Tax Reform Bill

[FinallyFree]

From everything I have heard, this tax bill just benefits the wealthy. Cutting corporate taxes does not mean they will pay employees more or invest the money, Isn't this just like the "voodoo economics" of days gone by? Trickle down economics has been shown not to work.
Didn't the state of Kansas try the same thing and it was a disaster. They had to go back and change everything.
And, finally, Trump is lying when he says it will not benefit him. His family stands to gain billions from removing the estate tax.
I am posting in this section because I feel concerned about this issue. People can share other ways to look at it, but I do not wish to be bullied, laughed at or called a "lefty".

[tarheel]

Pls don't form your opinion on the media releases. Read the changes for yourself. It is still too early to tell what the final bill will look like. That being said, there is a web site called Marketwatch.com that has all the House changes built into it so you can key your 2016 tax information into it and see how they affect you individually.

As for the estate tax, there are sufficient planning ideas available that someone like Trump could escape the most of the estate tax anyway. It really needs to be repealed as it is just a form of double taxation. Taxes were paid on the wealth when it was earned.

As I said in an earlier post, this isn't tax reform. They are just moving some pieces around. The real problem is that the last estimate from the Congressional Budget Office is that the final bill might add 1.5 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, which is just stupid.

[FinallyFree]

Thank you for that info, tarheel. I see what you mean about the estate tax thing.
If Republicans were always so worried about the deficit, why is it suddenly OK to add to it?
Also, I have a son who lives in New York and a daugher that lives in California and I don't want them to be negatively impacted by not being able to deduct state and local taxes.

[KLP]

Deduction of state taxes from Federal Taxes is great for folks who live in high tax states...but the Federal Revenue is still the federal revenue, so that means over all taxes are increased...meaning that the those with lower state taxes or no state taxes are sharing the burden for those high state tax to get their deduction. It is a way to shift money to the states who tax and spend more. Bailing out states is terrible when the states have acted irresponsibly such as a Kentucky not funding a pension or California/New York with high state taxes or states that get more than dollar-for-dollar matching on Medicaid...it is a way to transfer money from states. Not cool.

I don't expect much tax reform and certainly not much tax relief from the plan...but I am sure Trump and McConnell and Ryan and Hannity will declare it an awesome victory. But unless the spending is cut (meaning entitlements) then the national debt will keep climbing. Because in the end, protecting tax deduction and entitlements and making them untouchable just ends up adding the debt. Raising taxes, raising revenue, or cutting entitlements are all going to just be endless sob stories and emotional sad stories about some poor pitiful person who is having to choose between medicine or food or rent or pushing grandma over a cliff.....and how mean and greedy some politician is to blame for all of this. What we need to do is to find is a giant change jar or a forgotten drawer that has $20 trillion because the spending is not going to be cut and the tax revenue is not going to be going up.