run by a bunch of petulant 3 year olds and that includes the Republicans and the Democrats.
1
But that behavior is rewarded by the voters, so clearly that is what voters want. And for the record, these bills have become monsters at this point. I could have gotten on board with some of the components inititally, but it has been butchered beyond recognition, full of pork barrel provisions. If enacted it would be desastrous and should punish whoever puts this through.
Moore aggressive action against the vulnerable by these seriously ill people in powerful positions. Time to speak out against this scourge with our right to vote, especially in gerrymandered areas, speak out in our media against this lewd behavior, speak out against those who give these predators the Christian benefit of forgiveness. Let the light of reason and reality dissolve this cancer from our political body permanently.
1
They may be called traitors by their own party, but at least someone is standing up for the AMERICAIN people and doing what is right. Let us stop following party lines nD DO THE RIFGHT THING.
You've got to hand it to the Republican leadership - throwing in the ANWR to try to seal Murkowski's vote. The swamp ain't drained folks, and it's in Alaska.
1
A little over three weeks ago everyone was "ga ga" over Bob Corker and John McCain- well they're not so great NOW are they..?? Nobody in the GOP has a conscience or moral compass! And I am ticked off at our Democratic leadership for not fighting on our behalf! They need to do more than their 5 minute press conferences expressing "outrage!" Our Democratic leadership is OLD, TIRED and LAZY!
Three days of headlines reverberating around the world:
Day one: US President announces that he believes Putin and discredits his own intelligence leaders over Russian interference.
Day two: Attorney General is exposed as a man who lies under oath.
Day three: US Senate implodes again after another rushed attempt at deeply flawed, deeply divisive legislation.
Executive, judiciary, legislature. All three in big, big trouble. What has happened to America???
3
It died. The death certificate has not been post.
2
Please, Susan, do not forget the standards in your heart. This tax bill is not good for Mainers or most other Americans. The state and the nation are watching. Let your inner inner sense of fairness prevail. Or, leave.
1
This Bill resembles a loaded two barrel shotgun aimed at the heart of the poor, the middle class, students and everybody with health insurance. And their logic twisted and diseased: We shoot to kill.
It is madness.
1
You can't pay your bills by cutting your income.
If republicans were minimally serious, they would dedicate all of these cuts towards payment of the deficit, not in refunds to those who don't need it.
8
Reading news and comments it seems Americans are ready to except a bleaker future. Main St. America is really under siege today by our radical government that wants to get rid of economic systems our great great grandparents worked hard to achieve. Modern medicine needs a state regulated system based in science and broad outcomes, not a private system based on short term boom to bust profiteering. Never worked in human history, and never will. Never in human history can the proposed new radical tax system end up with half a modern society's schools, highways, police, fire, army, etc. More like 3rd world politics with Dickensian era outcomes at best, or that French era where government told the public to "...eat cake if you can't afford bread".
Is the public aligned w/radical politics, or is the media just kowtowing to the political tail that wags the dog. Remember that famous fake character "Joe the plumber" from S. Palin's campaign fame. The part time plumber's assistant with no full-time job, no insurance, no pension, no future, but would fight to his own death to help one billionaire get endless political gifts and attention.
Recent history shows a few defections within party ranks hasn't slowed the governments march to unfettered extremism. The party just jettisons any individual thinkers working in the public's interest. It's going to take huge pressure from outside government. New institutions that hold politicians and party bosses accountable.
9
My question is Why?
Why are we trying so hard to reduce the taxes of large corporations who are:
1. posting record earnings?
2. have unprecedented amounts of cash in hand?
3. have rewarded their stock holders with increased dividends and share prices.
4. are taxed less than most other large companies in the developed world?
WHY?
17
Because those are the same companies that are sliding tons of cash under the table to the very same politicians who are proposing this. You also have to realize many of these same corporations they are talking about are not even American owned companies for one small example Budweiser beer and about 100 other beer companies in America are owned by Inbev the largest beer company in the world which is Belgian, America is just becoming the slave labor for all these overseas corporations, Americans work for less and less, Corporations pay off the politicians, most money is skimmed off and send to other places in the world
2
Limiting deductions is just a smoke screen that will disproportionately hurt the upper middle class much more than it will hurt the uber-rich. The uber-rich dodge taxes by stuffing millions of dollars into IRAs ala Mitt Romney, through the carried interest loophole, and by the absurdly low tax rates due on income derived from capital. I would be in favor of doing away with the federal income and Social Security taxes and replacing them with a national sales tax set at 10% for necessities such as food and clothing and 20% on everything else. If you're worried about the regressive nature of the sales tax, give every family a $2,500 annual contribution to their medical saving account combined with a $2,500 annual contribution to their retirement account. That essentially makes their first $50,000 of spending on necessities tax free and ensures they have resources set aside for their health care and old age.
2
Your proposal punishes poor people, just the Republican plan that increases their tax rate.
1
Medicare, Medicare and Social Security are already cut for 2018? Is there a reason for this? Supposedly, the purpose is to trickle down. But the wealthy said there will not trickle down. They will just keep the money. Military and seniors are going to be dying on the streets the day after New Years.
3
Why just the president? How about requiring that every member of congress do the same, with the stipulation that if they benefit in any way from the bill they cannot vote. Is that ultimately what you have in mind?
2
Apparently "mandates" are unAmerican. I suppose we should adopt the motto "Live Free and Die." What exactly is the US government for (besides the post office and spending huge sums invading other countries) if it isn't to provide public goods like at least some degree of health care?
3
It is unfortunate that congress has reached stagnation in this country. I have concluded that we may be fine with almost anything they do, but please, let’s do SOMETHING; otherwise let’s send them all home and reduce the federal deficit by what we pay them. That might also improve the level of discussion over Thanksgiving dinner!
36 years of hammering the middle class to further enrich the top and the answer is a bigger hammer.
7
They're still trying to destroy higher education, from making graduate students unable to live on their stipends to making the already absurd student loans even harder to pay off to making schoolteachers paying for school supplies out of their own pockets for their classrooms unable to write those off as deductions.
Why can corrupt businessmen declare bankruptcy (multiple times?) to escape their gross mismanagement, but students can't escape their loans that way?
It is a direct assault on education, including science and technology. If this passes, America loses.
6
The tax bill certainly seems to call into question the ability of the republican party to govern. If it wasn't bad enough that the bill favors the rich and the corporations with permanent cuts (and fantasies of resulting economic growth) while offering some temporary fixes to the middle and working classes, now we hear about the plan to scuttle the individual mandate. So, we have a prospect of millions of people losing healthcare while the entire country suffers from the delusions of men who still believe in trickle down economics. Has no one learned the lessons of Kansas?
1
Making college tuition benefits taxable, including the stipends of struggling graduate students, is just plain wrong.
2
No matter how you look at it, the tax plan penalizes those at the lower income rates. Taking 22% of someone making $38,000 is much more impactful on their daily lives than taking 38.5% of someone making $500,000.
Doing the math, the lower earner would be left with just about $30,000 after taxes at 22%, while the higher income earner would be left with 307,500 take home, after tax at 38.5%.
That means that the lower earner would have $2,500 a month from which to pay all expenses - including shelter, transportation, food, clothing, health care, insurance, education and all the miscellany of life, including other taxes.
The higher earner would have 10 times that, or $25,625 per month to cover the same basic expenses - and then indulge.
There is no comparison.
I live in Florida where rents are high and wages are low - many of our jobs are service jobs tending to the tourists. After paying a reasonable amount for rent, say $800 to $1,000 a month for housing, a person here would have between $1,500 and $1,700 per month to pay for all other expenses combined. It can be done, but carefully, and no saving for the future - or some health "savings account" - would be possible.
There is no room there for education tuition or vocational training. No room for an IRA, let alone a car break down or sudden illness or injury with deductibles and co-pays and out of pockets - even if there is insurance.
No such worries for the $25,625 a month individual.
5
Remove the individual mandate, health insurance/ health care become out of reach for way to many lower and middle income Americans.
Remove the healthcare deductions will put even more strain on lower and middle income Americans.
When the expected "windfall" of jobs doesn't materialize from corporate tax cuts, the deficit grows and triggers automatic cuts to Medicare and Medicaid putting the health of many more Americans at risk.
Basically, the "tax overhaul" will be the death of many Americans further cementing the GOP idea that only the wealthy deserve to be healthy!
2
The big story here is not the tax reform. It is the death of the senate filibuster rule. If this bill, which is a christmas wish list for republican donors, passes with 50 votes in senate, then the 60 vote filibuster rule is dead for all practical purposes.
That should be great news for all americans. It means the end of the tyranny that 40 senators representing 20% of americans hold the rest hostage. We can finally pass medicare-for-all. We can pass a tax reform that taxes investment income same as labour income. It means a more representative democracy for all americans.
1
We applaud Sen. Johnson because the enemy of my enemy is my friend?
Not a word reported on how Johnson feels about the vast majority of his constituents -- individuals and families.
He's worried that small businesses aren't treated fairly.
Senator, how about worrying about the elderly, those with life-threatening illnesses, students that want to go to grad school, those that will lose healthcare?
1
It's time the Democrats called this tax bill what it really is: a big subsidy. The term 'subsidy' has a negative connotation, whereas 'tax cut' has a more positive one. Keep calling it 'subsidies' for the rich and corporations. A subsidy for Apple. A subsidy for Google. A subsidy for Pfizer. A subsidy for Trump.
3
Many readers really don't seem to get how this works.
If we spend money today, on ourselves, there are only two ways to pay for it:
1. Tax ourselves.
2. Borrow.
If we DON'T choose #1, we aren't paying for it, and it's selfish to announce that we "accept it." The people who decide whether they "accept it" or not should be the people who will have to pay for it -- i.e. the people who are taxpayers when the borrowing must be repaid (i.e. when the government bonds we issue to borrow the money come due, in the future).
Borrowing has an important place in a modern economy -- but NOT as we do borrowing. This is NOT like a farmer borrowing money in the springtime to buy seeds, and then paying off the loan in the fall when those seeds have turned into crops and he's sold them. This is like a farmer borrowing money in the springtime, NOT paying it back in the fall, and then borrowing MORE money the following spring (and the spring after that, and so on and so on.) Of COURSE the borrower farmer will "accept" having money spent on him this year but never having to pay it back. But why in the world should the farmer's grandchildren pay just so that he can get more things today? What happens if they TOO want more money spent on THEM? (I can tall you answer: Borrow it from THEIR grandchildren and announce that you "accept" this.
1
Yes, so it's pretty strange that Republicans are increasing that debt.
Well, of course you do!
"...there is no realistic path by which expenditures can be cut to match current revenue. ,,, And I see that reality, and I accept it."
But you're NOT accepting it. You yourself say that current revenues can't cover expenditures. Yet the expenditures are occurring -- no dispute there. How are we paying for those expenditures, if "current revenue" doesn't cover them? Answer: We issue bonds, which get paid off by our children and grandchildren.
YOU might "accept that" -- easy to say since it's not your money. But have you asked your grandchildren?
American voters deserve better: a better tax plan; a better Congress. Both parties continue to snipe and whine as the Congress(es) continue to make laws that purport to solve issues in taxation, or immigration, or healthcare, but only muddy the matters and make certain that the very wealthy get very wealthier. That sees to be the bottom line. If it is good for the most wealthy of us, then it must be good for the Nation.
So we now have a healthcare law that seems to be failing many of us, but Congress won't fix it. We have immigration laws that don't allow foreign citizens into the country, even if we want them. We have a tax law being produce that simplifies nothing; gives massive tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations, and remains as complex and costly as ever for the rest of us.
Congress is broken. We don't need to shake up Washington. We need to ban the political parties and start over from scratch.
2
There's an easy and eye opening chart in The Motley Fool today comparing the tax brackets and rates as now set for 2018, versus the proposed Senate plan.
Take a few minutes and look, closely.
I, for one, did not know that Americans making between 0-$9,525 a year currently owe 10% in federal taxes. At the highest end, that's about $794 - a month - and would owe the U.S. almost $80 of that. Further, that bracket and tax rate remain the same in the Senate bill, not one penny in tax cuts. Unconscionable.
The next bracket is $9,525-38,700, a large slice of the American wage earners pie, encompassing all those fast food workers, retail workers, waitresses, laborers, clerks and many secretaries and teachers. Their rate would be slashed by 3%, from 15% to 12%. A whopping $30 per year off of every $1,000 in taxes you now pay. Boy that's going to change some lives, and lead to the spending boom we need to get the economy humming.
Remember, in America:
To be in the top 0.1%, you need about $1,695,000.
To be in the top 0.01%, you need about $9,141,000.
That's every year. Most of us won't make a million in our life times.
Raising taxes on the top tax brackets will not affect their economic futures, not even their lifestyles, one whit. On the other hand, every dollar we can then cut from the taxes of the working poor is consequential - to them and to our consumer society.
It's a no-brainer.
6
Donald who has never read nor understand the contents the bill is doomed from the start and it is heading to the same direction as that of ACA repealing.
SALT of the earth
noun
an individual or group considered as representative of the best or noblest elements of society.
How ironic. Tell that to the folks in NY, NJ and CA.
History is instructive, especially in the realm of "Don't do this." To Republicans in Congress I strongly recommend a study of the origins of the French Revolution. The middle and lower classes, taxed and abused beyond bearing, rose up and took power, decapitating the ruling classes. Literally.
1
I think that the talk from Senator Johnson about small businesses is a great cover for him and other Republicans who in reality do not want to be seen as giving middle class families about $100 a month in tax breaks to pay for the 10% increase in their health care premiums.
If Tax reform is to be successful, small businesses tax incentives and cuts should be emphasised over large Corporations such as Amazon and Exxon.. etc. However large Corporations can be given incentives to repaytriate money to US that was parked overseas. If tax reform is to benefit most taxpayers then it should target lower to middle class workers who need it the most. In fairness all legal residents should receive reduced tax rates with skewed lower to those earning up to 250K by joint filers. Attaching secondary bills such as repealing the affordable care act and or allowing drilling in Aric waters have no place in tax reform but rather must be dealt with carefully as separate issues.
Supporters of the proposed tax plans count on the corporations investing their windfall in their workers or new plants In this way the tax cuts would grow the economy. More profit does not directly lead to more production, more demand does. To grow the economy drastically cut taxes on the poor and middle class and give us the means to buy more. When the lower 90% buy so much, the corporations sell more, make more profit and invest to meet increased demand. They benefit from this "trickle up" tax cut.
3
I am surprised that the GOP is so out in the open about favoring the ultra-wealthy rentiers at the cost of the working class. It this a new paradigm in the USA? Is this society going to be composed of the money aristocracy and serfs?
1
Adding the removal of mandates from the ACA to lower the 10-year deficit proposed in the tax bill is a case where transparency might have led to cooperation and both Democrat and Republican ends might have been achieved.
During the fight to “repeal and replace Obamacare,” a few Democrats accused the Republicans of wanting to use the poor to finance the rich. A few reporters mentioned it but it was never clear.
The differences were that Republicans needed the savings from an enhanced Medicaid to lower the deficit in the tax bill. The Republicans should have said that and not wait at the last minute to sneak the repeal of the mandates into the tax bill. Either Ryan hadn’t thought of it or waited until the Senate included it in their bill to include it in the House Tax Bill.
Either way, it looks sneaky.
The fight between the Democrats and Republicans was always over both bills and had that been openly discussed, compromises might have been possible.
Democrats could have said “give us what is needed to fix the ACA and we’ll give you what you need to fix tax reform. That lack of transparency doomed the replacement of the ACA and may provide a moderate tax cut but doom a real tax reform.
I am one of the 40% of the country just making enough money over the amount to qualify for health insurance subsidies. I do not work for a company that provides for my health insurance.
There are millions of Americans who work for themselves, struggle every day to pay their health insurance and the rest of their bills, yet seem to get little attention from the media and politicians.
I just received a letter from my insurance company that my monthly health insurance premium is going up $250 a month -- $250 on top of what is already close to an $800 monthly premium!
A thousand dollars a month, with thousands of dollars in deductibles and co-pays, just for one individual.
Who is listening to this large segment of the population?
Certainly not the GOP or the insurance companies.
4
The way that our tax returns are presently prepared evolved over time, addressing various interests and concerns as they arose. It was not foisted upon as as whole cloth. Let's leave it alone with possible tweaks here and there. Let us not hesitate to shave a point or two off the rate though.
The big change which would bring in some tax money will be to tax all income earned by corporations not just the money that they bring back to the US from abroad, which is how we already tax individuals under the same circumstances.
1
Wait a second, insurance premiums will go up 10% if they eliminate the mandate? How much are they rising with the mandate?
I would love being an insurance company. People are forced to do business at ever higher prices - or else.
How did this country become a nation of so many freeriders?
Taxes: people want more but expect to pay less, especially the wealthy who have been given so much (as they leverage the hard work of others). The government is expected to do everything with nothing. We could be living in South Sudan (I'm sure no one there pays taxes) or we can live here and pay for what we get.
Health care: people expect to have their choice of hospitals, emergency rooms, and doctors but are unwilling to pay for it directly or by paying for insurance. They want government to pick up all those bills.
Climate change: the US is the only country in the entire world that has rejected (or, has declared its intention to in 2020) the Paris Climate Accords. Why? Because it may (arguably) cost us jobs, though our Earth is threatened by our energy hungry economy. We expect everyone else on the planet to carry our water in this greatest challenge of all.
Risky Living choices: people expect to live at the shore or in the mountains, paying little or none (certainly not enough) for insurance, so when disaster strikes (as it will, it's natural) they expect the government to make up for their risky behavior.
Don't we feel any responsibility to others, to our past, to the future?
1
With unemployment at 4.4% and deficit topping $20T what exactly is the need for adding another $1.5T tax break? How about we pay our bills? Whatever happened to the Republican deficit hawks?
3
Trump's and Republican efforts to change the tax system to put as much money as possible into the hands of the upper 1% and increase the deficit so that it breaks the backs of our children is the most unpopular provision of the proposed tax changes (well, perhaps this provision is now tied as the most unpopular provision with the new provision to cut health care from millions of low income Americans). These provisions have made a lot of people mad. Say, 90% of the public.
Republicans somehow believe the tax changes would trigger a surge in economic growth, higher wages, and job creation. As has been recently reported throughout several news organizations, there is no evidence that such tax cuts have ever resulted in less debt. Why do Republicans continue to make false claims to support an unpopular provision of their proposed tax cuts.
Why do Republicans strive to do all it can to lessen tax burdens for the ultra-rich and those who are well off, at the sake of astronomically increasing our national debt?
Why do we cap social security deduction from payroll at $127,200? This should have no cap.
5
At least for today, we are not yet fully a dictatorship, though it has still not occurred to base Republicans that legislating demands bipartisanship. They still seem to think that Democrats are there to merely rubber stamp the whims of their "rule." Maybe they should try working with their domestic, political opposition the way that many of them have been willing to compromise with and appease our foreign opposition.
OK, folks, I finally figured it out. The only explanation there can be for all of this.
"Smile - you're on Candid Camera!"
What else could it possibly be??
If passed, Medicare is immediately cut by $25 billion in 2018, with much bigger cuts in following years. It’s hard to believe that many people over 65 fell for Trumps pack of lies about safeguarding Medicare.
The GOP. Obstruction is easy. Governing is hard.
Multiple whiffs at the plate in trying to repeal Obamacare only needing 51 votes in the Senate. Tax cuts for big corporations and millionaires is on the path.
The federal taxation system should be simplified by establishing pre-determined state to washington transfers (and vice versa) and allowing individual states to come up with individual ways of finding the money. The reason you have such a byzantine and by turns unfair system is because using uniform federal rules to tax someone in NC or OH same as in CA doesn't make sense! The local economies are substantially different. Drop the per capita federal taxation system in favour of a lump sum state-by-state transfer system.
Oh, by the way, I am not a US citizen, just sayin'....
1
Politicians not in the thrall / pay of special interests would never vote for a plan like this. They would vote only for real reform - no deductions or tax preference items and as a result much lower rates on everyone. If you wanted to see real growth in this country the way to get it is to remove every one of these job killers from the tax code. From charity to mortgage interest to covered interest, all that the loopholes do is reduce the power of markets to grow an economy.
So the GOP-led Congress will end 2017 without having passed one piece of significant legislation.
The comedian Neil Brennan framed their condition humorously but accurately when he said "The GOP is the only team on the field and they're still losing."
So SAD!
Whatever happened to concerns about the deficit? Goodbye American century.
TAX BILL
Tomorrow the House of Representatives votes on a new tax bill. If you are as concerned as I am about these proposed changes, do what I did and let them know. I’ll make it easy for you...
Copy the text in the following paragraphs.
Go to http://www.house.gov
Type in your zip code.
Click on the letter icon next to your Representative’s name
Complete the *Required fields
“NO” on Tax Plan.
I am one of the millions of Americans concerned about the proposed tax plan. Current polling shows 52% negative to 25% positive. You are voting on a bill that will penalize me/us, yet will reward corporations and the wealthy.
Reductions to 20% for businesses will not result in increased hiring. It will only increase their dividends as it has done in the past. The richest people in our country will benefit as well. Reducing their taxes will not result in an increase to the economy, but to their pocketbooks.
If anything, reducing their debt to the government will add massively to our ever increasing deficit. This is totally irresponsible in regards to the future of our government. Their taxes should be increased, not reduced.
1
100 years ago my family left Asia Minor when the government became too oppressive. 50 years ago we left the Middle East not because it was so bad but that America was so much better. Today the elders I our clan whisper that the government here is “turning against the common people”. This really means the government is currupt and stealing. Just like the numerous dictators and generals in so many third world countries. This great land has given us everything and more yet we worry about our children’s future. It’s a new America so we are keeping our money in our shoes again.
2
Republican Congressman Chris Collins, in an apparent momentary fit of honesty, told reporters "My donors are basically saying 'Get it done or don't ever call me again.'" That's what this tax bill is about, plain and simple.
12
The tax bill also includes a declaration of fetus personhood, hidden in the provision that allows parents to create 529 accounts ( college savings accounts) for the "unborn."
“Never mind that the provision is unnecessary: Americans can already set up 529s for the children they wish to have,” NARAL’s Hogue said. “A 529 that's already seeded with capital in a parent's name can be transferred to a child once that child is born… Never mind that the implementation would be a mess begging all sorts of questions as to when you get Social Security numbers and other identifying factors for children.”
https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/gop-sneaks-creation-fetal-personhood...
So the bill if passed would provide a precedent for declaring that fetuses are persons and is a direct attack on abortion rights.
And of course the bill also makes higher education much more expensive by taxing college and graduate tuition waivers as personal income. Can any one believe that the Republicans are interested in promoting education?
9
No tax bill should pass either house until Trump reveals 5 years' worth of tax returns.
12
Reading closely, Ron Johnson is not against the kind of joke fiscal irresponsibility represented by these bills, he just wants a bigger slice for his favored pass-through entities.
This is by no possible moral or fiscal standard a Tax "Reform" package, it is purely a gift to the Reptilian Party Donor class and their ideological biases.
Plutocrats Good, the peasants can starve in the streets.
Oh wait, we already have people living on the streets, something that only begins to appear in this country during the era of Ronald Reagan.
5
Who's the 'Genius' who comes out with the idea of bundling 'tax cut' and ACA repeal together?!
May be 'Genius' Trump and GOP have come to their senses that both bills are not popular among the American working class.
2
What! Suddenly a tiny minority of GOP Senators seem to have grown the beginnings of a spine and remembered that they are supposed to be looking out for the best interests of the ordinary American and not their corporate paymasters. One can only hope the rest of them will grow one too, but it seems doubtful.
4
There are two perspectives about the GOP's regressive tax cut plan.
Perspective 1: cut tax for those who don't really need it
Perspective 2: sneak in a backdoor tax on those who could ill afford it
By now, progressives should resign on the first. If Republicans want to give themselves more money, there are not enough votes to stop them. And rich envy is not really good psychologically to those who harbor it anyway.
However, robbing the poor (whether the loot goes to the rich or not) is an immoral thing. The Republicans' argument against estate tax is that it is a double taxation. So is dropping local and state tax deductions. The Republicans cannot argue against the former but choose to move on the other.
Removing the individual mandate is another backdoor tax against those who need health insurance. To make matter worse, the young who thought they could skip insuring themselves could easily develop non-aged related diseases, especially when we now have an anti-environmental EPA. Then there are catastrophic incidents. Health insurance could help to deflate the cost in the aftermath. This is just simple math.
Any Republicans with a slightest sense of decency should follow Sen Ron Johnson of Wisconsin lead to oppose the current form not because it enriches the rich but because it is immoral to the rest.
73
The estate tax is not "double taxation." The deceased are not taxed. They are dead. It is the heirs that are taxed.
1
There outta be a law that no president can sign a tax reform bill until and unless his or her tax returns have been made public. Otherwise, those voting on the bill as well as the public have no idea how the bill effects the person signing it. No matter who the president is, this is just plain wrong.
242
This shouldn't even be a point of discussion—it's so obviously right—but have a scoundrel as a president now and so it does need pointing out. You're absolutely right.
Conflicted interests is all there is to these bagpeople and gofers.
This Republican monstrosity is every bit as bad as their "health care" bill - actually even worse, because it still throws many millions off health coverage while raising premiums for everyone, AND it distorts the tax code even further in favor of the super-wealthy and largest corporations while crushing the middle class and poor.
Who in the world is in favor of this? Even many of the richest families don't want it. Is this all just so Trump can say he won something?
This bill is sick, and so is the party pushing it.
192
As the owner of a small business I would greatly benefit from the proposed pass through provisions. Yet morally, I am appalled by this and many other giveaways to the already-well-off and mostly the uber-wealthy. How many tens of millions do they need?
1
You forget there are millions of people that do not want to buy expensive health insurance. They would rather buy catastrophic insurance for their health costs. Let the market work. Insurance companies have made a killing of Obamacare. Open your eyes!!!
If you describe someone as conniving, you mean you dislike them because they make secret plans in order to get things for themselves or harm other people. YEP, that is the word.
Any normal reasonable American, knows beyond all doubt, that this tax bill is another gift to corporate America, and to the wealthiest Americans, and it is another kick in the face to the poor and the middle-class.
The world is watching, as it has been these last couple of years, horrified that the once dependable bastion of liberty and justice has abdicated, replaced by something alien, ugly, and intent on sowing discord not only here, but everywhere on the planet.
We are an historic disgrace.
310
You do realize the most wealthy Americans are mostly Democrats, right?
1
"once dependable bastion of liberty and justice" When was that?
Mel Farrell, a very heartfelt commentary and so sadly true. In my lifetime and I go back a ways I can't recall that our country has ever been in such peril. That one political party has stolen so much from our country and now threatens the rest of the world for the sake of greed and power is indeed shameful. The Republicans have succeeded in dumbing down enough of our citizenry along with outright fraud and theft to pose the greatest threat I believe this once great democracy of ours have ever faced. Along with foreign enemies intervention we are now governed by a minority who seek to bankrupt the backbone of American middle class by seeking to legislate only by minority and against the will of the great majority of the American people. Please citizens at every future election vote for any party, any politician that is NOT Republican !
2
A bill for Wall Street, not Main Street, for the CEO and not the worker, for states that are poor while maliciously harming the states that are the economic engines of the country. Universities and students are harmed. 13 million Americans will lose their healthcare while others will see their premiums go up.
Cui bono? Not the country which will see the deficit jump by $1.5 trillion. Not the middle class, working class or poor or the sick. The wealthy and the large corporations which already have been making record profits and benefiting from the stock markets.
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy man to enter the kingdom of God. So the GOP decided to give the wealthy robber barons their own feudal kingdoms in America from the great formerly public lands to the polluted seas. It's not like the underclasses will live long enough to object or be allowed to vote once the White House's elections integrity commission has its way. Vive Le Roi!
70
You know, SMB, never thought I'd say this, especially after nearly 70 years alive, but I'm truly afraid for this United States of America, for people who will live into a future which is being designed by elites solely for their betterment, their exclusive benefit and protection.
Most will come to know, and experience a return to serfdom, and the new self-appointed Lords of Finance will rule for generations.
1
Can we keep in mind hypocrisy?
"Republicans ,,, did not renew CHIP for 9 million children. They are completely desensitized..."
Democrats favored renewing CHIP, as this comment suggests. But they never suggested paying for it. They left that part to future generations.
It's immoral to support a government spending program but assign the burden to future generations. That's exactly what you do when you use "deficit financing" to fund current expenditures. You spend someone else's money -- your children and grandchildren.
12
You should credit the Democrats for the fact that they DID pay for the Affordable Care Act.
The Democrats took all summer. The Democrats held dozens of committee hearings with expert testimony. The Democrats sent revised bills to the CBO for scoring a dozen times.
And the result was a health care bill that brought the uninsurance rate to the lowest level ever and which was paid for.
2
I agree MyThreeCents. The 1.5 trillion dollar deficit needed to fund this tax break for the ultra wealthy and their corporations will leave future generations bereft of any funds for their own health and welfare.
"...concerned about the national debt, which topped $20 trillion even before consideration..."
Seems to me that this has been the way, one might even say the American Way, for quite a while. Democrat AND Republican...
$20 trillion.
That's a lot of money to be asking of your children, their children en their children's children. And since China is going to be the leader of the world, and its money soon, if the US government maintains this foreign 'policy'....., expect a call for the bill to be settled sooner then later.
The current tax proposal benefits the 1% who hide their money offshore anyway. We need strong leaders have the courage to vote “no”.
83
Who isn't addicted to the handouts of the mega-rich in Congress?
The goal of tax reform is to reduce income inequality and to grow the economy in ways that will increase the wealth of the middle class. Clearly, the Republicans are skewing the tax burden in a way that makes inequality worse. However, if increased growth can be achieved, it is possible that even a regressive tax bill could serve the overall purpose.
Liberals are as sure as sure can be that no growth will come of tax cuts. Still, it is important to know Republican thinking. If they consider growth dubious, then their bill is a sham. If they believe in good faith that their prposals can create the kind of growth we need, then we need know how they explain that.
All the focus is on the distribution of the tax burden. None is on what the Republicans say about growth. Politics is not just true or false. There is also good faith and honesty. Climate change is a science. Economics is a social science. We can disagree on most economic matters even if nobody is lying.
6
Michjas, the "rising ride floats all boats" approach to tax policy has been pretty thoroughly discredited.
Large "supply-side" tax cuts were tried under Presidents Reagan and Bush. There is no evidence that either resulted in measurably faster economic growth, but both contributed to rising deficits and growing wealth inequality. Do we really need to try this failed, multi-trillion dollar experiment a third time?
The GOP drafts legislation behind closed doors, has expected votes on proposals that have barely seen the light of day or not at all, has not allowed opposing input, has preferred to describe their proposals via vague, populist sloganeering such as “great for America” or “great for jobs” rather than explaining their logic and reasoning (true debate is not even in the discussion), and best of all, clearly intends to pass their proposals on party line votes. Last, the opinions of outside experts do not appear to carry much weight with most Republicans. So, really, it seems pretty safe to conclude that good faith and honesty are concepts in which the GOP has zero interest.
You are giving too much credit … there is no real GOP thinking apparent, it’s just agenda. The proposed tax bill will have real life negative consequences for real life people if enacted. People who will immediately have their personal economics upended cannot wait for some pie-in-the-sky trickle-down that history tells us will never materialize. Meanwhile the wealthy will walk to the banks with their new found bags of cash since they don’t really need it. The working class and the poor will be skimmed and scammed, again.
This is a terribly bad tax bill for the middle class. They get increased taxes
The bill is a giveaway to the rich and to corporations,
Where are the people who were hired when corporations got last tax break? Even the ceos of corporations say they would not create more jobs with the money from tax breaks.
This bill should not be passed by congress.
72
I cannot agree with your conclusions or the Times gold star on your comments. You seem to suggest that tax money saved would simply go in the mattress. How ridiculous! Businesses across the country struggle to exist and the thought of hiring more people for expansion is generally out of the question. What do businesses need to expand? More water?
Observe what happens to wages in supermarkets as Jeff Bezos moves to take over the industry with price-cutting.
1
Yes, you are confused. Big US businesses have about $2 trillion (that's "two thousand billion dollars") socked away doing nothing. Apple alone has more than $250 billion in cash, doing nothing. (Don't believe me? Google "apple cash reserves".) They're not doing anything constructive with what they already have. They don't need a tax cut. (Google "cohn raise hands".) They would benefit far more if the 90%, all of us little people, got a tax cut so that we would go out and buy more stuff.
This tax bill just like the healthcare bill should be bipartisan. Not some backroom secret bill. This is a gift to the 300-400 richest families in the country. Then 200 of them with scruples have written a letter stating that they do not want tax cuts, in fact they would regathering have tax increases to help the middle and lower class. We have heard the top corporate tell Cohn they will not suddenly reinvest by opening new factories.
As John MCCain said during the Healthcare, we need a return to regular order.
People did not vote for single party rule. They voted for bipartisanship.
80
People voted for fair and effective government, not too big, not too small.
1
Bipartisanship requires two parties who work in good faith, and calling the GOP even a bad parody of a good-faith party is an insult to bad parodies. Don't bother with "bipartisanship" with them; just vote Democrat.
Or, if you absolutely do want bipartisanship, vote Green so we can have a second sane party in Congress that Democrats can work with.
1
They voted for single party rule. That's how it happened. People voted. Now consequences of their poor judgement will bite.
1
Only two basic tax reform changes are needed at this time:
1) An increase of the incremental tax rates on the very wealthy.
2) A moderate decrease of corporate tax rates.
Historically, when the wealthy have paid more, and the corporations slightly less, compared to today's levels, then the overall economy has performed extremely well. Of course, such simplicity and facts are not in alignment with either party's, but especially the G.O.P.'s, ideas of success and progress.
40
If this passes, we will no longer be able to deduct itemized deductions on our tax returns. For those of us who are older or younger people major health concerns this is an abomination.
43
The article fails to mention that one-third of benefits of the corporate tax reduction (for which our Treasury will borrow $1.5 trillion and our Congress will wreck our healthcare system) goes to foreign investors. We are making America great for billionaires here and abroad.
67
The next time you come across a friend or acquaintance of like mind who says "I am not voting, it doesn't make a difference or matter anyway" drag him or her... kicking and screaming if you have to, to the polls.....
The next time you come across an idealistic friend or acquaintance who votes for a candidate with utopian policies that *everyone* knows won't even make a 5% threshold in this country but may very well swing a margin of error election -- Remind him or her that voting against what they don't like is a far more practical choice then voting for what they do and ending up what they despise instead.....
51
Nagging doesn’t get out the vote, and if I had a friend like you, it wouldn’t be for long.
I remember people fighting tooth and nail over mandatory auto insurance -- but thirty-some years later, 48 out of 50 states mandate auto insurance for all drivers and drivers take it for granted that they must have insurance.
Our health is way more important than cars. So what's the big deal about mandated health insurance?
79
The means of charging for a person's lifetime of health care are extremely contentious in the US.
For whatever reasons, Senator Johnson (R-WI) has a valid point. Small business is the engine of our economy, an engine that needs adequate lubricantion to maintain high performance.
Mega corporation, in my opinion, are multinational, nothing American about them except their mailing address. The mega corporations get their tax cut from the US and they invest in some other country.
The tax code could make or break the middle class, and the Republicans appear to have chosen to break the middle class.
52
Johnson has always been an advocate for small business, so his objection to the bill is in no way an aberration. Also, he believes in citizen representation and does not want to be a career politician, so he pledged to serve only two terms, of which this is the second. He is not running for re-election and does not care about potential pushback from Trump or the RNC. This is a good advertisement for term limits -- we now see Johnson, Corker and Flake voting their conscience regardless of the party line.
Here you are in a global mall being bombarded with advertising and promises of delivery in days of whatever you want. This is a gig economy now.
Why aren't the great heroes McCain, Collins, Flake and Corker, all with nothing to lose, insisting that both houses follow normal legislative procedures on something this fundamental to how our government obtains its revenue? A subsidiary question might be how in the world Collins can remain in the Republican party, but that's her problem. I don't support either House's bill, but more essentially, core legislation like this should never be railroaded through without several layers of consideration.
68
If the GOP wants to do tax reform it should be a clean bill without healthcare and drilling in the Alaska Wildlife refuge attached. Shame on the GOP!!!!!
102
Look the Democrats are really stupid; they should be vocal about this issue and offering an alternative plan. For instance, increase taxes on the 1 % instead of cutting them. And since we now know how much money is hidden off shore if they would only tax that they might be able to cut the deficit instead of adding to it; Apple alone has $200 billion off shore. That's kind of sick. Tom Perez and the others get off your back side and open your mouths.
65
I've been saying for months exactly that. And they wonder why they lose elections.
What is the point of wasting time in introducing legislation that will most definitely (not probably) be shot down before it has a chance of seeing the light of the day? And, I believe several have worked on committees with alternative plans, which of course, are going nowhere.
I disagree. They are not stupid. I don't think you understand what is really going on here. With no majority in the US House nor US Senate, Democratic lawmakers in DC do not have the legislative power to propose ANYTHING. Never mind proposing an alternative tax plan. They are NOT ALLOWED at the table to contribute or edit even 1 sentence to this proposed tax bill.
So Senator Johnson is concerned that there will be more tax breaks for big business than small business. Did I miss something here? What about the average person or don't we count?
41
Not in the least.
2
I have sent emails to Congressman Rohrbacher to please oppose this tax bill, but to no avail. I wonder How this tax bill is going to affect his Russian handlers?
26
If only there were public hearings and public deliberations! To have a legislature that doesn't legislate by sneak attack would be great.
Well, every time the GOP pulls a stunt like this, I increase my donations to the Dems. It just goes to show that Virginia and New Jersey were not strong enough messages. Clear the House in 2018.
67
How could any Republican in good conscience support this bill? It is not revenue neutral, but balloons the deficit enormously, and it is nothing more than welfare for corporations and wealthy individuals. This bill is an embarrassment.
60
one of the writer did point out correctly that setting the individual tax cuts to end before 10 yrs should not be criticized as unfair. It is only meant to comply with senate rules against adding to the deficit over 10 years. If they keep to this ruling then the republicans will not have to submit to a filibuster and they can win by a simple majority vote. They can always renew the tax cut after that and they probably will, as they did under Bush. So let's stop referring to the problem of the temporary individual tax cuts The bill stinks for other reasons far more important and real.
14
The liberal media is so caught up on the narrative against Trump, they completely ignore and fail to analyze how the tax cuts will lead to a growing economy that will generate more income and then larger income tax collections for the government.
1
You can believe the Tax Bill con if you wish, we see through the scam. Trickle down economics has historically failed, the rich will gain, the rest of us will pay....
54
The idea that this bill is going to grow our economy or government revenue is nonsense. Taking money away from the middle class and poor, who spend it, and giving it to the super-rich, who hoard it in offshore accounts, will hurt not help.
And extensive history shows that corporations will offshore or pocket their increased profits, not invest them in wages.
Trickle down doesn't work. Never has, never will.
56
"fail to analyze how the tax cuts will lead to a growing economy..." We've tried this with Reagan and Bush II. It didn't work. The proof? Bill Clinton raised taxes against all of the rhetoric by Republicans that "raising taxes will kill the economy, " put us into a depression," etc. Didn't happen the 90s had spectacular growth.
1
"I can't believe I'm losing to this guy"
Some Democrat, somewhere, is saying those words.
I believe the Republicans, truly, don't know what they are doing.
Maybe they need to breakup into several parties. They seem not to agree on so many things in so many ways.
The Democrsts need not to believe they can win by doing nothing ('cause that's what they've been doing.)
3
Thank you, Senator Ron Johnson!
13
Republican budget proposals = Let the eat cake
9
To Mark, the commenter who views the individual mandate as un-American. Did you know that the individual mandate was a Republican idea, insisted on by The Heritage Foundation and the (Republican CEO-led) health insurance companies, to protect them from adverse selection (meaning people would only sign up when they knew they were really sick, which would either wreck the economics for the insurers or drive premiums to unaffordable levels? Do you have state-mandated auto insurance (same principle)? Do you participate in Social Security and Medicare FICA deductions at work? State Disability Income deductions? Do you understand that "insurance" is a pool that many people pay into because none of us knows when we will get breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, etc.? Or are you one of those people who believe that a) God will protect you or b) your inherent clean living will protect you from the laws of chance or your own genetic code?
54
Give corporations that are hurting "so badly" a choice....the current tax system or 20% tax rate with zero, none, zilch loopholes. I guarantee they will want to keep our current system. This is all a joke.
23
It is easy for the Republicans to smash and break ACA and eliminate tax benefits for the middle class. They had a good warm up act when they did not renew CHIP for 9 million children. They are completely desensitized to hurting millions.
28
Why oh why were so many Americans so stupid in last year's election. They not only put a complete idiot in the White House, the filled both Houses of Congress with a majority of Republicans whose objective is obvious: to give more benefits to their benefactors, the wealthy corporate industrialists and leave the crumbs for the rest of US. Who were all these dunderheads who drank the snake oil? Who thought a billionaire con artist and White Supremacists like the not so bright Breitbart Reich Fuhrer SS Bannon had the solution to this nation's problems. They have only made the deep divisions we already had worse, far worse. We have so devolved as a Society voters in Alabama would choose to vote for a racist misogynist pedophile instead of a Democrat who has actually done some good for their state. Is the world going crazy? Or is it merely the Red States in the US? Either way until this sinking ship of state is righted we are doomed. And so we better get cracking and start salvaging this vessel before we have nothing left to save.
DD
Manhattan
35
Blaming voters is exactly the major flaw of the system: the system itself never bares the blame, thus it is not accountable.
1
The GOP screams about the deficit ONLY when there’s a Democrat in the White House.
Such blatant hypocrisy.
35
That is for sure. The same people blocked President Obama immediately following the financial crisis in 2008 stating that a larger stimulus bill devoted to infrastructure would not create permanent jobs but just add to the deficit. At least we would be left with infrastructure. This is going to further burden people already paying high taxes, split States and further concentrate wealth to the very top.
1
"Taxation without representation is tyranny."
An oligarch demanding tax breaks for the wealthiest corporation and individuals on the back of the working pool and working middle class while cutting government assistance to the most needy is trying to take us back the days of George III. We know who you are Boss Tweet.
27
Totally agree with you. I'm calling my representative to ask this as well. Unbelievable what's going on in this country. Really.
6
I am sympathetic to those who have to pay so much of their income in the Affordable Health Care mandate. It seems to make it impossible for some of the selfemployed to support themselves adequately. But I also see that if you elimiate the mandate you will force those who need insurance to pay more for it (as the healthy will opt out frm ins). It seems that congress made a choice to allow people to have health insurance or to make it easier for them to be self employed and it chose health insurance affordability for the most. Maybe this could be worked out in improved legislation that allows for more of a compromise, rather than ending the mandate. But in the end, none of this should be in a tax overhaul bill . it is just a too important and potentially hurtful to too many people to not settle the health care problem on its own.
8
Every American with little retirement should memorialize FDR for their Social Security checks. Is it too much to provide decent, affordable, healthcare to the citizens of America. What does "Make America Great Again " mean?
12
Shut this bill down! Any senator who keeps this self interest bill that’s so destructive to Americans who pay them from hiking thorough gets some respect from me! Come on guys show some American patriotism and speak up about how unacceptable it is. It’s a rich get richer and with the loss of tax from the rich and corporations they want to eliminate health care and make up the loss from finishing Medicare!
Is this really America. If this goes through America is over!
15
I sure wish a reduction in the military budget, as well as our overseas obligations, was on the table. We have 1.3 million active duty personnel which could be reduced by a well trained reserve force. The carrier groups are not necessary. That Navy base in Bahrain is turning into a small city. I for one am sick of it. I support the function of the military but not the mis-management of it.
13
Wish is the significant word here. Never gonna happen.
Poor and middle class people go to jail for breaking the law. The wealthy individuals and their representatives simply change to laws to commit crimes.
The wealthy individuals "Donate" to campaigns, then the Representatives give them tax cuts and buy each others votes to do it by making changes to the laws.
It's the R.epublicans I.nfluence C.riminal O.rganization.
12
Fake News! Trump is for the people, so he'll only approve a tax cut for the people. Even if it goes to the corporations, or their tax havens, the people own the corporations, and the tax havens have to be sheltering someone! The people! ^^
This is what I wrote my representative and senators:
Both the Senate and the House tax plans are awful. Limiting or eliminating deductions for state income tax and mortgage interest will hurt many of your constituents. That is not the way of our state, and we don't support it.
If you really must raise income taxes on ordinary citizens to lower taxes for corporations (including foreign corporations and out of state corporations), maybe it is not really worth it.
But if you feel that is who you are, or must be, then consider these alternative means of recouping those costs:
1. Tax dividend and capital gains taxes at exactly the same rate people who actually work for a living pay.
2. Get rid of the ridiculous carried interest tax loophole; Nothing says "I am bought" like a congressperson who allows this grossly unfair tax windfall to continue.
3. Increase the Estate Tax. Look, the kids who happen to be lucky enough to have been born into rich families have all the good fortune they need. They don't need tax free money (which they didn't earn) when their parents die. The silver spoon in their mouths should be enough for them.
4. Consider a nominal financial transaction tax. Keep it low, .25 %. But with the amount of money changing hands every day, this could be a major source of revenue for the government. Just some ideas.
But please don't sign on to any plan which increases the deficit. Don't you think you've saddled the next generation with enough?
20
Under their plan, individual tax cuts would end in 2025. Evidently the Republicans have figured out that their Base will have disappeared by then.
13
They’ll be out of office and blame it on the democrats who are there to clean up the mess again. The GOP AND TRUMP OWN THIS!!!!
You know, only about 25% of the population is made up of the kinda people who just take it too far. Sensation seeking, short sighted, paranoid, destructive, prideful, greedy, crappy types who, left unbounded, will escalate to the point of implosion. That is what we are witnessing in the GOP right now.
17
I think I've finally figured it out, the Republican party has gone completely off the rails. These guys are absolutely bonkers. From the top down, this party has lost its mind. From Trump, McConnell, Ryan, down to state and local races, to the very depths with Roy Moore, this party is imploding. This is what happens when a political party is given absolute power, they try to rule absolutely. And since they are being run by a cadre of madmen they can't get out of their own way. Stumbling and bumbling, a year in power and nothing has been accomplished. As a lifelong Liberal Dem I am most gratified, but I am also shocked by their sheer incompetence. There doesn't seem to be but a few sane Republicans left in Congress. They have a president who's an idiot, a demagogic racist and sexual predator, taking orders from the not too bright Breitbart Reich Fuhrer SS Bannon. There's Ryan having to kowtow to the rants of the Freedumb Caucus, and then there's Mitch the Turtle McConnell, who because he has a few reputable senators like McCain, Flake, Collins and Murkowski, unable to get this draconian legislation passed. Thank God for small favors.
That leaves US down to one semi-functional political party. As a Dem I am gratified. Because as a Dem since the days of JFK I and other Dems will make sure our party does not do what the Republicans have, and that is to allow corporations to turn us into Fascists like the Republicans.
DD
Manhattan
19
The GOP is sending this country to socialism. They are bought by the corporations and people like the Koch brothers. No longer will we fight their wars and protect their interests abroad if they won’t have allegiance to the country and people that have made them rich.
5
If the GOP can't function with less than 65 or 70 Senators, it probably never will. We'll go through another dreadful Obama-style slow-growth economy until some new president can be selected that the swamp rats can smile about.
1
We are coming to the end of cheap oil. We cannot have infinite growth on a planet with finite resources. Climate refugees, political unrest, growing population...you will look back ten years from now and wax poetic about the Obama years. You do remember that before Obama took office the global economic system was hanging by a gossamer thread, yes? Slow-growth economies are better that no economy at all.
With the new blood pressure guidelines more people will now have pre-existing conditions and will need prescription medications. I have to wonder if those numbers were taken into consideration when CBO did their analysis? One Senator has said no today and I hope more who are on the fence say no when this comes to a vote.
5
Paul Ryan and his Congress (with two active sexual assaulters there, he should be so proud--well, one Republican and one Democrat, but both in the high school that is congress) are little kids making bills out of mudpies and wondering why the Senate doesn't bake them all into delicious pies. Morons.
5
DJT says the economy is doing well, stock market saw its biggest gain since he took office, unemployment down.
If this is the case, why the need to push a big tax plan at this time that benefits corporations at the expense of millions of the average people losing their health care?
14
Every time I think a Republican bill can't get any worse...well, I just need to read the news to see that it has.
This party spent 8 years blocking every single democratic initiative, but with the most force on anything the would increase the deficit event slightly. They then promised to introduce a tax bill that cut taxes but wouldn't increase the deficit at all (with followers who actually believed you could have less money come in, yet still not increase the deficit). Then when the bills were introduced, it turned out that, yeah, you can't give the rich a tax cut without increasing the deficit. But it appears they can somehow market a bill that 'cuts' taxes for the middle class, but in reality, won't.
Now in the last 24 hours or so, it comes out that a) they will bring back the failed Obamacare repeal efforts into the tax bill, and b) they are going to include the removing protections for Alaska land, so we can drill oil....lovely since our planet apparently isn't dying fast enough. What's striking is the republicans have been campaigning to repeal Obamacare since the day it became a law, and now even with full control of the government can't remove it, and after several failures at doing so, are now trying to squeeze it through in tax legislation.
I hope, if nothing else, this causes the tax bill to fail. Its a disastrous bill for anyone except for the people who make as much money as Trump himself.
10
...As we THINK Trump makes. HAve you seen his tax returns? Me, either.
Republicans do believe, however, that Iraqi citizens deserve government-run health care. Republicans also believe health care is a right for Iraqis.
Article 31 of the Iraqi Constitution, signed into law by by GWB in 2005, and ratified by the Iraqi people:
“First: Every citizen has the right to health care. The State shall maintain public health and provide the means of prevention and treatment by building different types of hospitals and health institutions.
Second: Individuals and entities have the right to build hospitals, clinics,or private health care centers under the supervision of the State, and this shall be regulated by law.“
3
Sadly Trump and GOP supporters are too drug addled on opioids, too brainwashed via Fox News, and too plain dumb to give a damn that their tax burden is being increased while they are being stripped of their healthcare.
13
With a damaged and disputed da Vinci selling for $450 million, with the Koch brothers trying to help buy Time, Inc. with a $500 million infusion, with an opioid epidemic scouring the country, with mass killings occurring seemingly daily and with an unrestrained, untrained and perhaps deranged Trump "steering" our ship, one would think the Republicans would be a little circumspect about engaging in simultaneous, cruel and devastating tax and health care "overhauls". Imagine what foul fruits they might reap for themselves and our country.
8
Why don’t the Koch brothers and all their friends hiding their money off shore move there. They are ruining this country and all of the values America stands for. This is not the America our grandparents fought for.
3
I hope they fail again in this latest destructive mission.
6
This article alludes to the consequences of eliminating the individual mandate to buy health insurance. Paul Krugman explains very clearly and succinctly how it works in his column of July 10, 2017 ("Three Legs Good, No Legs Bad").
The key is that without a mandate, healthy people may decide they can do without insurance for now. The rest is a spiral of drains on insurers' coffers, rising premiums, and fewer people who are willing and able to pay in.
Republicans jeer at the notion of "making people buy coverage for conditions they may never have", but guarding against disastrous chance is the essence of insurance. In this case, it's also essential to everyone's well-being and, ultimately, to the nation's productivity and economic viability.
The attempt to get rid of the mandate reminds me of George W. Bush's idea of getting people to stake their retirement security on the stock market instead of the Social Security system.
4
One good thing about a $20,000,000,000,000 national debt...
It's hard to think of anything at all good about that, but at least it's likely to keep interest rates low. A mere 1% increase in the average borrowing rate for the US government works out to an extra $200,000,000,000 a year, which would be a huge drag on the economy and hurt many people.
1
This drum beat that the Republicans and Trump need a win (any win) before 2018 elections is ludicrous. I can understand but doing things at the behest of their mega donor class to benefit themselves at the expense of the sick, poor and middle class is a pathetic argument for doing it. These guys are a bunch of "takers"! If only they addressed the populist needs of the public at large as Trump had promised would there be a true win for all Americans! If not the Republicans and the President will have to be voted out for a bait and switch tactic that is unethical, immoral and inhuman.
5
For his malevolent form of government and his destruction of true American ideals and values (not just the jingoistic flag-waving kind), Trump does not deserve a win, any win. He disgraces and undermines our country daily, aided and abetted by virtually all congressional Republicans. Shame on them as well as everyone who voted for this cadre of scoundrels.
Auto insurance is mandated, yet people object to a health insurance mandate?
That is just weird - on oh so many levels.
And, yes, I would make changes to the ACA to improve it. Better yet, let's move on to single-payer catastrophic coverage.
7
You have admit, the Republicans are both consistent and despicable. They maybe, sort of, have a shot at an historically disastrous tax bill that targets middle and low income America. And what do they do? Go for messing with a health care law that is overwhelmingly popular. Go for it, fellas. Thanks.
4
As a suburban middle class voter with children, I have called my congressional representative to vote "no" on the House bill. Frankly, my congressional rep is too beholden to corporate America to care about us regular income voters. He thinks we are too stupid and that we'll accept a $500 or $1000 tax cut and be willing to use that tax cut and more to pay $3000-$5000 more for our kids' college costs and health care costs.
I have a message for Mr. Paulsen: go ahead and vote yes if you dare, and watch us kick you out of office in 2018. Don't look so shocked when the door hits you on the way out.
are forced to paying
6
The bill is a piece of junk -- to put it politely. There is no need for a tax cut, certainly not for the rich. We are undertaxed, not overtaxed as a country. Let's face it. This is the greatest country in the world in which to be rich and one of the worst in which to be poor or middle class. What are these people thinking of? Is this all about who gives them money to run for office? Are these Republicans totally corrupt?
24
Yes, totally corrupt.
12
Totally. Rich people should be paying MORE in taxes. MUCH MORE.
Ron Johnson is against it (I can almost forgive him for defeating Russ Feingold), Susan Collins will probably defect, then it takes only one more GOP Senator to kill the damn thing. C'mon, Corker, you've got nothing to lose and stand to gain a place in history for stopping this monstrosity from becoming law.
8
The KLEPTOCRATIC KAKISTOCRACY has never been more apparent.
Kleptocratic: Of a government or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; of rule by a thief or thieves.
Kakistocracy: A government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power.
9
Like most taxpayers, I'd like my taxes to be lower than they are. But I'd like even more to have spending and revenue be roughly equal, rather than continue to run up huge deficits year after year after year. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I suspect most taxpayers want deficits reduced or eliminated, even if that means no tax cut.
3
In reality it means tax increases somewhere, because there is no realistic path by which expenditures can be cut to match current revenue.
And I see that reality, and I accept it.
1
In Paine's "The Crisis" he shows us a Tory who puts a hand on his son's shoulder and says "Well, give me peace in my day" failing to realize that his son will have to pay for his selfishness. Those who support this bill must be forced to realize that their children and grandchildren will be paying for this bill long after they are dead.
6
At a conference today hosted by The Wall Street Journal, a large group of assembled CEO's from significant U.S. companies were asked, by none other than Gary Cohn, Trump's chief economic advisor, how many of them would direct the savings resultant from the proposed lowering of the corporate tax rate into new plant and equipment spending, wages, expansion, etc. To Cohn's obvious embarrassment and horror, only 5 hands were raised! Exhibit A of just one of the major lies these immoral plutocrats are trying to peddle on the nation.
13
That's because trickle down economics is a crook's sales pitch. Imagine you are the CEO of a company and the US government says to you: if your corporate tax rate increase and the individual income tax rate is cut from 35% to 20% (that's a $15k tax saving for consumers with income of $100k), consumers will use that $15k tax savings to buy more stuff and YOUR company's sales revenue will increase. It is a good deal for your company.
A logical CEO will ask: so if they don't spend the tax savings, my corporate taxes just got increased and all I got was a nominal revenue increase. I see no upside for my company. Do you think I am an idiot? No thanks!
As an outsider, I find Americans’ concerns about the individual mandate a bit quaint.
Australia has a two per cent levy on taxable income to partially fund a national health insurance scheme which is a pretty good safety net for everyone. If people want, and can afford, private insurance as well, there is nothing to stop them.
When the levy was first proposed by the government in the 1970s, there was the kind of wailing and gnashing of teeth that we see in America today. So, if it’s any help, Australians have long since seen the merits of the levy, and now wonder what all the fuss was about in the first place.
4
Yeah but you have a "national health insurance scheme which is a pretty good safety net for everyone" as you say. That does not describe the health insurance system in the U.S. in any way shape or form.
Wait . . . a GOP Senator who favors working stiffs over mega-corporations.
Is that even possible?
2
Maybe, maybe not. Keep in mind that some multi-billion dollar businesses, including Koch Industries (yes, owned by those guys) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, are organized as "pass-throughs" (S corporations). They're not all mom-and-pop operations.
4
There is some confusion about the elimination of the ACA mandate. This isn't like any of the repeal and replace plans. McConnell doesn't want to do this. It will make ACA much more popular. People hate the mandate.
Health insurance on the exchanges is still very expensive. 49% of Americans don't know that because they get employer subsidized health insurance. Another 36% of Americans don't realize that because they already have some form of government health like VA or Medicare.
Eliminating the mandate lets those who can't afford the exchange plans have a real option. 14 million will voluntarily choose to not buy health insurance. ACA put an unfair burden on them. Insurers will have less profits because these 14 mil people are correct. The plans they are offered are not good deals.
ACA will be stronger and then it can be made better.
1
The GOP seems to have collectively lost its mind. The American people are watching.
5
what an ugly charade.
5
GOP does not care about the bottom 90 percent of Americans while helping the top 10 percent income bracket which need the least help.
5
Few things are more important than stomping on this nasty tax-health bill that selfishly punishes the people who deserve the most protection from it!. That is the evil Trump and his fascist comrades would perpetrate in the name of Money, the holy of Holies that none of these richies need. Selfish inhuman the lot of them---except for a meager few.
3
The good news is The Tax package is sinking like a stone, like the RMS Titanic did. The best part of this past year is we have President Trump, not President Pence who could pull the troops together and get some of their agenda moving forward. Please God it stays this way, 3 more years of nothing constructive happening but also not too much destructive also. Sadly the Reps are stacking the courts and with young people so the lower courts are going to be swinging right for better than a generation. If the sane people are not careful and another Supreme Court seat becomes available, the right is going to get their agenda done through the courts, forget Congress and the White House. Scared yet?????
4
Now that the GOP knows that good christian GOP voters will vote en masse for a pedophile for senator, rather than vote for a Democrat...well, now they know they are free to do anything.
I've always been amazed at tribal conflict in other parts of the world, since from my perspective the tribes seemed to have more similarities than differences. Take Rwanda, Yugoslavia, or Iraq for example. And now we see American tribalism's grip on our culture. Up is down, water is dry, and morals be damned. The majority of Trump supporters are seething with anger, and cheer the outright destruction of institutions built over decades. Take Harvard, one of the most admired universities in the world. It is already suffering from a drop in international applicants due to Trump's hate rhetoric, and will be penalized with this new GOP tax plan. Students cannot deduct tuition loan interest. The Lifetime Learning credit is eliminated. Repair of their historic classroom buildings will not be deductible. Graduate students will see their tax rates rise. Research will wither on the vine. We are witnessing the stunning GOP engineering of the collapse of hope and opportunity for the common man. While we are ever more desperate, like Willy Loman grasping at the illusion of the American Dream.
7
Picture a horde of zombies shuffling and staggering relentlessly toward their next meal. That is what most Republicans seem to do, no matter what.
Take away insurance from 20 million? We need tax cuts.
Send 1/6 of the economy into a death spiral? We need tax cuts.
Take away prized middle class deductions? Tax cuts.
Promise that trickle-down will work this time, really, for sure. Tax cuts.
The polling shows a small percentage actually believe this is "For the Middle Class." Most know it's a giant give away to corporations and the wealthy that the middle class will pay for.
None of that seems to matter as Republicans stumble onward. They're going to stuff this giant turkey with goodies to attract votes. I hope at least a few of them are able to snap out of it.
8
Too bad, they're done regardless of how they vote. We are throwing out all of these liars, crooks, corporate stooges, religious fakirs, and political prostitutes in 2018, and in 2020. Say good bye to the trough, piggies, get legit jobs, if you don't end up behind bars where you belong. We don't want the Republican Party reformed, we want it DONE. We've had it with the trauma and drama of your endless efforts to destroy our government, and reduce the American people to serfs. Even genuinely conservative minded people of good will (all three or four of them) are finally seeing the Republican Party for what it is: a concierge service for the rich, that neither cares for the nation's welfare or its best interests, whose only imperative is stealing more tax money for their owners, the Koch Brothers. All their other fabricated issues: abortion, family values (ha!) the defecit,the 2nd Amendment, and the rest of their malarkey are just window dressing to gull the rubes, yahoos and morons who constitute their "base" into pulling that R lever one more time. And above all, their policies and politicians always end in domestic disaster and foreign fiascos: Reagan and his phony baloney trickle down tax cuts, Iran Contra; Bush I: crack epidemic, dead economy and Panama; Bush 2: first 911 (asleep at the switch) then lying us into Iraq, Katrina, and he big bust of 2008. Just look at the current basket case known as Kansas to see where Republican policies invariably lead - to a waste land.
7
I am sure that eliminating the estate tax will make Ivanka and Don Jr and Eric and Tiffany forever grateful to the forgotten man.
7
Maybe they'll have an incentive to ....Donald trump!
If one listened to the right wing's daily talking points
Corporations need more money
Rich investors are going broke
The only thing between higher income for daily workers is taxes on dividends
Trust us, we're not owned by our money master's and their political donations.
Hillary Clinton is the real problem, not Donald's Russian mobsters
7
Republican Senators, please do the right thing for ordinary American citizens and reject this unfair give-away to corporations. There's no"trickle down" here; just more smoke and mirrors and really bad sleight of hand. To top it off, there's now another attempt to damage the Affordable Care Act tied into this bill. Vote NO on this travesty!
4
Offering America a 1.5 Trillion dollar deficit to be made up on the backs of the middle class probably by raiding Medicare and Medicaid ought to be enough to throw Trump out on his ear but here we sit with the morons like Orrin Hatch supporting this debacle. Our Senator Gardner better not vote for this mess!
7
Look. Everyone is for tax reform. But it had better take care of the working middle class and the poor. The rich and corporations must have the door slammed on tax evasion. Lock a few of them up to make an example. Show us that you mean to extract fair taxes from the rich and big corporations AND THEN you can come to us wage earners. Education. Medical Care. Retirement. Make those things a priority before rewarding the rich.
10
Only if we elect a Democratic President in 2020 and veto proof majorities in the house and Senate, hopefully starting in 2018;
The 2020 election is three long years away. Plenty of time for the bought and paid for Reptilian Congress to do their duty to their donor class.
Meanwhile the Voter Suppression and misery Caucasus just keep grinding us down.
Republican's never cease to amaze me with their callousness. They do not represent the country I have known most of my life. Fifty or so elected officials and a handful of rich donors make long term, life changing decisions that affect millions of people at the blink of an eye. This tax plan has been a deceitful, cruel bill from the beginning. With a deficit that was unacceptable to some Republicans someone under the cloak of darkness decided to throw 13 million people under the bus so the numbers would look better.
So the person just diagnosed with leukemia who lost their insurance can take solace as they face the direness of their situation- one that will affect all of those around them. Their medical dollars are going to the corporations so they can invest money in their businesses and create more jobs. With any luck in a few years maybe a relative will get a job that wouldn't have been there without the sacrifice of the 13 million. Of course many may not live to see the trickle down effect.
Corporations are already flush with cash. Making them more flush is not going create more jobs- just more suffering for those not as fortunate.
8
The Republicans are going down and going down hard. If their policies (which are bad) don't get them, then the demographics will. Take a look at the Republican House of Representatives, virtually all white, older or middle aged men. They don't look like what America looks like. Don't talk about identity politics when I've seen enough old white guys like me tie their identity to their fascination with firearms and ammo.
how hard is it for Congress people to understand that if something is good for them, the same should be good for all of us?
They have health insurance ... so should we all.
what places them above the rest of us?
10
Once again the Trump Republicans are taking away health care from the working and middle classes, in order to give the richest Americans a giant tax cut. This time, however, it's even worse.
Because the deficit will grow by so much, they will need to take away Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and other government programs--in order to give a giant tax cut to the rich.
Some working and middle class folks will see their taxes go up right away, and almost all of the others will see their taxes go up within the next 10 years--in order to give a giant tax cut to the rich.
4
Kudos to the few senators and congressmen who have tentatively come out against this bill which is nothing except a gift to corporations and the one percenters like Trump. Do the rest of the republicans want to lose their congressional jobs? They are headed toward unemployment when their constituents realize what has been done to them.
I can only presume the rest of the republicans have sold their souls to the devil incarnate in their wealthy corporate donors. Do you remember you were elected to serve all the people in your district or your state, not just those who wrote big checks for you? Apparently you have forgotten that.
One of these days the 99 percent will stand up and push the republican congress and their devil playmates over the edge. I hope I live long enough to see that happen. The problem is, that with my taxes about to rise rapidly and with my healthcare about to implode, I may not be long for this world. The republicans in congress -- well, all but a few -- will like that, though. After all, I'm a Democrat and I believe in fairness, healthcare, and opportunity for all, so that makes me the enemy.
285
The Supreme Court has ruled that money is speech. I wonder how many thousands or even millions of voices a single billionaire can drown out.
1
"Kudos to the few senators and congressmen who have tentatively come out against this bill"
We'll give them kudos when they go on record with a VOTE against.
2
I would withhold my kudos if I were you. I have been following Sen. Collins's career for many years, and she most often votes with her party and not with her conscience, presuming she has one. Her vote against repealing the ACA was a rare moment, and should not be construed as a promise of principled votes in the future.
Really?
a conservative bothered by favoring corporations?
Is there some hope yet?
1
Johnson is a known shill for the Kochs. They are the pass-throughs.
The best way to cut taxes is to cut the spending of our bloated government first. Less spending will lead to less need for revenue. It is against all economic logic to increase spending while decreasing income.
2
It’s me, again about the caribou. I can’t get those those beautiful animals out of my mind. I wish I could post a picture of them. We humans, at least we can reason, can try to defense ourselves, but they’re defenseless. And they’re being savaged exactly where they go to give birth. It’s not right.
My source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/letter-former-interior-officials-ar...
6
@violetsmart, you are not alone. A fellow Texan cannot understand this greed, this insatiable lust to destroy what little pristine wildlife habitat we have left all so we can drill for a dirty, unsustainable fuel...to prolong our miserable, unsustainable way of human "living."
So few care about the caribou or have an inkling how valuable and irreplaceable ANWR is in its current state. Kinda like the future of glaciers. A willfully ignorant "Who needs them?"
We will figure out when it is too late.
3
Terrible. Additionally, Trump rescinded the ban on elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia today. Endangered animal. Let's add elephant slaughterer to the list.
Which will be worse for GOP Congress members in 2018: Not passing a tax-cut bill along the current lines, or passing it? Surprise!!
The rats are running scared, realizing the trap they've set for themselves. Either you lose, or you lose. Either a do-nothing Republican-ruled Congress will once again, well, do nothing. Or they'll do something and, once again, bungle the job. To bomb, or to bomb, that is the question.
In either case -- cross your fingers -- they will suffer a well-deserved, hard-fought rout in next year's elections.
9
I have to assume that throwing in the repeal of the individual mandate was done to appease the far-right wing of the Republican party, so that they can swallow the bitter pill that is the swelling of the national debt.
Even then, throwing an already proven to be complicated issue of healthcare into the complexity that is the tax code is just irresponsible. It makes me wonder about all the times that the Republicans pushed back against Democratic policies during Obama and when the Democrats had control of the legislative branch. Has the Republican leadership just been sitting around and sipping cocktails in Foggy Bottom this whole time?
I normally would side with Republicans on economic issues, but this sham of a tax reform bill that has been repeatedly debunked by economists and relies so heavily on the fallacy of "trickle-down economics". I can only hope that enough Republican senators will rise above party lines and really vote on the contents of this bill, rather than vote on the authors who haphazardly wrote it.
5
I am dumbounded at how this GOP senators can go home and look at themselves in the mirror, are they not aware that their collective greed will cause some people to loose insurance possibly die sooner while the rich stashes his millions in offshores accounts. Trickle down economics my foot.
8
Don't "accomplish" anything--pay the bills and keep the lights on but no need for ideologically based laws that will emulate e.g., the Kansas Model.
Sometimes it's just better to do nothing.
2
Let me guess... when the small number of middle income tax rebates expire (expanded deduction for instance), the middle income tax increases (no deduction for state taxes, no deduction for medical, no deduction for...) will stay in place? Another kick the can down the road, we the rich get what we want and you the unwashed masses are unintelligent enough to take a few financial crumbs now, have medical coverage ripped away, and then get buried in debt in 2025 (that is less than 8 years from now folks). The politicians even state all this up front, and people still think it is a good idea! PT Barnum lives.
There is only one source of wealth-- the workers. When the bills come due, there is only that one source to pay the bills. If you don't believe me, pull all the workers out of a company and see what happens to the corporate weal. Companies exist as a means to improve efficiency of production, they are not some miraculous stand alone entities. Voters/workers-- and the tax code-- need to realize this; companies are mere constructs holding groups of workers together.
7
Kill this bill, Dear Congresspersons! It feeds the the very wealthy, while leaving the vast majority in a perpetual state of confusion and seriously harming middle income Americans. By all means, find ways to make American corporations more competitive in world markets but not while giving enormous breaks to the very wealthy at the expense of people struggling under student debt, higher housing costs, increased state and local expenditures, medical expense inflation, declining real wages and capital depletion thru extended life spans. That's what this bill, in both versions, does. Think about it!!
6
Now we have a similar situation of the failure of "repeal and replace" the ACA. We have Senators saying the bill is not draconian enough, or is too draconian. Some want even more tax cuts fro business, and less tax cuts for the middle and working class; if anything raise taxes on this group, in as little as 7 years. The let business keep deductions, that individuals can have. Apparently, corporations are people for funneling money to game the political system, but not when taxes are concerned. And, while in 2025, the individual tax cuts end, the very wealthy can use loopholes to get around it.
Thus, to get this through, destabilize the health care system to do it. Also, punish the sick, the elderly, the blind, the average American worker, single people and anyone else who has not bought and paid for the Congress.
And on top of all of it, lie to middle class and working class Americans, that they are getting a tax cut, and a million jobs will be created. They do not say that those jobs will either be low paying or sitting in India. And these tax cuts will pass down wealth to the middle and working class. I am still waiting for my wealth from the two Bush tax cuts.
I hope more Senators abandon this folly, as if it passes, it will do great harm to this country. It will reduce incentive to work, to save and to purchase. This could send the consumer based economy into a tailspin. Most people will have less in their pockets to spend. Which means; recession.
5
If Republicans are serious about supporting business, the answer is simple. Cut business taxes and raise business owners individual taxes. Stop sucking money out of businesses to play with it in the walstreet casino. We need business investment in Main Street, not hedge fund managers playing with walstreet derivatives.
To help the middle class, they need to address the taxes the middle class actually pay. It would be simple to lift the payroll tax cap and lower the payroll tax rates for everyone. Why does a wealthy person pay a tax rate close to zero while a single mom, working 2 jobs for minimum wage, pays the maximum rate?
Payroll taxes make US workers 15% more expensive than foreign workers right off the bat. Why does no one ever mention that? The middle class is desperate to increase their pay. So why is the government specifically taxing payrolls instead of actual income? You should be taxing the things you don't want like alcohol and tobacco, not payrolls.
5
A trifecta of grand destruction in one tax bill. (1) A tax increase for the middle and working class while they wealthy get more millions. (2) Decimation of health care for the middle and working class. (3) Destruction of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Craven Republicans really know how to package destruction.
9
How is it that Americans get auto insurance and all drivers have to have it because ANYONE could get in an accident but they do not get health insurance even though ANYONE can get sick or injured?
6
What a paradox: to obtain more revenue that can be used to cut taxes for the rich, the GOP wants to eliminate a penalty tax that citizens would pay for not obtaining health insurance — a penalty tax that, on its surface, would seem to generate more revenue for the government — how can eliminating a tax result in more revenue?
The answer is, and the GOP is doing this knowingly and cynically because this is how it works: by encouraging people to not get any insurance at all, the government saves money, because it does not have to pay for these persons’ Medicaid or subsidies on the Exchange-based plans, and gets to collect more of their income tax when their employer pays them higher wages instead of employer -paid insurance coverage.
Instead, everyone else will see their premiums rise.
Just remember that when you pay your higher health insurance premiums next year: your dollars are giving the top one percent, who make over $1 million a year, an extra $50,000 each in tax cuts.
Sadly, that same money could have been used to expand subsidies for those who needed them
2
Non-related bills should not be combined. Drilling in Alaska, the health insurance mandate, and the tax overhaul all rolled into one bill? Separate issues should be stand-alone bills.
9
That's the one thing everybody says every few days. However, the Congress is so divided that the only way to get things done is continuing resolutions that affect dozens of different things every few months that satisfy no one and change nothing about D.C.
Heartily agree - any decent legislator with an ethical bone in his body would object to combining other issues into any bill. This is a deadly path to take -- clean it up folks -
Plus - please a recorded vote for each legislator - no voice votes Mitch!
2
How does anyone call this reform and keep a straight face?
6
And my tax return will fit on a postcard, right? And I won't need the Lady Liberty Mascot tax service, right?
It's instructive that Republicans have added the ACA mandate tax for repeal. It is the high and still rising cost of health insurance and medical care that is hurting middle and working class families AND businesses far more than federal income taxes. American businesses carry most of the load of these healthcare costs through employee benefits, which slows wage growth and discourages hiring of fulltime workers. Meanwhile, American companies compete with companies in other developed nations with government-funded healthcare systems that cost their economies much less. The best thing we could do for the middle-class and also our business sector is a single-payer health insurance system.
14
Cut the deficit. Tell trump to stay home, not golf and keep his kids locked up. Could save some.
9
CONSTITUENTS!
You just can't get away from constituents, can you.
Not in the Senate. Not in the House. Not even (so to speak) if you are President of the United States.
They can vote for you. Or NOT vote for you.
And if you constituents are profoundly unhappy or dissatisfied (as a New York congressman was lamenting not long ago). . . .
. .. your big money DONORS ain't gonna help you out, baby!
Not at all!
It always comes back to constituents.
Thank God.
11
The lion's share of tax cuts goes to the 1%. Health insurance costs skyrocket. Medical costs are no longer deductible. Homeowners suffer. They made Obamacare an epithet, so now we have to rebrand this special interest boondoggle: Kill the TrumpTax on average Americans!
11
I read and hear all the time how proud Americans are of their strong State's rights and the natural laboratory for ideas that this provides. Each state supposedly tries it's own solution to a given problem and the others are all able to watch and evaluate the results. Ideas that work can then be copied and tweaked by other states. Why then when it comes to the question of health care does the US have such an aversion to universal health care when every other developed nation on earth (except Balkan states and Belarus) has decided that it is the best path? None of us have found it horrible or economically ruinous and none have walked away from it. Is this "global ideas laboratory" not essentially the same as your state by state experiments except that it is operating on a larger scale with more varied conditions? You may not do it exactly as we have, and you may do it better but I just don't get why in 2017 you haven't yet done something other than the ACA which half of you seem hell-bent on eliminating. Are you really that different from everyone else in the world? The richest nation on earth provides education for all it's citizens, but can't swallow the notion that a doctor's visit or cancer treatment also ought to be a no-brainer and not an item that families need to worry about and ask themselves how will we pay? Forget the chatter about freeloaders and cheaters, they are a pittance of the total population and their actions will not alter your experience. Maybe?
11
It’s almost Thanksgiving. There will be turkey on the tables of Americans soon. There will be a turkey of a tax bill flapping its way through Congress. There will be gravey on your stuffing. Rich Republican cronies will be stuffing themselves with gravey from tax payers. The middle class will be getting leftovers. Guess the politicians picked the right holiday for this fiscal mess.
7
Any wonder there are some Republicans against this? Republicans side with ending abortions and this bill is certainly one.
2
Orrin G. Hatch. Who publicly and hysterically read excerpts from "The Exorcist" at Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearings in a comic, desperate effort to discredit Anita Hill's testimony about sexual harassment. How is it possible that this person still has any credibility and the power to propose legislation of this magnitude, that will inflict immediate and lasting damage on so many non-wealthy, non-white, non-male citizens of the United States? How long does it takes to jettison these dinosaurs that damage our country every day?
13
"Repealing the health law...giving them more room to cut taxes...it would also lead to a reduction of 13 million...health coverage...health insurance premiums...would rise by about 10 percent."
Pure evil.
9
Disgrace
1
NYT: please don't mislead folks by saying that "they are overhauling the tax code." What a gross overstatement. They are taking away deductions from the working people to give to the wealthy top tier. This is no overhaul.
22
This is like a herd of wild elephants going on a destructive rampage, trampling everything in sight.
13
If they repeal the health care mandate then the uninsured will be forced to go to the emergency room....guess who pays for that...you and me.
That will largely wipe out that $300,000,000 "savings" that has been forecast.
Next ....
Come up with something that helps the people of the United States , it's not cutting taxes for corporations by making the people pay for it .
18
It's a savings to the Federal budget because the cost moves to the public and the states. That's what tax reform is, a shuffle of money.
As far as I can tell (it is very hard to read and follow) the CBO assumes that there are no increased costs to the federal government from the sick uninsured at all.
This is NITS! The federal government does pay hospitals for unreimbursed care, read here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charity_care
That is sure to grow. And then poorer healthcare will mean more people filing for disability -- particularly the "bad triad:" diabetes, COPD, heart disease. OK, so disability just bankrupts the Social Security system ... the Republicans seem to think that's a plus.
And then more sick people mean fewer people working, so income tax revenues go down.
As far as I can tell, the CBO estimate accounts for none of this -- and saying these are zero is absurd.
Our national debt is sitting at 20 trillion dollars and the GOP wants to CUT taxes for the rich while at the same time stripping healthcare away from millions. You can't make this stuff up if you tried.
Why does the GOP hate America so much?
39
Obamacare is an abysmal failure. It let down those who expected a single payer system.
There is a reason to support Trump's bill, however bad it looks -- he was voted to blow up everything that is wrong in Washington, so we can rebuild the way they should be.
More power to President Trump -- he is doing exactly why he was sent to the White House.
1
To make Rich America great again?
1
Obamacare is failing because the Republicans squash many of the things that make it viable. In any case, it doesn't really matter whether it's Obamacare or something else the Republicans dream up. The Republicans are simply against health care policy of national scope. In fact, they are against everything of national scope except gun control (don't allow it) and abortion (don't allow it). In fact, my impression is that they are simply against a UNITED States of America. I think they more want a confederation. Okay, that's a legitimate stance. But, what do the American people really want? I don't think Congress represents the majority anymore. It is some weird gerrymandered thing which allows more clout to the outliers of this country.
7
Truly the stupidest "logic" ever conceived.
1
When someone like Susan Collins cannot bring herself to openly oppose this morally reprehensible transfer of the treasury- it goes to show just how deep the Roots of the Republican Rot-- run.
12
Let's do the math. If you make $20,000.00 a year and get a 2% reduction in taxes you get $400.00 If you have $80,000,000.00 and you get a 4% tax cut, you get $3,200,000.00. The guy making $20,000.00 gets a few bags of groceries. The guy with $80,000,000.00 get a third (or fourth) vacation home. It's the same baloney Reagan did. And when the corporations get their tax break; they'll use the money to offshore jobs. Anyone who thinks this will somehow help the US economy is either a millionaire or a dummy. Hey! Isn't that Trump's base?
34
Only in the US would a governing party strip 13 million people from their health care to free up over 300 billion dollars so that they can give the rich a tax break...utterly pathetic.
45
To stop "forcing people to buy" and "stripping" are a little bit different. It will make ACA more popular and therefore more likely to survive.
Leroy .. you are forgetting the 10% PER YEAR premium increases.
2
I just got off the phone to the office of my Congresswoman Jaime Herrera-Beutler (R WA3).
My message was very straightforward: if she votes for the GOP tax legislation that removes deductions for medical expenses tomorrow then the medical expenses for her daughter Abigail will become a campaign issue here in Western Washington. The Congresswoman's gold plated insurance policy, paid for by tax payers in her district, covered life-saving expenses for her daughter. Why?
Ordinarily, I would never introduce a child into a political controversy. In this case, the GOP has introduced children into the controversy by their ham-fisted approach to financing tax cuts for the rich by taking tax deductions away from the parents of children who need life-saving health care.
Why is Abigail Herrera-Beutler's life more important than my granddaughter Abigail's? My neighbor's niece Abigail? Or my housepainter's daughter Abigail?
This is not mere tax policy; this is about real life and the looting of the commonweal by GOP hacks who care nothing about us but will fight to the death to protect their privilege and their deep-pocket benefactors.
866
Dear P. Borunda:
Thank you so much for those heartfelt comments. I'm not sure what happens to someone when they go to DC but it's like they entered another world, a world that the citizens who live in DC are not able to fully enjoy as citizens. The natives of DC are not represented in Congress, and the reason is obvious, the District would be Democratic, as would Puerto Rico who has voted for statehood for years. The people in power, both Republicans and Democrats, are so stirring up the anger in this nation it has brought an absolute demagogue into the White House, and an incompetent Congress. There is something happening in this country, and the politicians in DC, in the states, and in local politics, better wake up. The people are only going to take so much before the dam breaks. From the looks of it, it has reached that breaking point.
DD
Manhattan
7
My nephew has stage 4 cancer (and is somehow beating it : ) thanks to his wonderful oncologists.
He is 24 years old. We love him. His middle name should never be "pre-existing condition". And the cost of his cancer should not cost his parents their house.
Thank you for your pitch perfect comment.
2
The only way to overhaul the healthcare industry is to ensure that our legislators utilize the very system they are attempting to overhaul. Let them deal with what we have to on a daily basis, and watch the system improve. Would love to glimpse the healthcare package our illustrious senators are dealt each year.
19
Every single one of us will need help and assistance in our lives. If the Congress had the same health insurance as other Americans have, if they and their family were not totally protected, they would NEVER sign this bill. They are of the ilk, "I am OK, so the heck with everyone else."
42
You have to, both at the same time, laugh and despise Republicans. While they continue their decades old mantra of "government and taxes are evil", I don't suppose it has gone unnoticed that there never seems to be a shortage of them willing to run for office to serve in an institution they continually claim serves little or no purpose.
Of course, like you say, unlike the "poor peasants", they receive as perks one of those gold-plated "government" pensions and gold-plated "government" health care plans from that place they keep saying they hate.
1
So in Ms Murkowski's world, repeal of the ACA would not good for the health of the people she represents but drilling for oil and gas (in a wildlife refuge) would be?
20
They've bribed her into voting for the bill. What slimeballs.
Obamacare is an abysmal failure. It let down those who expected a single payer system.
There is a reason to support Trump's bill, however bad it looks -- he was voted to blow up everything that is bad about Washington, so we can rebuild them the way they should be.
More power to President Trump -- he is doing exactly why he was sent to the White House.
Fake News
His legacy will be an awful one. The economy will bust like under W with regulations gone. It will be the 20s and a depression to follow. Funny how the right cannot see history repeating itself. The real shame is pollution is being given free reign. That toll will make our descendants hate us. Greed is a sin.
2
I guess you forget already, but, for years, Republicans have been touting their "so-called, repeal and replace" non-healthcare program. We keep seeing their constant obsession with repealing but we STILL see no signs of the "replace".
Perhaps you can tell us where it is?
1
Really? He promised health care for everyone at lower cost and better coverage. Just one more lie to dupe people into voting for him.
2
The Republicans have always touted their mantra of fiscal responsibility, especially for the last nine years, yet here we are with a slapped together bill that accomplishes little and adds $1.4 trillion over the next ten years. In all this time, that's the best you can do?
15
If McCain is consistent with his call for regular order, he'll oppose this partisan monstrosity of a tax bill.
20
This latest addition to the tax bill is just another in a series of steps taken by the Republican Congress to defund entitlements like Medicaid. Why are they so focused on worsening the lives of people who have so much to lose? Message to Congress: The citizens of this country are not as stupid as you think. We see this tax bill for what it is, a thinly disguised attempt to benefit those who are least in need of it.
20
Donald Trump is President and you don't think American citizens are stupid? They don't look smart!
Pity the poor GOP Congress. The longer it takes to vote on the bills, the more the news media cover the proposed measures' unintended consequences and that means all the more the polls show the public disfavors it and that means all the more Congress members will have to toil convincing constituents to like it and that means all the more grasping efforts to amend it and that means the longer it will take to vote on the bills and that means the more the news media cover....
5
Thank you Collins, Corker, McCain. In the distant past, others like you governed. Those of us on the other side of the aisle remember the good ones, and honor their contributions. The pendulum always swings.
11
Oh, I get it. The middle class has to step up to the plate. Take one for the team. Whoops! I forgot. We're not on the team anymore.
18
"...against both chambers’ tax plans on Wednesday, saying that the bills favored corporations over small businesses and other so-called pass-through entities, "
That's right, tax breaks for the super-rich and for giant corporations. Don't vote for this bill. NO!
11
"saying that the bills favored corporations over small businesses"
THANK you.
6
Any Congressperson or Senator who votes in favor of the GOP-approved tax or health care plans should be voted out of office----they will have proven beyond any doubt whatsoever that they have no interest in serving the voters who elected them. End of story.
19
Correction, the citizens of the USA can save 300 billion dollars by repealing the individual mandate.
The vast majority of which that will be re-drected towards the wealthy and corporations in tax cuts.
2
I am surprised! I thought Sen. Johnson was just one more pro-corporate Republican. Not so. "Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, came out against both chambers’ tax plans on Wednesday, saying that the bills favored corporations over small businesses .... These (small) businesses truly are the engines of innovation and job creation throughout our economy, and they should not be left behind,” he said in a statement.
8
They are a miserable lot, a decayed party, with terrible leadership. Why oh why do they have majorities? Are we gerrymandered that much, or do people really support them? According to the polls, they have no more than 38% support on most any issue. This is difficult to understand.
10
This is just more repeal without a replacement. They know what they are against but offer no alternative except to stretch things out in the hope someone else will get the blame.
If they can cut taxes on the dead, they can find a way to provide affordable health insurance for the living.
8
Alexis de Tocqueville got it right; in a Democracy, the people get the government they deserve. In today's United States, people get their news from a single source and discuss it only with people who watch (not read, too many nuances) the same source. These people are, by definition, ignorant because they have only looked at a single side of the issue. They elect people who are either equally ignorant or (possibly worse) corrupt. Their leader is the most ignorant (or corrupt) of them all.
"In a Democracy, people get the government they deserve"
4
If corporations but not teachers can deduct the cost of supplies they buy, it is a resounding "no" from me.
6
So, basically Republicans are vehemently against deficit spending--but only when Democrats are in charge.
10
" ... the bill dramatically increases the tax load on a big chunk of my constituency.” Mr. Trump called it a Christmas present for Americans. Kinda makes a lump of coal look pretty good, huh?
4
"UnAmerican" is allowing personal monies and corporate profits to be legally sheltered abroad in order to save on US taxes. This legal maneuver is an insult to hardworking Americans who pay their taxes and to those Americans who struggle to survive on minimum wages. For all the Biblical rhetoric spewing from this administration and the Capital, our "leaders" all seem to be ignorant of the NT passage that it is more difficult for a rich person to pass through the eye of a needle than a camel. Stopping protecting the uber-wealthy at the expense and well-being of the 99%!
3
get your scripture right: "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. "
Individual mandate. Otherwise known as the freeloader provision. Last time I checked, we don't turn away intentionally uninsured from the ER or lifesaving surgery.
1
Freeloader provision? You might want to remind yourself YOU are only ONE serious/chronic illness away from bankruptcy. Now THAT'S a freeloader.
2
You should try the ER sometime for preventive care. Or is it that you want the poor to go to doctors only when they are in desperate trouble.? When did our country become so hard-hearted? The freeloader provision is being practiced by those legislators in Congress trying to reduce health care coverage and increase premiums for ordinary citizens while they benefit from a very nice health plan paid for by tax payers.
1
Doesn't mean much. People like Johnson say these things and then vote for the bill anyway.
As usual it all depends on Collins, Murkowski and McCain. The rest of the republican Senators have no spine and no morals.
3
Any senator that rejects this shameful tax cut for the filthy rich has my full support regardless of their party. Trickle down economics are sheer fantasy and fallacy. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. We won't get fooled again. And you won't get elected again if you support this tax plan or Donald Trump.
4
Hey-Your mandated to pay income tax-if you owe any. If you're male you are mandated to register for the draft-There's a real government demand on your time and possibly life. If you own a car every state in the country, the District of Columbia, and every province in Canada mandate you buy liability insurance and there is no gov't subsidy even if you "can't afford it". So what is the problem with the government mandating you buy health insurance? And if you cannot afford it they will subsidize it.
6
The Bush tax cuts didn’t create jobs. We lost over five million manufacturing jobs, jobs that had a multiplier factor of more than two.
The 14 multinationals that benefited the most from the 2004 “tax holiday” (the five percent tax on repatriated profits), cut 20,000 jobs. Free trade agreements did not cause the tsunami of jobs going overseas during the Bush administration—tax cuts and misplaced spending did.
Our economy is out of balance because we’ve been led to believe Wall Street is the economy, when it is actually Main Street. Our financial sector is outsized in comparison to the other sectors, and that’s dangerous. Neither Wall Street nor the rich need more money.
Besides a $20 Trillion debt we need to pay off, the result of unproductive military adventurism and tax cuts, we need an overall effective tax hike.
We need to raise the AMT for individuals, add a dozen brackets to the code with a top rate at 50 percent for incomes over $1 Billion, 25 percent around $250,000 a year, and 15 percent starting at $25,000. Raise the standard deduction to $10,000 per individual, 5,000 for children (ending the per child credit), and get rid of the mortgage deduction on all new home sales—it only drives up home prices, and ultimately only helps those who buy very expensive homes.
Let’s put down the Kool-Aid and be like Ike.
8
The most rational plan I have read to date.
PART TWO OF MY REPLY TO "AB FROM WISCONSIN" for his or her outrageous blaming and shaming of overweight and obese Americans (PART ONE IS BELOW AFTER HIS/HER COMMENT):
If we only ate fresh food that was not processed – and could afford to do so --, got enough sleep, could rid ourselves of stress and get enough of the right kind of exercise, as a society we could rid ourselves of the scourge of obesity. Because of the national health problem of obesity and the abundance of information available about the causes, people are becoming more aware of why they, and their children, have weight problems and are taking steps to counter it. The government is also taking steps as well as some food and beverage manufacturers.
Eating healthy in our society, however, costs money and many Americans cannot afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats and healthy snacks. They must feed their families on high-carb, low-cost foods like pasta, potatoes, corn and sugary energy foods. And with the Republicans doing their best to take health insurance away from those who can least afford it, removing a resource that individuals and families need to obtain medical attention and dietician guidance that could help them overcome their obesity.
This is a many-pronged health topic just like any other. And blaming those with health problems is counterproductive, ignorant and just plain wrong.
3
So the Republican's are working on the "CUT CUT CUT ACT" that is guaranteed to lower corporate taxes - permanently, raise my health care premiums by ten percent, and increase the deficit by 1.4 trillion dollars while possibly cutting my personal taxes for only seven years. All the while hoping that trickle down/ voodoo economics finds new life and reality. No more proof is needed that our education system has failed.
17
I'm not even so sure your taxes will go down; but i am sure your share of the deficit will be higher than any benefit you will receive if you make under 5 million per year.
1
Greed Obstruction Partisanship.
I can't imagine what might be possible if there was a bipartisan effort on this and other "issues" facing our nation.
What can you say?
5
If this tax bill passes, the coup by the wealthy elite that started with Citizens United would be completed.
Most Americans could look forward to a future of declining standard of living as government services shrivel, and a descent into corporate serfdom.
20
That is a bit optimistic. The wealthy elite coup was accomplished long before Citizens United. This tax bill is just one more item for them to check off on the way to complete destruction of our democracy.
2
Republican leadership has once again shot itself in the foot and done long term harm to its image. The tax plan, while having winners and losers, at least had some non-biased economists viewing it mildly acceptable. But slinking in with the mandate removal is about as bone headed as one can imagine. There will be party defections over this so it won’t get the needed votes. And the publicity for the party is another harmful blow to its reputation.
5
The mandate is the most unpopular part of ACA. ACA needs public support to survive. McConnell knows he is giving up something valuable for his side. This will help ensure the continuation of Obamacare. The higher rates and 14 million who will choose to not buy insurance are issues that can be addressed as long as ACA is still around to fix.
1
Both tax bills promote bad public policy. They reward Wall Street without regard to Main Street. Both tax plans reduce taxes for corporations and investors without tying the reductions to U.S. job and wage growth.
Neither positive nor negative reinforcement is built into the tax plans to encourage economic behavior that is good for average Americans. Trickle-down economics is wishful thinking. Why leave to chance what could be accomplished by design? Is the GOP that foolhardy or is the GOP too corrupt to care about the people they are supposed to represent?
1
Will repealing the ACA penalty save 100’s of billions of dollars? There are two possibilities; it saves the money purported AND 13 million people go uninsured, or It doesn’t save the amount in the proposal. It does NOT save money AND people are also going to be insured. The plan is either bad because the numbers are made up OR it is bad because millions will not have insure.
Additionally, to comply with procedural rules the plan proposes the individual tax cuts be temporary. Senator Hatch suggests Republicans would be unlikely to resist if democrats want to make it permanent. So which is it? They will be temporary, or the “temporary” is just a technical gimmick to meet the rules? You can’t say it saves money because it is temporary but also be open to it being permanent.
You can’t have cake and eat it too. Try eating some pie…
1
ts all about GREED. These guys cannot control themselves. They are bought and sold and can't get a bill done, either in healthcare or taxes. They simply have one goal and that is to use government to help their richest constituents become even richer. Thank goodness there are some senators with a conscience!
9
"Thank goodness there are some senators with a conscience!"
Mark: I cannot wait to see exactly HOW MANY...
4
"Thrown Into Uncertainty?" Good. Best news I've heard all day. Injecting another attempt at ACA repeal into the tax fray may scuttle what looked like a pretty sure thing not so long ago. Can GOP congressional leadership really be this inept? Believe it, Mr. President. Maybe time for another sit-down with Chuck and Nancy? "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy..."
4
The rich get richer. Cash heavy corporations get even more cash to hoard and pay shareholders bigger dividends. The poor get their health care stripped away. And the middle class gets trickled down on, and you know how that works. That's Ron Portman of Ohio's idea of "tax reform." Class warfare, pure and simple, and Ohio voters get it. He'll pay with his job.
7
For those of you who don't want the mandate, I would hope you don't mind paying for those people who opt out and then need emergency care. You pay for Their care through higher hospital bills or government programs. It's a law everyone has to be seen. Maybe we should not treat these people who take the risk? You willing to turn your back on a young man or woman who is dying but chose not to get insurance?
3
According to my math (using your graphic indicating the cost of each tax it), if they kept the AMT, estate taxes and taxes on pass-through income where they currently are, they would only add roughly 100 million to the national debt over the next 10 years. A vast improvement over the current plan that benefits the wealthy to the point that the national debt would increase by 1.5 trillion over the next ten years. The rich will get richer as our country goes further into debt.
4
And if they improved and enforced estate tax legislation, there be a nice surplus.
I'd like to see an AMT tax for estates!
I do not understand this at all...
"Senate Republicans, eager for a major legislative achievement after the Affordable Care Act debacle, have generally been enthusiastic about the tax overhaul."
Who are they trying to impress with this tax overhaul? It can't be their constituents, most of whom will be hurt by it. Particularly if it repeal's the health law's individual mandate.
In the end, Democrats need to start speaking up and be louder about the addition of $1.5 trillion to the national debt and how dangerous that is. I don't believe Republican voters care if the health law is repealed (they will though when it is) and I think they shrug when people scream about the tax cuts for the rich (because, of course, all these uber rich people "earned" their money).
2
My theory is that the republicans realized that implementing their tax plan was going to affect them negatively once their "base" realized how harmful it was to them. So they have sabotaged it by pretending to try to do "even more" to accomplish Trumps promise of repealing the ACA. Both their tax plan and repealing the ACA are unambiguously harmful to everyone but insurers and medical care providers so now they know that the efforts will fail they will compromise eventually all the while harping on how the DEM's wont let them accomplish the Donald's promises which they all, including the Donald, know are very bad ideas.
It is GOP SOP- Sell the lie until you die.
3
Orrin Hatch has another thing coming if he thinks this is going to squeak this thing through without punishment. I spoke with the Lt. Governor's Office today. Hatch is gone. I will personally make absolutely, positively, without a doubt certain that Hatch's career is going in the dustbin of history.
7
I wish you'd explain how eliminating the individual mandate saves the govt $300B. I assume it's because the millions who drop their insurance will no longer get subsidies. But eventually they'll still get sick and walk into emergency rooms, with no way to pay. Then either local govt foots the bill (i.e., we all pay for it), or they declare bankruptcy (i.e., we all absorb all their bills), or the hospital passes on the cost to their paying customers (again, we all pay).
How is this fair? And how does this comport with the Republican devotion to personal responsibility?
3
It saves $300B for Federal Government, since fewer ACA subsidies to pay.
But it costs money for paying customers along with state, county, and city governments to pay for uncompensated care.
In a way, it's trickle down taxation.
After the recent gains in the stock market that disproportionately benefits wealthy and equity-based charge corps., why in the world would rate reductions be needed for wealthy. Tax code simplification, however, helps everyone even the chosen.
1
Can you point out to me where the tax simplification is?
The real issue is that none of these politicians believe in the merits of the proposed legislation. Their only calculation is how it might effect their chances for re-election. We need strict term limits and curbs on political donations.
2
How short sighted--incentivizing one group to reject health insurance, even though they can afford it, and eliminating access to others who desire insurance but can't afford it without a subsidy.
4
"Evil" is the correct word.
It's way past time to see Trump's tax returns to see how he benefits from any change in tax law. On the whole though, it's comforting to see that Republicans want to give our richest citizens and largest corporations a massive tax cut on the backs of the poor and the middle class. And, good christians that they are, the Republicans also want to take away health care from 13-20 million americans to pay for their tax cuts. You know, you can't make this stuff up.
5
Oh no! Does this mean there won't be a tax bill? The monstrous mantra of "tax cuts" repeated ad nauseam by Paul Ryan and other "conservative" Republicans, masking the outright greed of those who already have plenty of money and are the ones who truly don't need tax cuts, is overwhelming. I will feel so sorry for Ryan, Mitch and the others if they can't get at least some bill passed.
2
Kudos to Senator Johnson. The whole premise of the Republican tax bills is faulty. Business tax relief needs to go where it's needed and where it can do the most good for the economy and grow jobs at home, not in low-wage countries, which is small and medium-size companies. Trickle-down from the top needs to be rejected by voters once and for all.
1
Senator Ron Johnson is a small businessman.
This is the first and only good thing he has done for us Wisconsinites.
When it hits his home it makes a difference. Interesting.
4
cut military spending, now! then we have enough money for EVERYthing else. how hard is this to do? not very hard.
5
It would sure simplify the tax code if the Government would sent each of us the name and address of the rich person that our taxes are supporting then we could just sent the check directly to that rich person.
6
How pathetic that our elected officials would rather curry favor with their soulless donor base than enact legislation that actually improves people's lives. Cutting medicare benefits? Making middle class families pay higher taxes? Forcing millions of Americans to lose health coverage? And these people claim to be Christians? Shame on every last one of them.
3
Boy are the Republicans thick. They just had a resounding defeat on their quest to overturn the ACA and deny millions of Americans health insurance, and now they attach this ACA rider to their tax plan. What don't they get? The tax plan is awful to begin with, but had a pretty good chance of passing. Now, thankfully, they have pretty much doomed it. Thank you.
3
If this is such a sure thing for increasing wages and hiring, then increase wages and hiring first and then enact this tax bill.
From reading this article and then the comments section, I feel saddened. It seems like my country, its representatives in the House and Senate, and then here many commenters, just don't think it is feasible that Americans should have a safe, healthy, happy and peaceful life. Why would the wealthiest country in the world decide to balance its budget by ruining its middle and working classes, and also scuttle healthcare for Americans? Why? It doesn't even make economic sense. It is always better for a country to invest in its people, not the investment class! Compare Iceland to Greece, for example. Gee whiz, Republicans, talk about a death spiral; this tax bill will create the demise of our once great country.
2
Ok let's get something perfectly clear. If you are alive at this moment, you will require health care. End of story. If you choose to drive a car, then that requires insurance. If you choose to stay alive, then that requires insurance. So the patient is either going to be responsible and acquire health care, or they will not. If they do not, we all pay for them when they visit the ER. Because they will all be heading to the ER when it happens, 'cause it's gonna happen, whatever it is. Any questions?
3
The white working class, as it is called - sometimes it is called the Trump base, too - has quite a stake in this 2017 tax battle.
The tax plan will surely kill off Obamacare. So what's to happen when these white working-class jobs are taken by software and by robots; by self-driving trucks and tractors and drones to deliver packages and pizzas; and when oil follows coal down the tubes due to cheap clean renewable power? When their jobs and work-paid insurance are gone, they still will be able to get a pauper's exam in an emergency room 100 miles away, but regular health care? regular medicine?
What happens in a couple of years when the corporate and high-income individual tax cuts fully kick in?
What happens when the white working class folks and their families need Medicare and Medicaid, and they find these programs are on the rocks, casualties of the 2017 Republican tax changes?
Most of all, what happens to their kids and grandkids who are left holding a national debt of quadrillions?
Trickle down? Trickle down has never worked once, not once in the many times the Republican party has tried it. Reagan, the second Bush, even governors such as Kansas's Brownback have served up heroic trickle-down portions - and their legacies have been, unanimously, huge, crippling debts for following generations. That will happen again.
And when it does happen, when the real, undiluted effects of these tax changes become starkly apparent, what does the white working class do then?
4
These guys sure do love winging it. No need to worry about the 99%. It will all trickle down or some such theory. My children put more thought into their nightly homework than these lawmakers put into crafting legislation.
4
What a surprise. Donald Trump can't pass a piece of legislation.
He has insulted the Democrats, the Republicans, the CIA,FBI, and the diplomatic corps.
I worked for a very large County agency for 28 years. Periodically a new director would be sent to our unit and during the first staff meeting stick out his chin and tell us how things were going to change. But, we knew things wouldn't change. In a year or two he would be gone and we would still be working the unit.
Many many of the Senators and congresspeople in Washington today will still be there when Trump is gone.
Regarding the "tax bill" (the one with the Death to Obamacare rider)...The Republican party is still a minority party. Just because the Democratic party has become a minority party also doesn't mean the Republicans get to pass bills.
Screaming across the aisle will not stop gridlock. Gridlock will cease when someone can muster a solid majority of votes in both houses. The only majority in Washington are the people waiting to push Trump over the falls...because he has insulted them.
And, they're not in a hurry.
1
Assuming this abominable tax cut passes, how about we check back each year, and, for each measure short of the promised increase in investments, jobs, and wages, we claw back the taxpayer money that was wasted. Republicans are certain their tax cuts will work magic (and not be spent on dividends, stock buybacks, and executive bonuses), so they should be glad to back up their convictions with a wager.
My bet is trickle down economics will fail to work yet again. The Reagan cuts, the Bush Jr cuts, and the Kansas cuts all failed miserably. But maybe some day they will, and beside, Republicans control the government. So I guess we'll have to settle for the old saying, 'Fool me four times, shame on you. Fool me five times, shame on me.'
1
Not one mention of the words 'poverty' or 'poor' as in 'poor Americans'. They and their concerns are left entirely out of this discussion. Some - but not all - Republican members of Congress talk about the impact of this bill on the 'middle class' but no one mentions the poor, which in 2016 means individuals living on $12,228 or less/year, a couple living on $15,569, or family of four earning $24,563 or less. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2017/demo/p60-259.html
The official poverty rate in 2016 was nearly 13% (12.7) of all Americans! 40.6 million people!
Think about fast food workers, restaurant dishwashers, farm workers, people living on disability, the elderly, etc. Do they not matter to Republicans? They pay taxes too, and will be disproportionately affected by the cuts to the Affordable Care Act.
3
Where is all this GOP arithmetic coming from? If you eliminate the individual mandate for ACA you obviously eliminate the direct revenue that it brings in. Where does the tax saving come from?
The Senate is betting that fewer people will sign up for ACA care, and thus by tanking the ACA program there will be fewer claims for federal subsidies down the road. This is speculative at best, and facilitating the premature deaths of millions of Americans, at worst.
Signups and renewals for ACA care have been pretty robust despite Trump's best efforts to kill it. We should reject the Senate's "rosy scenario" that this move will lower deficits, just as we should reject the House' cynical claim that tax savings for corporations and the 1% will magically result in raises for the rest of us.
1
"Repealing the health law’s individual mandate would allow Republicans to save more than $300 billion over 10 years, giving them more room to cut taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it would also lead to a reduction of 13 million in the number of people with health coverage, and average health insurance premiums on the individual market would rise by about 10 percent."
So first the GOP asks us to support a tax reform bill that considers millionaires and billionaires as the people who urgently need more money and asks the poor and middle class to pay more taxes in order to finance such a government bailout, all while burdening America with an additional $1.5 trillion debt ... and now they also ask us to cut healthcare for 13 million Americans and increase premiums for ordinary citizens even more, whereas candidate Trump had promised to cover MORE, not less Americans, and to reduce costs ... ?
The GOP seems to be unable to learn from their own mistakes.
As long as they continue to represent the narrow interests of their own donor class and to systematically betray their own base, they won't be able to agree on anything, so Trump won't get any deal at all.
Sooner or later, Trump will HAVE to stop thinking about how to make himself great again, and to start caring about America ...
the desperation to get something done is showing as cracks are appearing among senators and tenuous control of the senate may suddenly become even more tenuous as alabama plays out.
they can easily tilt this to favor individuals if enough opposition to corporate preference appears. given their opportunity to kill two birds with one stone (repeal individual mandate tax and achieve some broader tax reform) so they get a "win" they will find a way to get the necessary votes.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country -- or party. Either works. Because it really is up to these relatively few remaining sane Republicans to save both the country and their party. As for the rest of them, they've abandoned all but their corporate and wealthy individual benefactors. I applaud Johnson, and implore Collins, McCain, Corker and any other Republicans who are actually patriots, to stand up and say, "Enough! We are here to represent our constituents, and our constituents are the actual citizens of this nation -- the people, the voters. We will work with our Democratic Party colleagues to do the work that the founders laid out for us in the Constitution." Enough with the political games. Enough with the sleight of hand. Enough with the dirty tricks. Back to the business of the Senate -- the so-called deliberative body. Carefully drafted legislation, multiple hearings, full debate on the Senate floor, introduction and consideration of amendments. It's called the legislative process, and patriotic Republicans have the duty to stand up and say, "enough is enough!"
2
They say that the definition notion of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
When will the Republicans realize that they might be able to actually pass enact some legislation if they were willing to compromise?
2
One thing I haven't heard any word on, how exactly will either of these bills effect Trump's taxes? Will he pay more or less? I think its a fair question to ask, given that Trump is solidly in the ultra wealthy group all the tax gurus are saying will reap the most benefits from this bill.
1
Republicans made a serious tactical mistake in attaching repeal of the individual mandate to this bill (the lack of humane considerations aside). This will draw hesitation from Senators like Collins and McCain.
But the Republicans' most grievous mistake is the rest of the bill: I must pay more federal taxes (don't believe that because I live in a "low tax state," I escape the unfairness of this legislation) while corporations receive huge permanent tax breaks. It's obscene, and the public has begun to catch wise, according to the polls.
2
I know it is picky and extremely literal on my part, but I fervently wish the media, politicians and the public would cease conflating providing health care and paying for health care. They are two different things. My understanding is that most U.S. health care dollars go to pay for the ongoing medical needs of people with chronic health problems, like diabetes, cardiac conditions; people in acute situations, like premature births, injuries sustained in a serious auto accident; and in futile attempts to keep the very elderly from dying. No matter what happens with the ACA, all of these people are going to continue receiving health care, the question becomes who pays for it -- the magical health care fairies? No, paid for by us in the form of sky-high medical bills and outrageous insurance premiums. Wouldn't it be simpler, more honest and, possibly, even cheaper to provide universal health care for all like every other Western democracy has done for decades now?
3
It would definitely be simpler, more honest, and less expensive to follow the universal health care model of other civilized nations, but it would also cut deeply into insurance companies’ profits, and consequently, campaign contributions from those companies. Don’t hold your breath.
I'm not a financial rocket scientist, but I believe in Trickle UP concept. That way, when corporations provide good services and products to the public they will be rewarded.
I do not believe for a minute that if we give corporations big tax breaks that they will, out of the goodness of their heart increase worker's wages and salaries.
Also, if Congress is worried about the deficit, why don't the cut the military budget in half and provide health services and other entitlements to all, with money to spare?
381
AMP: I saw an interview with a bunch of CEOs the other day. When asked if tax savings were going to go to higher worker wages and creating more jobs, they flatly said no, it would go to higher shareholder dividends (and, left unsaid but implied, was higher executive salaries and perks). Which, of course makes absolute sense. Corporate management is beholden to shareholders, period, and they're already at record high levels of productivity, profits, and available cash reserves - if they were going to raise wages and hire more workers, they'd already be doing it.
1
OK. So. Attack the ACA again.
Raise the debt by 1.5 trillion dollars.
PERMANENTLY drop the corporate tax rate - trickle down is a myth.
AND just for grins, any drop in taxes for actual human beings who are not millionaires goes up in smoke just as a new president comes in.
IS THERE REALLY ANYTHING GOOD HERE?
58
There is nothing good here. It will explode the deficit, increase middle class taxes, increase everybody’s healthcare premiums, kick millions off of their healthcare, and promise benefits from Reagan’s fictional trickle down economics, a total fantasy then and now. Benefits? The rich get richer and more powerful and abusive.
I sure hope more of them come out against it too.
22
This mandate was bad policy. I know its the only way to make it all work financially, but that's just too bad. Way too many people opposed this policy and that makes it bad policy.
If millions of people drop out the moment they have the chance, then we shouldn't have made them buy insurance to begin with. My bet is most will keep it.
4
You buy auto insurance, don't you? That's a mandate and it has worked well. If you have other reasons for not liking this mandate why not say.
For those uncomfortable with the "mandate" that everyone be insured, it is illegal in all 50 states to drive a car without insurance. Because ALL drivers are mandated to be insured we are ALL protected from the consequences of being hit by a driver with no insurance and no ability to pay.
75
YES the same with SS and Medicare and Federal taxes
The current republican plans are not tax reform ... they are tax smoke and mirrors, designed to hide the fact that these bills are huge give-aways to the super rich, at the expense of everyone else, including the merely somewhat rich. If you truly want to reform our tax system, start by closing the numerous and obscure loop holes and special provisions that already benefit those at the very top. No person or corporation should be able to pay significantly less than thee rest of us, simply by hiring an army of lawyers and accountants and lobbyists to twist the tax code in their favor. This is the true waste that exists in our government. Once you have closed all of these special benefits for special interests, then by all means look for ways to simplify things for the rest of us.
18
The most important thing that people in power seem to never understand is that you can stretch the rubber only so far. It is eventually going to break and that day when the masses revolt is not too far off in future. When that day comes, each one of the people complicit in these unAmerican actions will be handed over swift justice.
15
Voting them out of office is a start. Why don't these clowns know it costs to MAGA.
It is a squalid thing to observe, repeatedly, from this Republican Party: dissembling in the service of a single mission (with a few notable, hopefully growing number of, exceptions): pass something, anything, never mind what, as long as we get to shout, Hurrah, we did something. Not, mind you, we did something good for the country; and we were honest about it. Just, we did something. Period. Underscore dishonest and pathetic.
27
Look at the stock market performance. The rich aren't going broke, they aren't struggling and neither are the corporations. The people who are suffering are those who are desperate for an education they desire and deserve. They are the families struggling to afford a home. The sick and impaired.
Those are the groups that we should be bringing tax relief to, not the heirs to billions, but those who can barely afford a funeral for their family members. If we cut the taxes at the bottom half of tax payers, we will hear a collective sigh of relief and people will use that money to push the economy forward by buying homes, products or an education that will get them the better career they dream of. If we are going to expand our national debt, let us do it to make health care and education cheaper so we are actually investing in our countries economy. We can do better, and we will be paying attention because this is the American Dream that is being voted on.
554
Personal Exemption versus increase in Deduction; one should know difference between the two - Remember the Exemption is always a threshold wherein Deductions are Not - GOP are raiding US Treasury with biggest Heists in the world.
1
Right - look at the stock market performance. Why aren't more journalists and economists analyzing implications that seem so blatant. Run-away profits are either fictitious (=bubble) or real. And if real, can only mean that (1) profiteer corporations are not reinvesting in their people that create those profits (average salaries) or their profitable products (R&D); and (2) normal people are being ripped off on retail prices. Don't pretend that competitive markets determine rational prices - there are far too many constant reminders that this is a classroom economics fiction.
I'd rather see restrained profits for entrepreneurs combined with healthy salaries and competitive price for consumers. It makes no sense to me that consumers should broafly be rooting for market performance over salaries and prices - guess where those profits come from.
1
Yes stock market performance supported by the FED... all too big to fail... or Lord knows what. Meantime.. all Americans could boycott Amazon, Walmart, Chinese imports and palm kernel oil... the last because our near relatives the great apes are having their homes taken away from them. I will buy NOTHING that has palm kernel oil not used by home bakers in it... Sso goodbye most of Zabar's rugelachs.
It will be great if we finally get the Congress we do deserve because of Trump...
1
Anyone who has bought a home knows that you are "mandated" to purchase homeowner's insurance. Yes, you "own" the home, but as a party who has a (joint) financial stake in the well-being (property value) of the house, it is understood that the mortgage lender, the bank, can require you to purchase insurance.
Why is it so hard to understand the concept of health insurance mandate? It works exactly the same way.
Another way to put it is: The alternative is to require everyone to post a $10M health care bond. And, immediate euthanasia for anyone who doesn't have insurance and hadn't posted such bond if they ever contract a communicable disease -- Yes, that may include even the common Flu.
17
The proposed tax bill establishes a two tier system for business taxation. One, for the connected class, is very favorable. Large, multinational corporations will win here. The other, for all the other businesses, is subject to a different (higher) rate. Why? Why not one rate for all business income? Also, in an economy where people are increasingly acting as their own businesses via freelance work, why limit their ability to write down their expenses (large businesses can deduct the cost of providing healthcare to their employees but an sole proprietor cannot write down the cost of providing healthcare for themselves). How about the government gets out of the business of picking winners and establishes on set of rules.
12
I would like all liberals reading this to take a look at the federal government's expenses for 2016, and answer whether the budget problem can be solved by taxing Bill Gate more.
US GDP in 2016 ~ $18.5 trillion
Federal government spending in 2016 ~$4.1 trillion
Social security, unemployment etc.: $1,370 billion
Medicare, Medicaid, and health care: $1,106 billion
Defense: $634 billion
Interest on debt: $283 billion
Veteran's benefits: $166 billion
Food and Agriculture: $140 billion
Transportation: $108 billion
Everything else: $300 billion
Net deficit ~ $700 billion
1
Social Security and Medicare are funded by payroll taxes. In order to have a deficit you have to have an income, which is conveniently not shown.
Please remember that government expenditures translate to economic activity.
No one is asking Bill Gates (who does not gripe about paying taxes) to pay more in taxes. The wealthy are doing just fine w/out a tax cut. Notice how much wealth was accumulated at current tax rates, but wages are flat. The US is a consumer economy that is still feeling the drag of the Great Recession. Banks were bailed out & homeowners either lost their homes to foreclosure or took a huge equity hit & have not recovered.
What may work:
Zero taxation of families making less than $50K. Ten percent cut for families making $50K-$130K. Cut the corporate rate to 30% from 35%. Another 5% tax cut should only kick in when we've seen four straight quarters of 3% growth Trumpites are so sure will materialize.
If you put more money into the hands of the average person family, they tend to spend it. The consumer's buck has a much bigger bang across the economy than a 1%er's new yacht or 3rd vacation home.
1
It sure won't be solved by cutting everybody's income taxes and collecting less revenue for all those needs you listed. As for Social Security and Medicare, that's the basic retirement plan and affordable health insurance that every American has paid into their whole working lives so of course its the biggest figures. The more people who benefit, the bigger the number.
If we would just let the uninsured die in emergency rooms without any treatment, it might help everyone understand the importance of all citizens having insurance whether by one source or another.
9
Sen. Johnson makes a good case that the bill favors Corporations over small businesses - let's hope this get fixed (he's had a plan "ready to go" for months).
I wonder about the ACA comments from Sen. Collins as it's not clear if the ACA will be more expensive for the middle class. Last year, 12.7 million joined the ACA (10 million finished the year in it), but 27 million did not. Half of the 27 million were not participating because it was already too expensive (only 7 million paid the fine).
The Medicaid aspect, which Maine will likely join, is one of the biggest costs of the ACA, but this isn't "seen" by the middle class as a family expense.
It's unlikely many of the 12.7 million will drop out as this population represents the bulk of the population with chronic and expensive conditions (4% of the country) that "has" to be in the ACA. The aggressive early sign-ups seem to support this contention.
Senators face statewide voters. GOP House members are safe in their gerrymandered districts.
11
Not all of them are safe. Here in California, we have three or four who are hanging on by their fingernails.
Heartening to see that one GOP Senator is opposed...I bet there are others...
11
It's absolutely amazing to see Republicans who have railed against any Democrats attempts to pass legislation which would increase the deficit now embrace a deficit busting tax bill!
The hypocrisy is breath-taking.
29
And the only reason they are repealing the ACA individual mandate is to get the deficit numbers down to the legal level to allow a party-line vote. What a bunch of evil-minded incompetents. The GOP once stood for Grand Old Party, but now it could well stand for Godawful Out-of-touch Putzes!
17
Yes the hypocrisy is pretty amazing. I wonder if the reasoning is that when the debt is exploding again, they will use it to justify eliminating or crippling paid-for benefits like Social Security and Medicare. Or eliminating other social safety net programs so many people rely on. Can't have that debt, ya know. Unless you run it up for the purpose of running something beneficial down.
1
Literally. 13 MILLION more uninsured will be a death sentence for some of them.
And for those using the term 'freeloaders' to mean those who refuse to pay these confiscatory individual mandate insurance rates - the real freeloaders are people who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions - according to the CDC 40% of Americans are obese. That's just outrageous. Health insurance for the truly needy. And the rest who cannot stop eating - they are the ones who are the freeloaders - driving up the costs due to their diabetes and other conditions that take repeated and unnecessary doctor visits. America - since when do we become a nation of whiners and obese babies who demand things! Let's stand up and take responsibility for our own health. Oh wait...then we'd have to give up our victimhood. Sure. Well do what you want. I will not pay for the ACA; I will not and have not. And you will not pay one thin dime on me as I am not obese and will never be. How many of the whiners and complainers who demand healthcare can say that? Hmmm?
And I DO NOT mean those who are ill or incapable - but people who eat themselves to death do not deserve subsidized healthcare. That's just idiotic.
3
And when you get ill (being thin is not a shield against cancer, heart disease and many other illnesses) or have an accident, just have the checkbook ready. Taking care of your own health to the extent you can is admirable and should be encouraged, but it is not a guarantee of a life without needing medical care. If you are ready to pay for your care, and not ask me to subsidize it, then, go you!
3
PART ONE OF REPLY: You are woefully misinformed. People do not intentionally eat their way to obesity. Everyone would like to look and feel their best.
Obesity is a very complicated subject and you have reduced it to blaming those who struggle with their overweight or obese conditions for a variety of reasons.
Part of it is genetic, part of it is psychological and a big part of it is the overload of processed food and sugary drinks that have been inflicted on the American people in the past few decades. Another part of it is the fast-forward lifestyle to which we have become accustomed. And yet another cause is medications that add and retain weight; some of those medications are life-saving or lifestyle-improving and it often comes down to a choice between dying or being pain-free and being overweight.
In addition, women are especially biologically wired to gain and retain weight in preparation for pregnancy, whether they ever become pregnant or not. For most women who do become pregnant it is often a struggle to shed those pregnancy and lactating pounds. Some women – and men – are genetically disposed to burning fat and calories at a more rapid pace; they can eat as much of whatever they wish and never gain an ounce, or bounce back from pregnancy without batting an eyelash. They are fortunate. Most of humanity, though, must be mindful of what and how they eat.
3
What about motorcyclists? People who drink too much? Individuals with the audacity to have a genetic predisposition to a medical condition? Or someone who fails to take "responsibility" while driving and gets into an accident? A child who falls while playing and breaks a limb? For your sake, though, I sincerely hope whatever medications you are forgetting to take will be covered so you can start taking them again.
1
The tax bills that are moving through the House and the Senate have become Frankenstein bills. Both will do long term damage to the economy of the United States. The only sure thing is that the rich will grow richer on the backs of the middle class. Future generations will pay by higher taxes for the mistakes that the Republicans are making.
It is time to stop the madness and approach tax reform (not tax cuts) on a bipartisan basis.
12
It's time to show up at the polls and vote these Republicans, who are trying to take our health care away, OUT of office! Uninsured people eventually get sick or in an accident etc...and then end up in the Emergency Room for treatment--where the cost is much, much more expensive. Guess who ends up paying for this?
1
Remember the GOP deficit hysteria?
(You know, when they're not in power?)
41
The sponsors of this tax bill are basing its success on uncertain outcomes. There is no way these sponsors can guarantee that permanently cutting the taxes of corporations by 20-25% will result in increased wages and jobs. I'd like to see an array of these so-called corporations go on record swearing that if they get this tax cut, they will dramatically increase wages and their workforce.
It's the individual taxpayer that loses in this plan. The cuts expire in 7 years! That $1000 dollars you might save in taxes--well, it's not going to pay for your medical care now that Republicans intend to smash the ACA to smithereens. What individuals will end up getting is a whole bunch of nothing.
This is not a middle class tax cut and it's not a jobs bill. That's just a con to get you to support giving tax cuts to their donors in big business.
16
No saving if you can't deduct state and property taxes. Many will see a tax increase so that the governmental corporate welfare program can be enhanced.
2
The Republicans in Congress are not as stupid as they act, They do not really beleive that reducing taxes on the rich will create jobs, The Republicans have decades of data that proves that giving the rich a tax cut means that the rich will send more money to offshore tax havens instead of investing that money in creating jobs. Anyone over the ages of 30 remembers the Reagan "trickle down theory." Take it from us, the people who saw what the rich did with "Trickle Down," its color was yellow not green.
As a senior, I am terribly upset by the way that the tax bill would encourage cuts in Medicare and Social Security. And where is Donald Trump, who promised to protect both of them during his campaign for the presidency? Instead of speaking up, and renewing his promises, he is lurking in the background, like a shy girl at a high school prom. And why is everybody -- including the media -- letting him get away with this?
23
Well, he lied. That shouldn't surprise anyone. It's what he does. He was always on board with the Ryan Vouchercare con, but knew nobody'd vote for him if he said it. Remember Mayor Bloomberg's comment: "I'm a New Yorker. I know a con when I see one." Too bad more people didn't see it.
2
Piri! Not like a shy girl at a high school prom. He is A DEMON, lurking, grinning, breathing heavily, plotting, and rubbing his hands together greedily, because he will benefit, his family will benefit...and he doesn't care about you, or me, or anyone else. The average person is PETRIFIED of this tax con job.
1
The solution is to bring down the costs of medical care and hospital stays. Not to throw unlimited amount of government money in the form of Medicare and Medicaid at the problem. Of course, the medical / hospital industrial complex wants unlimited amount of money flowing in their direction.
5
I feel a lot better about throwing money at hospitals and health care than I do throwing it at Wall Street and the Pentagon..
Accountability is, of course, the best way to protect the integrity of a program. And the Tea-Taliban-Congress would need to negotiate Big Pharma prices; they are not about to do that. Until we have campaign finance reform, it is almost impossible to have a functioning healthcare system and high functioning country. We are a corporate oligarchy where huge percentage of legislators are bought and absolutely bossed. We are the losers, and we allow that to happen!
Both bills stink. Even if you are a Republican of ordinary means, they stink ... perhaps even more so.
There is nothing in these bills that constitutes reform at all. In particular nothing reforms the bizarre spectrum of corporate tax accounting loopholes that favor the biggest, most-monopolistic and most international businesses over American small businesses.
These bills both amount to nothing more than the very rich voting themselves money from the public purse, to be created by deficit spending.
None of the rest of it amounts to much of anything except that which is gratuitously cruel (ending the medical expenses deduction) or pure partisan red-states poking blue-state citizens in the eye and wallet (ending SALT). Given that the red states are net federal dollar recipients and blue states net payers, this is egregious as well as very stupid politics in the longer run.
These bills deserve defeat -- Republicans will be better off if they are defeated.
Only the tools of the Republican donor class want these bills.
15
The more we learn about the Republican tax "reform" proposals, the more problems come to light. Things like hidden taxes on investors, elimination or roll-back of the historic tax credits, increases in national debt and deficits, increase ins health insurance costs, and on and on.
Overall, the Senate and House measures, while they differ a bit, are pro-big company, pro-wealthy, anti-working and middle class, and anti-small-business bills.
8
The Republican Party has truly crossed the rubicon into only supporting the Oligarch class.
Every...single..thing..they have done since Trump was elected was come up with ways to hurt the middle class..the poor..the disabled..children....women...the elderly.
Every single group EXCEPT Corporations and the 1%. Deplorable.
23
Wait, Ron "Sunspots explain climate change" Johnson actually said something praiseworthy? It makes me wonder who Wisconsin Republicans are going to pick to run against him in the 2022 primary if the tax bill goes down to defeat as a result.
3
If the mandate is "unAmerican," so is car insurance. And taxes. And the draft. Hooey.
12
Elementary Economics 101: Th only reason to reduce taxes is to put more demand into the economy when demand is low or to provide relief to those who are over-taxed. The demand in the economy is not low, it is high, and the only people who are over-taxed are the poor paying regressive sales tax and payroll tax. The rich are under-taxed because regressive taxes work in their favor and they can afford to pay much larger parts of their wealth without affecting their standard of living. Hence, if it is necessary to cut taxes, cut from the bottom up, since the lower the income, the more of it is spent creating demand, and when you reach the income level at which all the demand necessary is present in the economy, you do not cut taxes for anyone with a greater income. This applies to businesses as well as individuals. When necessary, reduce taxes from the bottom up, not from the top down. This is not redistribution of wealth, it is just the most efficient economics.
22
I see many petitions but are there any protests being organized in DC around this--or in NJ/NY?? I think people need to get in the streets again for this one.
11
Let the Republican tax plan go through... it's on THEM. It seems that the only way the Trump voters will see the error of their way. Let them live in the Trump/Republican Banana-Republic Oligarchy. No healthcare, no safety net, no Social Security, no Medicare (oh yeh, no air to breath).
6
Senator Johnson has a history of brave opposition to bad bills from his party. Sadly, the spineless, witless Senator from Wisconsin doesn't have the voting record to match his bold talk when the red light is on.
5
I understand the Democrats concern with the removal of the mandate. However, this provision has never been popular and I agree with Republicans that it is overwhelmingly paid by low to moderate income people.
It is easy for those of us who have employer-paid health insurance to lecture those who don’t have that option about buying a clearly inferior product at inflated prices, and being expected to subsidize the risk pool for those who are sick.
Instead of Democrats concentrating the burden of those sick people on just individual policy buyers, why not just force insurance companies to sell existing group coverage to any individual who’s employer doesn’t offer a plan.
Those who don’t sign up should be subjected to higher premiums when they do sign up and to have a waiting period before they are eligible. This should incentivize many healthy to sign up and may not require a formal mandate.
5
choose. $1.4 trillion for universal single payer health care or $1.5 trillion for tax cuts for the wealthy. How did we get to this place in the USA where our elected representatives (or at least some of them) seem hell bent on destroying the republic so they can "claim victory"?
30
It is so good to see the Republicans yet again expose themselves with their proposed tax reform bills that have no better chance of passing than anything else they've proposed this year.
To their dismay, other than their pedophile approving base, it appears the American voters aren't as stupid as they appear to have counted on when they voted Trump in. That wasn't a mandate but rather a barometer of voter's disgust and frustration.
It isn't getting better. As you will find out next November. In the meantime, keep proposing these pitiful bills that benefit no-one but the people who own you and now have no more respect for you than the rest of us.
You think Orrin looks sour now, just wait until next November.
9
From your mouth (keyboard) to God's ears, I hope. This bill is what the donor class--the corporates and the billionaires--REALLY want. This is the big one. I wouldn't be surprised to hear of some very serious death threats against Republican senators who "lean no"; the 0.1% wants this and has since the 1930s. This is why they hated FDR, and why they still do. Back to the Gilded Age, when they will own everything, and the rest of us will work till we die.
Social darwinism didn't go away, it just hushed for a while. Watch.
hurried process - by less than serious people - more like first graders (sorry first graders) apparently republicans do not have any big boy pants even now.
9
Thank you Sen. Ron Johnson, and may the others on the fence get on the ball and kill it.
This wealth care package for the rich, with a stealth re-re-re-resurrection of Zombie RyanCare that rides (or, I guess, shambles) alongside, is a costly, climate-wrecking, un-American shame!
309
Why is it that once in a while, when even a Republican will press the right button, say the right thing, pretend a heart or brains or courage, we of the left will immediately lionize that person? We've done it with W., with Graham, McCain, with Flake, and now with Johnson. These are the same people who rooted for war, stood with Trump, urged ACA repeal or otherwise spoke out for or stood silent in the face of other GOP offenses.
I think -- and this is not sexist -- a few Republican women, such as Collins, have consistently come closest to humanism, versus such -isms as greed-ism and overinflated patriotism and macho-ism.
1
"wealth care package" - beautiful! and thank you for celebrating the brave that separate from the self-serving pack. I don't wish for the downfall of the pack nearly as much as I wish for the rise of moral public servants. I support those few regardless of affiliation.