Bad tax bill pushed for all the wrong reasons
Our Sen. Lindsey Graham put it perfectly: “The financial contributions will stop” if tax reform fails.
The Republican tax bill will cut corporate rates from 35 percent to 20 percent but will cost the nation trillions simply to ensure that millions in campaign dollars flow to their candidates. But every family’s cost for this boondoggle is $20,000.
The math: this bill borrows $1.5 trillion divided by 140 million individual tax filers, equaling $11,000 per American family. But, under Graham’s bill, only half of all tax filers would actually pay any tax at all, so the $11,000 becomes more than $20,000 for each tax-paying family. This is debt that America and South Carolina doesn’t want.
Unemployment is near record lows and business earnings near record highs, so there is no economic reason for a tax cut; especially with national debt at 99 percent of GDP. Businesses will not raise wages or invest more and there is nothing in the bill to ensure that happens. Thinking otherwise is economic fairy dust and ignores history. Remember, America has already seen this film and President George H.W. Bush titled it “voodoo economics.”
Teachers lose their school supply deduction but hedge fund managers retain their “carried interest” bonus. Seniors lose their medical deduction (House version) but golf course owners keep theirs. Lower corporate rates are permanent but individual rate reductions expire. Projected federal tax revenue shortfalls sets the stage for replacing Medicare with voucher-care. This is all we need to know about Graham’s so-called “reform.”
Joe Bogacz
Hilton Head Island
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This story was originally published December 6, 2017 at 12:28 PM with the headline "Bad tax bill pushed for all the wrong reasons."