Consider how McConnell refused to hold hearings on Judge Garland, resulting in a hard right Trump appointee instead.
Democrats need to learn how to play hardball. Unlike McConnell, with his specious arguments for delaying, Democrats have the moral high ground here: the majority of Americans oppose this tax scam, and Republicans have been lying about their intent and the bill's effects throughout.
Democrats should use any means necessary to prevent passage of this awful piece of legislation and defeat this slow-moving coup d'etat by the oligarchy.
The Republicans consider this tax bill to be their last chance to assure support from their donors and their hard core right wing supporters before the elections next November. So they are going to pass it before the end of this this year.
Frankly, they cannot conceive of any economic policies other than cutting taxes and reducing any social constraints upon all businesses that government can offer this country. They seek to have those who are not rich or big corporations to support government beyond war making, law enforcement, and contract enforcement.
In their lame view of the world, the virtuous and rich make money from thin air, and all the other folks are parasites depleting the wealth created by the virtuous few. They cannot see that democracy needs equity and equality before the law so that people are free to make decisions free of fear of more powerful and wealthy people, they think that some kind of invisible power will enable them to have a society where wealth and power can have it's way while they retain their liberties.
Economists have proven over and over again that the trickle down model does not work. And that is the basis of this horrific tax bill. Starving the rest of us to feed the rapacious neoliberal agenda will not end well. There's only so much that they can soak from us until the system collapses. They can move to tax havens and leave the rest of us to pick up the crumbs.
So if the moderate senators kill the conference bill, the House will just pass the initial Senate bill, scribbles on the side and all, and there go all SALT deductions, but the medical deduction stays as does the $1M mortgage deduction.
1
Are there no even three honorable Republican Senators?
2
The acronym COPE stands for Currency Overprinting Processing Equipment. COPE presses in this section utilize the letter press printing process which is the third and final type of printing utilized by BEP (Bureau of Printing and Engraving) for paper currency for USA.
The US just ordered more of these machines.. and this is from the BEP web site:
During Fiscal Year 2014, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing delivered approximately 6.6 billion notes to the Federal Reserve, producing approximately 24.8 million notes a day with a face value of approximately $560 million. IS THERE A BOOKKEEPER IN THE HOUSE?
1
Republican legislators may be rejoicing now but they will pay a heavy price in the mid-term elections once middle class and working class voters, especially in Blue states, who voted for Trump realize they have been snookered. Republicans in the House and Senate know the many flaws of this legislation, which is why they steamrolled it through by disregarding the usual procedures and totally shunning Democrat legislators from any discussions or debates. What goes around comes around.
1
According to CNN two thirds of those polled do not like this tax bill. Let them pass this travesty. Then let them be prepared to lose the majority in 2018.
1
A tax bill prepared by only one party has no value and is not reliable. It does not include the voice of the half of our representatives in the Congress. We American people are treated like a herd of cattle as the participation of half our representatives is denied for preparing this law. And we call this democracy?
1
There really is NO reason to hurry this bill through. The only excuse the GOP has for ramming it through is because they know it benefits their campaigns most and if more Dems are seated before January 2018, that tax bill goes down.
Also, the GOP fears that Trump will be gone before he can sign it which would delay it further.
The protests against this tax bill have been growing louder and more vitriolic. Do Americans have to haul the Ryan/McConMan gangsters out of the halls of Congress by their coat tails before the GOP stops?
It's not enough that Trump has decimated their party to more than 65% of Americans. This isn't coincidence either. Trump, like Bannon and several of the loudmouth, obnoxious GOP House and Senate boys present a picture of US government that silences taxpayers and has begun to look more and more like Putin's centralized government with the seat of power in a handful of hands.
That Republican tax bill is overloaded with enough loopholes to keep these same obnoxious creton GOP boys in their jobs for time immemorial.
Theft of SS, Medicare and Medicare payroll tax deductions becomes misuse of public funds when it ends up in corporations who then line items in their fiscal budgets to pay off their favorite politicians. Don't ask why these same corporations don't increase wages. They need the profits their low wage employees earn for them for Ryan and McConman and the rest of the GOP mobsters.
Can someone please explain how the raping & pillaging of ANWAR falls under the purview of budget reconciliation?
1
Soon enough it will dawn on those knee-jerk Republicans and Grifter-voters who are grinning with satisfaction at stickin' it to the libruls that their own Social Security will be cut to a pittance before they get there and their kids will simply have none; they'll have to go deep into debt or pull the plug on dear old Mom because she couldn't afford health insurance, Medicare won't cover her illness, and Medicaid won't be there because after all, people should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, right? whether they have boots or not. All this and more, in a country where many millions, including Grifter-voters, are scraping so close that they can't come up with a thousand bucks in an emergency, where more than a third have no retirement fund whatever. All this, so our "legislators" can please their obscenely wealthy donors and be showered with moolah to be re-elected to their cushy sinecures with great bennies, including health insurance subsidized by the rest of us. You can bet they won't cut that. Yours, yes; theirs, uh-uh. They've got theirs. So sad for you.
2
This bill is a PIG WITH LIPSTICK!
1
Republican failure # 605: The tax overhaul, which will increase the already approved increases in the national debt, where it will exceed 30 trillion dollars within the next decade, will end up proving that Republicans cannot be trusted ever again and the Democrats, who themselves are not great, will end up replacing most Republicans in the next 2 elections. When that happens all of those Republican financial supporters, who wanted to be paid back, will end up paying a lot more than they would have if these tax reduction paybacks were never created in the first place. At that point, with a new set of representatives, maybe, this nation can at least begin to rebuild the crumbling infrastructure that is getting worse every day. Now, can the Democrats even begin to find a replacement for the hypocritical, lying Republican leader who offends most of us today while at the same time plans on stealing even more while in office via the tax cuts to him?
1
America, you've been Scrooged!
Have the Republicans any idea how it's going to look to pass a $1.5 trillion
tax break that tilts wildly toward the rich, the very rich, and corporations, while also barely muffling their grumbles about the urgent need to cut Social Security, Medicare, support for education and children's health care--and do it all just in time for Christmas?
And this is the one big legislative "accomplishment" in Year One of Trump?
(Oh yes--the President also handed America a giant, air-polluting "lump of coal" this year. What a great present to us all!)
I predict the Republicans will pay a dear price next November.
3
So let me get this straight. The Republicans are going to:
1. Take wealth away from the 99% to give it to the 1%
2. Gut Social Security to give money to the 1%
3. Gut Medicaid to transfer wealth to the 1%
4. Remove graduate school incentives to give money to the 1%
5. and on and on...
So when they kill off the 99% who are draining the 1%'s ability to have even more, who will run their bath?
8
If this was an honest attempt to address the needs of a dwindling middle class, tax reform should have addressed wages. If your salary is below what is considered a living wage, reduced taxes will do nothing for you. If the Republicans were serious about helping ordinary Americans they would be taxing the rich, taking away their loopholes, and assuring the people that they will have affordable access to health care and a robust safety net. They are not. In fact they are doing the opposite.
3
This is huge. We need tax relief, rich and poor. Corporations too. They are people under the law. look it up. We need a quick vote before Roy Moore gets sworn in. Republicans should just run right over the opposition, and jam the bill down their collective gagging democrat throats. Elections have consequences.
3
Maybe it's just the bubbles dancing on the rim of the glass and the rest of the draught is for the wealthy, but the doubling of the standard deduction is certainly appealing to those like myself who do not itemize. In my humble tax bracket it will amount to maybe an additional two thousand a year. I'll take it! Yes, I know the bubbles will dissipate and the standard deduction increase is set to expire in fifteen years, but I don't care. I may not even live that long!
1
A tax law prepared by idiots to be imposed on the same!
7
This package sucks up all the money that could be used for infrastructure. The administration proposes 200 billion which is a joke compared to needs. We are mortgaging our future by feeding the rich at the expense of the greater good. China must be laughing. Wavering senators- listen to your conscience. This is a bad tax bill for what it does to our deficit and neglect of our homeland needs.
5
If you noticed, what comes next is entitlement reform. What does this mean? It really means that tax cuts are meant to open the door for Republicans to focus on more important issues, the elimination of entitlements. They call it reform, but it is nothing more than a cover to transfer the core of current entitlements to the private sector and eliminate the rest. In the end, the middle class will no longer have a safety net. And in the end, they will have gained a few dollars extra every paycheck, which will quickly disappear due to inflation. Watch food prices take most of it year one. The winners will be corporations and campaign donors, the rich.
7
It’s all sickening but I wish I could force Lisa Murkowski to hang a photo of that starving polar bear in her office where she had to face it everyday.
12
Let's consider what this country's priorities should be. In view of this year's devastating hurricanes and wildfires, which have threatened both energy supply and food supply, combating climate change seems to be a high priority. On the other hand, the economy is in fine shape, unemployment is low, stock market is high. The urgency of a tax rewrite that gives more to the wealthy and threatens the welfare of the rest of us seems very low. If we want to boost the economy and jobs, enact an infrastructure repair program that truly will directly help the working class by actually hiring them. Selling this tax plan boondoggle for the rich as a favor to the non-rich is a total con game-our president's strong suit.
8
Many comments talk about how bad this bill is for most of us as if the politicians and lobbyists who designed it care what we think. Those who benefit will pay back the loans they made using overseas profits as collateral (so much for not having the use of those assets.) Then they’ll buy their own stock to jack up the price and merge and acquire. And, when the deficit grows they’ll take some of the money they didn’t pay in taxes to loan back to the government for a price.
That great intellect Paul Ryan has already said, yes Virginia, there will be a deficit and I am going to get rid of Medicare to plug the gap leaving younger people to use resources helping their elders, you know those greedy geezers who don’t have the common decency to drop dead on the day they retire. (I wonder if Ryan knows that his great inspiration, Ayn Rand, took Medicare and Social Security.)
Let us now all sing a spirited God Bless America.
7
I used to think Noam Chomsky was too gloomy but it turns out he was right all along. The single most dangerous organization in the world is the American Republican Party. I feel so sad for the young people, and for my own grand children. I am so sorry we did not do better than this.
14
Shameful. No one should be voting any Republican incumbent back into office in November 2018. I for one any not ready to yield to the Koch brothers grand social plan, which has been a huge fail in Kansas, as the new democracy. Votes can trump money as Alabama showed us all yesterday.
5
On the one hand, this tax bill is a wasted opportunity with much of it ill-conceived and bad policy. On the other, in the spirit of polarization and rank partisanship so prevalent today, there is something juice and delicious about taking money from liberal blue staters, giving it to their enemies (corporations and the investor class) and calling the favor a present for a Christian religious holiday. In other words, a conflict.
The reader who commented from LaGrande, Oregon has a great point in that Mitch McConnell would not let Obama appoint the next Supreme Court Justice for many months, actually didn't let Obama appoint the justice at all, but McConnell can't wait a few weeks till Doug Jones is in the Senate. Smell a rat anyone?? Or at very least a DOUBLE STANDARD.
7
I live where this bill is going to increase my taxes.
Frankly, I would not mind paying more in taxes if it went to services like healthcare and education, but the fact that I will now be doing so that and handful billionaires can take deductions on their private jets, and avoid the estate tax is disgusting.
11
It is not coincidence that workers will see an immediate reduction in taxes deducted from their pay. The Republicans are trying to buy the 2018 election, while cynically phasing out the meager tax benefits to the lower and middle earners in future years. Of course, the tax benefits to the wealthy do not phase out. There is no honor or decency anywhere to be found in the way this bill was rushed, which reflects entirely on the moral quality of Republicans in the House and the Senate.
7
Now is the time to fight this bill because once it gets passed it will be very difficult for either party to push through a tax increase even even when this bill is shown to hurt the middle-class.
3
The proposed final bill is even worse. 1.It lowers the top bracket move than two percentage points & 2. makes the full corporate cuts take effect immediately in 2018.
1
As the GOP seats get lesser and lesser they are still providing bad politics by not stopping the tax bill so the new Democratic senator can look into it. They are still dangerous and careless in their governing and belligerent with the mental mindset its my way or the highway. That is not an American way to govern but a dictators way.
. The GOP is rotting and we see it every day with them. I can't wait until mid terms and they loose more seats. Trump and friends keep doing the wrong things and we will get the last laugh next year.
3
The economy continues to grow, as it has been since 2008; the stock market continues to rise, as it has been since 2008; corporations are making record profits, the average wage earner is struggling more, the income gap between the wealthiest and average people continues to grow, and the national debt continues to grow. A tax cut for corporations and the wealthiest people would only make sense if they weren't doing so well, a substantial tax cut for the struggling middle and lower income people would make sense to reduce the income gap, reducing the annual deficits and cumulative debt would make sense while the economy is doing well. We should be raising the income tax rates on the highest incomes and most prosperous corporations. If corporations claim they can't be competitive at the current rates, then how are they managing to make so much money? Why not have a progressive corporate rate to help smaller businesses, or bigger ones that aren't currently making much money? The proposed tax plan seems to do almost everything the exact opposite of what is logical.
21
I live in Oregon. We have a hefty state income tax as well as significant property taxes. I deduct these from our gross income and then paid my federal tax on the remaining income. That will no longer be the case. This is not fair. Double taxation?
21
Two tens for a five by Abbot and Costello, right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7pMYHn-1yA
1
Listen to the PEOPLE, not your party not your donors, but the PEOPLE you represent do not want this.
5
America's own fuhrer-want-to-be, Mitch McConnell, has announced that he will disenfranchise Alabama votes by refusing to "allow" Senator Elect Doug Jones to be sworn in until some unspecified date in or after January, 2018, or, in other words, that he will do anything and everything to sell out the 99% in favor of pandering to the rich and super rich. Disgusting; so disgusting.
11
Grover Norquist will have achieved his ultimate goal of drowning "Government in the bath tub"!!
2
We need the ghost of tax cuts past to visit the Grinchy Oligarch Politicos this year.
3
Mitch McConnell reminds me of the Frank Griffin character played by Jeff Daniels in Godless. He's a marauding robber who'll burn a town down if it crosses him as he loots the countryside without remorse. And he also sports a clerical collar as he spouts false biblical sayings.
Actually, the entire Republican caucus reminds me of Frank Griffin and his gang of thieves and murderers. They make their own law and justice at the end of their gun barrels - just because they can.
5
simple question > why not up the corp rate, and small bus rate up 1 or 2% more (i.e. 23 & 22) if that would significantly reduce the probability of not impacting the debt as much? seriously, going from 35 to 23, is still plenty of incentive, if that is the goal?
1
Good news is that after this, no one in either party can complain about the other guys ramming bills through Congress. They're both guilty, although not equally so. Obamacare included many GOP amendments, had more and longer hearings, and was delayed while a bipartisan Gang of Six tried to work out a compromise. Not even an attempt at deference to the other side this time.
3
If the economy is so strong, why do we need tax cuts?
7
Susan Collins, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker and John McCain, if consenting to the final version of this tax bill, will be joining the company of the President's unpaid contractors engaged on promise of payment, and his wives, engaged on promises of fidelity, as well as his voting supporters, engaged on promises of "draining the swamp", numbering among the hundreds of thousands that still believe anything Donald Trump says. Perhaps an IQ test should be implemented for the Senate as well as the Presidency?
4
right there are the 4 people who can stop Trump. Only need 2 right? i used 2 look up to Collins. not until i see her vote will she be nothing but a "flipper"
1
IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO COMPLAIN HERE.
How do we change the House in 2018?
Where is the Dem Super-PAC that will target vulnerable Republican Representatives across the country and get out the vote to change those seats to Dem? Where is it?
This tax bill is going to make my personal taxes explode. I WANT REVENGE.
8
Obviously it doesn't matter how this is all achieved, because this is what the corporations want! Power! Power to exploit the people, power to exploit the environment, power to rule the world!!
3
This "Christmas Gift" Donald Trump keeps referring to is nothing more than payback to the most wealthiest of donors and people like Trump - who, not surprisingly, have been twisting the tax code and writing in their own personal avoidance of paying their fair share while sticking the rest of America with their obligations. Ever so consistent from Donald Trump - never accountable his entire life, always having others pick-up his financial failures. And now the most egregious transfer of wealth to a group who hardly needs is about to happen. And the consequences of this jam-it-down-your-throat style of Republican legislation shall be forever paid and become the burden for coming decades.
America, Republicans have just given you a case of Herpes Simplex Virus. The "Christmas Gift" that keeps giving.
2
Where's the consultative process involved in passing complex legislation? Oh, that's right -- there isn't any. None. Zippo. Zilch. Just a rammed through piece of arrogance that is not about helping the country, it's about Republicans being able to say "we did it." Never mind what, you did it all right !
2
In recognition of the significant increase in my taxes, which apparently will be a big Christmas gift to the wealthy of the country, should I expect thank you notes?
5
One of our national currencies is the dollar. Another is trust. People who voted for Donald Trump trusted that he would change Washington to make it work better for the common person, but now that voters have given him and his allies power, this is the result: taking advantage, for themselves. Up to now, many poor and middle-income people have not resented the rich. Many wealthy people have enjoyed admiration for their financial success, as others enjoy admiration for success in other areas. I think that will change now. The donor class is not listening to appeals for fairness. They are engaging in class warfare, and turnaround is fair play. Regimes come and go, and the next time, when the wealthy complain about how proposed policies would be unfair to them, I think much of the country will turn a deaf ear, even -- and perhaps especially -- if they are right.
20
This tax bill is not a promise kept to voters, it is a betrayal. What was promised was a tax bill that:
- eliminated tax breaks that allow people like Donald Trump to pay little or no taxes;
- did not increase the budget deficit;
- primarily benefitted working Americans; and,
- provided incentives for businesses to create jobs in the United States.
This bill, worked out behind closed doors breaks all of those promises. It is a huge giveaway to the very wealthy and to corporations that will cause immediate and severe pain for millions of graduate students, home purchasers, patients financing large medical bills, patients receiving subsidized health insurance, and those who must buy individual health insurance plans. Over time, the damage spreads to most tax payers, who must pay back the enormous debt with (rising) interest, as short term tax breaks for working people are eliminated, rate cuts for corporations remain.
From the perspective of the left, the neo-liberals, and most economists not employed by right wing lobbying institutions, this "tax reform" has always been a dubious prospect. But now that the details have been largely decided, it turns out that this bill is also contrary to what most of the swing voters who voted for Trump were led to believe they would be getting in exchange for their support.
The Republicans have sold out a large swath of their own supporters and most of the workers of the country. That needs to be the subject of consistent messaging, now.
27
Easy to Be Hard--Says It ALL.
by Three Dog Night
How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold
How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no
Especially people who care about strangers
Who care about evil and social injustice
Do you only care about being proud
How about I need a friend, I need a friend
How can people be so heartless
..............................
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no
Especially people who care about strangers
Who care about evil and social injustice
Do you only care about being proud
How about I need a friend, I need a friend
How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel
Easy to be proud, easy to say no
Easy to be gone, easy to say no
Come on, easy to get read
Easy to say no
But too easy to be cold
Easy to say no
But too easy to say no
Songwriters: Galt Mac Dermot / Gerome Ragni / James Rado
Easy to Be Hard lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
3
I've yet to see much evidence that Trump's business activities were of much benefit to anyone but himself, his family, and wealthy Russian trying to launder money overseas. Why should he get any tax cut at all?!!
7
Hey, the GOP has nothing but good news for y'all about this tax shuffle. It's gonna lift us all up. As they say, a rising tide will lift all yachts. Most of us will get stuck with a leaky, damaged dinghy.
2
The brazenly criminal conduct of the Trumplican Party and the uber-rich criminals who have bought them has only galvanized the Resistance. They may think they can shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and get away with it, but when they start shooting people on Main Street, they've got another think coming.
4
Why in the good lords name, would anyone believe Trump when he promises this “fantastic Christmas tax cut for the middle class, when he is caught in so many lies and exaggerations that you have to use exponential notation to catalogue them all.
3
Mr. Trump,
I paid for that White House chandelier, not you.
In fact, I’ve paid more ads than you, because you haven’t paid a dime for over 20 years.
Release your tax returns!
If the GOP passes this tax bill without the public knowing your tax returns, we will tar and feather all of you and run you out of town on a rail!
First, the Democrats will regain the Congress in 2018.
Then, they will impeach you in 2019.
Then, they will repeal all these kleptocratic tax cuts for the wealthy.
Release your tax returns, NOW!
10
We will remember come November.
Big turnout.
NO MORE REPUBLICANS.
NONE. NOT ONE.
5
Citizens United has thrust our democracy into Hades for eternity. Corporations are literally writing our laws and funding the congressional stooges to pass them. Mitt Romney, "Corporations are people, my friend," and his ilk have successfully supported, through the expected repeal of the inheritance tax, his family for generations while the rest of us work for them with unrestricted hours/week till early death.
4
Five family’s huh. Let’s see: the Trump’s, the Kushner’s, the Mnuchin’s, the Tillerson’s and last but not lease the DeVos’s
2
Awarding the green light to the oil and gas industries to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should not be in this tax bill.
13
Many people SHOULD NOT have stayed home or voted third party and none of this would have happened.
1
In his victory speech Doug Jones quoted MLK, stating, "The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice."
The GOP tax bill bends that arc in the opposite direction.
6
Oh, goody, our masters have done throwed us a few more crumbs. I feel...inspired.
3
What? They are taking away wha few you have - college loan write offs for one.
[“As a candidate, I promised we would pass a massive tax cut for the everyday working American families who are the backbone and the heartbeat of our country,” Mr. Trump said.]
The president just lied to the American people point blank. This bill is aimed at the 'top earners' and Fortune 500 corporations so they can continue to donate hundreds of millions of dollars to the GOP.
6
The GOP looks are going to deliver to the one constituency the party cares for: the super rich.
2
Who can deny that the entire US election process is an empty charade when 0.01% of the people invariably call all the shots?
2
So Trump makes the quote below as the GOP tax bill does nothing of the sort. His holiday message might as well say " A bad deal for all (except corporations and wealthy), and to all a good night".
Trump: “We want to give you, the American people, a giant tax cut for Christmas.”
Dear Republicans,
Alabama strongly rejected Luther Strange and clearly doesn't want him to represent the state.
So why would you rush a $1.5 trillion bill through the Senate knowing that Strange supports it and Doug Jones, together with 70% of the American people, oppose it ... ??
3
This. the most unpopular tax bill in history, is being ramrodded through Congress in clear defiance of the will of the american people. The GOP will pay dearly with their jobs in 2016!
2
The latest iteration hurts seniors in high tax states where income isn't high enough to be helped by top rate cuts but still deal with high property taxes and state and local income tax. Next will come Medicare cuts.
3
Both Docrats and Republicans through out huge numbers, accusations, and pronouncements about the proposed tax legislations. Most of us just let these numbers and pronouncements pass by withought much thought. But why would anyone believe Trump when he announces this “fantastc Christmas present to the middle class when almost every time he opens his mouth he lies and exaggerates.
Republican or Democrat tax bill is an oxymoron. National tax bill sounds much better!
Everyone knows that Santa favors the rich. Their kids always get more expensive presents.
1
Alabama should have been a warning bell that people are fed up with the Republicans. Instead they're thumbing their noses at the electorate, and will pay the price.
This is not tax reform. This is the worst form of conservatism -- where every step backwards is considered a step forward. It's a H O A X !!!
1
A hoax insinuates they are being insidious and knowingly trying to fool people while getting their way.
No, they actually think this is good for the country. Less revenue while infrastructure is crumbling?! and driving up the deficit?! which they used to care about. We're gonna go bankrupt and be bought out from under us by China.
A "HOAX" gives them too much credit. They're just plain dumb.
It's a hoax. You assume the GOP has integrity.
All Republican NY and CA house members should refuse to vote for any tax bill that does not retain some deduction for state income tax. They should also state that any member of their state delegation who votes for a bill that eliminates state income tax deductibility will be expelled from the state Republican Party and will be opposed in the next election.
"...The most significant impact could be felt in New York City. In theory, New York and New York City in particular, could reduce income taxes and make up the difference by raising property taxes. This would make sense since New York City residents pay one of the highest state and local income taxes in the nation. Additionally, in terms of tax as percent of market value, New York City residents pay one of the lowest property taxes in the nation.
The flight of businesses from New York City could prompt the government to see the advantage of real estate taxes as compared to income taxes, in that real estate cannot be relocated to another tax jurisdiction. However, given the immense power of the real estate interests in New York City, a much more likely scenario would be that as tenants fled New York City, in response to the tax bill, the real estate interests in New York City would force the government to reduce real estate taxes and make up the difference by raising local income taxes. This scenario or something similar might be played out in various other high-tax localities..."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4127862
1
Many conservatives believe that Republicans in Congress don't really want or know what to do with a clear majority and perhaps Jones was elected to jog their memory. If so then apparently it may have worked. Keep up with our expectations or it could get interesting. Thanks in advance.
Has a SINGLE Trump supporter come out to decry this frontal assault on the working people Trump was supposed to be a champion of?
Of course not.
Has a single Trump supporter come out to decry the fact that Trump immediately installed the worst Wall Street villains and Goldman Sachs hoodlums in his effort to "drain the swamp" including the main criminal responsible for vast suffering in the housing meltdown--a monster who is now our Treasury Secretary?
Of course not.
The election was never about the economic plight of the middle class. It was about the 5 point Republican platform: we hate blacks, we hate immigrants, we love guns, destroy the environment, science is a hoax.
7
Thirteen million fewer Americans without healthcare insurance; thousands will die. Make Trumpxs day!
10
All of us takers are about to be taken, back into the gilded age when the rich were self indulgent and lazy as could be. There was only the vast continent to settle that kept those silly people from turning this land into a banana republic. This time they just might.
7
Yep. Tell the Bernie Bros./Etc. who were originally "Occupy Wall Street 99% ers" that they just lost big time.
The 1% just totally kicked their butts. They should have voted for the candidate that would have NEVER signed this - simple math
To GOP supporters: This one is on you. We’ll carry you until the next election on one condition, that you wake-up and realize that you’ve all been had, used like cheap tools.
10
Let Doug Jones vote on this!
8
The republicans are never more happy unless they are depriving American citizens of their rights, and money and freedoms. Why let everyday hard working people hold on to their dignity and wages? And have some hope of being able to have healthcare and support their families? Way to go republicans after this self serving, money grubbing bill you will go down in history as the Trump Tribe of Thieves!
12
“We want to give you, the American people, a giant tax cut for Christmas.”
Santa Trump in his gilded sleigh with one bag full of rocks and dirty socks for the huddled 99%, and the other bag loaded with of goodies and lavish holiday cheer for the top 1%.
Gotta love it.
8
The post unpopular tax bill (the view of the American people) signed off by Republicans with no hearings, no analysis, no consideration of its impacts now and in the future on those ("morons" per the grotesque man in the Oval office) who actually pay taxes. Rush to give holiday -- oops, Christmas, presents to your behind the scenes controllers? Sure looks that way!
9
The birth of this country was caused by unfair taxation by the British. I am afraid its final demise will be due to the same cause, self inflicted.
4
How is opening the Arctic to energy exploration related to taxes??? This bill is typical Republican payoff for wealthy corporate donors and the red states. Total sham!!
The saddest part of all of this is there is no mandate for this. 3 million more opposed POTUS, and I'd bet that number is growing. We need to wake up and save our democracy from the corrupt gerrymandering Republican party. They stole a SCOTUS seat, are wrecking our environment, and obstructing a clear case of espionage that goes right to the oval office. Don Jr. has admitted as much and anybody who would hire Manafort clearly had the interests of Russia in mind. Now the payoff is coming to those who support them.
45
A few days ago there was a heartbreaking photo of a starving polar bear. It was traumatic to view; I had to look away. It was a shocking testimony of humans plundering the earth and all living things and turning away from science. Now further destruction is a portion of the tax bill in order to seal the vote. So painful and leaves those with compassion with a sense of hopelessness. One can protest, contribute support if able....yet the power lies elsewhere.
1
Actually, 63 million voted for Trump, but 73 million voted for Hillary OR third party. That's a 10 million vote deficit. That makes him far from popularly elected and emphasizes the folly of voting third party to 'make a statement.'
The people of Alabama were much smarter than the 2016 electorate. They used their write-in vote on Tuesday specifically to prevent Roy Moore from being elected, a true and productive statement of values.
I am not a very religious person, or a religious expert. But today I was asking myself why the evangelicals support the Right.
Would Jesus support a tax cut for the rich? No
Would Jesus support Donald Trump? No
Would Jesus support Wall Street? No
Would Jesus support false prophets? No
Would Jesus support universal healthcare? Of course
13
But apparently Jesus would not support hormonal contraception, family planning, or pre-viability pregnancy termination. He would support forcing women to keep a pregnancy due to rape or incest, maintaining a pregnancy that threatens the life of the mother, or keeping a pregnancy when the fetus has serious malformations or an untreatable affliction. It says so right in the Bible.
1
Thank you President Grinch for this wonderful tax bill for Christmas that cuts your taxes by millions while raising mine to pay for them. Now I know how the rich get even rich while the rest of us get poorer. I get to pay more in taxes due to the $10,000 cap on the deductibility of state, local and real estate taxes (over $32,000 for me) while you get a 2 percent rate reduction in your personal rate to compensate for it and an even lower rate on "pass through" corporate income. It seems you've turned the tax code into the Trump Taj Mahal casino with "winners" and "losers: but rigged in favor of the wealthy owner--you. Of course, it still went bankrupt, but you "walked away with millions" while your backers got coal in their stockings (aka "were left holding the bag"). It's just like the ghost of Christmas past--2008. Sound familiar?
7
If you pay $32K in property tax, it is highly likely you are in the top 5% in income. Not rich? Tell that to the guy making $32K total.
1
One more step in abolishing the false notion of "income inequality", a.k.a. a politically correct means for the government to seize the wealth of individuals and remove economic freedom in America.
2
Yes! Let’s all go back to the Gilded Age!
John McCain talked so eloquently about decency and respecting the legislative process as a way of respecting the American people.
John, will you now also walk the walk?
The process followed here by GOP leadership is at least as devoid of any respect for what the Constitution asks lawmakers to do before they vote on a bill, as what has been the case with the Obamacare repeal bills.
Will you finally become a man of principle and vote "no"?
Or will you do what you did during your last presidential campaign: talking about respect for other opinions and people (including Obama) and studies done by non partisan experts, and then nevertheless actively contributing to spreading the worst Fox News lies, even though they had been debunked over and over again, once it comes major issues such as Obamacare or taxes ... ?
And today, a vote based on principles and the Constitution doesn't even mean you have to be a maverick, even though you'd be the only one voting this way, among GOP Senators. It's all about simple, basic decency and patriotism.
So PLEASE John, think about future generations and vote NO!!
2
Rep. Young from Alaska said Dems should be happy because if this bill tanks the economy the Democrats will take over. What about doing what is best for the country? For the majority of its citizens? Hopefully Democrats are not this crass and actually want the country to improve, especially for those who need it most. I hope so.
3
If you are single, retired or married with grown kids out of the house, this bill is devastating (unless you are rich).
8
Beg pardon, but there's a mistake tat the end of the first paragraph. Republicans in Congress gained control in 2014, after taking over the Senate (they had the House already since 2010), and they accomplished nothing in those 3 years. Oh, maybe a bit of overspending, backroom deals (imagine cigar smoke and smooth whiskey). And probably a bit of #ME2 -worthy horror.
4
I have been in the corporate world over 30 years, including over 10 years in the C-suite. Anyone who thinks the corporate tax cuts will trickle down to increase employees' pay has a fundamental misunderstanding of how corporations handle tax expense and employee expense. Congressional Republicans know this. Their entire argument is based on a lie they are knowledgeable of.
78
And when the time comes to pay for these tax cuts, ordinary Americans can kiss their Medicare and Social Security goodbye.
10
SS and Medicare are not hand-outs. I've paid into these funds since my first job and continue to pay a significant amount every week. This is outright theft of money that the government has had access to and I have not. Do not touch money that I earn and are required to pay while the Republican Congress would prefer to use it for a Christmas present to the likes of Trump, Adelson, Koch, and the other 1 percent.
2
Democrats hate the tax bill because they know it will supercharge the economy and enhance Republican chances in November. Yes, a booming economy will increase inequality somewhat but it will also raise living standards and opportunities for all.
1
it didn't work under Nixon, Reagan or the 2 Bushes, what makes you think it will work this time? Jobs are created when the working people have more money to spend thereby creating a demand for goods and services. Corporate America is rolling in cash but what does it do with it? Does it create jobs? No. Does it hire more workers here in the US? No. does it increase wages and benefits for their workers? No. What is does is move the money into offshore banks where is does nothing for the economy.
4
Susan Collins is a piece of work. She tries to sell herself as a moderate but when a really unfair poorly written piece of legislation is before the Senate she marches with the arrogance of a true believer of the Greed is good crowd. McConnell is clearly the master of the use of zero sum Senate rules as the big pay off for Republican fat cats rears its ugly head toward passage.
12
Jam her phones and ask her about her stance with Garland... constant jamming ALL DAY LONG “I see no need to wait for Doug Jones to become a senator. We vote all the time in lame duck sessions with retired and defeated members casting votes,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine.
11
Let's see if these disgusting party before country GOPers will stand up to a few of their bully members and the president. If they ever want to be a leader or presidential candidate, they better stand up to this blatant giveaway. Anyone attached to this disaster will never be president.
6
Cuts for high earners and corporations, just what regular Americans wanted to pay for with their (possibly yet higher) taxes!
Great job, Republicans! Sticking it to regular Americans for decades, while distracting them with politics based in fear and resentment!
68
It is not only strange but also a bit hypocritical that we pass the bill in lame duck session. Just remember last years Republican argument that we cannot confirm the SCOTUS Justice because of the lame duck session!! Never so much blatant disregard and disrespect for democracy. The bill that’s will affect the whole population off the USA is being rushed with a thinnest of the majority which was created by jerry meandering!!!
9
They ran up the national credit card and stuffed their pockets.
10
So, penalizing people for basically attending college means: Less education so that more people will make up their base of the uneducated who vote for their sorry policies and people.
12
Will this tax plan do anything to really improve the economy,or is this just a way for Republicans and Mr Trump to be able to say they were actually able to produce some legislation? There are so many unintended consequences that will arise from this bill that no one really knows what the full effect will be. What will be the long term effect of this maneuver? Will Americans and America be better or worse off because of this so-called tax reform? Is this a scam or is this an honest attempt to improve the lives of ALL Americans? Only time will tell, and many of those who will be voting for this bill will not be in office when its effects are fully realized.
3
It’s just the latest GOP ploy to shovel money to the rich at everyone else’s expense and set the stage for destroying Social Security and Medicare. Again. What’s it going to take for the American people to wise up to this? Trump is still crowing about a big and beautiful tax cut for the middle class.
1
Dear Mr. President,
If you want to give the American people a giant tax cut,: why don't you do it instead of ramming through this deceptive budget-busting hodgepodge?
2
Trump and his pack of Republican Vultures are about to knowingly enact the most horrible disproportionately unfair tax overhaul bill upon the American people in decades. It is supply-side/trickle-down Voodoo Reaganomics on steroids, and Republican are chomping on the bit for the sake of getting something, anything, done by year's end no matter how terrible this bill is.
Why, why? Who knows what evil lurks in the dark hearts and minds of these legislators. They are betting their seats on the ignorance of the American Electorate. Considering the results of the 2016 election, there's some validity in their distorted thinking. But what all politicians who manage to endure the whims of a fickle public must learn is that what happened a year ago is ancient history in politics. One must look to the Crimson Tide which has turned dramatically. Even Republican who were solidly in Trump's corner are waking up to the realization that they've been had. Repealing Obamacare is wrong, fixing it is right. Giving enormous tax cuts to the wealthiest is wrong, giving it to those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder is right. It doesn't take a professional medico or an economist to see the dastardly deeds being committed by Republicans. To make things worse, Republicans will not even level with their constituents. They are blatantly lying to get this bill passed. And it appears Americans have awoken to this scam. 2018 is a few weeks away. And Americans have had enough.
DD
Manhattan
7
If this tax bill, which is less popular than some previous tax increases, let alone tax cuts were subject to a vote of our representatives it would never pass. However it is only subject to a vote of the representatives of the Koch brothers - where you have to remember that a vote of two to whatever, two wins.
How Republican Senators and Representatives of states and districts where SALT deductions are important can vote for this plan is beyond me. They are clearly not representing their state or people by voting against them.
4
The news media is doing an incredibly poor job of describing what this bill will change for ordinary taxpayers. All you want to talk about is what corporations and the rich will pay. What about what regular folks will pay? What are the new tax brackets, to start? It just goes to show that the media doesn't care about regular people.
2
Foxnews doesn't care about regular people? As the number one cable news station they ARE the media.
The news media has done nothing but talk about how bad this bill is for regular people, both from a tax perspective, as well as due to the ramifications of things they are stuffing in there like establishing fetal personhood. There is plenty of reporting on this very site to that effect. You can search for it.
2
The Times has published about eleventy-seven articles doing just that. There are graphs, charts, pictures, and if memory serves, interactive tables.
Man, I'm tired of "leftists," and others who won't lift so much as a pinky to do a little homework before they start yelling at The Media.
How are our children ever going to be able to continue their education especially in the health fields. Most require advanced degrees.I guess we don't need nurses,nurse practitioners ,physical therapists,physician assistants,pharmacists,surgical assistants,doctors,dentists.....Who is gonna take care of all those poor rich people and their lackeys the senators and congressman?
3
This is only a tax cut for Republicans' rich donors!
Call your congressional representatives!
3
Your representatives? They are Koch's representatives. And they've been given their orders. Or else no more campaign funding. And Trump's representatives. They've been told my way or I'll fund people to run against you in the primaries.
Of course a call to reminder them of who actually votes for them wouldn't hurt.
2
Relax, liberals. As a bonafide member of the 1%, I, too, have evaluated the new tax plan and, guess what? I'll still be paying the same exorbitant rate, far more than my "fair share" considering how little government resources my family and I use and how much we've contributed to the economy. I'll lose even more of my deductions, and, when I die, the government will still steal a significant portion of the fortune I have amassed through my hard work and sacrifice and risk-taking ventures, and use my money to fund give aways to that portion of the populous that refuses to fend for themselves. So, far from gleefully rubbing my hands together over the new tax rules, as the NYT would have you believe, I'm just as unhappy as you are. Lesson: don't believe everything you read in the NYT.
4
It's going to be tough getting people to believe you vs. the tax experts and others who are speaking up and out, especially while you get resentful about having to help pay for the military, or the roads you use, or the police presence you benefit from, or an education system that allows you to find qualified workers, or any number of other things that you absolutely do get by virtue of being a citizen of this country.
It never ceases to amaze how little we spend on "welfare" relative to all other governmental spending, yet how it makes up the disproportional amount of meanness coming from politicians and the wealthy as they justify why they shouldn't have to pay anything. Get back to us when you are living paycheck to paycheck, trying to figure out how to keep your family afloat despite working 60-80 hours a week, while enduring the people more fortunate than you repeatedly telling you how lazy you are.
2
Your hard work. Sure, if you say so. Those terrible, terrible days, sweating under indirect lighting in an Aeron chair, as Miss Suzy brings in the mail and you take meetings, wondering if you need to switch into another dry-cleaned short before going to a two-hour deductible lunch...
@Shawmh - Yeah, the police who make $100K a year to give you speeding ticket of $198 (to pay their salaries), the teachers who can barely read and write themselves, the army that has 44,000 soldiers missing and can't account for tens of billions of dollars they think they spent on something....
1
and for this reason the people of this great nation will decimate Republican majorities when the Average American realizes they’ve been had.
2
I will leave my personal situation out of this but being from NJ, what I got was a lump of coal... many thousands of lumps..I know we have high state and local taxes. As they say you get what you pay for...Last time I looked we had real schools with kids going to serious colleges and getting serious jobs as opposed to say some of our senators who have education ranked in the 40th to 50th positions out of 52 pointing out that california, NJ and NY have high taxes. I also note that we in our state get less than 80 cents for every dollar we send to DC helping to support guys in the low/no tax states. Glad to hear that many americans are getting $1200 or so of benefits... lets see how that 3 dollars, actually less, stimulates the economy. unemployment is at 4 percent. openings all over the place ( but you need skills ) lets see how many jobs get created
5
Go read one of the articles on corporate tax at the GAO. The effective tax rate for all corporations, excluding the net operating loss deduction, from 2007-2012 is about 19%. If the NOL deduction is included, the ETR drops to 14%.
The impetus to reduce corporate and individual income tax should be that the demand on those funds is reduced, meaning substantial decreases in the size of government and its burden on taxpayers.
Can this bill be overturned before 2025 if our country starts going down the tubes? Say, in 2018? Why is it legal for red states and lobbyists for the wealthy to have a closed, undemocratic process for taxing the entire United States? I get that the party in power has outsized influence, but over half the country is not represented in this bill. Their representatives have had no say. We The People are not represented in Trump's tax the middle-class bill. We don't really even know what it's in it. We don't know how it will affect the retired or future retirees on Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid; the rumor is not well. For your few hundred dollar tax cut, how much will your medical insurance go up, if you can get any? Will you children ever be able to afford or pay off college, and how will their public schools be degraded and underfunded to pay for this? What infrastructure for our roads and bridges is part of this tax plan/give away? What research is being funded and what plans are in place for climate change in this tax bill? Do you really think the wealthy are going to provide jobs for the less wealthy? When in history have they ever done that? Remember Reagan's voodoo economics? The Republican caused recession? The people who lost their jobs and homes? Who is going to pay the deficit? Well, enjoy the roller coaster to the ditch, people. By the way, has anyone seen Trump's taxes? How much will he make on this "deal"?
4
I do support the lowering of corporate tax rates, to say 20-25% IF we also bumped up the min. wage to $15 indexed to inflation. Give the tax break but guarantee the higher wage. And no cuts to individual tax rates for the top earners. And treat all capital gains like ordinary income. Restore an authentic estate tax.
In short, remove the burden on businesses but tax actual profits that go into single pockets to reinvest for the good of our general society.
If we had a true bipartisan approach to the tax and revenue question, we could achieve this.
The thing no one is talking about is this: The more we under fund the government, the closer we get to being a society run by businesses. This bill takes a giant step towards that reality with 14% less in tax revenue from businesses alone.
I get that Republicans want less government. But, do they really trust business owners to do what is right for anyone but themselves?
The primary purpose of business is to make money. The primary purpose of government is to balance the rights of the individual with responsibility to the larger community.
The recent financial meltdown is evidence of where we end up when businesses are free to serve their own purposes without consideration of others. The meltdown was caused by eliminating regulations on certain types of financial transactions, which allowed corporations to act in their own greedy self-interest without care for the impact on others.
Business or government? Which institution do you want deciding your children's future?
2
Neither. I want to decide my own future and I want everyone to have the ability to decide theirs. I do not trust businesses. I trust the government even less.
Funny how you try to blame the financial crisis on businesses alone. Of course Wall Street had a role to play - but so did the federal government. Banks, as well as Fannie and Freddie were encouraged to give out loans to un-creditworthy customers under the banner of increasing homeownership. The government incentivized mortgages for people with a high risk of default and exerted enormous pressure on the banks to do so.
You talk about greed. Do you think that government does not run on greed, that it is some altruistic utopia where everyone loves each other and Big Brother is always thinking of the best for you? This kind of thinking is very dangerous. Government serves itself before it serves anyone else - just look at how much bigger it has gotten in the last 50 years.
At least with businesses, if I do not like the product or service they are providing, I can go somewhere else. It has nothing to do with whether they are doing the right thing or not. With government I do not have a choice, whether I agree or disagree with their policies I am forced to pay taxes and comply with regulations, under the threat of force.
The tax bill, if passed, will benefit some, but be negatively life-changing for many.
Every member of Congress should now make public their own personal tax returns---so we can see if they personally would benefit from the proposed law.
And how about Mnuchin's tax return?
And how about Trump?
6
How do we expect to thrive in a world that requires a much more sophisticated and technologically knowledgeable work force? Republican answer---provide incentives to destroy universal public education and discourage all but the rich from post high school education.
Real answer---we won't.
2
The current efforts to "compromise" are in reality a sham. If you review the net effect of either version of the legislation, the wealthy are the winners and by a significant margin. I think it's great if they leave graduate tuition stipends alone along with other hurtful repeal items - but the historical trends and facts are very clear - tax legislation like this has a net negative effect on society. I don't care how many cherry-picked families Trump brings to the podium, there are an equal number of families that could be brought to the very same podium able to demonstrate how hurtful this legislation can be to their lives. Trump and his ilk are preying upon to the short-sighted. The plutocracy will grow under this legislation (either version or compromise) and the 90% - 95% that actually support the economy will experience further decline in standard of living.
1
I would very much like to see a graphic the shows quite explicitly the changes to tax code in correlation to the voters in the last presidential election. We have seen graphics of effects according to income, to state. We have heard stories of individual groups who will be effected, but I want it all! Show me the elderly, how they voted, and how they will be effected. Show me the youth vote (what there was of it) and how they will be effected. Show me that high school educated angry white man vote we heard so much about in 2016 and how they will be effected. The average evangelical voter? The liberal Silicon Valley? Black America? How will the public that stayed away from the polls be effected? It is probably an impossible task, a task akin to getting the citizens of this country to actually show up on election day and cast a ballot, but I'd like to know. We all need to know.
Trump has passed a tax bill that is the Republican establishment's fantasy. Hey, all you blue-collar and rural Trump voters, how do you like being conned by the Republican Establishment yet again?
2
Looks like a so-called Wisconsin Gov, Scott Walker tax bill. "I am saving you money this year, but you will have to pay huge taxes in the future." What kind of deal is this? The donors gave money to Donald J. Trump to by an election. If Trump lost that would be the end of it. Trump one. Now everyone in the country has to pay huge taxes in the future because Trump one. If we do not give money to the donors, theoretically they would not give money to Senators and members of the House of Representatives. That is ridiculous, Donors always pay money to Republicans or Democrats. This country should not have to give any money to Trump's donors.
Now the donors want to give money to judges so they can buy elections. When they buy an election, are the local residents have to pay so judges can win?
The donors will flee the country because they do not want to drive on broken streets.
Ah, we can see how desperate corporate America has been!
Last Thursday United announced a $3B buyback plan & JetBlue announced a $750M buyback plan.
They DEFINITELY need a tax break!
What a joke the GOP is.
4
Thank you very much for the great graphic comparison of the current law with the proposed house and senate version. Please do a similar one for the new law. I would like to print it out in a PDF form so I can hold those who voted for this new tax reform accountable. It seems we, as voters, tend to forget the details of these big chances in law when it is convenient.
I did not see any comments about the changes to the JOHNSON AMENDMENT of 1954 which would allow churches (and any other 501 c 3) to raise money and speak about political candidates. If this proposal is part of the new law, it could have and incredible affect on political campaigns, including raising of money and the ability to deduct those contributions on tax returns. These political deductions could increase the debt even more. Could anyone then set up a 501c3, collected campaign donation for a candidate and the donors could write off their donation as a charitable donation?
It’s obvious. The GOP sees only one way. THEIR way. It’s disgusting. It’s discouraging. But it will bring people out of all corners of cities and states to vote during the midterm elections.
2
As a liberal Democrat and mostly retired tax lawyer, I have - as many Dems have been - almost clinically depressed by the Trump presidency and the thoroughly vile behavior of the Republicans and the Trump cabinet appointees who are busy every day wrecking the United States. Regarding this "tax reform" bill, which is anything but, I don't know how to feel about it. Mainly, I believe it's so bad for so many people that it will usher in the demise of the Republican party as it has now become. So, either I oppose a terrible piece of "legislation" or I cheer it on because of what it will do to its writers and supporters.
Does the GOP leadership understand the kind of reaction they're going to get as a result of this abominable "Donor Tax Relief Act" (DRA) they are about to pass without a single vote from the opposing party? Do they understand that most of this country, right, left, and center; young and old, are aware of what's going on here.
This bill is nothing but a payback for the money invested in the GOP by corporations and hyper wealthy individuals. There isn't a sentence in this bill about reform, about simplification, or about equality. It is simply another enormous shift in wealth from what remains of the middle class to the upper class.
After this DRA becomes law, look for immediate huge spending cuts pushed on us all by Trump, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. They know they have to get this done before January of 2019, when the new Congress convenes.
Voters know all this and they will express their disgust in 2018. Trump, McConnell and Ryan are depending on more corporate and private money for 2018 but in fact, they're committing political suicide.
The vast majority of Americans are fed up with this "bait and switch" Republican congress and president.
The only hope is that a few Republicans in the Senate will have the decency to not approve this horrible bill. Unfortunately those who have qualms might not be able to resist the pressure to "give their President something" before the year ends.
Small rewards today in exchange for huge punishment later (dismantling of Social Security and Medicare).
1
No transparency. The GOP is owned by their rich donors and it's clear that they only care about the very rich. They can lie and lie that the bill will help the middle class but we're not all as ignorant as their voters. Same story as always with the GOP. Did we really expect anything new? They are so corrupt and it's time to vote them out.
1
Why do corporations need a tax break when they're already hiding profits overseas in dummy corporations?
1
99% of the country is against this bill.
Do your job, Congress. We don't want it!
2
Looks like it's going to be a very Merry Christmas for the middle class and rich alike. Look at the market, unemployment and GDP growth! I hate Trump but I'm loving this roaring economy and these proposed tax cuts.
3
Hello,
If you read closely you'll see that tax cuts for the lower end of the spectrum (<$100k/yr) sunset after a few years. Taxes then GO UP for these brackets.
Glad you are enjoying the spoon feeding though. Hope Atlanta gets some new roads in 2030! LOL.
4
Republican tax reform is illegitimate on its face. It represents rule by one party fiat, crafted in total secrecy and subjected to absolute no bipartisan review. Democrats will be asked by voters to dismantle the changes just as soon as they return to the majority. Unfortunately, this cycle just perpetuates the divisions and derision of both parties for the other. Republicans are all about the division and the resentment. Democrats need to be all about the union and reinvigorating "we the people" as the beneficiary of the Federal government's policies. To that end, Democrats should begin true tax reform hearings within their own caucus and invite the public discussion and review that will harden into sustainable, popular, policy changes to be made when they return to majority control.
8
Every judge they install into the federal judiciary will work to block revocation of their coup d'etat.
Can someone please explain how opening ANWR is related to tax reform? I was already sickened by this tax bill that allows the rich to get richer on the backs of middle class families. But really, opening up ANWR to energy exploration as part of this legislation you are jamming down American’s throats? Republicans have no morals or conscience. 2018 can’t come soon enough.
12
Yes indeed, these are the very same grotesque hypocrites who ran for office on the promise of offering up clean single-issue bills.
I don't want anything proposed by these nihilistic incompetents to affect my life.
1
I agree with most of the comments here. What did you expect McConnell, Ryan, et al to do? The bill will become law and we must accept that fact.
More important is that we take action. Urge our SALT state governors and attorneys general to contest in the courts if statutory or constitutional grounds can be found. Also, targeted sanctions or embargos aganst say Kentucky or Wisconsin by the SALT states ala the actions against N Carolina and Indiana with recent bathroom or gender laws. Make them feel our pain a little bit more. And political leaders from the Red Neck states have to stop saying they are subsidizing NY CA CT NJ.... ( Sen R Scott, and Gov Haslam of Tennessee are the most recent offenders I have heard) They get way more from us than we get from them.
Most importantly, next November vote. I have an R congressman in the mid Hudson Valley. He seems ok, but I have to vote against him because I can't vote directly against Ryan or McConnell. Perhaps in Jan 2019 we can restore some sanity and sensitivity to our Capital.
3
It moves the country forward, and so good. If it needs to be changed, then either the Repubs can do it or the Dems will come in with a mandate to make changes. Either way it shakes the US out of the status quo, which needed to be done. I would have been happier if Bernie was doing the shaking, but at least things are in motion.
2
Remember in just 10 years Individuals tax breaks become voided and Corporate stays intact...
How's this even close to a 'Tax Reform' Bill
Reminds me of the 'Great Recession' of 2007/08 and Wall St., still are calling it a "housing" issue
5
Assuming this helps the economy (I think it will), Congress will have a strong incentive to make the cuts permanent or at least extend them.
Well I'm so happy republicans have come to agreement on how best to pick my pockets for themselves and their rich donors.
It makes my decision at the ballot box so simple!!!
6
Cutting taxes is not tax reform.
True tax reform would have been closing loop holes , tax avoidance schemes and fixing the ways taxes are not paid first then seeing what your financial house is like before you give it away.
We still have to pay for an ongoing war overseas out of the current tax system, so you cut taxes ?
And the wall Mexico is not paying for?
This bill is just nonsensical vision of a few and their supporters that only think about themselves.
3
The Democratic call to "work together" is silliness. For the last year all the Democrats have done is try to get President Trump removed from office. Other than open borders, free college/student loan forgiveness and Medicare for all, they don't appear to have any ideas. Even John McCain has given up on working with them on this
3
This is glorious news!
The commentators know not of what they speak.
They will be thanking the Congress next year when the benefits of the tax cuts begin to take hold. I promise.
2
Google this, The average tax rate for American profitable corporations in 20916 was 16.1 percent yes 16.1percent, some pay a bit more some less, the 35 percent rate touted is a dishonest canard, no corporation pays that or even close to that. call out those pols who lie repeatedly re this topic, receive emails from Paul Ryan that are meant for rubes and others who do not check the actual facts, in additiopb 19.5 percent of profitable corporations pay zero taxes in 2016, GOOGLE IT WAKE UP
3
That's fake news: the 16% you reference would be the effective tax rate for US multinationals on their worldwide income. They still currently pay 35 percent on their US income but since the US rate is virtually the highest in the developed world, US multinationals achieve a lower than 35 % worldwide effective by locating most of their activities abroad. When the act is implemented, the worldwide effective tax rates of those US multinationals will probably be more or less the same but more of their income will be taxed in the US.
1
The passage of this tax bill combined with Christmas will provide enough cover/distraction to fire Mueller.
This is the perfect moment for DJT to release his own tax records. There is a lot of dishonest behavior going on. 2018 can't come soon enough.
4
The only Americans that the Republicans in Congress care about are the wealthy and their large donors. The rest of us are about to get gob-smacked with this horrible tax cut bill. Don't dignify it by calling it reform--call it what it is a huge move of money from the poor and middle class to the wealthiest among us. I believe it is the beginning of an authoritarian state in America. Always follow the money.
3
Gotta love this.
“I see no need to wait for Doug Jones to become a senator,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. “We vote all the time in lame-duck sessions with retired and defeated members casting votes.”
Unless of course it's a Supreme Court Vacancy.
How much more of this hypocrisy must we endure.
27
Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are both frauds.
Do not buy their lies. There are no Republican "moderates".
2
Where are the Democrats,? What are that doing to stop this? Are they trying at all?
11
The Democrats are here, they have been there all along. They've talked about this, they're trying to she'd light on this subject as well as others but can't really do much cause they're in the minority.
Too bad that not more Democrats that did sat out voting for the last presidential election (or any election for that matter), didn't think how bad things can go by not voting for the person that they are not thrilled with. When it comes down to it we are left with two choices and these problems arise by conceding our vows to the other side.
Perhaps now people will wake up and if the Democrats ever become a majority pretty again, will correct the actions of the last 10 years of Congressional / Senate rule.
1
The Democrats are the minority party and have been using what limited power they have left to try and stop it. They continually take these bad decisions to court. They are on the news constantly trying to talk about it to raise voter awareness in a misguided hope that Republicans will actually care about public pressure (hint: they don't). Some of them even started going out and holding rallies to raise awareness (Bernie, taxes). The Republicans intentionally keep using parliamentary tricks to prevent them from being able to participate, such as using the budget process to pass this tax monstrosity. Democrats have been remarkably unified in their opposition, as loud as they can be as a minority party. So yeah, they are trying.
If we want them to do more, we need to make them a majority party in every state, in every branch of government. This is particularly important as this administration is confirming far-right judges at a very rapid pace, after holding up Obama's ability to appoint them for years.
1
What can they do? They don't have enough votes and the Republicans have screwed the pooch so they only need a simple majority rather than the usual 60 votes for these kinds of changes.
I’m getting sick and tired of these ignorant republican politicians that continuously, ad nauseum, claim that business, as a result of the tax cut, will use that extra cash to expand their business and increase the salaries of their employees. Really? What planet are they living on. My father owned a business and he increased plant capacity and made capital expenditures when demand for his products required it. When the labor market demanded it or when the union threatened to strike did he negotiate higher salaries for his employees. Although when business was good he did give out generous bonuses to all. And yes he was a Democrat, and quite liberal and quite rich
12
I think they keep repeating these lies because too many Americans still believe them. By the time they realize the tax cuts didn't reach their wallets, it will be a few years down the road and then the lies can start again. It's the same nonsense as "government is broken, elect me, I'll fix it", and then the Senator (usually GOP) gets to DC and of course he's not going to fix anything, that way he can use the same slogans and talking points 6 yrs later to get re-elected. Which he usually is!
We had to wait for a year, after Obama’s left the office, to have a new Supreme Court judge confirmaed. Yet we cannot wait for Doug Jones to become senator in January before passing the tax bill. This is hypocrisy at its worst and most blatant.
17
Bring it on.
Pass the bill.
We will take over the Congress in 2018 following Virginia and Alabama and impeach Trump and Pence.
We will then throw this bill in the garbage where it does belong.
8
In this season of giving the GOP is giving all to their rich benefactors and a few crumbs to everyone else.
It sure reminds me of a famous movie It's a Wonderful Life with the GOP playing the role of Mr. Potter. Soon we will all be living in Potterville's if this continues...
6
NOW LET"S STOP IT FROM BEING LAW! CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS! Stop the give away to the RICH.
8
we fought world wars,thousand died, and so many more maimed, to stop people who now call themselves president and republicans!
11
This tax overhaul is a hypocritical abomination by Republicans! Take from the middle class and poor and give to the rich! They don't believe in Christian values. 2018 will be a year of reckoning for those in Congress.
14
as long as the Koch brothers get everything they want, maybe now they will stop spending all that money paying our of morally corrupt politician
We all know now the republicans are racist hypocrite, let the country suffer for 8 years because they didn't want to work with a black person, now we get this.
7
I was i was a teacher for nearly forty years, owned a home, put my child through school and college, saved modestly, and am now retired on a fixed income from social security and an annuity from my retirement savings. My wife and I have common medical expenses and a mortgage which I calculated in my planning. We live in a state with high taxes, which we have been able to deduct. I have not felt vulnerable before...but now I do. I am anxious that this tax bill will increase my taxes. I am afraid of what the likely cuts to social security, Medicare, and Medicaid will do, even though I will likely be grandfathered because I worry about those who are younger.
I don’t expect government to take care of me, but I do know there are people in this country that do need government to help them survive. I expect the government to maintain a commitment to the well-being if everyone in the US.
This bill hurts many and helps few.
I wish the democrats would offer a detailed tax plan of their own that would serve as a counter to the current bill. It would focus on middle class tax relief, eliminating loopholes, encourage home ownership and education, and enhance the social safety net. Put it up next to the republican plan to show the contrast in where the money goes. Hold open forums across the country to hear from citizens. Show people that government can serve them responsibly.
11
You are benefiting from Social Security now because when you started paying into it you were still part of the generation that gets more out of SS than you put into it. For me, and many of my generation, we will never see a benefit level anywhere close to what you are getting. We are paying into a system into which we have zero transparency. I would rather invest 6% of my annual income into the vehicles I choose, rather than trust the federal government to do it. Same goes for Medicare/Medicaid, and those are even less transparent.
If you live in a state with high taxes it is time for you to start asking the hard questions to your state government: Why are our taxes so high? Is our infrastructure / schools / public services substantially better than other states with comparable demographics but lower taxes?
I agree that there are people in the country who absolutely need public assistance, and we should keep that assistance. But those are a minority. The number of people receiving government welfare is much higher than what it should be. Part of the reason is that they themselves have continued to vote for a large government that promises them free benefits, at the expense of people like you and me who actually pay taxes and work for a living.
I don't want government to "take care" of me. I want to decide what to do with my own money. That's why I think this tax cut is a step in the right direction, even though it may be flawed.
1
What happened to the $1T infrastructure bill that was also promised? If that happens, is the hit to national debt more like $2.5T? Just asking...
7
When will more attention be given to the Medicare ( $27 billion in the first year) and Medicaid cuts in the " Trump Family Tax Avoidance Plan"? Also, Paul Ryan has publically stated that Social Security along Medicare and Medicaid will be next on the R's agenda while Trump promised not to touch those programs.
4
The tax code is unnecessarily and unfairly complex because people with a lot of money to pay lobbyists and lawyers have carved out special provisions. A truly fair tax would charge every person the same amount because, except for special benefits due to employment or assistance, every person benefits the same amount from the government, but that would not be reasonable. A reasonable tax would charge every person on his/her ability to pay, so a reasonable tax would be based on a fixed percentage of income. If we want to help the less fortunate, exempt a certain amount of household income, but do the same for every household. That would be reasonable and simple, while still providing enough revenue. The greatest benefit, though, would be eliminating gaming the system - carving out special loopholes for certain people that others cannot exploit. While anyone can quibble over the details, I believe a $20,000 exemption for each adult, up to 2, and a $10,000 exemption for any and all children, would be reasonable. The tax rate required to take care of the budget would be just under 20%, if each household could exempt $20K, $30K, $40K, or $50K, depending on the makeup. No other deductions, and everyone would pay something close to what he/she pays now. Returns would take 10 minutes to file, and there would be few to no people getting refunds or paying extra. The IRS could be smaller, and accounting could focus on non-tax, productive activities.
2
Estonia did something similar where the tax is a flat ~20%.
I think this is a great and very fair plan, but I can see the 80,000 federal employees of the IRS (and hundreds of thousands more of the bureaucrats whose livelihoods depend on maintaining some of the most complex tax laws on the planet) having a problem with it :) (not to mention the liberals who would gape at making the poor pay an equal percentage of their income in taxes as the rich)
Well, that wasn't difficult. Lower personal rates from 39 to 37 and raise corporate from 20 to 21 and voila, it's fixed. Who knew it could be so easy?
1
I oppose the tax bill on its merits, but you don't have to dig into the details to know how bad it is. If the Rs were proud of their work, they'd allow time for discussion, hold public hearings (the "regular order" that Sen. McCain pretended to favor), maybe even seek to improve it by taking input from the party that represents more than half the electorate. The only reason for the big rush is to push it through before most of America has a chance to examine its flaws.
7
The political pressure on Susan Collins from her fellow R's must be almost unbearable. I can only hope she recognizes that Maine needs her to vote against this awful bill in order to preserve and protect medicare, medicare and social security.
9
I am losing hope in American politics--both parties and all factions. The Republicans shamelessly represent only billionaires, and are about to enact this monstrosity of a tax bill. But the Democrats, themselves beholden to billionaire and corporate donors, have done far too little to oppose it.
And in one of the great travesties in the history of Congress, the Senate Democrats forced Al Franken out of office without granting him the due process of an ethics investigation. It is the lack of due process, not the substance of the charges, which is the real scandal regarding Senator Franken. And my erstwhile progressive heroes, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, went along with this railroading.
There is no one in high positions of American politics to whom we can honestly turn now. The only hope is a massive grassroots efforts which discards everything and everyone who is in Washington now.
5
I have my complaints about the Democratic Party, too, starting with its preference for Clinton and Clintonesque policies. But what would you have them do? Not a single Democrat voted to repeal Obamacare, and not a single Democrat supports this awful tax plan.
Whenever someone complains to me about the he state of the country, I always answer: vote for socialized medicine. A congress that enacts universal healthcare will address the other ills facing us and inflicted on us by the Republicans, from global warming to income inequality to corporate power.
It's a battle between organized people and organized money. Money is winning today, and will keep winning until the people see what they're up against.
1
WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE THE DEMOCRATS DO WHEN IT ONLY TAKES 50 VOTES TO PASS THIS AND THE LOCK STEP REPUBLICANS HAVE 52 (+ PENCE)?
Yes, all caps, but when one party changes the rules so they can implement anything they want, it's kind of ridiculous to expect the minority party to be able to do something about it.
1
America does not realize this bill ends Medicare as we know it. A blow to all who payed entire adult life and now robbed before our eyes. And their children and family who must make up gap. A vote for guaranteed and imposed suffering.
13
Dear Republican Congresspeople,
We are watching you and we're taking names. You've already tainted your reputations by supporting Donald Trump, but now you are completely destroying them. We will remember. There will be consequences.
Are all of you really so lost to honor and honesty that you really think this tax bill is good for America? I know you're all not that ignorant or that stupid, so I have to conclude that you are just venal.
12
Political suicide by tax bill.
Hope these arrogant folks have their retirement plans set up.
Gonna need em real soon.
8
They do in fact it's a tax free pension that we the tax payer get to pay for. They are the lowest of the low on the food chain.
1
Lies, lies, and more lies! Trump calls this bill a Christmas gift to the American people. Wrong! It's big gift to the rich. Period. Trump supporters, please wake up. Do you want to live on a steady diet of lies? Follow the example of Alabama. Use the only weapon the American people have against liars: the vote!
13
Well, you have to remember, when Trump says "the American people" he is thinking of those he sees around him at the White House, Mar a Largo, or his poor friends who only have 737s or even smaller private jets. Those are the American people to him. So he is telling the truth from that perspective.
Senior Citizens Beware!!
7
how much hurt by their own government will the American people take?
3
Really disappointed in Sue Collins, Senator from Maine. Up until this time, she---and a small group of Republican women---had respected the contribution of the Affordable Care Act to giving health care to more Americans in this country. Given that Collins had been one of the holdouts that prevented the Republicans from initially repealing the ACA, why would she now support a bill that essentially guts the mandate for funding? I have been to Maine; her poorer Maine constituents (of which there are many) need healthcare.
Right now we are at a moment where women have the opportunity, along with right-thinking men, to show that government can stand for the people, and not moneyed interests. The wind is behind the sales of women taking corruption and sexual harassment out of our governance. That includes tax cuts for the privileged.
Shame on you, Sue. Thought you were ready to lead a revolution.
8
As a voter from Maine I completely agree with you. I have voted for her for some 20 years, despite being a normally strong Democrat. I have not agreed with everything she has done, but she is the only Republican I can say I have offered my support to in all important elections. I will not do that again, based on this vote. I cannot figure out why she is doing this - we are not a state of major donors, and even the top 10% in this state in terms of income largely do not rank as such on a national level. Dominant majorities of both parties in Maine will be negatively impacted by this action, across the age, income, and political spectrums. I wish she would listen to her voters and supporters (including me), and not be taking her from some other group. Can anyone else explain her chosen position to me?
4
Because she is a fraud. Remind me, she supported all of the anti-Obama filibuster nonsense and the stolen Supreme Court seat. That's right. What a moderate.
4
It is starting to look that way. I can imagine having disagreements with a legislator through the years (including the ones you point out - true), but agreeing on big issues . . . but for a senator who (as far as I know) cannot really be accessing the big dark donors (because they do not exist in this state) then where is the benefit in being a 'fraud'? My office mates point out it is all for RNC money, but in this little state that is not what gets you re-elected . . . Sen. Collins, listen to the people! if you do not want to be labeled a fraud, then please take the obviously right action to show that government does stand for the people and not for moneyed interests (who are after all, in the classic bite from Maine, clearly folks from 'away').
After this passes all of these cowards are going to quit because they know they will lose in 2018
A bunch of weak, greedy cowards who should lose their benefits and pension as a result of their dereliction of duty
Shame on all of them
10
Recess starts on 18th and of course, they are already out to lunch dining on donor and lobbyist tabs. Meet the new normal In this plutocracy that used to be a democracy
6
Disgraceful that the vast majority of real America is opposed to this bill being shoved down their throats by these worthless GOP people and Trump. This is the biggest hoax in America's history, a scam and con job meant to fleece the American people and the US Treasury. This man MUST be impeached as he has no interest in serving America, but to enrich himself at our expense. The whole GOP Congress is complicit and part and parcel of this hoax and should all be voted out of office. This group only has themselves in mind, the rich and corporations who stuff their pockets with money. Of course on top of that we have Trump and the GOP in a love affair with Russia, with America and Democracy for sale to them. Disgusting traitors to America and the American people. Get them out of office in the elections to come.
8
Dear fellow progressives, registering NEW people as Democrats is the ONLY thing that works against Trump! NOTHING ELSE!!! ESPECIALLY IN: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Florida, Virginia....and now it seems, also in ALA-....ing-BAMA!
Spend money on VOTER DRIVES rather than on protest marches. Yes, this is #DontBooVote, but extended. Boycott companies & CEO’s supporting Trump! Find them here: #GrabYourWallet #TargetedBoycotts
Fact of the matter is that people of color hardly vote, young people hardly vote. Take Alabama. Moore WON old people, those above 44, AND there are TWO THIRDS of them! Why is that?!?! Young people have jobs? Not for much longer if Republicans keep getting elected. Protect your job, vote Democrat.
Of the roughly one million African-American voters (1.3 million African-American Alabamans in total) only 400,000 took the time to vote. That's abysmal, given what's at stake. And sure, they punched SLIGHTLY above their weight, 26% of the population, 30% of the voters. And sure, Voter ID poll taxes are real and huge. But rich Democrats need to donate money so that these people can go vote and don't have to worry about Voter ID stuff.
5
Listen if you have ears! Do you not hear what Ryan and Trump are saying? They are going to initiate a full fledged assault on our nation's most vulnerable people. America is not Brazil, where they shoot discarded children who live in the sewers at night. America is not India where children die in the gutter. America is not a third world country BECAUSE we as a nation are not people who lack empathy, who have no compassion for the suffering of others. Ryan and Trump are PERFECT for third world authoritarian monstrous governments. They DO NOT belong in America. This is NOT who we are.
12
Making the other 49 States just like Kansas, broke.
10
The Republicans will reneg on every last deal you thought you had. Trusting them is the worst mistake of your lives.
8
Do so at your own peril GOP. 2018 and 2020 won't be your years. Everyone has had enough
4
Before these clowns took on our tax law, they wrote the Book of Bad Faith.
6
This is the most hateful, inconsiderate, petty, cold-hearted piece of legislation passed in my lifetime. My one hope is that the voters' response makes it the GOP's last harrah, and after next year's election they remain out of power for the rest of my lifetime.
10
Mitch the Weasel was willing to "let the people of Alabama decide" before the election, and now that they have, he's hatched a plan to undermine their decision by ramming this through before Jones can be seated.
What is done can be undone. Democrats' marching orders for 2018 are to craft a fairer bill and vow to repeal this abomination on day 1.
7
Which is true? Susan Collins was blackmailed or Susan Collins is a fraud? Take your pick.
Meanwhile let's go for the second. This bill tells us where she actually stands on healthcare. 9 million children will lose healthcare. Susan Collins doesn't care. At least that number of adults will eventually lose health care because of the removal of the mandate, and tens of thousands of them will die as a result. Susan Collins doesn't care.
It's hard to swallow. Does it turn out she has no conscience? Would your corner psychiatrist diagnose her as a sociopath? Possibly. But it's hard not to wonder who has a little black book and what's in it. If ever they were going to use it, now was the time. Conspiracy theory? Sure. And maybe ridiculous. But what's better? A ridiculous conspiracy theory or accepting that Susan Collins, utterly conscienceless, is a sociopath? That's pretty hard to swallow too. Either way, whatever glory she ever wanted to claim, it's gone now, and for good.
7
All right @nytimes why don't your genius financial reporters let us the citizens know the net worth of each Senator and Representative and how this tax till will benefit them? Let's see how much money each of them will save when this tax scam passes compared to their constituents.
11
So 26% of the nation support this tax bill which continues to allow the loopholes that Trump promised he would close. Yet the Republicans continue their attempt to ram it through before Christmas and without meaningful debate.
An examination of what's in the bill clearly suggests the bill benefits the wealthy and will not immediately, but sooner rather than later devastate the poor and lower middle classes. The corporate tax cut is permanent but the cuts for the rest of us comes with an expiration date. The result is immediate stimulus to be eroded after less than a decade at the expense of the poor and middle class, but not the rich. Corporations are so flush with money now why do they require a lower tax rate to begin investment in the economy? They could do it now, but won't and the excess money will be used to buy back their stock or pay off shareholders. It will NOT trickle down as history has already demonstrated. This is being done for a legislative win with no thought of the long term ramifications. Trump and the Republicans need to feel good about something as the administration thus far is a dismal failure in every area of governance.
With only 26% support I can't help wonder in what way this is equal representation. The country's healthcare is endangered as is the nation's wildlife with the provision to open up formerly protected land to fossil fuel exploration and drilling.
The bill is a sham. That's why it has to be rammed through now.
11
Pass this and the Republicans will lose the med tern elections. Look what happened in Alabama. Peter King is correct it will hurt New York real estate the most. Values will definitely go down. Wake up Republicans.
2
To paraphrase:
"We want to give you, the American people a GIANT PROBLEM farther down the line when Democrats are back in power. We don't actually care about deficits or the country when we're in power. Let Americans and Democrats enjoy the mess we 're making. At least I'll be able to make lots of money with pass-throughs....."
8
It's an abomination. No public hearings. No public debate. No democracy.
It IS a right-wing ideological bomb with 1 party to blame when it kills, maims, and destroys people's lives: The Republican Party.
9
We have not seen the bill. The social, economic and cultural implications of this fast track, unexamined, haphazard, and greed-driven bill will be absolutely devastating.
These lawmakers are acting like thieves at night.
It is hard to trust what President Trump and Paul Ryan claim when it comes to the tax bill. The American people are being governed by a whole bunch of Republican snake-oil salesmen, who care more about their donors than their constituents.
7
A bunch of desperate politicians squandering a once-in-a generation chance for tax reform. Even worse? Now they actually expect Americans to applaud them ... and to believe that this bill has huge benefits for the average American taxpayer. Really? Americans were promised true tax reform -- a Tax Code that's fair, simple to understand, and easy to comply with. This bill is the exact opposite. Another staggering failure by an increasingly irrelevant and hollow Congress.
5
It does not "cut taxes for individuals" since many, mainly in blue states,will see hefty increases.
3
First, the Dems complain that the bill reduces taxes for the rich but then they complain that it raises taxes on the rich in blue states ( i.e., which will be the group most impacted by the new interest and SALT deduction limits and least benefited by the raised standard deduction). Typical nimby thinking; they can't have it both ways!
2
“As a candidate, I promised we would pass a massive tax cut for the everyday working American families who are the backbone and the heartbeat of our country,” Mr. Trump said. “Now we are just days away from keeping that promise. We want to give you, the American people, a giant tax cut for Christmas.”
Who believes this? Do even Fox News supporters believe this to be true?
4
See how far we have come? It used to be that compromises were reached between two political parties. Now, not without some effort, we are able to reach a compromise within a party.
2
The GOP's action to rush through legislation rather than ensuring that it is sound and won't harm Americans or the economy, all but, assures us that the next vote will also be a vote of "the people have spoken" - undoing the GOP's legislation will be the focus. Can a country survive when it's never able to make progress because the modus operandi is to undo the previous administration?
4
Its amazing that so many progressives continue to lambast this tax bill which will vastly benefit middle and low income earners, especially with the near doubling of the standard deduction.
Now, with an allowance of up to $10K for SALT and/or RE taxes (still not clear if it will be one or both), most blue state taxpayers who deduct will see little to no change in their taxes - other than the highly salaried. And aren't those who will be gouged the very same "millionaires" Jerry Brown and Andrew Cuomo have been equally picking the pocket of for years?!
Yes, the whole corporate tax re-structuring is a mess - yet is it any more of a mess than ObamaCare was and continues to be?! Didn't Obama, Pelosi and Reid set the standard for ramming through non-partisan legislation?! Reps are just following form. Good for them!
MAGA!!!
2
The GOP is make the destruction of the US through rank inequality a permanent feature of the remaining years of our nation. This is no more tax reform than any of Reagan's daft tactics. We now know tax reform is impossible in a nation controlled by the super rich. And again this will pass because the middle of America want to be fooled in to thinking this is real change and they can get some cash to burn in the near term.
2
McConnell to Ryan: "Let's do as much damage to the American people before they don't reelect us."
2
This is absolute partisan politics at its worst. Who cares what the people want? The Republicans will please their big financial supporters at the expense of average people. maybe the good side is that after they get their way with the budget, they can see their way to getting rid of Donald Trump - now that he is of no use to them.
2
Disgraceful that they are rushing a bill of this magnitude with such speed and carelessness. We will all pay for their mistakes, except perhaps the 1%.
3
If not an unfounded hubris mixed with suicidal instincts what else could explain the unusual haste on the part of Trump and his Republican flock to push the tax legislation highly unpopular and strenuous to the treasury? Could it be the unsettling impact of the Alabama debacle that instead of leading to calm introspection has rather driven Trump so crazy as to make him play the Santa Claus himself for showering gifts to himself and his wealthy friends, making Christmas as taxing as possible for the rest?
3
Current US population: 321.1 million
# of families benefiting from estate tax repeal: 5,500
# of people paying so 5,500 can have their kickback: 321 million
Cost: a $1.5 TRILLION increase to the national debt
Guess balancing the budget is no longer GOP Job #1 ... hmmm ... funny that.
11
The Republicans continue to rule as if they are a) a majority party or b) the single party of a totalitarian state. They will pass this abomination as their greedy billionaire masters demand, Trump will go on the TV machine to boast about his great win, and they will return home to a firestorm of voter anger. But will they react to that rage by returning after their latest undeserved vacation and retreat? No, they will return and double down by attacking Social Security and Medicare. It's almost as if they want to be routed so that they can go back to their comfort zone - obstruction and absurd pronouncements about Democrat abuse of power.
4
You are correct. They are acting exactly how the Dems did in passing Obamacare with zero Republican votes.
4
Keep digging NYT. Those tax nerds that helped write this bill know all of the sweetheart deals that haven't seen the light of day. I wouldn't be surprised to find out later how the Koch brothers and Sheldon Aldeson became specifically exempted from taxes and their donations to Republicans granted rebates. Perhaps they call it the Billionaire Bill. Keep digging, let's stop this nonsense and ask for a sanity check, right Senator Collins?
5
What a profound and deeply manipulative LIE! This bill does NOTHING for the average American and helps only the extremelly wealthy that don't need it. Furthermore, it aims to destroy the ACA which provides Health Care for millions of Americans that were uninsured before it's advent, and aims to destroy the environment by unregulated drilling in the Arctic! We need to stop this mania. Now.
4
I have never been so disgusted with a group who claim to represent the people in all my years of voting. And I -- okay, I'm just one -- will return to vote them all out. (That is, if a national revolt doesn't send them out on a rail first. )
5
This tax bill is a worst-case scenario of what happens when we elect members of Congress whose only job skill is in procuring financing from big business.
They want a corporate tax cut so badly that they are implementing allegedly helpful people-friendly changes to personal tax rates ... changes that will destroy many individuals.
7
Iraq war also transferred enormous wealth from Americans to war profiteers.
Repeal of the mandate survives! That makes it an EXCELLENT bill. Cue liberal outrage.
3
The individual AMT would “apply to even fewer taxpayers than the Senate bill would have, the congressional aide said.”
This has me so steamed. The face that I will face, overall, a tax increase of $20K to pay for corporate giveaways and reductions for the top .05% is enraging.
This is the beginning of the end of the end of the “modern” Republican Party. I will no longer be passive, live and let live. They are affecting my retirement savings, my ability to go on vacation, college savings—everything.
Tax cuts.... it’s a lie. The fact that they wrap themselves in Christianity and make boldface lies....is immoral and unethical.
10
Looks like the best strategy for surviving the Republican tax plan and repeal of the ACA is to either be rich, or die. Simple!
6
Poor people dying is good for Republicans.
This tax bill is criminal. It is far worse than the tax bill we all pay annually. It is designed for purely political reasons to punish those who don’t vote Republican. The tax law has been weaponised. Sic semper tyranis.
8
The Republicans are just the PR firm for the billionaire class. The lobbyists are the ones doing the bill writing here. This country needs a revolution.
4
It's funny. Obama squanders $10 trillion of our kid's future by adding that number to national debt, and not a single word out of the Democrats. The GOP gives everyone a tax break and provides a real reason for Apple to bring their dollars back from Ireland and all we hear is whining and complaining. How about a little gratitude? You're welcome...
4
Obama inherited a massive recession, four million jobs lost in the previous 12 months, and nearly 8 percent unemployment. Trump unherited a growing economy, 10 million jobs added and 4 percent unemployment. Your welcome.
1
After reading so many of the comment here of those liberals who are loony it makes me laugh. Can you imagine. They think that those that have worked hard and made their life a success should have to pay for them so they can sit back and do nothing with their lives and contribute nothing to our society. You all forget that these corporation employ a huge amount of workers and they also have made our modern world today that we live in. Without those said corporations we would all be living in caves and banging on pots! I find it outrageous how selfish the liberal are! They want to take from others successes and give it to people who have contributed practically nothing to our modern world. This is called stealing in rulebook. You can keep your liberal insanity but I will have none of it. I am totally in favor of this tax plan. Millions of americans will see their IRA's increase hugely because of this tax bill! That will bring money into their pockets. It will also increase capital spending paying higher wages and putting more people to work. I find it ironic that wage growth has been terrible since the Obama economy and after he doubled the national debt in his reign. We have nothing to show for all that money spent. No infrastructure, just debt debt debt and big banks being saved. But these loony liberals think that is great. I do not.
6
If the Republican majorities in the house and senate are voted out next year, (oh please, oh please), can the Democrats repair the damage the current group of thieves has wrought?
1
It will take decades to undo the damage.
1
Rob the poor, give to the rich=Robin' Don
4
The "poor " do not pay any federal income tax. They do receive a child tax credit on taxes they do not pay which this bill doubles. Sounds like a good deal to me.
2
We can essentially blame Rupert Murdoch for the debacle that led to the tea party, control of the house and senate by those who refuse to represent their constituency and the election of Donald Trump. If you would like to express your displeasure the old fashion way, his address is:
Rupert Murdoch
Chairman and Chief Executive
News Corporation
1211 Avenue of Americas
8th Floor
NY, NY 10036
5
Thank you Trump ! Massive improvements !
3
Is no Republican honorable enough to say not to vote anymore until Doug Jones is seated? Democrat Jim Webb did that in the case of Scott Brown, to assure accurate representation for Massachusetts.
3
And the Republicans delayed their vote on a Supreme Court justice for months. Mitch McConnell’s logic: the American people should have a “voice” in the process. Looks like the voice of the American people isn’t a consideration now as they jam this atrocity of a tax bill through Congress.
1
So....will any Republican Senator actually read through this bill before goose-stepping it through?
3
Are there not even three honorable Republican Senators?
5
McCain, Flake, Corker, and Collins.
Now that you've seen Trump lose twice in Alabama -- Alabama! -- mayhaps you can see it in your hearts to put Trump further to pasture by nixing these tax cuts.
He will then have so little support that you can be heroes to the nation and start unifying the nation without Trump. Because if this legislation does not go through, DJT is toast.
3
You mad?
I saw the comments on social media platforms and newspapers like the NYT. Because voters made this 2016 presidential election about personalities instead of policy, many voters sat this election out.
Now Americans are angry about this tax legislation that any sane person should have seen coming with the election of Donald Trump. I'll repeat one more time: President Obama warned voters of exactly the choice they faced in November. Hillary who promised a minimum wage increase. An end to the wars. Fairness in the tax system, i.e. tax increase for the uber wealthy. Then there was Donald Trump. Obama said, "Donald Trump spent 70 years of his life caring about himself only. And now he says he wants to be YOUR champion? Come on man..." After that stiff warning, the election was turned by about 70,000 votes in the Rust Belt. Now we see what Obama was talking about. Donald Trump wants a tax break for himself, his family and Republican wealthy donors.
The 2016 election turned out to be the biggest bait and switch pulled off by an industrial strength con artist. Tax cuts sent to the ultra wealthy, made possible by the most gullible middle class voters in the country. Trump gets his tax cuts and his name in the history books. His voters get to be poorer and keep their MAGA hats, made in China.
5
The flagrant use by Trump of five families (and particularly their wide-eyed children) to thank him, praise him and laud his 'economic management' was cynical, exploitive, disingenuous and shameful.
But what do you expect.
3
Everyone keeps saying that this so-called tax bill will eventually form the basis for the titans of finance and Republican kingmakers to hollow out Social Security and Medicare. On the contrary, I expect instead the masses will hollow out their heads and place them on spikes.
2
Family after Family vouches for the Tax Reform Plan - MUST WATCH: President Donald Trump gives IMPORTANT Speech on Tax Reform
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2017/12/must-watch-president-donald-trump-...
2
So, we see the end results of the Republican's cowardice. Ram through a bill written largely in secret, that has had ZERO hearings, NO Amendments permitted, NO input from the other Party (or even most of their own party) and done so with a not so tacit nod to the Ultra Rich.
So, feckless republicans have to pay back those fat cats?
No worries....after crying for years about the deficit, you'll willingly explode the deficit by 1.6 Trillion, and then use that as an excuse to shut down Medicare and Social Security.
Leaders?
No.
Cowards, one and all.
2
No one has read this tax bill, so everyone screaming that we are expressing opinions without having read it is blowing smoke. What I and others have read are summaries, and they are appalling, because the summaries are telling us the BEST parts of the bill, the parts that are designed to lull us into complacency.
The bill is theft, pure and simple, and it is being forced down our throats in the dark of night with no discussion, no amendments and no oversight. Disgusting.
Trump's sad little televised dog and pony show with homeowners dragged to Washington to thank Trump for possibly saving them $600 was pathetic. Trump spent more bringing them to Washington than they will receive in reduced taxes (and that is by no way guaranteed). In ten years their taxes will be jacked up again, because that was the only way Republicans could get their stupid bill jammed into the reconciliation bailiwick to pass without a single Democratic vote. Corporations will have permanent tax cuts, and the rest of us will start paying jacked up taxes after the 10 year reconciliation window expires.
Let's be clear: In my state of Minnesota (the best run state in the nation according to the Wall Street Journal) we are going to be raked over the coals in this bill, and our state is going to suffer tremendously if the final version passes. Our Republican representatives, Paulsen, Emmer and Lewis voted gleefully for this bill. We will vote them out of office if they do it again.
5
Low and middle income Trump voters aren't worried because Russian Facebook and Twitter ads confirm the GOP is being "fair and balanced" in handing out $1.5 Trillion in tax revenue.
Certainly the 1% won't get 61% of that jackpot while taxes on American households making less than $75,000 goes up?
Naaaahhhhhhh.
1
but it was okay for Mitch McConnell to deny Obama the right to even have a hearing on his Supreme Court nominee for over a year. Collins is a hypocrite. what little respect I had for her and her so-called principles is gone.
one must now hope that the eponymous Flake is more than his rhetoric, that Rubio is more than a pretty face, and unfortunately that McCain is too ill to vote.
2
So let's pretend there is a massive sweep of democrats in 2018 and the house and senate are fully in dem control. What is to prevent them from rewriting all of this again ? I suppose they would need a 2/3 majority to pass over the prez veto pen ?
1
After Moore maybe a couple of republican senators will smell the coffee.
2
If you do anything, read the last four paragraphs to see that the economy is doing just fine in unemployment rate, hiring, and corporate profits. What is not doing well, of course, are wages. Because corps are not raising wages. The whole thing about have to get the economy going, is total fabrication. https://www.facebook.com/richard.guasta/posts/1990357824574124
1
Everybody down in the 40K to 55K annual income for a family of four bracket better hunker down.
Expect to house your parents, your kids and maybe a destitute close friend or relative.
The new American household, nine people per three bedroom house.
4
The media needs to stop portraying this as just a "difference of opinion" between Democrats and Republicans.
We are about to borrow nearly $2Trillion to give to people who already have more money than they can spend.
We already know that these same greedy sociopaths will be coming back to cut services to the majority of the country.
Stop pretending that these people are fine people. And stop pretending that you are journalists. You are focused on profits instead of the world.
4
two thirds of Americans are against passage of this bill because it will likely bankrupt the United States.
But, the millionaire Republican traitors in Congress do not care about that, they just want to assure their billionaire donors of a tax break... tit for tat, quid pro quo... corrupt, and all that....
And so a once great nation loses its identity with a whimper and a sigh.
4
GOP sticking it to california and new york (where they are scarce).
3
The manner in which he paraded six supposedly middle class families (wide-eyed children and all) at the WH today was vomit-inducing.
The purpose of this charade was not to get the legislation over the line (he said it was already there) but to present himself as their saviour.
That this so clearly portrays a deeply insecure man in such a troubled world should be of great concern to all citizens.
2
not roundly endorse it? what does that even mean - you vote for it you endorse it - - - PERIOD.
the post mortems on the Ala election are not even cold
now the GOP should start working on them for Nov 18’s elections
this tax bill will be their undoing
what do these arrogant fools think? nobody is either going to notice the effect on themselves
or that the targeted states will sit idly by compliant?
no amount of arrogant fat cat donor $ can save them
rememberGOPutzes: it’s still one person one vote
not yet $1 1 vote
2
So let's get in the streets. Pitchforks if you have one, or just photos and drawings of one if you don't.
But we need to act NOW!
1
" I see no need to wait untill Doug Jones bcomes a Senator... we've always voted in lame duck sessions" Susan Collins. How she quickly forgets that one of the Republicans own was allowed to vote when elected in a special election.
Collins once again has shown her true colors. She's no different than the rest of her Republican coherts. I hope her constituents castigate her and vote her out when she's up for re-election. She betrayed them and the American public.
5
Why hasn’t “carried interest” been addressed? This has been an unfair advantage for hedge funds and private equity individuals for years. It needs to be repealed and the 1% ters need to pay their share of income taxes like everyone else.
It's ok folks. Now that we gave the wealthy all of these break, they will never, ever ask for anything ever again. They are surely satisfied now.
Just a point of clarification, the top 1% earners of w2 type workers will see a major tax increase if you live in a high tax state. The democrats leading these states keep stating its a tax plan that cuts taxes for the wealthy. I wonder why they knowing lie about the fact the wealthy people that work in corporate America are getting a major tax increase and schumer and gillibrand stand and state the rich are getting the benefit.
Something is wrong with our leadership.
6
i'm struck by the dismissive comment by the "centrist" Senator from Maine: “I see no need to wait for Doug Jones to become a senator,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. “We vote all the time in lame-duck sessions with retired and defeated members casting votes.” How often do lame duck legislators rush through a 1.5 tillion dollar, ten-year tax overhaul that boosts the national debt and will undermine a range of safety-net programs? It looks like Congressional lame ducks and fiscal quackery are made for each other.
Photo
2
Got a deal "on principle?" Principle stems from the Latin word for first. We are confused over what to put first since like forever. An example: many people say they never give to a beggar or buy from a door-to-door salesman on principle. That is they put generalizing prejudice first, overlooking that nobody crosses our path without a gift in her hands, and they also put mental imprisonment in the illusory walls by which we assume ourselves separated from each other first, overlooking that we all experience exactly that what we have others experience, while putin humanity last by trumpin it with bigotry. We think this is proof of our dignity, intelligence and honor, where it exposes our primitivity, blindness and disgrace instead. It is only when we recognize our lost kin in the refugee stranded at our shore that we will have found ourselves back.
This tax heist and greatest wealth grab in the history of mankind, is an upward travel ban for the middle class and the poor. Making everything and everyone the loot of the corporate executive floor, the wealthy and the money changers again. Locking anyone who starts on base (not already wealthy) into an Alcatraz of debt and disadvantage in the face of exorbitant costs for life's necessities, dictated by virtually unbothered, taxed nor regulated market power abuse, so we all become an even better target for greed grabs and hostile exploitation. Dehumanized on principle. "First they came for the illegal aliens. And I shouted: "Yes!"
1
I do hope The NY Times will publish an analysis of the best guess for the President’s tax savings (at least based on his salary as President) vs. the average income for a household. Might also include the savings of withholding in February. My guess: a few dollars for the worker and hundreds of dollars for the President.
Trump doesnt pay taxes on his presidential salary; he gives it to charity.
1
So Republicans thought it reasonable to refuse to vote on a Supreme Court nominee because of an election that was months away -- but won't delay a vote on the tax bill to seat a senator who has already been elected. Yet another example of how Republicans have broken Congress -- and are undermining our democracy.
4
Bi-partisan politics, Republican style: Senate Republicans and House Republicans putting aside political differences and working together to hammer out a tax bill that will benefit all rich Americans.
3
“I see no need to wait for Doug Jones to become a senator,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. “We vote all the time in lame-duck sessions with retired and defeated members casting votes.”
Excuse me, but votes are not taken on monumental legislation of this sort that will affect every single American in "lame duck sessions." This conference bill has not been written yet, not scored, not debated, and has no input from the representatives of the more than 65 million people who voted for Democrats in the last election.
75% of Americans disapprove of this bill. So whose approval are the Republicans responding to? Could it be the very wealthy and elites? They are certainly not listening to the overwhelming majority of Americans. The only fitting response would be for every last sitting Republican to get voted out of office in the next election cycle plus those Senators up for reelection in 2020 and 2022. Trump is right on that score.
3
Republicans might head the warning of Alabama. What Congressional Republican do is simply tyranny, an oppressive, harsh, or unjust act (Mirriam Webster). For too many in the middle class, this bill equates to "taxation without representation". Where are our leaders? Should we protest, throw this bill, page by page, into Boston Harbor, reminding Paul Ryan that he, too, can be removed from office by the power of a single, angry vote?
1
It is pretty clear that many of us seniors living on fixed incomes, managing our bills and our lives with care and attention to budget, are now going to loose deductions for medical expenses and donations so that big corporations can swim in yet more money than they already have - which is a lot. I will never, ever vote Republican again.
5
I know someone who has a parent in a nursing home and is now realizing how devestating this bill will be for her personally. I pointed out to her why this is happening; that cuts to nursing home patients and her will be paying for corporate and wealthy individuals' tax cuts. She blamed Democrats. I said the both houses of Congress and the WH are all in the control of only the GOP; that they only need GOP votes to pass this bill. It made no difference. It's the fault of the Democratic party. You can't reason with people who refuse to believe even their own wallet.
5
The GOP has succeeded in making a tax cut bill unpopular... because with all the competing noise and distractions, American families and voters get the fact that they were left behind in this bill. It is remarkable that we have had to fight tenaciously against all the harm the GOP is doing to the moderate and middle class of America just to serve their donors and their Ayn Rand ideology.
2
The three biggest lies in DC:
Everyone will get a tax cut.
This is good for the economy.
There will be so much growth that will make up for any additional deficits.
1
This "officially" will hand over the United States to the wealthy and corporations and the rest of us will suffer when it all crashes and burns when the "expected" growth does not happen.
Welcome the the new United States, Inc.
Even fed chairwoman agrees with this position. When the down turn hits, which it will in due course, all the assumptions made to justify the the big tax cut will go wrong. Democrats when they get into power will have to raise taxes to deal with the down turn and the Republicans will blame the democrats for rising taxes. The cycle continues..
A couple of reactions:
First, Republicans claim that they had no input in the debate on the Affordable Care Act, while in fact they deliberately chose not to participate in debate. In the current instance this Republican tax legislation is created and passed deliberately preventing Democrat input.
Second, the picture of Trump reaching out to touch Hatch and Brady is emblematic of how the president smears the entire Republican Party with his perverse politics and behaviors. The Republican Party will someday regret their acquiescence to this president.
Finally, if and when Democrats ever achieve a majority, I hope that they pass some legislation which cuts into the federal monies that the Republican states that elected Trump receive as payback for the reduction in the SALT deductions in Democrat high tax states.
This tax give away to the weathy and corporate entities is"
"Taxation without Representation"
This needs to be stopped.
If all democratic senators as well as Bob Corker do not show up, will there be a quorum? And Luther Strange does not count anymore, right?
The debt ceiling vote will be a moment when Democrats can prove their commitment to the people of the United States. Delaying passage until Senator Jones is seated will return regular order. Courage and integrity demand this of Democrats.
1
Step 1: Exploit the electorate’s emotions with issues like abortion, transgendered bathrooms, gay marriage and guns. Step 2: Ram through tax bills that enrich donors while stripping basic public services like medical care and education. Step 3: Rinse and repeat. Democracy requires an educated populace.
1
The Republican tax bill looks like a disaster. I can see millions of homes up for sale all across the country. There will be more people sleeping on the streets.
The wealthy will be driving in cars on broken streets as they do in Ethiopia.
If Roy Moore had been elected, I am sure he would be seated immediately. I always thought Susan Collins was a fair minded person. How wrong I was. She turns out to be just like the rest of the Republicans, not caring about the average worker.
How disappointing.
My favorite comment was from a Republican congressman who responded to a democrat complaining about the bill. “This is just politics. He doesn’t even know what is in the bill. He hasn’t seen it; i haven’t even seen it”. SAD.
The ACA was falling apart before Trump took office. To those who say wealth is being redistributed - it has been via the ACA - and that's good? No. Look at the November jobs report. Drive around many towns and cities - businesses are hiring. I did not vote for Trump but there's better job news now than in a long time. In Appleton, WI I saw an ad for well-paying factory jobs with sign-on bonuses and transportation provided to and from work. The evidence is out there - the economy is getting ready to really boom. Opponents, stand clear. You can't stop America becoming great again.
9
Wrong: re-check those "better" job-growth statistics, honey.
2
Why are marginal comments like this that offer only loose, non-quantitative, anecdotal observations as 'evidence' even listed at NYT picks? The fact that there is only one endorsement speaks to the real value of such small-scale comments (considering everyone has a mother or spouse or partner, having one positive endorsement is not saying much). I know you want to highlight alternative views, but these can be seen just fine in the All column. Randomly highlighting such things does not add to well considered, meaningful debate.
6
The ACA needed some work, but it was not and is not "failing". It has helped millions get affordable health care. Meanwhile the TP/GOP has systematically sabotaged it, making it harder and harder to help those in need. The present economic growth is NOT due to anything this administration has done. It is almost ALL due to the robust economy President Obama left. HIS economic policies are still in place as the TP/GOP has not implemented ANY jobs bill, stimulus package, etc. in the past 11+ months.
1
This is a good bill because it cut taxes for the middle class. It is true that cutting the payroll tax would help the middle class more than Trump's current tax cut proposal, but this is still a good start. All those who say this bill does not cut taxes enough for the middle class need to demand a big cut in the payroll tax to help the middle class and working class. After all 62 percent of the U.S. population pays more in payroll taxes than in income taxes. However, it appears that those who oppose President Trump's tax reform are opposed to all tax cuts, even cuts for the middle class and working class. The Democrats do not favor any tax cuts for the working poor and middle class as far as I can see. How do the Democrats want to help the poor and middle class? They seem to favor helping the lower classes with the same old same old plan, more welfare and government programs. The problem with that approach is many of the working poor do not need or want welfare or more government programs. Some of the poor might benefit from welfare and government programs, but what about those working poor who benefit more from paying less in taxes than having government aid.
8
What about those of us-- and this likely includes you, Billy-- who have paid in to Social Security and Medicare for decades, and who, in order to pay for a tax cut NOT for ourselves but for the richest in our society, will watch as Republicants use said Medicare and Social Security funds-- those funds being OUR money, OUR benefits-- to pay for those rich-people tax cuts? Will you be ever-so-fond of this "good" bill then? What about the thirteen million Americans who stand to lose health coverage under this "good" bill? Will you simply tell them that they should not have gotten sick, or that, sick or not, capable or not, that they should simply have gotten a better job? Sometimes, dear, it's not a matter of "want," it's a matter of "need"-- and the Republicants are more than willing, through this bill, to stomp the poor to please their rich GOP donors.
2
You know, maybe we would all know a lot more about what Democrats really want in a tax bill if they had the opportunity to talk about their concerns in open committee debates. What a concept that would be, eh? Open hearings with expert testimony from across the ideological spectrum, healthy debate, and a general public that has a clue about what is really going to happen. It's not going to happen, though, and that’s a real shame. Members of Congress used to believe in representative democracy, I think. But that is evidently merely a quaint notion today.
3
We are not "opposed to all tax cuts". We are opposed to tax cuts that favor the already obscenely wealthy and corporations that have stashed vast amounts of cash overseas. We are opposed to this "tax reform" bill because when the bill for it comes due (estimated $1,500,000,000,000 added to the deficit) Ryan and the TP/GOP will be coming after necessary programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and SS. The working poor who you state will benefit from this atrocity will have little gain, while the top 1% will rake in more millions.
2
I continue to be appalled at the treatment of ordinary Americans in this bill - from the taxability of tuition waivers that will slam higher education students and their parents to the unfavorable treatment of state and local taxes which will hurt areas that are, not only Blue, but are the economic engines of our economy. The bill is both cruel and short-sided, while doing nothing it promises - except further enrich the already rich. And don't even get me started on the morally bankrupt failure to renew CHIP.
8
So the Committee agreed to hold its first-and-only public hearing--for a brief window. Over $1.5 trillion on the table. A decade plus of painful adjustment if this passes AND this is all we get?! I am beyond disgusted.
24
Republicans are feeling the Christmas spirit, stuffing their own stockings (most are in the highest income bracket) as well as their cronies' and donors'. They know the mood of the country is turning against them and their days in power are short. They are looting the treasury on their way out the door and laughing because the Democrats who follow them will have to raise taxes, one way or another, to keep a functioning federal government, protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and pay down the debt they just exploded. Yep, it's gonna be a merry, merry Christmas for the Grand Old Plutocrats.
38
Everything that's horrifying about this bill has been well-stated by others so I won't repeat. But something I've seen surprisingly little comment on, is alimony. I understand that alimony payments will no longer be deductible. Why aren't wealthy men - a great many of whom are Republican - complaining about this?
9
The grimy GOP figure (a) their wives Stand By Their Man, and (b) if they cheat on said wives discreetly enough, they won't need to divorce anyway.
(What, you thought this tax bill was about us, and our marriages?! It's about saving THEM and their megarich donors tax money, while non-corporations like us foot the bill.)
The Republican assaults on democracy and decency just keep on coming. If you are against this bill and live in a Republican held state, call now to express your outrage.
14
Where is Robespierre when you need him? Trickle-down economics has not worked since Louis XVI!
11
Just returned from a week long trip to southeastern and central Florida, and saw the future. Around Orlando, it was 2006 all over again. Uncontrolled residential and retail development, with a bit of commercial, too. Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties: more of the same. "Irrational exuberance" once more. So, while Trump and his G.O.P. friends game the system to further enhance the income streams of the wealthy, the asset bubble is ready to burst again, which will disproportionately injure those boobs the most. Divine justice, yes, but a lot of regular folks will suffer again, too.
14
Whatever the majority of Americans are for or against, the GOP is the opposite; our democracy is dying.
14
Wait ! Abstain, paise...you can have a bill...look accomplished...but make it a really sound legislative effort. Investing in infrastructure will surely created jobs faster & stimulate small business better than putting all the nation's eggs in a tax cut basket.
Split this $1.5Trillion--and fund essential investment in wifi, energy grid, roads, water, airports, public health, and education for the future of US competitiveness.
13
It was clear from the beginning that this tax bill atrocity would pass.
This is Reagan trickle-down on steroids.
It's worth remembering that his 3 tax cuts were followed by 5 tax increases - all during his two terms in office - because of the devastation they wrought in such a short amount of time. Reaganomics will always be a recipe for disaster.
This was to be expected from this traitorous Congress that has signaled at every turn this year that it literally does not care about this country, its people, or our future.
But let's not forget the Democratic establishment, with its role as “the graveyard of social movements” and its long history of serving the nation’s financial, corporate and imperial ruling class.
The corrupt Democratic Party in cahoots with the intelligence agencies and the mainstream media have squandered a year chasing Russia-gate rather than informing the electorate about each contemptible piece of legislation Trump, Mnuchin, Cohn and the billionaire Wall Street gang want to push through to ensure more wealth for the ruling class by eliminating Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
They've used Russia-gate to provide the illusion of opposition while both political parties allocated $700 billion to the military at the same time 600,000 homeless can be found on the streets of America on any given night.
Republicans only succeed with this epic fiscal robbery and their class warfare because the inauthentic, phony opposition party is complicit.
74
Chris: You have it backwards. Middle incomes get the largest % tax reductions.
This is false equivalence. The Democrats have made clear their opposition to this tax bill and to this administration. That the Democratic party still believes in a capitalistic economy with Keynesian restraints does not make it complicit or wrong. And part of the military budget goes to protect your home in Berlin. The US is not going to become a socialist state with an inadequate ability to defend itself, which you seem to advocate.
1
@ M.i. Estner
Please spare me another "false equivalence"-obfuscation.
"The Democrats have made clear their opposition to this tax bill and to this administration."
LOL.
What - they said so on Twitter? Spent $100,000 on Facebook ads like "the Russians"?
Talk is cheap. Democrats are really good at it.
$700 billion a year for the military or the US is "going to become a socialist state with an inadequate ability to defend itself".
Really?
OR
You could spend $200 billion a year, still way way more than everybody else, and have free college, trains, airports and roads like a 1st world country, battle the opioid crisis, homelessness, hunger...etc.etc.
But, yeah, that would be way too "socialist" for Americans.
God, gays, and guns.
I forgot.
2
I wish NYT reporters would report the annual incomes and net worth of each member of Congress (including spouses), or just the Senate, to give us an idea of what their personal tax benefit would be from this bill. I suspect they are voting for their own pocketbooks, not ours.
26
Excellent idea.....let's see how much each Senator or Representative will save in this tax bill.
What kind of person signs a tax bill that puts the budget 1.3 trillion dollars in the hole, rewards the highest paid people,( who have so many loopholes, they pay little or no tax); asks the working class to subsidize the wealthy tax cut, by denying medical, state and city, mortgage and property tax deductions from Federal tax returns, removes deductions for education; cuts Medicare and Medicare' removes credit for people in nursing homes, etc. etc. Is this making America Great again? How can anyone with a conscience sign such a bill? What happened to Government, of the people, by the people and for the people? Any Representative signing this bill should be voted out of office at the next election.
22
It defies any true sense of responsibility and good government to rush a bill of this magnitude without debate and comment from economists and citizens. We can only hope that a future Congress can correct what is an obvious rush to massive debt to satisfy a party's sponsors and narrow ideology.
7
Tried to watch the conference committee earlier on YouTube. Had to turn it off because I couldn't stand watching dishonest Democratic and Republican Senators/Congressmen trying to get sound bites out of the Director of Congressional Budget Office who wanted to be nuanced and honest. It really highlighted how shallow our lawmakers are compared to the guys that actually know their stuff.
5
@Colin
The head of the OMB is a Republican Appointee.
He has ZERO interest in torpedoing this bill, as he knows where his bread is buttered. For you to claim otherwise is fantasy.
If we've learned one thing from this national nightmare, it's that when Trump wins, most Americans lose.
I have an idea for a new law: The Tax Returns Unreleased=Mistrusting Public Act of 2018. Elected public officials must release their tax returns prior to any efforts to change tax law (which should require 2/3 majority to ensure bipartisan support). This bill is almost as toxic as the PATRIOT act or Medicare Part D. And republicans know it's bad or they wouldn't have run it through their hot dog factory in secret.
11
I keep hearing everyone (mostly liberal media and people) it is all bad. Today in CNN which railed against the bill for weeks gives a calculator to show that the very wealthy (>$250K) will only save very little <0.5% while those in $45K-75K will save 3%, $75K-125K about 2% and so on. So what is wrong with the bill? Can anyone give full numbers as evidence to state that rather than just keep repeating the lies as we have been told for so many weeks.
1
What wrong is that it punches a giant hole in the national debt and there are many provisions that don't affect income tax rates but provide giant avoidance benefits for the uber wealthy in how certain income is treated and passed to the next generation. Most notably how real estate is treated completely differently from other business sectors. Not surprisingly, given the developer in chief that occupies the Oval Office.
1
first, percentages without the associated absolute numbers are meaningless. second, for a family of four with an estimated income of approximately $75,000, I believe the value of the TEMPORARY individual tax cuts is about $2,000 or about $7 a day for the family and less than $2 per person per year.
third, all analyses indicate that those middle-class families receiving those temporary tax breaks will experience substantial tax increases when the temporary tax cuts expire. meanwhile all the tax cuts for businesses will continue. Thus the debt about which Republicans have been screaming for decades will explode. until of course the Republicans move on to substantial Cuts in entitlement programs has the Speaker of the House of louses has already indicated is his priority for 2018
2
If the tax bill passes, the people of Maine will lose a lot of Medicare coverage in the next few years. Senator Collins has not been given the extra legislation she was promised, and she may never be given it. Why not wait until she is given what was promised before passing this tax giveaway bill.
5
Shameful. The GOP doesn't care that their bill has only a 29% approval rating by the American people (Gallup) whom they supposedly serve. Shameful.
13
I am a Republican.
While I would like to my chicks before they are hatched, it's not over yet.
These current crop of Republicans in the Congress cannot be trusted until the votes are counted and voting time is declared over before they can change their minds.
As to delays etc. for this newly minted Alabama senator - not required by their rules.
As recently as this year, the long term occupant of this same senate seat, the Attorney General Sessions sat in the Senate till that vote a rama on that ObamaCare repeal effort.
Only after that showman of them all, McCain gave that Hollywood gesture of thumbs down - this Alabama senator departed.
Love or hate, the Senate especially has archaic rules that both sides of aisles exploit.
For best of these exploits, read Mr. Leader's (ex president Johnson) monumental biographies. He outdid them all.
7
Attorney General Sessions is no longer a voting member of the Senate. His seat is held by Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill his seat until a special election could be held. Strange was defeated in the primary by Moore, and Moore lost to Jones. Strange is the lame duck Senator that everyone is referring to this week.
"I am a Republican."
Thank you!
Has anyone in the media discussed extensively how much Donald Trump, his children, and his extended family, will benefit from this monstrosity of a tax bill? The conflict of interest here is just glaring. Doesn't the New York Times care that this man refused--absolutely refused, and then misstated the truth--about why he could not release his tax returns, just like every other major Presidential candidate of the last 50 years, and now he and the GOP are ramming through a bill that may directly benefit him more than the vast majority of Americans, making him even richer than Croesus (or Queen Elizabeth, or whichever monarch is among the richest in the world)?
Come on, New York Times, do your job! And please stop calling this mess "tax reform." It is a grotesque tax giveaway to billionaires, foreign investors and global corporations. It is not "populist." It is so plutocratic it's sickening. It's a giant con of a transfer, and we're all being treated like suckers so that this president and his heirs, like his wealthiest supporters, can grow even richer at our expense.
22
They have done that, but it wouldn't hurt if they repeated that exercise, just to be clear.
The headline should just be the dollar amount Trump gets.
10
Why can't the Democrats put off/delay/stall the tax vote? The Republicans do that ALL the time. So tired of all these double standards.
24
The Democrats are in the *minority*, not the majority (52-48 now, 51-49 once Doug Jones is seated), and under reconciliation rules, the Republicans in the Senate can pass the bill with a bare majority. No (Democratic) filibuster is possible.
THAT is why the Democrats cannot "put off/delay/stall" the tax vote. Also, the Democrats lost one of their best parliamentarians when Harry Reid retired. He (like Lyndon Johnson, and Robert Byrd, etc.) knew how to do all kinds of things to control how the Senate functioned, even when the Democrats were in the minority, but they seem to lack anyone with that level of knowledge these days.
2
Actually, this was accomplished when Scott Brown replaced Sen. Kennedy's seat in MA. That is why the Dems are pushing it now, it has happened before.
3
Its Senate rules--they don't need 60 votes to pass it, so there's no way the Dems. can filibuster the bill. But I don't recall exactly why that is, and why they DO have to have 60 votes to raise the debt ceiling
2
If the Republican tax plan passes, we need an organized boycott of taxpayers refusing to pay income tax. There is strength in numbers. Individuals will be clobbered by the IRS, but the IRS cannot deal with millions refusing to pay income tax. The day the Republican plan becomes law, we must organize.
21
That sounds like wrong tactic. Income taxes are necessary, why should Democrats help not to pay them? Republicans will rejoice if the IRS is clogged up due to a taxpayer boycott - they want to abolish the IRS anyhow.
7
Best way to protest is to VOTE DEM in November 2018.
1
The Middle Class, Seniors, and Working Poor are the people that pay the bills of this Country.
They are the ones still paying for the last three Bush Tax cuts and will be paying for those until 2030.
This tax cut to the wealthy and corporate entities will cut their tax rates while all the "loopholes" are still in tact.
What that means is people like Romney that currently pays 14.9% or less using all the "loopholes" will be paying nothing in taxes and in some cases the American People will be paying him and his 5 sons to sit on their butts as they get "tribute" from the American People.
The United States had a war with Great Britain about paying taxes to a Country that we did not have representation in. It was call the "Revolutionary War."
These republicans want to create a permanent poor class and wealth class.
This goes against everything our Constitution stands for.
It is time we stand up to Ryan, McConnell, the Koch Brother, the Mercers, and the Heritage Foundation and tell them to go where they all have off shore their jobs and money.
Keep in mind businesses off shored tens of millions of jobs to keep from paying taxes in this Country.It was with the leadership of President Obama and the Democrats the American People picked up the pieces the republicans left us. Even with the obstruction and sabotage of anything to help the American People, we brought this Country out of the ditch they left us in.
Hence the economy we have today.
Time to stop the looting.
1
The cynics are trump and the GOP. This bill greatly increases tax for many middle class people in high tax states to give trump, mcconnell, issa, the koch brothers and other ultrawealthy GOP donors a massive tax cut. It is massive redistribution of middle class wages to the ultrawealthy. We have decided who we will vote for in 2018 and it will be for the gop candidate’s opponent.
19
Shame on the republican party for imposing this highly unpopular bill on the American public. This bill will put higher education out of the reach of many and will lead to the further funneling of the nation's wealth to the richest of the rich. How long before Americans realize their dreams are slipping away? How long before this party is held responsible?
10
They have no shame. That's part of the problem.
And who's going to hold them responsible?
6
Is it not the voters responsible for their representatives? “For the people and by the people” and all that?
We get the government we deserve. You can’t blame the party.
1
When the GOP gerrymandered the daylights out of the Heartland, they nullified the voice of the people. It is entirely reasonable to blame the party over the people in this instance.
Fantasy: November, 2018--they ALL lose their elections. Turn the country BLUE and undo this horror show of a tax cut for the uber-wealthy.
16
I listened to excerpts from the testimony of Federal Reserve Chairman, Janet Yellen, to Congress on National Public Radio. She stated that the tax reform bill before Congress would result in an increase in GDP growth over the next few of years. An increase in GDP would be evidence that the economic policy of President Donald J. Trump is making America great again. However the Democrats would like to postpone the vote on the tax reform bill until the liberal Democrat Doug Jones from Alabama is seated in the Senate so that he may vote against it. Vote on the bill as soon as possible and deliver it to the desk of President Donald J. Trump for his signature. America needs tax reform, like it has never needed tax reform before. Taxation is a running theme through American history; it is at the heart of what means to be an American. The patriots fought the British monarchy over abhorrent taxation; Americans have a natural affinity for minimal taxation. Americans like to take home as much of their hard earned pay as possible, they do not like giving it away to increase federal bloat. Americans do not mind paying taxes to pay for the military, for protection against the enemy, and ensure that freedom rings across the land. But Americans do not like bloat; I do not like bloat, and by bloat I mean highly paid federal bureaucrats, driven around in limousines, living the high life in Washington, busy doing nothing at all. That needs to go. Thank you.
4
Clearly you only heard part of what Dr. Yellen had to say, so I'd just listening to the full remarks. Also, the main reason the colonists revolted was not over high taxation but taxation without representation. Seriously, please study a bit more history. Lastly, this bit about bloat is nonsensical. Americans have no problem with "bloat" if it's benefitting them, and we hardly have "bloat." Did you miss the extreme cuts that the Congress and President Barack Obama imposed during his second term? Do you realize why there's so much borrowing that increases the Federal debt? It is not because we have a tax "bloat," but insufficient revenues to do all the things MOST Americans want the country to do, and funneling what's left into the pockets of billionaires is not the answer.
10
Southern Boy, your comment is quite bloated. Ideologues always presume they speak for every one, every citizen, and in regard to your comment, every American. Not every American eschews taxes and an active government. Of course as is true of every right-wing ideologue I have come across or read, you desire government services that suit and support your beliefs and life style, but a democratic government does not in principle and by definition simply serve a minority of privileged elites. I have owned two cars in my life, which I scarcely drove as I have preferred to walk, to cycle or take public transit to my destination. But I do not decry the enormous costs to build and maintain vehicle infrastructure that allows car owners to drive their gas guzzlers and to produce noise and air pollution. As well, I am not a militarist, thus support a trim military, not the billions additional spending Trump wants to ear mark for the military at the expense of other worthy programs. You don't like government bloat, well, here's your chance to cut into it; join a militia if you're so concerned about being protected but pay this expense out of your own pocket.
11
Robert T,
I appreciate your remarks, thank you. You write "I have owned two cars in my life, which I scarcely drove as I have preferred to walk, to cycle or take public transit to my destination. But I do not decry the enormous costs to build and maintain vehicle infrastructure that allows car owners to drive their gas guzzlers and to produce noise and air pollution." I basically agree, when I lived in urban areas I too preferred to walk and use public transit, subsidized by taxpayer funds, but it was not free by any means. When I lived and worked in the DC area, I lived in the Northern VA suburbs which required driving to the metro stop, so shirking the car was not an option, especially since a bus did not conveniently service my neighborhood. Now I live in the rural outskirts of Nashville, where driving is the only option. Therefore I do not eschew taxation for highway maintenance. I have spent most of life in the American South, except for a brief stint on the West Coast for graduate school; the closest I have lived to the North was the DC area, close enough to feel the bite of excessive taxation. I have witnessed federal bloat first hand and, unfortunately, participated in it. For me Tennessee is home; it epitomizes the values that are most important to me as an American. I hope you an appreciate that. Thank you
1
The tax bill will probably pass, and the Republicans couldn’t care less that the corporate tax cuts are permanent, yet the individual tax cuts expire, making this tax plan for individuals a bad deal for all but the more wealthy.
The Republicans simply say that the personal cuts will get extended, never mind whether or not it’s Democrats or Republicans who will have to contend with a bad situation. Trump will be fine with the individual tax cuts expiring after he’s left office. Why should he care?
So the Republicans delay the reckoning of this flawed bill that they will heedlessly push through, they and Trump will claim a legislative victory, and a significant portion of the middle class will end up for the worse.
We’ve already seen what happens when corporations are essentially given money. Look to the bank bailouts that we’re supposed to be used for additional loans to ease the mortgage crisis. Instead, most of the banks used the money for other purposes, such as investments. They made profits and then paid back the original bailout funds. I doubt many employees even saw wage increases.
The GOP tax plan will neither raise wages nor increase employment nor pay for itself. History shows trickle down doesn’t work. And unlike the bailout funds, corporations are getting a gift with no strings attached. This is what happens when we have a President who (with his cronies) will “yugely” benefit from this legislation, while many others will wind up worse off.
18
A lovely bill that will separate the rich, middle class and the poor further than we are today. And now the Republicans don't want to wait for the new Senator to be sworn in, just push it down their throats. Perhaps a couple of Republicans will come to their senses and not vote for this bill. If the bill gets passed each and every Senator and Representative should be voted out next time they come up for election. But wait isn't part of this bill supposed to allow churches and religious organizations to take part with donations in elections or is that a separate bill, in any case this will certainly turn our country into one run by religious fanatics. Our leader, Trump, is out of control.
8
At what point are his supporters - the ones that aren't millionaires - going to get a clue? There is nothing in this tax bill that will benefit 99% of Americans.
13
I'm surprised that more isn't being made of he ACA mandate part of this. This will almost surely cause health insurance prices to skyrocket. The ACA will probably enter a death spiral. And nobody talks about that.
12
Out of respect no doubt. Such a fine TAX!
Congress serving their donors, the people be doomed; doomed we are and will be under this disgrace.
8
But this quote below doesn't allow for the millionaire class of Congress and the people that fund their reelection funding. Our representatives are now part of the Oligarchy that pretends to write laws for the people. They write laws for themselves and their donors.
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
1
Doesn't feel like a giveaway in CA. Capping SALT at 10K is not helpful.
12
Same here in NYC metro region. They are essentially stealing from the residents of states that actually contribute the lion's share of the tax revenues. If we don't collectively vote the rascals out we may have to soon talk of the big blue states economically seceding from the union. It's time to end the tyranny of the minority.
We don't need tax cuts for Christmas. We don't need gifts at all. Instead, we need GUARANTEES that Republicans won't try to cut our Medicare and Social Security benefits.
Because Republicans still live in denial about supply-side tax cuts paying for themselves (or they're simply dissembling), the real issue isn't a little more money next year. The real issue is what will happen to all of us who aren't rich when the deficits begin to start piling up again.
And I think I'm right to say "we" and "us", since 2/3rds of Americans reportedly OPPOSE this tax plan!
19
More unpopular than the bill on the repeal of the Obamacare bill but full steam ahead.
Creating and passing a tax cut bill when the economy is in good shape is suicide for republicans. When they come back in January and start cutting on social security, that will seal their fates.
Those Republicans up for re-election in 2018 should be concerned. Chances are, they aren’t returning.
I’m also starting to wonder if the reason we aren’t seeing the release of names of congressman who have paid off victims is because the GOP needs these votes. Otherwise, why are they not revealing them now?
Good riddance to you Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. You’ll be relegated to minority status soon enough.
172
Ms Chick: Unpopular because of polls...and many polled don't pay income taxes or don't know the details of proposed legislation.
I hope you are correct in predictions! The present group of voters seem so uninformed about these issues.
Spot on.
Are there any Republicans who have figured out that passing something just to pass something is a terrible idea when you're passing a truly appalling piece of legislation that will probably mean no reelection? Really! Even for those who think they have a safe seat; it will no longer be safe. And they would deserve to be kicked out if they pass this. Think about it. Yes, just go home and think about it.
8
Why, is something as important as this legislation, which will affect everyone of us in this country, allowed to happen on what feels like a hit to "fast-forward." Legislation has always been a bit of a chess game, but this President and Congress have drawn the public into new places with evasive and complicated discourse.
Is it time to review our Executive and Legislative rules and powers? I don't know. Perhaps things play out in the long run, but something feels very wrong and out of control!
6
Corporations are not paying an effective rate higher than 21% so I see that as a wash. It is the "flow-through entity income" for real estate developers (hint: Trump) and rental income (think Trump and commercial/residential real estate) that will drop to 20 or so from 39.6 that is the real cut. The bottom tier will get pennies for the first few years and then they are cut-off from the tax cuts but no one else. The middle- and upper classes that are getting a kick in the pants.
7
It seems Senator Collins forgot that many presidents appointed Supreme Court justices during their second terms and no one previously felt that no hearings should be held until after the election.
As apparently that no longer holds, how is it anything else she says in the article should hold now?
2
What frustrates me a lot is a missing of a balance for each major item in this article (and in many others, too). How many dollars do they lose by lowering the corporate rate, how much do they gain by repealing the mandatory ACA, by tightening each tax break, etc., etc.? The data would also give us the image of the total balance.
1
Trickle down economics has never worked except to make the rich richer and the rest of us poorer. The tax cuts for the rich kill the economic growth because federal spending is part of the engine that grows jobs. If money were being spent to fix roads and bridges we would have lots of people doing important work that would improve all of our lives and they would earn enough to buy homes and send their kids to college. The only federal money the Republicans want to spend is for the military. Why is that? Could it be their donors are in the business of providing the military with weapons and vehicles, etc.? We need to get smart. Spend our tax dollars on the things the American people need, that's why we pay taxes so we can support join efforts that benefit everyone. Including educating our children and providing them with good health care. When the Congress decides to sacrifice children's health so CEO's can get even richer then you know they have lost their way. Time to stand up and fight back.
8
The comments here are absolutely astonishing. If you all want to pay more, then just pay more voluntarily!
Not long ago even democrats agreed that the high corporate tax rate made U.S. companies uncompetitive. The familiar battle cry that this is a "giveaway to the rich" rings an especially dissonant tone when we see a broad cut in rates across the board, increases in personal exemptions, and bigger child tax credits.
Although the bill is imperfect, it represents a long overdue tax relief for many working families. It was a central theme of the presidential campaign. The American people spoke loudly and clearly that we need a pro jobs and pro business tax reform.
4
Yet, it is reported that two thirds of American do not support this bill. How do you square this with your statements about the benefits of this bill? American voters might have spoken "loudly and clearly" for job growth and pro-business tax reform, but this trickle down nonsense does not work. Corporate tax savings will not lead to higher employment and wage increases; it never has.
How many times does it need to be pointed out that this bill gives with one hand and takes with the other? Yes, the standard deduction increases, and the child tax credit is increased, but personal exemptions are eliminated. For single-parent households and large families, this means a possible INCREASE in their taxable income.
4
This bill provides relief only for the ultra-rich and mega-corporations. Any dollars that others save on taxes will be eaten up (and more) by the loss of deductions and the inevitable cuts to services necessary to pay for the cuts. Want to pay $150 to enter a national park? Want to be able to help aging parents, or low- and middle-income children with major health problems? OR, like Republicans, do you want to bankrupt all but the ultra-wealthy when they get sick, and put college out of reach for even more young people?
7
We're it that taxpaying citizens were given say 5 years of grand fathered grace to adjust to the more jarring of these changes I might be tempted to agree at least in principle. Some of the changes are so draconian they can only do harm if applied like slamming on the brakes while at full speed. Yet, it appears as if the zeal of Republicans to say they accomplished something is overriding their sense of fair play.
3
The Republicans think is their last chance to pass tax legislation. They are probably right. By this time next year, their clout will
Be zilch.
3
This idea of economic expansion by allowing the "job creators" keep more of their money has long been proven wrong. Rich people save, the not so rich, middle class spend. Spending creates demand, demand needs investment to be met.
Why not just really, clearly cut taxes on the middle class?
3
It’s weird that you prefer foreign profit to domestic. The law is designed to reverse that. It’s better than the way things are. The economy already is accelerating. Blue collar wages are up 4% this year vs. 1% for white collar, according to the BLS. Capital spending is up. Productivity will follow. Infrastructure spending will arrive next year. Arab oil is being replaced by American. Wages are rising even in industries where the number of jobs is falling. Small business is expanding, and confidence is at a high. No doubt people could behave more civilized. But as Americans earn more money and remain confident in the future, those things will take of themselves. What’s the point of blocking progress?
2
All the current economic gains you cite are exactly why this massive tax cut for the wealthy and corporations is unnecessary. Moreover, it will hurt millions of middle class tax payers in urban and suburban areas where state, local and property taxes are high. It will also hurt students, people who buy private health insurance, and those with sizeable medical expenses. And ultimately it will hurt the elderly, who rely on Medicare and Social Security benefits, and others who rely on government assistance to subsist. And finally, it will hurt your children and grandchildren ,who will be paying the cost of our rising national debt.
You call this progress?
4
A giant wet kiss to the wealthy and corporations. Lies and excuses to the rest of us. We will be sure to remember this next November.
89
There’s no need for any tax cuts, especially for the rich and corporations. Do any of you rubes wonder why the Republicans made the middle class tax cuts temporary?
47
I have a dream. The us federal budget goes on block chain. I’d like to have documentation of each and every penny our government spends. AND borrowes and who we are borrowing from, Our government is getting money from entities that don’t have the funds to lend us. It’s all a confidence game. To lend something you have to own it. It’s been a con game since Nixon decoupled the dollar from gold.
The US prints 25 million dollars per hour. Who is the bookkeeper here. And you thought Putin was bad.
What we have here is high tech fraud.
8
It IS a confidence game. But its based on "confidence" that the dollar remains the most reliable investment in an unpredictable world. And as long as there is no hyperinflation, or the debt reaches beyond the government's ability to make interest payments, the government can print all the money any of us need.
The real "fraud" is the pretense that the government is like a family and it MUST have a balanced budget. And the fraud works because most people think there is a government on the one hand, and a bank on the other, and the government (and the rest of us as taxpayers) owe that bank trillions of dollars. But its not so--the government IS basically the bank, because prints the money.
Its defines common sense, but its basically what's going on here.
1
I hope this is the last gasp of the Reagan Restoration. We can't afford continuation of this Gilded Age Redux, not financially and not culturally.
Ah, Susan Collins, how quickly we descend from common sense savior to Bad Mommy, scolding those who dare propose the same treatment McConnell gave Merrick Garland. How dare they? Susan showed her fangs.
45
I'm going to be paying euro taxes but not getting euro services..
50
Aren't they supposed to represent our interests?
23
Ol Mitch the con nel said we have to deliver for those who sent us here
And he meant his donors
Luckily fir the rest of us we have far more votes
Only if you are a lobbyist for a large corporation.
This grafting of much of the Senate's bill coming right after the unlikely Alabama win by Long-Shot Jones may be best described as the Rush to Fudgement.
12
It is the time of year for Scrooge. This year he has plenty of helpers doing his bidding.
Bah humbug.
9
This Tax Bill is the Republicans' Waterloo.
30
The GOP delayed filling the "Scalia Seat" on the Supreme Court....for 10-11 months waiting for the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election.
Now, with the GOP congress ready to pass their vile tax bill ( I smell sulfur), the GOP is unwilling to wait one (1) month for Senator-elect Jones to be sworn in as the new senator for Alabama. Hypocrites.
Suggestion: Now-Senator Strange should consult with Mr. Jones. He should have the class to cast his vote as Mr. Jones suggests. THAT would be "the right thing to do."
22
Merry Christmas Donald! Hope you can find enough charities to handle the tax breaks you'll be receiving!
7
we lost today, we the middle class lost today. wall street won today.
Death and taxes. Nothing’s changed, maybe slightly varying proportions.
Republicans: Keep your lousy hundred bucks and do something real to help people achieve their potential. Invest in health, education, research, job development, and, yes, infrastructure. During the campaign, the dotard worried about people “dying in the streets;” today, all he cares about is “a win” for his desperate self at any cost. Do we the people really want an increase in hunger and homelessness? Do we want the mentally ill and physically disabled left untreated? Do we want more deaths from opioid addiction? Ivanka and Arabella will do just fine. But what kind of a country do the rest of us want for ourselves and our kids and grandkids? Do Republicans think their beloved corporations are going to solve America’s societal problems? I guess we will all be eating cake.
47
Do we want thousands of seniors on Medicare denied cancer care. That is what happened in 2013 with the sequester tax cuts.
To all you would-be autocratic Republicans out there: DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME SOMEONE TRIED "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION"? This disgraceful Republican action could very well be dealt with the same way.
29
Google growth rates and tax rates over the last 70 years and compare.
In the 1950s the top individual rate was 90% and the corporate rate was 50%.
GDP growth averaged 4.25%
Since the Bush Tax Cuts the top rate is 39.5% and the corporate rate is 35%.
Average GDP growth is 2%, less than half.
Tax cuts do not grow the GDP. There is no evidence that they ever have.
Why doesn't "real news" ever point this out?
In the 1950s one worker could support a family and people could go to college without mortgaging their whole lives. When they got out of college they could afford a house. Now they can't.
All of the policies pushed by Republicans and abetted by centrist Democrats have been an attack on the middle class, whose median wage has stayed flat, while all of the increases in productivity have been shipped to offshore bank accounts.
The wealth creators are the people that actually do the work, not your rude and greedy CEO who gets bigger bonuses for firing more people.
End the Scam!
70
Are you saying the world economic and competitive landscape has remained a constant from the 1950s until now to make this comparison/analysis even remotely coherent?
1
Tax scheme of 1950's to today is apples and oranges.
1
Jude Wanniski came up with the scam -- he called it "supply side economics":
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2009/01/26/two-santa-clauses-or-how-r...
I believe the long range vision for this plan is to increase the debt so as to reduce payments for medicare, medicaid, welfare, and other 'hand outs'. Want to go to school? Work for it. Want to have health care? Get a job. No better way to eliminate the safety net then to claim we can't afford it. Oh wait... isn't that the reason CHIP is now dead in the water?
If not in the dark of night how else was this going to happen. One year down, one to go.
31
Just as USA Today says that Trump is 'unfit to clean toilets' the printed version of this tax bill isn't fit to be toilet paper - it's flimsy and cheap, and it will really let you down when it matters most.
Ok, attempt at humor didn't work. The tax bill is deadly serious.
What worries me most right now, not enough people below the 1% have done the calculations to understand that many will see their taxes will go up - homes will be lost - savings wiped out - healthcare unaffordable, colleges kids dreamed of out of reach, standard of living lower. And then the GOP will come after social security and Medicare because their cuts for the wealthy and corporations are going to explode the deficit.
Unless you make more than a million a year, you will want to PROTEST THE TAX BILL or you will lose a painful, life-changing amount of money. And please, ignore Trump's insane tweets until the tax bill is torpedoed - don't let him distract you from taking care of yourself, your family and your future.
I never write these beatnik-sounding crazed missives. This kind of seismic financial shift will hurt too many people, and it has to be shut down. Now.
32
Will it help The Rich? Will it threaten people's social security and medicare? Would Trump sign such a horrible bill?
7
The 2018 elections will redistribute the Senate and house probably so Republicans are getting done what they can until the reckoning. Why can Congress not get it? Do for the country and people not just wealthy.
7
This is what the Republicans are thinking. Once you lower a tax, its almost impossible to ever get it raised again. Think how hard it was for H.W. Bush, Clinton and Obama to raise ANY taxes--each time they did they practically faced civil war in this country.
The Republicans are counting on a percentage of the same people who are against this tax cut having such a short attention span and fundamental distrust of government that they'll turn around and oppose any future effort by the Democrats to bring back fiscal sanity--its happened at least three times before!
5
As the late Leona Helmsley said, "Only the Little People pay taxes. "We the Little People" have been punished long enough by Congress. Replace the federal income tax, which unfairly burdens us working-class "stiffs," with a 1% tax on real estate, luxuries like yachts, expensive cars, jewelry and art, stocks, bonds, and cash deposits. And give retired workers on Social Security enough cost of living increase to at least buy a few cups of senior coffee at McDonald's. In fact, Congress, give us a RETROACTIVE cost of living increase equal to the pay raises you members of Congress have been giving yourselves and to federal employees all these years....with interest.
13
George W. Bush gave us two "tax cuts for the job creators" and we got 3 Million jobs and he took Clinton’s balanced budget, zero deficit, and turned into a $1.1 Trillion deficit.
Obama put back the highest marginal tax rate and gave us the "jobs killing" Obama-care and we got 11 Million jobs and he reduced the deficit by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion.
George W. Bush 2004 tax repatriation did not create jobs. The money went to stock buybacks and dividends. Also, no wage increases. In fact, companies involved cut 20,000 jobs.
Brownback cut taxes in Kansas. No job creation, huge deficits resulting in cuts to education. Eventually, the adults in the room said enough and overrode his last budget. And they were Republicans.
Nor are we really receiving a tax cut if there is a deficit. They give us the money but they put the bill on the credit cards of us, our children, and our grandchildren.
24
PART of it is on credit card--the part I'm worried about is the coming cuts to Medicare and Social Security that will (allegedly) pay for it.
But then I'm not an Independent. Just a working person who hopes to be able to continue to live when I can't work any more.
1
Remind me how increasing taxes in IL and CT has worked out again?
"Assuage concerns that wealthy individuals would face a potential tax increase..." A reporter wrote that with a straight face?
This goody bag for the rich transfers over a trillion dollars from everyone else to the top, to be followed by savage cuts to Social Security and Medicare which will funnel trillions more to the wealthiest.
Who could possibly look at the USA in 2017 and conclude that the economic inequality gulf actually needs to be widened? Republicans, that's who.
Trump's "populism" is the biggest scam in our political history. And that's really saying something. Welcome to the new Gilded Age.
23
Most people in the USA recognize this bill for what it is -- a giveaway to the already wealthy. And, despite this reality, the GOP in its own is determined to pass the bill.
Now when Obama nominated a Supreme Court justice in his final year, hardly an unprecedented move, Sen. McConnell declared that such an action on the part of the Senate demanded that the vote be held until "the will of the people" had bern expressed in November.
I wonder, given yesterday's example of the will of the people if Sen. McConnell will graciously accept this truth again and allow for Doug Jones to be seated as a Senator before taking a vote on this bill.
The odds don't appear to be promising, as reciprocity is not in the GOP's nature...
14
Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republicans will use this bill as a cudgel to try to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, as well as Medicaid. When the U.S. growth rate does not reach the unrealistic 3 to 5 percent increase which some right-wing economists have predicted, revenue will not be adequate to sustain the economy, and a recession will become more than likely, not to mention the possibility of a massive increase in the national debt. It will likely be greater than 1.5 trillion dollars; that is merely guess work.
Senator Collins no longer seems concerned with the almost certain increase in the loss of insurance for those on Medicaid, and an increase in rates for those who are the working poor. She will be turning her back on the people of Maine who depended on her to do the right thing.
This bill is based on a false premise: that this unconscionable tax break for the wealthy and corporations will somehow magically increase wages and boost productivity. The poor will stay poor, the working poor will continue to strive harder and harder, and those somewhere in the middle might get a few bucks to spend temporarily. But inequality will grow and there won’t be much left to make this a better society.
20
The key is to remember what Republicans are doing at the ballot box. As Alabama showed, if you turn out to vote, you can have an effect.
16
Wonder if their parents ever read to them the story of the goose that laid the golden egg?
10
The White Conservative male was never going to give up without a fight. Here it is. Defeat them for the sake of civilization.
23
The end of the SALT deduction will be the end of civilization?
2
Quite erroneous... all races eligible for the tax reductions.
2
BD, do you mean the tax increases?
Your taxes will go up in 10 years. Mine will go up more quickly. However, taxes will be higher for everyone than they would have been without the bill. That's because chained-CPI will be used to measure inflation, a much less generous index than what is used today. Middle-income earners will be pushed into higher brackets. The standard deduction will return to what it is today, but you'll still lose all the other deductions you have today.
1
Does anyone recall what the democrat party's tax plan is? Oh! that's right, more taxes for everyone!
7
The plan was to reduce tax burdens for individuals who earn less than $250,000 per year.
3
My plan is 50-70% top rate on the rich.
6
Cheaper healthcare and more tax deductions for everyone regardless of wealth.
1
The day this bill is signed by DJT should be declared a national day of mourning. Flags should be flown at half mast. I will wear a black armband. This legislative travesty will haunt America for decades to come. And don't call this the end: it's just the beginning. As the cost of this legislation comes to bear, count on social programs being cut. A pox on your houses, Republican congresspersons.
34
All that Democrats need to do to be elected to office is promise to roll back this sorry excuse for a tax bill. And it will be in full effect come 2020. It's the DNC's election to lose. No way the GOP can lie their way out of this one.
7
Where do I apply to become a corporation?
22
You cannot become a corp but you can set one up at the Sec of States office. Requires a lot of work, articles of incorporation and other things.
So if you BUY a house that costs over $750,000 you are going to pay a few thousand dollars more in taxes than you would previously. Is that really "upending" the American Dream as so many here seem to claim?
You lefty's have been screaming for decades that the rich are not paying their "fair share" and yet here are the Republicans cutting some deductions for what can only be called wealthy taxpayers and you guys are now going crazy because you realize "the rich" you have been talking about are YOU!
What hypocrites.
9
You misunderstand. The value of real estate, particularly personal residences, will be reset to exactly $750,000. No one is going to purchase a more expensive home via mortgage financing if you can only deduct $750,000. This will hit states with particularly expensive real estate very hard. Seems unjust and frankly incredibly undemocratic to punish those who didn't vote for the president. Once elected, the president is supposed to serve all Americans, not pick and choose. We are not "Leftys" vs. "Righties", "Blue" vs. "Red". We are the UNITED States of America. It's time that the president be reminded of that.
Hold on I'm confused. On the one hand this bill is a give away to the rich, but on the other hand we're supposed to be sorry that someone cannot deduct their million dollar mortgage, which would require income of 300K to purchase? Seems to me that this bill punishes the wealthy in at least that aspect.
I have no sympathy for the $750 K homeowner who really has nothing to cry about. They get mortgages so they can benefit from a tax scam even though they have the cash to buy a home outright.
1
I'm still really confused why this tax bill was needed?
19
The US Corporate tax system is quite uncompetitive across the globalized world from a rate perspective and the way income earned in another country is taxed.
The previous Democratic administration and the current crazy one both believed steps were needed to become more competitive, potentially repatriate income being held overseas, and lay the foundation for future business growth.
1
To keep their promise to cut taxes but its only going to be for the benefit of the rich and the corps that have seized control of OUR government.
3
Because they need an excuse to cut social security and medicare to reduce the debt their tax-cuts-for-the-rich will incur.
9
This new version sounds even worse.
10
The Republicans are determined to go into the midterms with images of dying children and skiing millionaires; Sarah Palin's legacy -Death Panels YES, Death Taxes NO. The digital board in Times Square will read "Number of Americans Killed By Republicans since January 20, 2017."
When I was growing up people asked "Where were the good Germans?" And now we know.
17
It's interesting.. Trump is out front about his mental issues; he doesn't realize that McConnell is little more than a vicious savage.. more than Trump's match!
11
“Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, tweeted on Wednesday morning that Republican leaders should delay the tax process until Doug Jones takes his seat.”
What difference does it make?
When politicians make senseless statements, they do not give us any lower than the already nadir opinion we have of them.
In McConnell's view, the difference is whether the tax bill passes.
From one failure to the next. Stealing is what this is. Pass this at your own risk. Angry people are watching. These are all Republicans, and they are attacking Medicaid and Obamacare. After this Ryan wants to "fix" social security and Medicare. Get in the streets.
38
If Donald Trump thinks this bill is good for average Americans, you know it’s bad. He is a serial liar - don’t be fooled, it’s that simple!
25
I don't think WE THE PEOPLE are fooled by Trump. I think the Congress is fooled thinking we will vote for them again. The tide is changing.
2
I hope you're right, but I fear this will not happen. Still way too many people voted for Roy Moore, and many people will continue to vote the same republicans in again, they voted for trump and for the current congress because of empty promises, but they will see a short term tax relief, so they will be happy, and do it again.
When the dmage is done in many years, they will blame that administration, not remember this one.
1
Oh, hurray! Let's keep the "desperate to win" movement alive at all costs.
4
Remember what happened in Kansas when these shenanigans were pulled.
27
USA Today nailed it today clarifying Trump is not even fit to clean toilets. Staggering to realize this is the leader of the GOP, and the lead architect for the disgusting proposed tax bill, which of course, is direct from the toilet. No doubt the WH will call this fake news, declaring but of course Trump is indeed fit to clean toilets.
14
If these politicians won't give you a tax cut, when they've given every rich donor a huge tax cut, next year give yourself a tax cut. It doesn't take much skill to shave a few hundred bucks from your tax bill. Just do it. You'd be a fool not to when every fat-cat Republican will be taking full advantage of all the tax breaks they've been given. Get your share!
7
Ironically, some of the best arguments against repealing the individual mandate are contained within a brief that was submitted to the Supreme Court in 2012 by many of the Republican senators who just voted to repeal the mandate.
The Republican senators' brief claimed, for example, that “without the mandate, the statute’s reforms cannot work as intended,” and “Congress’ attempted solution to the twin problems of health care coverage and costs disappears.” It also noted that “Congress studied the experience of states that had enacted similar insurance reforms without an individual mandate,” and that the experience of the states “showed that similar reform without the mandate actually raised the cost of insurance, increased the number of uninsured, and in at least one case, destabilized the insurance market.”
Apparently, the senators who voted for the Senate's bill believe that $338 billion in tax cuts are more important than the problems that will occur from repealing the individual mandate.
One thing is certain, however: if the final bill passes, no one will be able to claim, as the senators' brief did, that voters’ “elected representatives did not vote for this law without the mandate.” Those who vote for the bill will own the result and all of its consequences. They will become the new owners of many of Obamacare's problems, and voters will be able to “hold their Representatives or Senators accountable for the health care reform legislation as it was passed.”
12
Now we have managed a victory in Alabama, we have to stop this tax bill going through...phone/write.
It adds to the country's debt which will be like an albatross around our childrens'
necks, while making the rich richer.
Stop Trump now.
12
Higher standard deduction, no more personal exemptions, deductions modified, different tax brackets- all shuffling deck chairs, smoke and mirrors, all diversion at the bottom. The true con at the top- Estate tax, alternative minimum tax, reduction of the highest individual bracket and lower taxation for passthrough entities, carried interest remains untouched. This is not tax reform; this is a travesty. Huge deficit created to be corrected by cutting social welfare programs. We are doomed.
20
A lot of this current cutting makes me hope that I die sooner. After a lifetime of hard and thankless work I don't want to suffer anymore.
1
If you were rich and you wanted to return to the days of serfs and slaves, you could not develop a better bill than what the Republicans are peddling. They erode two cornerstones of economic upward mobility: home ownership and college education. If they want to reduce loses for SALT, why not just disallow second family homes and yachts? There is no good reason to increase the tax burden on students who are saddled with massive debt, or to tax the value of tuition given to graduate students who are working their way through their degrees. This bill is an abomination and any congressman who votes for it deserves to lose their seat.
26
I'm pretty sure that one of Trump's original goals was to simplify the tax code. It looks like that goal has been abandoned.
6
As a retired tax accountant I can tell you that the tax code cannot be simplified because business is not simple. We live in a complex world that has a complex business environment. Accounting is not simply adding pluses and minuses. It will NEVER be simple.
3
The new ‘fairer’ GOP tax reform sees a struggler receiving $100 million per year, receive an extra $2.6 million in tax cuts.
Cutting the top marginal income tax rate by 2.6%, is a much stronger gift to the mega rich. Trump’s supporters will cheer and back slap each other when the tax changes become law, yet the 0.1% have just been given more tax cuts as a compromise?
8
And the purpose of this "tax cut bill" (for Big Corporate and the rich) at this time is?? Answer there is none, except the rich hate to pay their fair share of taxes.
Our economy is doing okay, so why do we need a stimulus for our economy, especially when the Fed is worried about inflation?
The GOP rationale is trickle-down economics--giving already wealthy tax breaks--"eventually" will filter down to us little guys, whose wages have stagnated for decades.
Note: Yesterday on "The World" on NPR, 40 economists were asked if "trickle down economics works for the middle class? 39 said no; 1 said yes.
If it is supposed to increase jobs and plow money back into the economy--instead of corporations and rich people squirreling it away in offshore, tax-free accounts--a bunch of CEOs said they felt the benefits would go to investors, not to people needing jobs or salary increases.
How in the world is a reduction in the estate tax for kids like the Trumps supposed to benefit society?
Republicans must tell us why deficits suddenly no longer matter!
Trump said he is great at making "deals" and planned to take care of his working class supporters. Where is the benefit/gain for working class folks in this GOP tax bill. In a "deal," both sides need to feel they gained from the negotiation. This bill actually takes away from middle class folks to give to the rich only.
Next comes cuts in Social Security, Medicare, to pay for this boondoggle
The GOP is not for We!
18
Why anybody thinks a $10,000 cap on SALT deductions will not mean higher federal income tax for a very large number of people in all sorts of states is not very realistic. This is NOT just a blue state issue. If two working spouses earning $60K each live in a state with just a 5% state income tax and live in a house valued at just $300K with annual property taxes of $6K, they are currently playing a total of $12K in SALT taxes, so there taxable inc9me will go up by $2K under this bill. Those salaries and that house value is VERY common all through the country. But, hey, if that’s what is necessary to lower the top rate for millionaires by 2.6 percentage points and to eliminate the inheritance tax for poor Ivanka, we should all be happy to do our part.
But for those of us who don’t feel that generous towards Ivanka and other poor little rich girls, don’t EVER vote for a Republican at any level for any office. Give them power, and you can count on a huge transfer of wealth upwards from the needy to the greedy. Always, always, always.
22
Those who have bought homes and become part of communities having made responsibility decisions on what they could afford based on 1) ability to deduct property taxes, 2) ability to deduct state income taxes and 3) ability to deduct mortgage interest should NOT have these deductions removed. That seems grossly unjust -- those folks who built a life on a certain set of economic assumptions should be grandfathered. Let new homeowners make decisions knowing these deductions will be removed/reduced. This legislation will force some people (esp those in high tax areas) out of their homes and the property values in those towns will plummet providing a double-whammy. How can this even be happening?
6
Trump says it's a massive tax cut for individuals. The way I see it is that it's a massive tax cut for businesses, and a minor tax cut or tax increase for individuals. Essentially, the Republicans wanted to lower the business tax rate, but they needed to balance the cost somehow, so they tweaked the individual tax. Now, I don't see a problem with lowering the business tax. I would bet that there are a bunch of Democrats who would go along with that. But Trump and Republicans chose not to go that route. I have no idea why. If only they would tell us.
2
In the short term these cuts may look good to some in the middle class but in the long term it will be devastating for the economy and it will significantly grow the income inequality gap. I do think Democrats will need to be strategic, so they don't get blamed when things go bad. With so much right wing media promoting lies and propaganda, I can see them blaming Democrats if they are in charge when the next crash happens. In any case, the continued growing of the income of the very very rich and the decline in incomes of the middle class is not good for democracy.
20
I totally agree with you on this, but I'm very doubtful that much can be done. It's incredibly frustrating to see the boldfaced lies Republicans (and Trump, in particular) can get away with, and sure, some of this can be blamed on the right wing media. But increasingly, I blame the public for what is going on here. People should be able to see through these lies, but many can't. In the end, those who support Republicans will blame Democrats when the consequences of this tax bill hit home. I really don't think there is anything that can be done to change that outcome no matter how strategic Democrats try to be about this.
2
Talk about government over-reach (which Republicans claim to hate though we know that is a lie). This monstrosity of a bill is opposed by most of our citizens, but who cares about that? Our so-called representatives do not represent us, or even care enough to ask us what we think. Just force tax changes on the people while telling us to shut up and sit down, do not question your 'leaders'. Will voters respond by throwing these cronies out of office? Apparently not. So Congress will do whatever the billionaires tell them to do, as there is no downside for them in doing so.
11
Oh, I think people in politics who care about PEOPLE will do well IF they are running for office for we the people. It can’t be fake though, has to be from the heart. It doesn’t matter to me if they are Democrats or Republican. They just can’t get lost in the “machinery”. Where are they? We also need to consider how attempts at voter suppression affect the United States. Gerrymandering needs to be addressed properly. This ties in with voter suppression. Donald Trump’s bigotry toward Muslims and brown people in general reflects a very deliberate attempt (promulgated by someone other than just Trump) to silence people who are part of the United States of America.
1
Sen. Rubio said that if the final bill did not do more for the working poor, there would be “consequences.” Sen. Flake said he voted for the Senate version of the bill only after receiving assurances from GOP leadership that DACA would be addressed and fixed. Sen. Collins said she voted for the Senate version only after receiving assurances that the devastating impact of the bill on health insurance markets would be addressed. The conference bill includes nothing to assuage the strongly expressed concerns of Senators Rubio, Collins and Flake. No matter what McConnell told them, House Republican leaders have made it absolutely clear that they do not intend to address those issues. Not now; not ever.
Now the question for Rubio, Flake and Collins is: Will you stand by your statements or is it party loyalty over country and integrity?
57
Alert to everyone: The whole thing remains a sham. The country does not need any tax cut, certainly not corporations that already pay an effective rate of well under 20% using existing loopholes, certainly not any income bracket making more than say $100K in household income, and certainly not any repeal of the existing federal tax on estates. The Republican party is still lost in a fog of supply side economics and, more duplicitously, agendas to undo "government" roles in economic policy including even basic entitlements like Medicare. Nobody should be fooled. Here's trusting that at least three Republican senators will have the courage to call a sham a sham and vote it down.
11
The house tax bill included a provision by which I will pay 15% more taxes on rental income.
I will pass that on to my tenants because I am barely making any profit as it is. Most likely I'll simply flip those properties and get out of the rental game altogether leaving large corporations to manage single-family homes and price out low-income renters.
5
Genuinely curious here....how do you get hit with that 15%?
We have rental properties and see opportunity to save by using a corporate structure around the rental properties.
1
So, we are going to go "at least" $1.4 Trillion more in debt and not have a single road, airport or bridge built or repaired. Hope the wealthy don't have to travel anywhere for a while.
17
Still waiting for Grover Norquist to weigh in. Why isn't anybody else wondering why he is taking a knee during this debacle?
3
Nope. Old Grover knows the fix is in and he doesn't have to say a thing on this one.
2
Republicans have clearly finessed the art of preaching to the choir. Except it's only part of the choral they address...specifically the tone-deaf songstress in the back row who can't hear a word being spoken. Not that it matters.
3
Apparently this reverse Robin Hood act that the GOP is pursuing with their tax reform bill is somehow supposed to remind us of Christmas. The GOP sure has problems. Until yesterday, they were trying to convince us that a pedophile is tough on crime and a good Christian. Having realized their error, they all backed away in less than an hour after the results rolled in and will soon pretend never to have heard of the fellow. This is not working any more and if they had any decency left, they would bury this tax bill and start talking to the Democrats instead of suggesting that a US senator might be willing to perform sexual favors for campaign donations. Everybody should read the USA Today editorial. I've never seen anything approaching it about any previous president or prominent politician. Things are bad. I know that Trump's supporters wanted something different but I did not realize that their intention was to install something so much worse that even the most corrupt DC types suddenly look really good?
5
We can't be competitive with the rest of the world with Social Security , Medicare and Medicare weighting down our job creators.
5
The rest of the world has better Medicare and better social security. And they are competitive with us.
Gene, and yet the USA is an unbelievably wealthy nation. Perhaps you’re expressing your opinion and not an actual fact.
1
It’s a mystery why anyone, including the authors of this article, would think that giving people the choice on how to apply the $10,000 SALT deduction somehow makes it more palatable. It doesn’t change a thing. Whether it’s applied to my $13,500 property tax bill, or my $75,000 state income tax, it’s still the same. It’s one deduction. This represents a big tax increase for me and my family. I don’t like it one bit!
13
Quit complaining and get your nanny state government to reign in spending and drop your state income tax! $75 grand is outrageous, unless you make $1M!
3
DanielMarc. We are a high tax state (NY) because there is a standard of life to be maintained. Think world-class libraries, performing arts groups, hospitals, universities. People don’t run away to Mississippi! (Notwithstanding that the Mississippians I know are fabulous people!)
Same in CA.
Everyone is saying that the message from Alabama is that the people want Republicans and Democrats to work together. So why are Republicans passing everything in the Senate using budget reconciliation to bypass the filibuster? Why are they refusing again to work with Democrats the way they refused to work with President Obama?
Why aren't there three Republican Senators with enough love for this country and its democratic republic to scuttle this unpopular tax bill for the simple reason that a bill like this should be bipartisan? Why aren't there three Republicans with enough gumption to stand up to the fiercely partisan fever swamp that Mitch McConnell has created and save their party and maybe their country?
8
Republicans are aiming to cut Medicare etc. They are quite willing to destroy the lives of millions in pursuit of this goal. We must all fight back and elect people who will overturn this tax con and stamp out this malignant presidency.
7
So when do we see what's actually in this "tax cut" bill? For that matter when will the Democrats have a chance to read, let alone decipher, this monstrosity? Voting on this next week allows no time for analysis or debate. But the Republicans need to pass before the end of the year, so they can ram it down our throats without any attempt at a bipartisan analysis.
7
This is taxation without representation.
Off with their heads.
We should be storming the gates.
How can Republicans justify redistribution without representation. Isn't that what Ryan and his lot are always screaming about.
Don't take my money and give to the rich!
We should strike on April 15.
18
Has a single elected official read the entire plan? Or did they just stuff in the perks for golf course owners, real estate investors and the wealthy?
Shameless.
8
Reagan cut taxes and we got 16 Million jobs.
The debt still tripled in eight years of Reagan.
Clinton raised taxes and we got 23 Million jobs.
Deficits came way down instead of going way up and Clinton balanced the budget.
George W. Bush gave us two "tax cuts for the job creators" and we got 3 Million jobs and he took Clinton’s balanced budget, zero deficit, and turned into a $1.1 Trillion deficit.
Obama put back the highest marginal tax rate and gave us the "jobs killing" Obama-care and we got 11 Million jobs and he reduced the deficit by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion.
George W. Bush 2004 tax repatriation did not create jobs. The money went to stock buybacks and dividends. Also, no wage increases. In fact, companies involved cut 20,000 jobs.
Brownback cut taxes in Kansas. No job creation, huge deficits resulting in cuts to education. Eventually, the adults in the room said enough and overrode his last budget. And they were Republicans.
Nor are we really receiving a tax cut if there is a deficit. They give us the money but they put the bill on the credit cards of us, our children, and our grandchildren.
This is going to be much worse than the harm done to the country by the George W. Bush tax cuts.
Let’s learn from history.
The debate in the media is which projection for the deficit is correct.
The debate in the media should be the performance of Clinton-Obama-tax increases versus Reagan-W.Bush-Kansas tax cuts.
13
Yes let's learn from history NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Let's throw this tax bill and everyone who voted for it in the Potomac River!
I wish our illustrious NY State Senate leaders Gillibrand and Schumer get their priorities straight. The Republican tax bill deliberate sticks it to NY State, and our senators know it. Their doing nothing about this makes them complicit to the deed. Instead, all we have heard from them during the past week is stuff about Al Franken, sexual discrimination in the Air Force, Dreamers, airline baggage fees, etc. -- all when thousands of dollars in State and Local Tax Deductions are about to be vaporized from ordinary NY State and especially NY City residents without any clear understanding of how the new tax bill compensates for the resulting additional taxes that many, if not most NY State residents, will have to pay. Once again the Dems show how whimpy they are. If ever there was a cause for a US government shut-down, this is it. But all we get are talking points by our useless NY US senators that are more concerned about their image than doing something that impacts the livelihood of the NY State residents as a whole.
6
This is partisan robbery pure and simple. It is Republicans stealing from Democrats. The entire giveaway to the oligarch overlords who have purchased the GOP is being paid for by Democratic voters in Blue States, which already are receiving far less for their tax dollars than the "taker" Red States.
Students, seniors, low-income people and minority communities are all dumping more of their wealth down the gaping maw of the greedy Republicans. I hope a Democratic Congress next year can reverse this disaster.
8
President Trump promises a Christmas present for the American middle class.
In Tim Burton's "A Nightmare Before Christmas" a child opens a gift box and out comes a snake.
That's what President Trump and the Congress(Republican majority) is working to deliver.
7
Let's hold off voting on this bill until after the midterm elections so 'the people can decide,' Just the way we held off on the Supreme Court nomination until after the Presidential election to allow 'the people to decide' that.
12
Our Democratic "Leadership" buried us! They rolled over without a fight. A few press conferences on the Capital Hill steps expressing, "Outrage" and a couple appearances on the talking heads and that's it! That's all they did- as if we mean nothing! I'm voting for Trump in 2020 out of spite! If they don't care about me- then I don't care about them!
2
That is exactly the thought that the red states, flyover land, and the rust belt had when they pulled the lever for #45 over that lady who reminded them of a social worker. The classic expression is "cutting off your nose to spite your face".
Look how well that turned out
2
The primary objective of this tax bill is to lower corporate tax rates to remove the incentive for the large multi-nationals in a position to do so to structure themselves to run a large portion of their profits through low tax countries (see Ireland 12.5%, U.K. 19% for example) and, park and spend that money in those countries. Of the 35 OECD countries the U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate, slightly higher than tax happy France and Belgium (34&33%); 25 OECD countries have rates of 22% or lower. An added objective of the corporate tax cut will be to level the competitive landscape for U.S. corporations not in a position to run profits through low tax foreign countries. This is the large and important 'picture' here; the personal tax changes are mostly tinkering at the margins and for political optics. Most the commentators going hysterical over the personal tax bits miss the point of the bill entirely, not mention exhibit a lack of comprehension bordering on being clueless.
3
I missed the part about why the existing estate tax is too high. Or having more pass-through corporations will create jobs. Or why one of the historically-lowest top marginal tax rate in history should be lowered even further. Let's not worry about that whole church politicking for free schtick, or why fetuses need college savings accounts, but $1.5 trillion in debt is a lot of tinkering.
2
I can't believe Republicans still get away with this -- jacking up taxes on all but the rich while claiming to help the "middle class" that Ronald Reagan's illusory tax hikes (marketed as tax cuts) decimated throughout the 1980s. And now the GOP has designed this tax plan so that the increases won't go into effect until AFTER the next election. By which time, those who were defrauded won't remember the bill of goods they were sold.
4
The only thing wrong with this bill is that it fails to eliminate the estate tax. Other than that, a job well done, Senators.
3
The pass-through tax breaks, which are as significant as the corporate rate cut, are really important. In 1980 pass-through's accounted for less than 20% of business income. Today it's well over half. Pass-throughs enable tax payers to avoid all tax on capital, so their growth already cut business taxes significantly. Giving them new breaks will exacerbate tax avoidance and trigger social service and military cuts.
4
I think the tax bill should wait until after the election in 2018. House and Senate members shouldn’t vote in such important matter doing their last year of Service, during their lame duck session. Wasn’t that the argument used by Republicans for preventing a vote on Obama’s Supreme Court nomination?
4
So this tax bill was cobbled together behind closed doors, with no public hearing or public feedback, no testimony from experts about the impact of the cuts. And it had plenty of input from special interest lobbyist.
And yet The Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said this yesterday with a straight face:
"The system is clearly broken. It’s clearly rigged for special interests. And this President is someone that can't be bought, and it’s one of the reasons that he’s President today."
"This is simply talking about a system that we have that is broken, in which special interests control our government."
"That's a reason that often special interests control our government more than the people do, and that's one of the reasons that this President ran to be president."
Trump is "admitting that he is participating in a rigged system. He said that on the campaign trail. He knows how the system works. I think it would be disingenuous for anybody not to understand that, but at least this President is being honest about the process and his willingness to actually fix it and drain the swamp."
1
One thing of note, the standard deduction, for 2018, was suppose to go to $6500, so taxpayers are losing $1000 (fro singles) or $2000 (for married couples) with the so called "doubling the st6andard deduction"); up from $700 and $1400 respectively.
The more one looks at this bill, the worse it gets.
Oh, the proposed Senate brackets are here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/senate-tax-plan-brackets-trump-tax-reform...
27
To so many of the commenters on this board complaining about taxes being cut: there is a simple solution to assuage your angst of not enough taxes being paid. You are free to mail in additional money to the Federal Treasury. Just mail them a check. You will feel better and Washington DC will spend it.
Or is it that you really just want the other guy to pay?
20
I think it’s simply that so many of the commenters on this board have a conscience. Most here aren’t impacted too negatively and are complaining that the tax bill takes away from the poor and gives to the super rich. And corporations certainly are not paying enough at 21% rate.
2
Perfectly happy to pay my fair share, but would like those making 10 or 100 or 1,000 times more than me to pay their fair share too. And I'd like the government I'm paying it to to serve everybody, not just the 0.1 percent. Too much to ask?
1
That's a simple response to a complex issue- but I would expect nothing less from Republicans. Even if everyone who felt that way did "mail in additional money", structurally this legislation is flawed. It increased deficits by $1.5 trillion and tax breaks middle-class for individuals begin to roll back in a few years. Nowhere in this legislation does it encourage businesses to create jobs or increase compensation- so that will not happen. Share repurchases and debt payment will be the order of business for businesses. Not to mention increased executive compensation for increasing profits (which they actually had nothing to do with). Anyone who has been paying attention would know this.
3
This is just one part of the Republican/Libertarian agenda to get to a Constitutional Convention:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/18940/alec-balanced-budget-corporate-con...
With only 6 states shy of reaching their goal, success would essentially destroy this country as we know it.
5
The last thing any true libertarian wants is a Constitutional Convention, because any new constitution that is written today will be much less libertarian than the one we have now.
3
So is the Obamacare individual mandate repealed in the conference committee bill? I couldn't see anything in the article about that.
2
Of course it is still there, they would lose over $300 billion in tax cuts if they don't repeal it. The House never dreamed they could get the Senate to pass such a thing if they sent it over; but, the Senate did it all by themselves. We have 51 Senators to blame when our healthcare system implodes.
4
"Also included in the consensus bill is the Senate’s repeal of the Affordable Care Act requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty..."
1
Yes, at the end of the 5th paragraph it says, "Also included in the consensus
bill is the Senate’s repeal of the Affordable Care Act requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty and a provision opening
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration."
This tax bill amounts to backing the car over the already wounded middle class you just spent 35 years running down. It is stealing from future generations to give trillions to the already advantaged. Kill it, and bury the remains on unconsecrated ground.
84
Any Republican who votes for this monstrosity will likely lose his or her job.
23
I wish they did, but have lost faith in that. For the next year, republicans can crow about their tax archivements, and people will vote for them because if it The damage will show up later, and be blamed on whoever is in charge then.
Yes but only if WE do OUR job by voting them out!
Senator Collins doesn't see any reason to delay the vote on the tax bill. Where were you on Pres. Obama's nominee for the the Supreme Court?
110
We needed a reminder that Senator Collins is a Republican, a servant of Trump, and therefore despicable.
1
At the end of the day, as much as she would barely admit it, she is a Republican.
3
I weep for my country. This is the shoddiest piece of legislation ever foisted upon the American public. Where is the due diligence? Where is the courting of public opinion? Where is the concern for the common working man or woman? What has the GOP turned into? They are nothing more than power-hungry despots doing the bidding of a madman, billionaires and lobbyists.
60
The last Tax reform bill was worked on by the Treasury for two years before it was passed.
1
To be fair, they haven't changed. Just more careless in revealing their stripes.
2
Every single Republican trying to jam this tax bill through before the end of the year should be hauled by their constituents and caned publicly. Yes, corporal punishment.
As a small business owner, I pay my taxes and I pay for an expensive accountant to keep my finances balanced and on the level. I just receive a digest from them on both the Senate and Congress's bills. Both bills gouge small businesses if it's jammed through. Sole proprietors and small business owners will end up paying through the nose in April on top of what we have already paid in quarterly taxes. As business owners we budget through the fiscal year, we allocate a certain amount into operations, insurance and what's left into 401ks or savings. This tax scam blows a hole in that budget.
Honestly, it's no wonder all these Republicans are wealthy from inheritances and public paychecks because they would never make it in the real world.
64
“I see no need to wait for Doug Jones to become a senator. We vote all the time in lame duck sessions with retired and defeated members casting votes,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine.
What a bunch of hypocrites. They wouldn't let President Obama seat a Supreme Court Justice but now they are fine with it. Give me a break.
94
Watch the video of President Obama saying Scott Brown should be seated before passing the ACA as the people of MA had spoken when they elected him. The GOP are all liars and hypocrites. May they all get kicked off the taxpayer payroll asap!!
2
We must encourage Democratic Senators and Representatives to sue to stop this bill because it is breaking the Byrd rule; it is financially deceitful. Please call or email them today.
23
I’m guessing if Roy Moore had won, the Republicans would be rushing him in to vote.
22
NO! My wife and I are senior citizens (aka retirees) counting on our high state income and real estate deductions. We need to sell our house, but this tax cut bill will raise our taxes by eliminating most of our SALT ($8,000) and real estate ($24,000) deductions making it almost impossible. On a day when the president is boasting about the new stock market high which translates into record corporate profits why do wealthy corporations get a huge 14 percent tax cut while I pay more? This is simply legislative robbery that creates winners (the already wealthy) and losers (the middle- and lower-classes). It's a massive shift that increases income inequality and reduces the amount that I and my wife and many others have to spend. The unfairness of this bill is simply staggering. And the willingness of the Republican Senate to sign off on it is equally egregious and depressing. I can only hope that two others will join Sen. Corker in voting against this bill that only worthy of a Putin-style kleptocracy.
113
Actually, corporations will get a 40% tax cut. Instead of paying
35%, they will pay 21%, which is a 40% reduction. (14/35)
Of course, 35% is the highest statutory rate. Many corporations
actually pay far less than that because of deductions and credits.
1
We too are seniors who will be forced to sell our home and move from NY as a result of this bill. So much concern for the "family farms" that would be lost under the estate tax. How about the far more family homesteads that are now doomed?
4
I know several people in the same situation who also affected by the new provision requiring home owners to live in a property 2 out of the last 8 years To claim the exemption of 250,000 for a single person or 500,000 for a married couple – the current role is two years on the last five. For people who have been planning retirement this is a complete nightmare that there’s no way around. They can no longer sell their homes to retire but must somehow try to Continue working at 70 and 75 years old toto pay their mortgages, taxes, etc. continue working at 70 and 75 years old to pay their mortgage. I guess the only upside is that as soon as the house gains more Democratic members somebody can try to reverse this absurd wreck of a bill.
1
The average American citizen is no dummy. He and she have looked into their future under this tax increase bill and they have seen how it will affect them over the projected 10 years' time. Things don't look good.
There will be a small reduction in their taxes next year and the following year. Then those reductions will evaporate as the massive redistribution of wealth takes hold to the benefit of corporations and millionaires.
The alert citizen will not immediately spend that small benefit but will save it in anticipation of the lean years to come.
Corporations will not see an increase in demand for their goods and services and therefore will not invest in new production capacity in the hope that this time the fantasy theory of supply-side economics will prove out despite historical evidence to the contrary.
Unemployment is at or below best-case levels, indicating that there are not a lot more people out there looking for jobs. Businesses will not, therefore, hire large numbers of workers.
Nor will businesses increase wages with their new-found windfall. Why would they when they are at full production with the workers they have and those workers are not likely to ask for raises in fear of losing their recently regained jobs?
The much-vaunted jump in GDP will not materialize but instead will evaporate in a puff of smoke, the same smoke that was part of the smoke and mirrors drawn as a veil over the public's eyes.
The other shoe will drop on Medicare and Medicaid.
35
This is great progress & will inject further growth into our economy. Finally, the Corporate tax rate will be more competitive with other countries. Thank you President Trump and Congressional Republicans for overcoming the obstructionist actions of the Democrats
8
Economic growth is already going strong. There is no tangible evidence that cutting corporate taxes will make much of a difference. And increasing our national debt will lead us closer to the type of economic calamities that have faced Spain and others.
1
The effective US tax rate is around 27%, which happens to be the OECD average. Plus over 1/2 of business income is in pass-throughs, which already means a lower than average tax, and will be benefited more by the bill. Competitive advantage in the US isn't a function of tax, because we're not a tiny, noncompetitive economy. Our advantage comes from market size and productivity. Demand will fall, and education continue to decline, as this bill and the cuts it triggers enact.
Reagan cut taxes and we got 16 Million jobs.
The debt still tripled in eight years of Reagan.
Clinton raised taxes and we got 23 Million jobs.
Deficits came way down instead of going way up and Clinton balanced the budget.
George W. Bush gave us two "tax cuts for the job creators" and we got 3 Million jobs and he took Clinton’s balanced budget, zero deficit, and turned into a $1.1 Trillion deficit.
Obama put back the highest marginal tax rate and gave us the "jobs killing" Obama-care and we got 11 Million jobs and he reduced the deficit by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion.
George W. Bush 2004 tax repatriation did not create jobs. The money went to stock buybacks and dividends. Also, no wage increases. In fact, companies involved cut 20,000 jobs.
Brownback cut taxes in Kansas. No job creation, huge deficits resulting in cuts to education. Eventually, the adults in the room said enough and overrode his last budget. And they were Republicans.
Nor are we really receiving a tax cut if there is a deficit. They give us the money but they put the bill on the credit cards of us, our children, and our grandchildren.
This is going to be much worse than the harm done to the country by the George W. Bush tax cuts.
Let’s learn from history.
The tragedy is that the Republicans could have put forward a popular bill that simplifies the tax code and permanently cuts taxes on corporations and ordinary Americans. But they had to go to extremes to please their corporate overlords. Anyone with basic math skills knows that this tax bill is terrible.
23
Woody Guthrie said it best:
"Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen."
54
This is wonderful news!
Thank you to this Congress for finally putting together a thoughtful piece of legislation that will actually help the economy, rather than impede it (Dodd-Frank, the ACA, the CFPB, etc.).
7
Look at the entire bill - when we can see it! How will it help and more importantly who will it help and who will it hurt?
How quickly we forget - Dodd Frank was put into play because major financial institutions were failing due to poor management, speculation and a failure to disclose information to both shareholders and the public ditto for the CFPB. Here we go again!
The ink is not yet dry on the proposed bill and Congress has not passed it yet, but the planning is underway as evidenced by this NYT article published yesterday, "Hacking the Tax Plan: 13 Ways to Profit Off the Republican Tax Bill." There is no tax reform in this bill, only opportunities for the very well off to reduce their taxes while the middle class foots the bill. Do Trump voters understand how he is laughing at them while he saves millions for himself, his family and big donors? I think what I resent the most is that I will pay so dearly through significantly higher income taxes for the ignorance and naivete of all those Trump voters.
16
Get ready real America, the middle class, the working folks...YOU are about to be mugged by this GOP and their leader. They always use a 50-70k number as the middle class, disregarding those that with a spouse working make 120-140k a year. That's the real middle class. If you're making 50-70k a year and supporting a family, you're not the middle class, you're poor. Not to worry, watch them go after Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Education, etc. with cuts and increases in premiums. Not like they have any love for any of these programs that serves real America. After all, somebody has to pay so that the ultra rich can have more, like Trump. He needs more money from not paying for anything in life so he can build more golf resorts around the world.
18
Let's be realistic....roughly half the country unhappy with the last election's outcome pledge #resist everything but also demand compromise when legislation they don't like is getting passed. The reality is the party in power currently doesn't need Democratic support much as the Democrats didn't need Republican support for the ACA.
As far as the tax bill, we'll see what the final form is. A more competitive corporate tax code that encourages dollars to be repatriated is sorely needed. We'll just have to see what the cost of that is to individual taxpayers. For our family it is mixed with some of us have our taxes going up (the better-off who live in high-tax MD) and some getting a break (lower-income renters).
It it too simplistic to say the changes are all good for one class of people and all bad for another based simply on income.
5
There is NO incentive for corporations to "repatriate" funds offshore; this egregious behavior will continue unabated.
Further evidence the modern Republican party relies on an oppressed class in this country. They divide and conquer. They see winners and losers and are not concerned with any type of dream or vision. The Democrats need to seize this opportunity and cohesively communicate a comprehensive vision that allows for diversity, unity and personal growth. The American Dream is being sold down the river.
9
Taking from the middle class to give to the wealthy is one thing. Many expected such tax changes. This can be changed again eventually.
The two issues of greater concern are the stripping of the health care mandate and opening ANWR to drilling. The latter has no place whatsoever in a tax bill.
Once ANWR is ruined (and additional fossil fuels are mined and burned), it cannot be restored. How many lives could be put at risk with the health care mandate being revoked?
17
We already know the consequences intended by the Republicans: the rich become much richer and multi-national corporations will reward their shareholders. But anything done this quickly will also have major unintended consequences, the worst of which may raise borrowing costs for everybody (including the federal government, because of increased deficits). Instead of boosting the economy in the long term, these borrowing costs may well slow GDP growth and destroy job creation.
6
My god. Now that Roy Moore has been defeated. there is no more important issue facing Democrats than is debacle of a tax plan.
We must hurry. We must take to the streets and march - in the thousands. Hundreds of thousands - to show what we feel about this pending bill.
If the Republicans think they can pass this without us - the Democrats and progressives and liberals - they need to learn that is not so.
If they think they can pass legislation that so hurts the elderly, and the sick, and the poor and so benefit the wealthy - there will be no stopping them.
The voting booth is not enough - they are trying to pass this before any elections before the midterms that will annihilate them.
We don't have enough Democrats in office - this year - to stop it.
The streets - a march - a huge march against it is the only way.
Indivisible. Resist. Women's organizations. Blacks.
Take it to the streets.
22
Here's the thing....they can pass it without you.
Much as the Democrats passed ACA without the Republicans.
In this day of hyper partisanship and nuclear options, we have an endless cycle coming of the ruling party passing legislation without the need for any compromise.
1
The Democrats discussed and held open meetings for input on Obamacare for over a year; they also included Republican suggestions/amendments to the legislation. No Republicans voted for it - that is different - they did not want to vote for anything that Obama put forward - quote from Mitch McConnell.
1
Shocker...Republicans find common ground by giving the rich even bigger tax cuts.
8
Why was ok to delay hearings for an Obama supreme Court nominee but it's not ok to delay a vote so that an elected Senator, rather than an appointed Senator who lost in the primaries to the Republican candidate who ultimately lost to the elected Senator, can participate?
6
Because the republicans control the senate. Just as, when the democrats controlled the senate they decided to change the filibuster rules so Obama could name whatever judges he wanted to all the federal district courts. Turnabout is fair play I guess. The majority decides what gets voted on, and when. Always has, always will.
1
“I see no need to wait for Doug Jones to become a senator. We vote all the time in lame duck sessions with retired and defeated members casting votes,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine.
Well then what was the justification for our latest supreme court justice vote confirmation being delayed until after the election? Hypocrites!
9
We are living in a time when the share of GDP going to corporations is at an all time high and the share of GDP going to workers is at it's lowest. The GOP decides this is the time to transfer even more wealth to the uber rich. Outside political donations in 2016 exceeded $1T - guess the donors have their money's worth.
7
Can someone explain why they would take away the home equity interest deduction? Way to help the middle class. Wouldn't expect any different from these Kleptocrats. Robin Hoods in reverse.
5
It has not been taken away. It has been capped at $750,000.
1
The combined income tax and property tax deduction limit of 10k that Collins thinks works for Californians, doesn't.
While hurricane / flood property loss individuals can deduct their losses, California fire loss individuals can not, under this new tax plan.
This sure seems like a targeted plan, but Trump wouldn't do that, would he?
6
Now the Democrats need to do whatever it takes to derail the bill, just like the Republicans did whatever they could for over a year to prevent the President from lawfully naming a supreme court justice. It worked for them, take notes.
6
Good. The Democrats in Congress today wanted nothing to do with comprehensive tax reform. What I call ‘tax reform’ is legislation that lowers my taxes. Washington DC has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. I would rather keep more of my money and if I can’t starve the beast at least I can help cut some of the calories. My money isn’t your money.
If the Democrat politicians do not like this bill they are free to openly run on a platform of raising taxes just like Michael Dukakis did. But they won’t. They will come up with Orwellian terms like “fairness”. They are full aware that they will not get elected if they are open and honest about raising taxes, even if they promise they will only raise them on the other guy.
3
Schumer and Pelosi are not blameless. Although in the Congressional minority the Democrats were not powerless. Had he Democratic leadership offered a detailed tax reform plan intended to stimulate growth and provide a true middle class tax cut and detailed the flaws of the GOP plan, targeting key GOP states, moderate Republicans may have been forced by their constituents oppose this fraudulent give away to the wealthy.
Begging now to delay the vote is much too little, too late and worthless.
As Schumer and Pelosi only offered tepid opposition to the "cut cut cut act" you have to wonder, are Wall Street investors and real estate moguls
the favored constituents?
The Democratic leadership may think it can run in 2018 against the tax law. To win they needed to show voters what they are truly for, not merely what they oppose. And to repeal this law is not going to be easy. Even if they get a Congressional majority they will not have a veto proof majority.
The Democrats new leadership willing to work to earn votes.
4
Please. Let this be The Year the American worker, like the American woman, decides not to take it anymore. Not the little slights. Not the shaft. Not second place. Barely living wage. Second best. May we hope? Votes for All. Education for All. Medical care for All. I Do Not Need a Tax Cut. I need a country that functions for all of us. My kids. Their kids. Your kids.
GOP GO AWAY.
57
Listen I uncovered the illegal backdating of the stock options when I worked at the IRS and was fired for refusing to go along with it. It will be a very long time before people "won't take it anymore". I know from first had experience that the public, in general, offers no support for those who want to do right by them.
8
Let's add "taxes for all." Remember, almost half of US citizens don't pay a penny of Federal Income Tax.
2
Thank you, Anonymous. Truly. Calling out the evil of powerful manipulators takes courage.
2
So the USA Today states today that Trump isn't good enough to clean Obama's toilets or shine Bush's shoes....wow. Where does that put the Congressional Republicans who have been cleaning Trump's toilet and shining his shoes for the last year?
108
a brazen theft from the middle class and the Treasury and given to the Rich GOP Donors - 1.5 trillion dollars by the people who campaign on amongst other things, law and order.
there is so much stupid in the electorate and so much corruption in the Federal government that I do not know if our Democracy will survive
53
Senators Collins, Flake, Sasse, Corker, and McCain: Your country is calling. Vote AGAINST this horrible, robber-baron-loving bill! If you want "tax reform", do it the right way, with committees, debates, and compromise. Otherwise, you're just priming the pendulum to swing back even further the other way within a decade!
121
This is a total betrayal of the American people. To ask the vast majority of American tax payers to pay for the lower taxes of millionaires and corporations is beyond belief. It is outrageous and typical of the present Republican Party to disregard citizens in favor of millionaires and corporations. We need tax reform but not tax rape. For a Party that is losing its young in droves you would think this Party would have more sense than to be committing suicide.
73
for your information those corporations employ most of the people in this country and contribute alot to our modern world. If it wasnt for them we would be living in caves and banging on pots. You want to take from the success of others instead of making your own success!
Even if they fail at everything else and even if Trump is thrown out, Republicans will have stolen the future with the income-inequality-boosting-give-away to their rich, powerful and corporate keepers that they are calling tax reform.
Just the rush to get it done without the public's real knowledge of its contents is reason enough to think it's rotten to the core and will crush the country with future debt. The once fiscal conservatives are now fiscal hypocrites.
Aren't there a couple of Republican Senators who might want to rethink this mess they will be putting America into?
34
Please, please, please, let there be two or three Republican Senators with the conscience and courage to recognize that this bill is nothing but a give-away to the rich and vote it down. If they don't, they guarantee that the Senate and the House go Democratic in 2018 and all of their "wins" will be reversed in 2020 when Trump loses, bigly!
41
This tax reform will repatriate trillions of dollars, increase corporate investment, increase productivity, raise median wages, lure more people back to the workforce and increase labor participation.
All the while increasing government revenue by expanding the pie.
The histrionics of the comment section of the New York Times aside, what's not to like?
5:00EST
7
>>The histrionics of the comment section of the New York Times aside, what's not to like?<<
Just about everything. The terrific effects of this tax bill that you list are all ficticious, to begin with.
If these billionaires want to live in the US they should share their wealth. If not, let them go enjoy their billions with the people of the Jersey Islands where they are storing their money. They can probably get a nice steak and kidney pie with a pint there.
9
Last time we 'repatriated' dollars they went to CEO's, shareholders, no one paid tax on them, and they did not create jobs. It was a joke. A cruel hoax. Steve MD, you surely know your anatomy, but what you know about econ 101 could be writ on the head of a pin. A pinhead. Yours.
Fellow physician with a geek econ wife signing out.
11
these are talking points, nothing else. Money will continue to flow into offshore accounts and through tax havens like it always has. CEOs of public companies will pass these benefits on to shareholders, not wage earners, so they can pocket larger bonuses. Meanwhile, if not canceled out by inflation, the minuscule gains afforded to the working class will be entirely offset by increases in costs in health care and debt. And of course, humans beings will never be able to write off their education debt as "research and development" or amortize their new boiler, or securtize, insure and then reisinsure unpaid venmo debts and flip them around until they turn a profit.
No matter what some poor sap will always get stuck with the bill.
3
Why is it, how can it be that Democrats are so good at decrying the RAPE of American women by predatory men but are so feckless at stopping the RAPE of the American Middle Class by the Republican Party with their "tax reform." Democrats can stop Senator Al Franken, it appears, yet somehow cannot work themselves up to stopping Senator Mitch McConnell. Tis passing strange. Would that the Democrats would put as much effort (and hysteria) into the latter as they do to the former. As someone in the (formerly) middle class that (formerly) was actually represented by members of the Democratic Party, this is a matter of some interest to me. I suspect I’m not alone. Democrats? Anyone? Buehler?
11
Not lack of democratic effort. it is republicans stacking the odds unfairly by hanging chads, gerrymandering, and Citizens United.
Why exactly should rich people and big corporations be able to contribute unlimited amounts to campaigns, since this inevitably ends up favoring the Republicans who then give these donors even more favors?
They can't stop Mitch McConnell, because the voters put all republicans in power. This is the fault of people who voted republican, and Thor who simply stayed home, rather than vote democrat.
Yet somehow, they will still blame democrats for this tax bill
Don't blame the Democrats! They do not have the votes to block the majority which is GOP! Write and call YOUR congressional representatives about this! Do something!
To use the tax cuts to gut Obamacare is an evil, morally bankrupt, reprehensible action against the American working poor. Class warfare is alive and well in within the Republican Party.
35
I would call it just plain contemporary politics. The Democrats wrote this playbook and the Republicans copied it. If the Democrats get back in power they will immediately return political fire in the same way. And on we go.....
One of the reasons I hope the Dems never hold all three branches at the same time ever again. That shuts a lot of this down.
1
Why is this even called tax reform? Ad hoc "tax shuffle", vote it up or down fine, but it is not reform.
11
We are no longer living in a democratic nation and the Republicans have no concern for anyone except themselves, big corporations, the Libertarian Koch brothers and the Koch's 400 or so 1% "partner" donors. They give the Republicans massive campaign contributions and the Republicans give them our tax dollars in exchange. The Republican agenda is basically the Koch agenda. If you want to understand our congressional Republicans, I recommend reading "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer. At the very least, do some internet searches. These are dark times and we have to fight to restore our democracy. Our country is in trouble.
37
Everyone should read Dark Money to understand what and who is behind the Republican party and why this tax scam is happening. It’s a disgrace to lower the maximum tax rate, and as corporate CEO’s have stated the lower corporate tax will not entice them to create more jobs and increase pay for lower level workers. CEOs and board of directors job is to increase shareholder value through revenue growth, share buy backs, and lowering costs.
Trickle down has not worked in the past. Ask the governor of Kansas how that went for his state. After lowering taxes Reagan raised them more than once to stop the economy from going over a cliff and creating larger deficits.
Let the Republicans have their fun now. They will pay for it in 2018 and 2020!
5
Dark Money is a fascinating and frightening read. Ms. Mayer should have bodyguards 24/7 given what she has exposed. But don’t give it as a gift. And wait til after the Holidays to read it. Otherwise, you’ll want to eat the poinsettias.
When I was in 8th grade Civics class, which I assure you was a VERY long time ago, I was taught about a bill in conference committee. I remember that the question was raised, what if the majority party just writes the conference bill itself? It was said that this would never happen because it would poison both the vote on this bill and on subsequent ones. That's what the Republicans have done. Quite intentionally.
20
Sorry to read that the 'income transfer plan' as it should be known can be voted in by a simple majority, provided it adds 'no more' than $1.5 Trillion (that is $1,500 Billion and $1,500,000 Million) to the deficit. Taxpayer families with under at least no more than $100k (that is 1/10th of $1 Million) in annual income, look for pockets on your clothes, your kids' clothes, and your grandkids' clothes because that's where the transfer is coming from.
11
"the conference bill will include a House provision that would allow some pass-through owners with few employees — but large amounts of investment in their businesses — to bypass a limit on how much income qualifies for the preferential deduction."
Am I missing something or does this change seem precisely targeted to benefit Trump's personal business model? Have the Democrats demanded an accounting as to how these slipped in changed benefit Trump directly?
17
Right. Isn't it really take from the rich to give to the poor? How exactly is the new plan stealing from the poor and giving to the rich? Would you like to pay the govt 39% of your income? Do you understand who pays the majority of taxes in the US? Is the poor person asked to contribute anything in taxes to the federal government? Nope and I'm okay with that, but stop saying that the GOP plan is stealing from the poor. It's called a tax cut. Who pays the most tax will get the most benefit because their tax liability is MUCH HIGHER!
8
Their tax liability is not higher compared to their income.
The family earning $50,000 will see a small reduction in their tax liability in the first year which will shift to a large increase in later years as the redistribution of wealth from middle class to upper class takes hold.
The average cost of living in America today is $48,778. The average actual tax liability for the family earning $50,000 is 4.3%. Their tax is, therefore, $2,150. Their total of cost of living plus taxes is $50,928. That's more than their income. They can't pay their taxes.
The family of 4 making $250,000 and paying the average tax of 25.7% has a tax of $64,250 which is, yes, a lot more than the $2,150 for the other family.
But the family making $250,000 can afford to pay $64,250 in taxes if you assume they operate under the same cost of living, $48,778. Their total is $113,028, leaving $136,972. much more than the -$928 for the family making $50,000.
You may argue that the rich family has a higher cost of living because of their bigger home, more and fancier cars, exotic vacations and caviar dinners but that is just their discretionary use of their extra income, not a necessity.
Just because the GOP calls it a tax "cut" doesn't mean that it truly is one.
2
Thee two worst features appear to be the retention of "Carried Interest" which works for billionaires and the elimination or virtual elimination of the Estate Tax.
There is no justification for either action.
Even Trump campaigned against "Carried Interest" - why isn't he concerned about keeping that campaign promise?
Few families will benefit from the Estate Tax change more than the Trump family!
20
What about the stuff about taxing student loans and not taking medical deductions? Is that still in there?
4
think that got deleted from first reports - a small bit of sanity (or shame) from the no-nothing GOP reps who didn't "invest" in going to grad school to try to better themselves. thank God for that or there would be a real brain drain from US higher education.
I think that there is a rule (S. 1571) that requires a bill be read in full before voting. Can Democrats invoke this rule to slow down the panic rush of the tax bill?
10
Indeed, and it's a McConnell rule (adopted in 2015), which includes this:
"A Member of Congress, before voting in favor of final passage of any measure (except a private bill), must sign an affidavit, executed under penalty of perjury, that the Member either: (1) was present throughout the entire reading of each such measure, and listened attentively to the reading in its entirety; or (2) before such vote, read attentively each such measure in its entirety."
3
IF you folks take to the streets again in a hodge-podge disorganized way, with some advocating women's rights, some pro-science, some LGBT rights, some climate, and some "other", then you will get NOTHING changed.
You need to all be on ONE page, and that page needs to be:
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM.
26
Ban any political contributions over more than $100. Make it illegal to spend more than $100,000 on a presidential campaign and $1000 on all other campaigns. Write this into constitution. All problems will be solved.
Republicans: I hope you keep in mind the names of people who vote YES on this bill. In a few years, when our economy is trashed and we are in shambles, be sure to not vote these people back in. Prosperity of our society is much more important than religion, abortion, sexual preference. All these three are actually deeply personal issues, to be decided over by each person on how to lead their own life, not to be shoved down the throat of anyone else. It should be part of first amendment.
11
Absolutely true story. I once worked for an enormously rich guy who was a complete b and regularly asserted over a glass of single malt that the peasants (aka Republican blue collar and lower middle class) actually enjoyed being pooped on (his term was more descriptive). He advanced various theories for this. I've come to the conclusion he was totally right. Unfortunately, a lot of people are going to get harmed as the consequences of this tax bill and all the other Republican agenda (poisoned water, eliminating social programs, protection for financial scammers and Wall Street, etc.) work themselves out but this apparently is what large swathes of the Republican lower middle and working class desire. Quite amazing really.
42
That guy you worked for understood the game. We tout the myth that America is a democracy when it's actually a thinly disguised plutocracy. Peasant uprisings are disruptive so they keep them uneducated, gullible, and just satisfied enough to keep the ruse going. Great comment you made.
13
Toto, I've a feeling we're all going to be in Kansas.
23
How can they have an agreement in principle when they have no principles?
25
It's bad enough that they're trying to ram this through on an artificial timeline without public debate and with who-knows-what kinds of deals scribbled in the margins. It's even worse that they want to implement this policy blob on Jan. 1, little more than 2 weeks from now. I've certainly never seen anything like it. Worst Congress Ever!
23
It will be interesting to see if Marco Rubio has some backbone and chooses to stand up to this President, who has belittled him. He has the opportunity to stand up to his party and his tormentor.
8
Little Marco, like the rest of them, has no spine.
6
Everyone forgets that when Europeans come to the US they buy like crazy because everything there costs so much. That's the price they pay for all of their "free" services.
That said, you can always pay more taxes if you'd like. There's a box for that.
4
Uh....?I’d rather have the free stuff like health care and education than the junk that I really don’t need. I’d rather live in a country that does not have a high child poverty rate than a closet filled with stuff I might use once.
9
1. That's no longer as true as you think it is
2. They can afford to com here to buy stuff, because they don't have to spend most of their income on education, health care, and retirement. They pay more taxes, but way less on necessities of life, this have more money left to spend.
This is the worst news for progressivism since the Soviet Union fell.
The Democrats were pushed out of the way in the 1980's Reagan revolution, and they still cry about it at night after the commissars go home.
But now we have a jobs-creating tax reform plan. Reagan's paid for itself an zoomed MIDDLE incomes, and this one should as well. Create millions of real jobs - not Obama-era 29-hour minimum-wage jobs - and the poor worker will be freed of government's limits on his or her life.
More jobs ALWAYS means a really bad decade for Democrats and the America-haters in general.
5
Why is it that historically the economy thrives under Democrats and the deficit balloons under Republicans?
12
Please explain how capping deductions for property taxes, which will effectively decrease our middle-range income, will be a benefit. How about the hedge fund managers who apparently will get to keep the lower income tax rate? That was a campaign promise. What makes you believe that millions of jobs will be created? Because you were told so by someone who is a habitual liar? Since when is this sufficient justification? Of course, if you really think that Democrats hate themselves, then this says more about you than about any particular legislation.
9
If what you say is true, then figure this:
* Ronald Reagan created growth by cutting taxes, but exploded the deficit.
* Bill Clinton reversed deficit spending and even started paying it down, partially by raising taxes.
* George W bush cut taxes, started two wars, and exploded the deficit even more, AND threw the economy into a ditch so deep we almost didn't get out.
* Barack Obama got us out of the ditch
* Donald Trump and the GOP now want to try cutting taxes again. Are we SURE we want to try that again?
4
I will be calling my senators, demanding they vote NO. Of course, neither of Arizona's senators has much at stake (nor much to lose, if truth be told) , but you can bet they'll be right in McConnell's pocket.
4
When there is a revenue shortage, as early as 2019 or later in 20128, those with incomes of $20-$30 thousand will get a tax hike!!
Check it and other plutocratic features of the bill.
2
The Indivisible Group has suggested calls to progressives in Maine and Arizona to encourage calls to their Senators. This looks like the last chance we have to stop this bill. If you actually want to take action, sign up to make calls at their website.
5
In this long string of comments, there is very little comment about the loss of the deduction for medical expenses. Many seniors who are already spending most or all their income on medical care will face financial difficulties and in many cases significant increases in federal and state income taxes. Consider an 80 year old person with $125,000 in income from investments and social security who has no choice but to live in a nursing home or an assisted living facility that costs $100,000 a year (a fairly typical amount). Under current law, such a person would pay little or no income taxes because of the medical expense deduction (and the personal exemption). Under the current Senate/House proposal that person's federal and state income taxes (even with the proposed tripling of the standard deduction) could easily rise from zero to a total of $15,000 or more.
And what about a family that includes a member with extraordinary medical expenses not covered or not fully covered by insurance, such as chemo-therapy or surgery to treat cancer?
It seems to me that the Republican representatives and senators in Congress have given little attention to real consequences such as these. Had they had the decency and sense of fairness to held open hearings, these unfortunate consequences would very likely have been aired and discussed.
11
Will "service" business get this pass through deduction ? I think senate bill allowed it up to to a limit.
Also such a deduction for pass through, would not be taken away with AMT I imagine because it is a business deduction ?
Collins is correct, we don't need lower individual rates, we need lower corporate rates to be competitive with other countries. Everything else is politics and optics. Either way, get it done!
You liberals forget one thing. It is not the government’s money. The people getting tax cuts are not getting a benefit. Keeping more of you’re own money isn’t a benefit. As to poor people not getting an income tax cut, well guess what? They don’t pay income tax, nor do they invest in the economy like businesses and upper income people.
2
Suddenly the deficit means nothing to you Republicans. Hypocrisy. Pure and simple
7
'your'!
Also, that's not how a society works. A society takes care of everyone. Does it ever occur to you that a large chunk of our population aren't paid a living wage. They are all under poverty line. Yet you want them to pay taxes? They already can't live reasonably, you want to take whatever little dignity they have left? Conservatives like you don't seem to understand these basic tenets of living in a society. You might as well go live on your own, without the need for a government. The rest of us would like a society that believes in collective humanity without the condescending behavior of the likes of you.
2
Indisk, how a society works is that everyone should contribute to the success of that society. When half the population pays no taxes, when an entire segment of the population refuses to work and instead depends on the hard work of others to support them and their numerous offspring, then at some point (and that point is now) the contributing members of society will say "enough." Bravo for the tax bill.
1
The GOP is so determined to have a "big win" at all costs that they are willingly sacrificing our country's stability. They know what happened with the grand experiment in Kansas – it was an epic failure. And the advocates for the elimination of a significant portion of that state's tax base were voted out of office. Sadly, not before gov't services like schools and infrastructure were badly damaged. The GOP will be voted out in 2018 (thank you AL for showing the way) but not before the GOP causes damage to us all.
9
The entire GOP has revealed itself to be corporate brown shirt cowards who hate, and that is not too strong a word, regular Americans, or, 90% of our population.
The GOP needs to be vaporized. Rushing this terror tax giveaway is criminal and anti-American.
Woe to the rich when the Dems take over. Their rates will go back to progressively high numbers.
26
Republicans are desperate to get this through NOW because :
1. They’re bought and paid by corporate donors, and, (more cynically),
2. If middle Americans in red states get to pay a couple hundred less in taxes in March, Republicans think we’re dumb enough to vote Republican in November.
(Cost $1 trillion of taxpayers’ $ essentially handed to big business that already has huge profits they’re not plowing into growing the economy)
We’re not that dumb, Trump!
26
History will show these men destroyed the democracy of America.
At a Republican retreat, at the Library of Congress, right before Obama’s 2009 inauguration, Mitch McConnell said:
“there are enough of us to block the Democratic agenda-as long as they all marched in lockstep.”
“As long as Republicans refused to follow his (President Obama’s) lead, Americans would see partisan food fights and conclude that Obama had failed to produce change.”
January 20, 2009 Republican Leaders in Congress literally plotted to sabotage and undermine U.S. Economy during President Obama's Inauguration. In Robert Draper's book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives" Draper wrote that during a four hour, "invitation only" meeting with GOP Hate-Propaganda Minister, Frank Luntz, the below listed Senior GOP Law Writers literally plotted to sabotage, undermine and destroy America's Economy.
The Guest List:
Rep. Paul Ryan(R-WI)
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA),
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX),
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX),
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA),
Sen. Jim DeMint (SC-R),
Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ-R),
Sen. Tom Coburn (OK-R),
Sen. John Ensign (NV-R) and
Sen. Bob Corker (TN-R).
Non-lawmakers present Newt Gingrich
During the four hour meeting:
The senior GOP members plotted to bring Congress to a standstill regardless how much it would hurt the American Economy by pledging to obstruct and block President Obama on all legislation.
27
Great!
Why is the GOP hellbent on eliminating tuition interest deductions? Because ignorant sheep don't question fake news while they are being robbed of their future.
Why is the GOP reducing property tax deductions and mortgage interest deductions? Because renters never build equity - they line wealthy landlords' pockets.
Why does the GOP think that voters won't care that the tiny cuts they receive - in exchange for allowing the wealthy to buy their third and fourth homes and jet planes - will expire very soon? Because desperate, uneducated people who are barraged with fake news paranoia about terrorists and (falling rates of) abortions and wedding cakes and non-existent bathroom attacks will blindly follow their bellicose strongman leader straight into financial destitution.
Trump voters - it's time to stand up for yourselves and shout out to your president, to your representatives and to your senators that you are NOT dumb and desperate - and you do NOT want this text Bill dictating your LACK OF future.
22
The Make Donnie Billions Tax Swindle is back to center stage.
Alas it is a slow boil grift that the RepubliCon enablers will not really feel until years in the future. They will never connect the RepugniCons to the swindle.
And how bout that Dow Jones!!!
Coal miners of the world rejoice.
Your portfolio is booming because of the Great Showman.
PS Amarosa the first employee resigning with a restraining order in place?
7
America, you have fought this war before. You can beat these traitors again if you stand up and fight.
9
And what about CHIP? Tax cuts for millionaires and corporations, but not a penny yet for children of working lower income people too "wealthy" for Medicaid. As Jimmy Kimmel said, 2 million of those kids have serious health conditions like cancer and heart defects. Children will die and families will go bankrupt without renewal of CHIP. How soulless can a political party be? Their loss in Alabama was just the beginning.
27
Let's plan on undoing the scam in 2018. And perhaps a new version of freedom riders is needed to spread out across the red states and try to help the poor souls understand what being bilked looks like. So many Alabamians on tv in the past couple weeks said some version of 'do folks think we're stupid?' Hate to break it to y'all, but, kinda.
24
All I see is a bunch of old men, and some women, stealing from our children.
They crafted these tax bills in the middle of the night, without hearings, just like thieves. They lied shamelessly about jobs; they made ridiculous promises of higher wages.
This president, who has not done a single constructive thing in his entire first year, is about to give himself, his rich friends and his family billions of dollars on the basis of lies and false promises to a middle class that will bear the brunt of this obscene heist.
This is the most shamefully corrupt Congress I have ever seen.
60
Keeping more of your own money is not stealing.
1
The swamp is getting murkier and deeper.
12
I don't think this reverse Robin Hood Republican tax "reform" scam of a bill is a done deal at all. Take from the non-wealthy to make life even cushier for the already wealthy and their corporations. Why should Sens. Corker, Flake, Murkowski and other thinking GOP senators do Trump's bidding to pass a self-serving measure all but designed to bloat Trump's wealth further? After the way he has treated them? This is not a slam dunk at all.
13
I hope you’re right, but I think we really do need some drastic political action to stop it and I’m not hearing anything more than call your legislators. We need to take to the streets, but mass marches take time to organize and this bill is being rammed through Congress.
3
Nothing in this world is permanent.
5
The plague isn't permanent. But in the meantime it kills a lot of people while its around.
4
The GOP to the American people: Stick'em up. Your money and your lives. We believe in small government.
16
To live outside the law you must be honest.
Orrin Hatch, supporter of the Senate bill: "The reason CHIP’s having trouble is we don’t have any money anymore.”
22
With more people working and paying taxes, even at a lower rate, more money goes into the coffers.
Hatch should be charged with being an accessory to murder for every child that dies because of CHIP dying on his watch. Hatch should be charged with larceny for every family that goes bankrupt. And for every child who suffers because Hatch cannot find the money but can give away the money to those who do not need it, he will descend to a special place in the hereandnow and a most special place in the hereafter. Every cry from a hurt child will singe his cold heart.
5
I wonder if there is any chance Corker/Collins would vote against this bill?
3
You don't understand the process. No one gets to vote anymore. Two different versions of the Tax Bill were passed, now the majority party gets to write in anything they want to pass the Bill onto the President to sign it. Welcome to single party gov't.
1
Corker maybe. Collins sells her soul, what's left of it, pretty regularly. Anybody who has the idea that she's a progressive needs pharmaceutical help to get over it.
3
So the donors get their paybacks and the GOP get a hefty raise in their allowance from these same donors. Way to go crooks....
13
It's obvious, if this bill passes Dems will take the house in 2018.
10
If only. Where did you get the idea the American voter knows anything about economic self-interest? Progressives (including me) make the same mistake again and again. "Why do they vote against their own interest?" They don't. Here's the hard part to except: they are more interested in punishing gay people, black people, Muslims, and quite often women than they are in feeding their families or sending their children to college. They are more interested in the objects of the grievances than in moving forward in their own lives. When we talk about their "self interest," we don't know what we're talking about because they're not interested in the same things we are.
4
The Democratic party died in Nov 2016. It is a lumbering dinosaur troop who doesn't realize that the meteorite has destroyed their world. The best that the American public can do is to form a third party which will listen to the people. But that will not happen in our lifetimes.
I agree @ADN--the republican proletariat are more interested in social than economic issues. It's why poor non-slave-owning whites so vigorously fought for the ultimate benefit of the planters--essentially, white supremacy.
Lots of Dems here doing high fives and fist pumps flush with a run away victory in 'bama. The NY, CA contingent are in a tizzy over losing their $30,000 real estate tax deductions. I live in Virginia, my State taxes are a fraction of yours and yet we still manage to have world class schools, tolerable infrastructure, renowned public colleges and universities. Just what is your government spending all your taxes on? Perhaps more importantly, given your governments rapacious appetite for money why are they proposing that you become SANCTUARY STATES. Where do you expect the money to come from to support the generous package of perks being offered to the onslaught of illegal immigrants in state and on the way? You want to spend your excessive state taxes on Sanctuary programs that's your right, don't ask the rest of us to chip in. And as for the $1T additional debt added over the next decade, what's the problem? Obama double the debt to $20T in 8 years, $1T bends the debt curve down. But congrats on your overwhelming victory in AL.
4
Didn't the debt go up because of the Iraq war started by Bush? Not to mention the state of the economy when Obama took office?
4
Obama doubled the debt?
Remember 2008 when your friends were running things and they collapsed the economy?
Selfish nemesis...
3
Canada? Fact, Obama DOUBLED THE DEBT, more then the combined amount of every president back to washington. It is well known in OUR country that the genesis of the meltdown started with the Clinton Community Redevelopment Act. Go look up NINJA loans and the way the Dems encouraged the banks to loan to people who should never have gotten loans. thanks for allowing me to answer your question.
Oh great, Jeff and Bill, the two richest men in America get another tax cut, a very merry Xmas.
5
I need someone to explain to me how they sleep at night.....
9
As I've said before here, this was once explained to me by a famous North Carolina judge. He was well-connected and from a well-to-do family, and he was quite young. What he said was, "They sleep very soundly, and on silk sheets." That's how they sleep. They care more about their sheets then they do about another human being. 9 million children without healthcare? Who cares? I need to put another wing on the country house. My tailor is coming to measure me for a new suits. And if I'm Orrin Hatch, I have an expensive appointment at the plastic surgeon for some touch up work.
How do they sleep? They're totally out of touch. They live in a world of privilege and isolation that makes the corporate world look positively bothersome. Can they feel other people's pain? Don't be ridiculous. They're sociopaths. They don't care about anybody else.
Is this really such a mystery?
5
On a big fat bed of money.
2
Steal from the poor, give to the rich.
10
Not really. Under current law the top 2.7% pay 51% of the taxes. The bottom 62% of filers pay only 6% of the taxes. If you count earned income tax credits it's even worse. The top 40 percent of wage earners in America pay 106 percent of the taxes. The bottom 40 percent pay negative 9 percent.
So if you like government thank a rich person.
2
By starving children, taking cancer care coverage away from seniors, and then giving more money to the rich and the military, these men and women have declared themselves to be cold-blooded murderers.
If we had a nice little revolution here, as we should, they would be very sorry.
18
I want to see the CBO score.
11
and Trumps tax return.
5
The IRS has Trump’s tax returns. That is where taxes are filed.
Ensures the complete destruction of the Republican Party. I am delighted.
9
Reports of their death are greatly exaggerated.
1
Maybe this train wreck can be stopped if the government shuts down for a week or two, reopening after the new senator's seated.
10
there you go!, rush it thru before you loose that seat/vote/voice. Same jacks said wait til Obama left to seat judges and commenced to seat unqualified individuals. Long self look will be needed before 2018.
8
It would be nice if they could wait until Doug Jones is seated. After all, they had no problem delaying a vote on Obama's SCOTUS nominee for 11 months.
17
If McCaine and Collins vote yes on this tax bill... they will essentially be voting to allow corporations to run our government. Please don’t allow this to happen.
10
The American oligarchy already owns and runs the government. John Roberts saw to that. If they vote for this deal they're just voting to give the oligarchy more money and kill 10 or 12,000 Americans every year for lack of healthcare, and by the way, that stuff doesn't matter either, because by the time the next supreme court gets finished, any law passed to help an ordinary American in the last 10 years will be overturned. That would include the ACA. I would count on it.
People need to close their wallets and help the inevitable republican recession and get the bums out.
6
Americans will need to make a decision. Democracy doesn’t work when more than half of the country is dumb addicted to reality shows. The Republicans made this country a dictatorship. I don’t see how the Democracy is not falling apart in the next 20 years. Rome is falling.
10
Democracy does not work when less than half the country pays taxes, and the other half keeps demanding more taxes for more services.
Democrats, if you think Roy Moore in the Senate would have been bad, wait till this disaster of a bill passes.
8
Lets wait for a vote until the next senator from Alabama is sworn in just like Republicans said to wait to vote on the next supreme court justice until the president was sworn in after the 2016 election.
24
Being fair is not fair to Republicans.
4
In the interests of transparency, I would imagine either Christmas or Boxing Day would be the best time for the GOP to pass this bill.
From their respective home states.
At around 2 or 3 am.
By coded text message.
Hiding under their beds from fake journalists.
Cos Santa is sitting in the Oval Office this year.
What a wonderful time to be disgustingly rich.
5
Obama and the democrats raised taxes on the rich to help pay for the poor to have health care. It was a direct transfer of wealth to the poor. That is one reason why many people hated obama. Now the rich are getting their 9 pieces of silver back, lord Jesus be happy. Get ready for a raise America, the rich can’t wait to share.
4
So, your argument is that the rich are eager to share the money they were so eager to claw back from Obama-era tax increases? That doesn't sound logical to me. It's also worth noting that this bill will reduce rich folks' taxes to well below the pre-Obama age. And, please explain what incentive the rich will have for giving everyone raises?
2