Abbreviated pundit roundup: A tax bill for the rich
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We begin today’s roundup with The New York Times and its analysis of the Republican tax bill, calling it a bill that would make Scrooge McDuck proud: The Republican tax proposals were bad from the get-go. But they have become steadily worse as they haveAbbreviated pundit roundup: A tax bill for the rich
We begin today’s roundup with The New York Times and its analysis of the Republican tax bill, calling it a bill that would make Scrooge McDuck proud: The Republican tax proposals were bad from the get-go. But they have become steadily worse as they have been turned into bills, which seem so cartoonishly evil they could have been dreamed up by Mr. Burns from “The Simpsons.” Consider the latest changes to the Senate tax-cut bill being championed by the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and his merry band. It lavishes generous permanent tax breaks on corporations, while modest tax cuts for the middle class would vanish into thin air after 2025. Millionaires would enjoy average tax cuts of $5,580 in 2027, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, at which point families earning less than $75,000 a year would pay more taxes. Let that sink in. This tax bill would take money from working families and give it to the world’s wealthiest people. Here is Paul Krugman’s analysis of the Trump tax plan: Corporate tax cuts wouldn’t actually do much to raise investment. They would, however, explode the budget deficit. So in an attempt to limit that deficit blowout, Senate Republicans are proposing significant tax increases on working families. In fact, according to Congress’s own Joint Committee on Taxation, taxes would rise on average for every group with incomes under $75,000 a year, and would surely rise for many families even in higher-income groups. The only significant winners would be those making more than $1 million a year. Populism! Oh, and this doesn’t even take account of the health care sabotage that’s an integral part of the Senate plan. By repealing the mandate — the requirement that people purchase insurance — the plan would, as I said, cause 13 million to lose coverage; that loss of coverage, and the associated government subsidies, is why mandate repeal saves money that can be given to corporations. Read more