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No money. Just a few minutes of your time to stop what Paul Krugman today called “the biggest tax scam in history.”
“Donald Trump likes to declare that every good thing that happens while he’s in office — job growth, rising stock prices, whatever — is the biggest, greatest, best ever. Then the fact-checkers weigh in and quickly determine that the claim is false.
“But what’s happening in the Senate right now really does deserve Trumpian superlatives. The bill Republican leaders are trying to ram through this week without hearings, without time for even a basic analysis of its likely economic impact, is the biggest tax scam in history. It’s such a big scam that it’s not even clear who’s being scammed — middle-class taxpayers, people who care about budget deficits, or both.
“One thing is clear, however: One way or another, the bill would hurt most Americans. The only big winners would be the wealthy — especially those who mainly collect income from their assets rather than working for a living — plus tax lawyers and accountants who would have a field day exploiting the many loopholes the legislation creates.
“The core of the bill is a huge redistribution of income from lower- and middle-income families to corporations and business owners. Corporate tax rates go down sharply, while ordinary families are nickel-and-dimed by a series of tax changes, no one of which is that big a deal in itself, but which add up to significant tax increases on almost two-thirds of middle-class taxpayers.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The affect of the bill on the lower 90% is irrelevant in its affect on the individual tax payer a thousand or two here or there means very little in comparison to what will be the end result.
Every program cut from support for education. To cuts to the earned bennifits of Social Security and Medicare. To the assistance given to 63% of medicaid recipients, mostly elderly and in-firmed. These will devastate and touch huge segments of the population.
The affect on higher education as Tuition assistance credits are eliminated . As Tuition assistance from the Universities to grad students doing research and teaching classes becomes taxable income …. will be devastating . Republicans can only survive if the people remain stupid.
But Its time for my resist Trump Tuesday rally outside of Schemers office. I think I’ll ask him to shut down the Government over tax reform as Republicans would do . Didn’t seem to hurt their elect-ability.
And if you call Republicans after hours do not cry about the cuts ,cry about the deficits . They won’t know where you are calling from on the tape . My NY accent is a giveaway.
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Easy for you to say, our family is definitly in the “lower 90%” & will be hit w/multi-thousands tax increase w/this bill due to elim of SALT deduction,w or w/o 10% cap on RE tax. “A thousand or two here or there?” Try several thousand, hitting us on the cusp of retirement– w/repercussions: suddenly accerlerating the need to downsize, w/llittle left in the piggy-bank to fix-up/ remodel for sale, & anticipating quickly-lowering house sale prices [compensating for buyers’ 30% hit on SALT].
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I’m sorry to hear it, bethree. The volatility of it all is just violent.
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bethree5
Getting ready to retire . Thats good soon you will be on medicare . The cut to medicare 473 billion / 44million recipients / 10 years . = 1068
in medicare cost per person that has to be made up some how . That will surely result in cuts to your coverage or increase co-pays . That is 2,000 dollars right off the top for a couple . Of course that does not divide equally per person it could mean the difference between a life saving scan or procedure being preformed or simply dropping dead as Allan Grayson once called the Republican healthcare plan. .
The cost for medical deductions which may become a substantial part of many retirees lives also will exceed any savings or costs that many retirees may have received in years that they received a deduction .
Social Security and Medicare already face a shortfall that should have been made up by small increases in the withholding’s rate or other tax increases . As the deficit explodes the call will be to gut these programs more or deny them to younger Americans .
Medicaid that will care for many in their final years after they have blown through a lifetime of savings on Nursing home care will be gutted twice as much as as medicare .
The roads bridges and rail systems you use are funded in part by federal Tax dollars . They used to be covered substantially by the gasoline tax . As millage went from 10mpg to 25mpg those user fees will need to be made up for or the costs just passed on to the states . Expect the tolls to go up on the NJ Turnpike . Or the state gas tax in jersey to go up to compensate for the loss.
Now depending when you bought your house, I am crying crocodile tears for you (and for me ) our houses never should have been viewed as investment vehicles and we have far exceeded the inflation adjusted value of this place we raised our families in . So the value of your home will drop 10% meaning that you lost what it accrued in the last year or two.
Then it will start rising again as the demand for housing picks up. People do not stop needing a place to raise their families.
My point was not to dismiss the effect of this reverse Robin-hood tax plan on US!! high taxed NY metro area taxpayers, but to point out that the real costs will seen down the road in everything it will destroy . Every Public good from schools to bridges that will be turned over to Robber-barons who will proceed to rape the American people .
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Thanks, Flerp– & Joel I was sniffling before but now I’m bawling! No question some are croc tears as we have options many don’t. However I take some exception on your point about home values. Regardless of whether home “should” be an investment vehicle, it became the bulk of retirement savings when pension-plan was terminated in ’90’s, replaced w/401(k) plan – which lost 40% of its value in Fall ’08 – & may we assume will do so again in near future as GOP frog-marches us toward the next bust?
re: this bill’s effect on Medicare/ Medicaid, well aware: 20 yrs ago, watched mom-in-law’s Alzheimers chew thro every penny of 40 yrs’ extraordinary $500k savings union-printer dad-in-law left her – in 5 yrs! [4 yrs Alz wing & 1 yr nursing home]. She died just in time. Things were already like that then; now we face gutting of those programs. So every ct of current home value reqd as bulwark for 20 yrs’ retirement, & sitting around while it drops 10% then gradually back up not an option for new retirees on 50% last yrs’ income paying now-undeductable hi prop-taxes…
Added to that is the background anxiety created by 20-something sons’ low/ multi-gig inc despite BA’s. Had a fond hope of bequeathing them pd-off home as an anchor in an uncertain job market. Sound like a fantasy? Our expensive nbhd is actually not-so-transient, mixed mid/ upper-mid, thanks to many occupying homes for 2nd, now 3rd gen– one or two such on ours & every surrounding block.
OK to get the tiny violin out now. We are very lucky compared to most.
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“For the past 40 years, the financial and political elite of this country have rigged the tax code to redistribute wealth and income to some of the richest and most powerful people in this country. The result: we are moving rapidly toward an oligarchic form of society in which the top 1 percent is doing phenomenally well, the middle class continues to decline and 40 million Americans are living in poverty.
And it will probably not surprise you to learn that just as our tax code benefits the wealthiest people in this country, it also benefits some of the largest and most profitable corporations in the world with a myriad of tax breaks, deductions, credits and other loopholes. As a result, one out of five large profitable corporations today pays nothing in federal taxes.
The current Republican “tax cut” bill, paid for by the Koch brothers and other billionaire campaign contributors, continues the push to make the rich richer at the expense of everyone else. It would raise taxes on middle class families making $75,000 a year or less and would throw 13 million Americans off of health insurance. And it would do all of these things to provide permanent tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and profitable corporations that ship American jobs to China while moving their American profits to the Cayman Islands.
But let’s be clear. This legislation goes well beyond taxes. Its ultimate goal is to radically transform American society and the role that government plays in the lives of the working families of our country. This legislation will increase the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over ten years. Mark my words. If passed, the Republicans will then rediscover the “deficit crisis,” and push aggressively for massive cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education – higher education in particular – nutrition, affordable housing and more. They will seek to undo every major piece of legislation passed in the last 80 years designed to help working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.
This is the Republican plan. Huge tax breaks for the rich and powerful. Massive cuts to life and death programs for the middle class and working families of our country.
This is not moral. This is not what the American people want. This is not what our country and our pledge for “liberty and justice for all” is supposed to be about.
That is why I am going on the road this week to talk directly to working people in Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania about this disastrous piece of legislation. If we stand together – black, white, Latino, Asian American, Native American, male and female, young and old, gay and straight – we can defeat this horrific bill. But I need you to make your voice heard as well. We need to stand together.”
Today in America, more than 40 million Americans, including 20 percent of all children, live in poverty. Many in extreme poverty. Almost 28 million Americans have no health insurance. Millions of bright kids can’t afford to go to college without facing a lifetime of debt. Seniors and disabled veterans are struggling to stay alive on inadequate Social Security checks.
Despite all of that pain, the greed of the billionaire class in this country knows no limits. No. We will not allow them to take away from those in need in order to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the very rich.
Here’s a radical idea for my colleagues in the Republican Party: instead of just listening to the rich and powerful few in this country, maybe just maybe Congress should listen to the majority of the American people who want a fair tax system.
Maybe just maybe corporate tax reform should start by preventing profitable companies from sheltering profits in tax haven countries like the Cayman Islands.
Here is something you may not know:
A 2008 Government Accountability Office report found that 83 of the Fortune 100 companies use at least one offshore tax scheme to lower their taxes. A 2016 study found that one of every five large, profitable corporations paid no federal income taxes at all in 2012.
The practice of stashing profits in places like the Cayman Islands has become so absurd that one single, five-story office building there is now the official legal “home” to more than 18,000 corporations! Our tax code has essentially legalized tax dodging for large corporations.
We must stop this bill. We must stop the Republicans from moving this country into an oligarchy.
And that starts with all of us standing up, fighting back and making our voices heard. Three weeks ago progressives from coast to coast ran for office at the local and state level – and they won. We have to continue that progress and build on that momentum.
Please sign my petition calling on Congress to REJECT the Republican “tax cut” plan that would take from working families in this country all to give a massive tax break to people and corporations who already have it all.
Brothers and sisters. We must do exactly the opposite of what Trump is attempting to do. He wants to divide us up by the color of our skin, our gender, our religion, our sexual orientation or our country of origin. He wants us fighting with each other while Wall Street and the billionaire class laugh all the way to the bank.
Our job is to bring our people together around an agenda that creates an economy and government that works for all, not just the 1 percent. Defeating this terrible piece of legislation will be an important step forward.
This bill is a moral abomination. I hope you’ll add your name if you agree.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
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Really great stuff. Dare I say inspiring.
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Both Republicans and Democrats have stated that Bernie is the most moral guy in the Senate, and he has been true to principles for decades. No other politicians can compare to his consistency of rhetoric and actions.
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Right on.
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Link to Bernie petition?
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The bill passed the Budget Committee today and now goes to the full Senate. The courageous Susan Collins appears to be warming to the bill:
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Maybe she never heard the ad jingle: promise her anything, but give her Arpege.
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And now Lisa Murkowski threatens to abandon her concern about undermining ACA via eliminating the mandate– because she’s all about drilling for oil in the Natl Alaska Wildlife Refuge, & that bone has been tossed to her aspartof this bill…
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Another courageous Republican senator.
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Some other bone was thrown to Susan Collins of Maine and Bob Corker of Tenn. he used to be a deficit hawk.
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Yuh, last week… Can’t even count on libertarians, deficit hawks, freedom caucus to stick to their principles, nu?
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Still no link to Bernie’s petition.
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