Today is Thanksgiving Day, and some will sit down to bounteous meals while others will line up at soup kitchens or go hungry. That’s America 2017.
It is a day for giving and a day for thanks. One way to Give is to volunteer at a soup kitchen at a local church. You will be glad you did. You will truly understand that it is better to give than to receive. You will learn to count your blessings.
The 1% can give thanks to the Republican Congress. Its tax plan will make them much, much richer, while shutting down deductions and tax credits that help students, teachers, and the middle class.
How will the rich benefit?
Here is one analysis, written by Ulrich Boser and Abel McDaniels of the Center for American Progress.
“Under the tax plan currently before Congress, billionaires like U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos would save hundreds of millions of dollars. A new analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund suggests that the money used to give DeVos and her family just one of these tax breaks would be enough to pay more than 6,000 teachers. Similarly, the money used to give President Donald Trump and his family an enormous tax break would be enough to pay more than 20,000 teachers.
“CAPAF’s analysis underscores how the House GOP plan will drain federal revenues. Yet, Betsy DeVos is one of several cabinet members who would reap millions as a result of the House Republican plan to eliminate taxes on multimillion-dollar estates. The plan also caps the tax rate on the income of wealthy owners of businesses like Amway, which the DeVos family owns.
“While many have examined how the plan will hurt ordinary working families and concentrate economic power in the largest corporations and the ultrawealthy, the magnitude of the tax cuts for the wealthy is difficult to understand. To put the effects of these cuts in perspective, CAPAF calculated the tax breaks that Betsy Devos and Donald Trump and their families would gain from just one provision of this plan and compared the value of those tax breaks to the cost of providing teachers for the nation’s students.
“For the analysis in this column, the authors relied on the previously mentioned CAPAF column, as well as the U.S. Department of Education’s 2016 allocations for selected programs and the Michigan Department of Education’s 2017 allocations to determine the amount of the state’s 21st Century Learning Centers grant and Title II grant awards, and divided the estate tax gain DeVos’s heirs would see by these numbers. The authors also used the average public school teacher salary determined by the National Center for Education Statistics, and the median bus driver salary determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and divided the estate tax gain the Trump family would see by those numbers.
“To be clear: The federal estate tax does not fund state teacher and bus driver salaries; however, the comparison provides a concrete way of understanding the magnitude of just one of the many tax breaks for the wealthy contained in the House and Senate tax plans.
“DeVos’ family would gain $351 million from the estate tax repeal, according to the CAPAF analysis. The DeVos’ tax break amounts to more than five times the amount of federal money her home state of Michigan received for teacher professional development. Alternatively, the amount of the DeVos’ estate tax break alone could fund afterschool programs in Michigan for about 10 years. Or, that amount could pay the salaries of more than 6,000 badly needed public school teachers.
“Repealing the estate tax will give Trump’s heirs a $1.15 billion tax break, according to CAPAF’s calculations. That revenue would be enough to pay the salaries of more than 20,000 public school teachers, or more than 36,000 bus drivers, of which there is a shortage. Again, federal estate tax revenues do not fund state public employee salaries, but the comparison is useful for understanding how large the proposed tax cuts for the wealthy are.
“The Trump-McConnell-Ryan plan contains other provisions that do directly impact public schools. For example, the proposed expansion of college savings accounts will siphon money away from public schools. Wealthy families would be able to avoid paying taxes on thousands of dollars used for private school tuition. EdChoice, a conservative-leaning advocacy organization which actually supports the provision, admits the proposal is “not a solution for every family” and this is especially true “for families with limited means.””
It is a Reverse Robin Hood Tax Plan. Take from hard-working middle-income families and give to the undeserving rich.
For those white working class people who voted for Trump, please notice that you will get crumbs from his bounteous table at Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by friends who paid $200,000 to join his club.

“Robbin The Hood”
Robbin the hood
Of common good
Sealing our fates
With private gates
Over the hedge
With his Merry Men
Robbin The Hood
Has struck again
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“LOL”, except that it’s so terrible
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I have been reading (not done yet) a story on the front page of the Chicago Tribune this morning about a woman whose dream was to open a non-profit restaurant where customers pay what they can afford. She did it and it is working! In fact, it is so successful that she has started to expand beyond serving a good meal. I don’t know if you will be able to read this article, but here is the link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-community-cafe-charity-restaurant-kitchen-table-20171116-story.html
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A great Thanksgiving strory, thanks– forwarding to friends.
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Happy Thanksgiving to the DeVos family and to Trump family. Happy Thanksgiving to the Gates family and the Walton family. Happy Thanksgiving to Eli Broad and Reed Hastings. The Fisher family. The Rockefellers. Powell-Jobs. And to all of their employees, Duncan, Rhee, King, Villaraigosa, Deasy, et al., one and all, Happy Thanksgiving. Be thankful. You should be.
I am thankful today for all of you, for all your failures so far to destroy public education and get rid of all the teachers. I am thankful that all you have is money and hot air. I am thankful because I AM STILL HERE! Eat some bird, Billionaire Boys and Girls.
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Diane,
I figured on Thanksgiving one could use some humor – so I offer this piece from George Will
GEORGE WILL November 22, 2017 8:00 PM
@GEORGEWILL
From overzealous government regulations to progressivism run wild, Americans faced some pretty bizarre news items this year. Tryptophan, an amino acid in turkey, is unjustly blamed for what mere gluttony does, making Americans comatose every fourth Thursday in November.
But before nodding off, give thanks for another year of American hilarity, including: A company curried favor with advanced thinkers by commissioning for Manhattan’s financial district the “Fearless Girl” bronze statue, which exalts female intrepidity in the face of a rampant bull (representing (1) a surging stock market or (2) toxic masculinity). Then the company paid a $5 million settlement, mostly for paying 305 female executives less than men in comparable positions.
New York’s decrepit subway system took action: Henceforth, gender-neutral announcements will address “passengers” rather than “ladies and gentlemen.”
Washington’s subway banned a civil liberties group’s ad consisting entirely of the text of the First Amendment, which ostensibly violated the rule against ads “intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions.”
California now can jail certain caregivers who “willfully and repeatedly fail to use a resident’s preferred name or pronouns.”
A Massachusetts librarian rejected a donation of Dr. Seuss books because they are “steeped in racist propaganda,” and The New Yorker discovered that “Thomas the Tank Engine” is “authoritarian.”
Always alert about planetary crises, The New Yorker also reported: “The world is running out of sand.”
A food truck offering free lunches to workers cleaning up after Hurricane Irma was banished from a Florida town because its operator had no government permit to do that.
United Airlines said: Assault? Don’t be misled by your eyes. That passenger dragged off the plane was just being “re-accommodated.”
Even Senator Bernie Sanders went to Mississippi, to the Nissan plant in Canton, to help the United Automobile Workers with yet another attempt to convince Southern workers of the delights of unionization. The workers, 80 percent of whom are black, voted two-to-one against the UAW.
A New York Times tweet about the South reported a shooting at a nightclub “in downtown Arkansas.”
Louisiana’s Democratic party joined the virtue-signaling by changing the name of its Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner.
In toney and oh-so-progressive Malibu, the city council voted to become a sanctuary city. The councilwoman who made the motion for protecting illegal immigrants said: “Our city depends on a Hispanic population to support our comfortable lifestyle.”
In more-progressive-than-thou Oregon, where you can get state-subsidized gender reassignment surgery at age 15 without parental permission, the Legislature made 21 the age at which adults can buy cigarettes.
UCLA researchers warned that because Americans’ pets eat meat, they endanger the planet by generating 64 million tons of carbon dioxide. Forty-two years after the government began (with fuel economy standards) trying to push Americans into gas-sipping cars, the three best-selling vehicles were the Ford, Chevrolet, and Ram pick-up trucks.
A year after an NASA climatologist (from the “settled” science of climate) said California was “in a drought forever,” torrential rains threatened to break dams.
Pierce College in Los Angeles was sued after it prevented a student from giving away Spanish-language copies of the U.S. Constitution because he was outside the .003 percent of the campus designated a “free speech zone.” Two years after social-justice warriors convulsed the University of Missouri in Columbia, freshman enrollment was down 35 percent. An Arizona State University professor allowed some students in her human-rights class to stage anti–Donald Trump protests in lieu of final exams. The University of Arizona guide instructed instructors to encourage students to say “ouch” when something said in class hurts their feelings. Clemson University’s diversity training washed brains with this idea: Expecting punctuality might be insensitive because in some cultures time is considered “fluid.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that student snowflakes are not the only victims of academic suffering. It seems that after the nine-month school year, professors endure isolation, solitude, and depression during their three-month vacations.
Massachusetts continues to be surprised that the smuggling of cigarettes into the state increased when state cigarette taxes increased. Although San Francisco’s hourly minimum wage has not yet reached its destination of $15, the city is surprised that so many small businesses have closed. McDonald’s probably was not surprised when its shares surged after it announced plans to replace cashiers with digital ordering kiosks in 2,500 restaurants. Finally, Domino’s Pizza is going to need bigger menus. Government labeling regulations require calorie counts for every variation of items sold, which Domino’s says (counting different topping and crusts) includes about 34 million possible combinations. None, however, have excessive tryptophan.
– George Will is a Pulitzer Prize–winning syndicated columnist. His email address is georgewill@washpost.com. © 2017 Washington Post Writers Group.
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“That revenue would be enough to pay the salaries of more than 20,000 public school teachers, or more than 36,000 bus drivers, of which there is a shortage. ”
Thanks. Great illustration of the enormity of these tax breaks—and depressing numbers, too.
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“please notice that you will get crumbs from his bounteous table”
What are those crumbs?
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The ones they want us to clean up for them.
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The expansion of the 529 program, enabling people to save for non-public school tuition for K-12 will definitely not assist all families. True. That is why the tax bill needs an amendment, that will give people who opt-out of publicly-operated schools (K-12), with a full federal tax credit, for their tuition/fees spent at non-publics school. Else, every state needs to enact a voucher program.
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“Else, every state needs to enact a voucher program.”
Why?
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What’s disturbing to me is that the “tone” of the media coverage on this movement is different than that which we heard during the debates on all the healthcare and other proposals since Trump took office. I’m concerned that this one’s a “done deal”. And it really is disgusting.
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I agree, gitapik. I’m not hearing enough about the sequester cuts to medicare that will be triggered by the CBO debt figure, for example– there’s an issue that should be pounded home daily by media. I watch a lot of media analysis, but only became aware of that thro this blog.
And, as NE’r, I’m most concerned about the elimination of SALT deduction, which will cost our low-end-upper-mid-class family thousands in add’l taxes, w/ or w/o the $10k cap on RE tax deduction. Where is the outrage? Where are the many media discussions we should be seeing that demonstrate how many billions these donor states send in to fed while getting back 75cts on the dollar, while the many red states get back $1.50 – $2 fed aid for every $1 they pay in? — how do they justify taking another big chunk from us, & what will be the fallout? Where are the in-depth historical discussions on why citizens have never been double-taxed in this way for 150 yrs?
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Two sites my husband found announced in the paper for individuals to express their concerns over the proposed tax cuts: taxcutsandjobsact.com and taxcutsandjobsact.org.
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“To be clear, the federal estate tax does not fund state teacher and bus-driver salaries…”
Oh, but it does.
Every dollar given away by fed tax breaks to richies has to be made up somewhere else under this tax plan, as these lost revenues are not accompanied by govt spending cuts– except for deleting the ACA mandate [which means a return to uninsured poor/ young who show up at ER when ill– which results in more fed/ state spending for uncollectible bills] — & — unless deals are made to override sequester, which again means richie-tax cuts chalked up to fed debt– triggering mandatory cuts to medicare, farm subsidies et al [w/ same results plus raising welfare rolls.]. Fed will eventually have to cut aid to states to compensate, but even as presently proposed this bill leaves states poorer, which increases the pressure to cut state education spending (because ed is 60% or more of state budgets).
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