Taxes, taxes and more taxes
Republicans have made tax cuts (tax cuts, mind you!) more unpopular than Obamacare.
Let that sink in.
Ezra Klein, an editor at large for Vox, noted that new polls show only 29 percent of Americans approve of the tax cuts bill while 57 percent now approve of the Affordable Care Act.
And this isn’t the reflection of just one poll. Last week poll after poll found more voters than not oppose the GOP tax cuts bill because they rightly believe it is a bill that disproportionately benefits the rich.
In fact, the tax cuts bill is one of the least popular tax plans since Ronald Reagan’s day, and it is even less popular than Bill Clinton’s tax increases.
Fivethirtyeight.com notes that according to an average of five surveys released this month, only about a third of voters support the Republican tax reform package, and in the newest Quinnipiac University poll, just 25 percent of voters approve of the plan. Surveys from ABC News/Washington Post, CNN, Morning Consult and YouGov put approval of the plan slightly higher, but all are still at 36 percent or lower.
That’s right up there with a new Gallup reading of President Trump’s approval rating – 35 percent.
Well, well, well.
Tax cuts for Diane Black
The International Business Times last week noted that rich lawmakers, like corporate America, will benefit from the tax cuts bill.
In a story headlined, “Paul Ryan and top Republican lawmakers working on the plan could reap personal windfall from new real estate tax breaks,” Tennessee Rep. Diane Black – a 2018 Tennessee gubernatorial candidate – was one of the examples.
It seems that as Congress races to finalize this tax bill that is expected to grow the deficit by at least $1 trillion, she is one of the key Republicans who could benefit from provisions designed to reduce levies on so-called “pass-through” income, according to federal records reviewed by the International Business Times.
Both Black and House Speaker Ryan are invested in real estate-related pass-through corporations and partnerships earning annual income that could be partially exempted from taxes, depending on how the final legislation is structured.
Black serves on the conference committee as well as on the House Ways and Means Committee that oversaw the original House version of the tax bill. The International Business Times says Black and her husband, the CEO of forensic science company Aegis Sciences Corp., co-own Ebon Falcon LLC, a real estate company that owns 12 properties including the Aegis building and several nearby properties, according to Rep. Black’s 2016 financial disclosure.
The properties, mostly in Nashville, appear to be commercial, and together they represent between $21.7 and $108 million in value and generate between $1.7 and $10.5 million in annual rental income. Black, who is Congress’ 11th-richest member, has a current net worth of $46 million, according to Roll Call.
Recently, IBT reported that Black’s former chief of staff has been lobbying the House on real estate issues this year on behalf of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.
Tit for tat for taxes – or not
What’s in this tax bill at this point, anyway?
Who knows.
It’s rocketing through the Capitol at the speed of light with one news flash after another and no hearings.
Meanwhile, we continue to be told the GOP wants it on the president’s desk by Christmas.
On Friday, Marco Rubio got his non-specific request of “a more generous” child tax credit in the final bill.
The final bill will allow families who owe no federal income taxes to still claim up to $1,400 of the $2,000 child tax credit, up from $1,100 in the original version, according to The New York Times. More generous appears to be $300.
That concession to Rubio is reported to have been financed, at least in part, by reducing the ability of higher earners to take the $2,000 per child tax credit. The Senate bill lowers the income cap for families who could claim the credit by phasing out the benefits of the credit once families earn $400,000 a year, down from the $500,000 in the original Senate bill.
Impressed? Apparently Rubio is.
And now Tennessee’s Bob Corker is on board, too. Corker, a longtime self-professed deficit hawk, told The New York Times he was swayed to support the bill as the result of “many conversations over the past several days with individuals from both sides of the aisle across Tennessee and around the country.”
Corker said the bill “is far from perfect, and left to my own accord, we would have reached bipartisan consensus on legislation that avoided any chance of adding to the deficit and far less would have been done on the individual side with items that do not generate economic growth.”
What gives, Bob? Who do you think you’re kidding?
The pretense of negotiation still leaves us with an unworkable so-called tax reform that increases debt and only helps most Americans – maybe – for a few years. The only folks with any long-term benefit, for the most part, are in your tax bracket.
No wonder this bill leaves most Americans bitter.