How will the Republican Party pay for the huge tax cuts they enacted last winter for corporations and the wealthiest?
“House Republicans released a proposal Tuesday that would balance the budget in nine years — but only by making large cuts to entitlement programs, including Medicare, that President Trump vowed not to touch.
“The House Budget Committee is aiming to pass the blueprint this week, but that may be as far as it goes this midterm election year. It is not clear that GOP leaders will put the document on the House floor for a vote, and even if it were to pass the House, the budget would have little impact on actual spending levels.
“Nonetheless the budget serves as an expression of Republicans’ priorities at a time of rapidly rising deficits and debt. Although the nation’s growing indebtedness has been exacerbated by the GOP’s own policy decisions — including the new tax law, which most analyses say will add at least $1 trillion to the debt — Republicans on the Budget Committee said they felt a responsibility to put the nation on a sounder fiscal trajectory.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You didn’t mention the increase in defense and military spending that was included with the tax cuts.
Simply put, what defines the GOP?
The GOP is the party that cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medical for Americans that need those social safety net programs the most while cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthiest Americans and at the same time increasing the national debt by spending more on defense and the military.
But there is more to this definition: The GOP is against the Equal Rights Amendment. The GOP is against minimum wage laws. The GOP is against labor unions. The GOP is against retirement plans. The GOP is against due process rights. The GOP also wants to end the child labor laws that protect children from being forced to go to work.
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This has been the Republican dream ever since FDR: to eliminate all social programs that actually help people, and privatize them for profit (as with public education) so their corporate/Wall Street masters can return some of that profit in the form of campaign contributions. The Roberts’ Court 2010 Citizens United decision makes this legalized bribery easier than ever.
Speaker Paul Ryan has wanted to do this since he was in high school. Some of us dreamed of being famous athletes or entertainers. Ryan dreamed of cutting Social Security and Medicare. His Christianity is as fraudulent as that of all the other “Christians” who want to punish the poor for the failures of capitalism to help anyone but the top 10%.
Greed and profits are the foundations of all that is wrong with the U.S., whether it is the profits being made now by immigrant/refugee detention centers and shelters for children forcibly separated from their parents (concentration camps); or the blood-stained profits of the Merchants of Death War Profiteers who keep our many illegal wars of aggression and drone bombings going; or the continuing profits for the Prison-Industrial Complex generated for decades by the War on Drugs (which has failed everyone except the prison system, the police, and their investors and Congressional cronies); or the greed in jacking up prescription drug prices while Medicare is prevented by Republican law from getting discounted prices; or the rampant greed built into the entire corrupt capitalist system which constantly increases rents and other living expenses while preventing living wages and affordable health care for most workers.
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I’m shocked, shocked I tell you! Ahem, this has been their “starve the beast” strategy since Newt Gingrich, no? Is anyone surprised by this? I should hope not. I really want to see what happens to the Repubs when they try to touch the “third rail of politics.” I think they will be shocked, too.
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Scumbags.
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Paraphrasing Robert Reich:
This has been the GOP’s plan all along:
1) Massive tax cuts for the rich & corporations.
2) Claim the cuts will pay for themselves, dismissing concerns about the deficit.
3) Massive increases to military spending.
4) Use the massive hole they’ve blown in the budget to justify deep cuts to social programs.
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It concerns me that we cannot have healthcare for all in the United States, until we fix the problem of our unusually high costs compared to other countries. Per Bob Somerby,
“These are the most recent data from the OECD:
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Yes! All the other wealthy democratic countries have universal healthcare and drugs cost a fraction pf what they do in the US. We have the most expensive health care system and yet tens of millions are uninsured, hundreds of thousands face bankruptcy due to medical/drug costs each year. This does not happen in the other countries like Japan, Canada, Austria, Australia, Finland, etc. Instead, we are moving in the opposite direction.
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Because of Trump, the cost of health care, or the lack of it, and America’s collapsing social safety net, many in the UK and EU think America is already lost.
Hopefully the midterm elections this year will reverse the trend that is moving the U.S. toward autocratic rule and totalitarianism.
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“Republicans on the Budget Committee said they felt a responsibility to put the nation on a sounder fiscal trajectory.” Isn’t it a little late to be thinking about fiscal responsibility?
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The Trump tax scam is not a serious job-creation policy, and it won’t increase wages.
Six months ago, Donald Trump signed the tax scam into law. 83 percent of its benefits will go to the richest 1 percent when it fully phases in, and no workers outside of the executive suite should expect a raise.
Now, Paul Ryan is planning a vote on tax scam “round two” this summer. Demand an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
The original tax bill, passed in December:
Weakened the estate tax, which only impacts the richest 0.2 percent of Americans―including Trump’s family;
Lowered tax rates on so-called “pass-throughs,” including hedge funds, private equity firms, and real estate LLCs―like Trump’s;
And, rewarded corporations that have, for years, been dodging taxes―allowing them to repatriate offshore profits at lower rates, encouraging multinational corporations to continue shipping jobs and profits overseas.
Since then, Congressional Republicans have attempted to cut Social Security Disability, Medicare, Medicaid and more. And Donald Trump’s own budget proposal would have cut $1.7 trillion from critical programs to pay for his $1.9 trillion tax scam. The Republican budget being debated this week in the House calls for similarly huge cuts to these programs.
Stand with the EPI Policy Center and our partners to oppose the Trump tax scam “round two” and to protect critical programs for working families and older Americans.
Thank you for standing with us as we demand an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
Sincerely,
Josh Bivens
Director of Research, EPI Policy Center
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Six months ago, Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans passed a tax scam that will cost the American people $1.9 trillion. Now, in an Election Year ploy, they are preparing “Tax Scam Round 2.”
But six months after passage of Tax Scam Round 1, here is what we know:
83% of the tax cuts are still going to the richest 1%.
Just 4% of workers have gotten a pay hike due to the tax cuts—a one-time bonus or wage hike.
The cost of the tax cuts has ballooned from $1.5 trillion to $1.9 trillion, emboldening GOP lawmakers to demand even more cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, education and more.
Trump proposed a budget that would cut funding for these critical services by $1.7 trillion to pay for his tax scam.
Prescription drug companies, health insurers, Wall Street banks and other major industries are getting huge tax breaks and not sharing the wealth with consumers or their employees.
Despite these outrageous results — ripping off the American people — Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are planning to double down before the November Election. They want to pass a Tax Scam Round 2 that could cost another $1 trillion and would mostly benefit the wealthy at the expense of working families, seniors, people with disabilities and hungry children.
Tax Scam Round 2 is just another giveaway to Republican donors, wealthy business owners and real estate developers like Donald Trump who game the system at our expense.
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Republican lies about Medicare are everywhere. Even CBS “60 Minutes” let now-departing House Speaker Ryan get away with claiming that Medicare is going to be bankrupt in 10 years without challenging him to produce facts. Congress’s own Congressional Research Service shows that the bought-and-paid-for congressional enemies of Medicare have for the past 50 years been trying to use the scare tactic of declaring that Medicare was going “broke”: In 1970, they first declared in scary headlines that Medicare was going to go “broke” in 1972. Gee…that didn’t happen in 1972, or in ‘73, or ‘74, or — golly — never!
In spite of the recent rounds of cruel headlines and cable TV shouting that Medicare is “going broke,” anyone who has actually read the non-political Medicare Trustees’ report knows that NO PARTS of Medicare are going bankrupt. Think of the terrible anxiety the lies about Medicare going broke are inflicting on senior citizens. Shameful, but those who tell them have no shame. Here are the documented facts:
There are four parts to Medicare: Part A (hospital insurance), Part B (medical insurance), Part C (Medicare Advantage — private plans for parts A and B), and Part D (prescription drug plans).
Part A is financed mainly through payroll taxes of only 1.45%on earnings paid both by workers and employers; self-employed people pay 2.9%. The money raised is credited to a trust fund, which then pays the benefits of Medicare beneficiaries. If the very low payroll taxes never increase — never — the Part A trust fund will still pay FULL benefits until 2024 and after that would still pay over 90% of benefits until 2040, after which it would still pay almost 80% of benefits forever — forever! — and if payroll taxes were raised even just a fraction of a percent before 2024, full benefits would be paid long after 2024. Bottom Line is this: Part A is not going to ever stop paying benefits, even if Congress wants it to because the big insurance companies that own and operate Congress want to take over the business and charge you high premiums for less coverage.
Part B, which covers your visits to your doctors, is paid for out of general funds and premiums that you pay; if costs rise, the premiums increase to cover the costs and prevent any financial problems. Congress could prevent premium increases by increasing the amount of federal general funds that go to Medicare. But Congress won’t do that.
The same above that’s true for Part B is true for Part D that covers prescription medications..
Part C is handled by private insurance companies and has no financial problems.
And Medicare is efficient, too, with management and overhead costs of only 1%, while private insurance companies average costs are 15% because of the armies of people they employ to deny claims and because of the multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses they pay to the top management.
Bottom Line: NEVER will any part of Medicare “go broke” on its own and not be able to pay all or nearly all benefits; at worst, only Part A would see a benefit reduction but would still pay 80% of benefits…and even that 20% reduction can easily be prevented by a slight payroll tax increase. So, don’t believe the lies from congressmembers who are-bought-and-paid-for by the private insurance corporations have their own great medical care paid for by us taxpayers — fight back against them — relentlessly.
Our Constitution says that We the People have, for example and among other rights, the right to a jury trial. That jury trial right requires that there be a judge, paid for by the government; a jury, paid for by the government; and a lawyer, paid for by the government if the citizen can’t afford to pay a lawyer. Likewise, since We the People have the Right to Life and therefore inherently have the right to all the services that support our life, we have the right to the services of public servants — people whose services are paid for collectively by We the People to serve our rights, such as judges, juries, doctors, surgeons, etc. A fully-implemented Medicare system would have public servants in its employ throughout the nation, as well as public hospitals and clinics, to provide for We the People. Taxes are the way that We the People collectively share the cost of providing ourselves with necessary services. Private providers can still offer their services, just as private providers do in other nations which have national medical systems.
The most powerful way to reduce medical costs is for Congress (if Congress could find the spine to break free from the money they get from the medical industries) to ALLOW MEDICARE TO NEGOTIATE PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES with the drug companies. With the economic clout of having everyone in its system, Medicare could drive down prices on drugs and medical treatment to reasonable levels from the highway robbery levels prices are at today. As things stand right now, Congress has forbidden Medicare to negotiate drug prices, forcing Medicare — and taxpayers — to pay whatever drug companies want. That’s great for drug company profits; but it’s bad news for taxpayers and persons needing prescription drugs.
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Add more cuts/ limits on the SNAP program and redefining eligibility for free and reduced price lunches. Add the uncertain status of e-rates for schools and libraries that came along with the end of net neutrality.
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and then what?
more guns.
more poverty.
more homeless and in transition.
more dropouts.
more uninsured.
more unqualified for any jobs.
more guns
gate those communities
cut those taxes
cage the immigrants
blame the liberals
cheat and lie
Ah – but they all go to the white’s only country club to locker room talk their way to convince each other they are right and they go to Church on Sunday and nod so that makes it all ok
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Right, Wait, What?
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And then, POOF! You’ve turned into Peru, Brazil, Mexico, and Columbia . . . .
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However when the Democrats come to office will they reverse all this? Unfortunately the answer is; we have no reason to believe they will . Perhaps that has something to do with why Republicans came to power . As I asked my Long Island Congressman how is it that 33 house Democrats him Included ; voted to weaken Dodd Frank ? Then I asked him how many Republicans voted against that bill . An uncomfortable look took over his face as I shouted out that only one lonely republican voted against the Republican bill .
The” Liberal Media ” another sick joke . Somebody please remind me who was it that opposed the TPP. Over a thousand progressive groups and by mid 16 two Nobel laureate
economists; Krugman and Stieglitz . Fast track was only voted for by 26 Democrats in the house . So why do I hear how terrible it was to pull out of TPP which Hillary promised to do. Then of course there are those six million jobs in the JOLTs survey that are unfilled due to lack of skills . As Dean Baker says; waitresses and retail clerks must have suddenly become highly technical jobs along with bedpan changers and even teachers . Strange Public Schools on Long Island have no such shortage. I wonder why ? No mention that 95% of them are filled with in the month. Touted by the media and democrats as justification for everything from Trade to immigration policy .
But we will hear the BS about the earned bennifits of the American people going bankrupt. From the Corporate Media and even Corporate Democrats “something must be done” .A bipartisan solution to the “Problem” Who can forget when Obama said in the second debate in 12 . “on Social Security we agree” or was that Medicare . Nor his debt commission.
As Scisne pointed out there will be a short fall . But both will still be able to pay close to 80 % of the scheduled benefits for the 75 year look ahead. The real miscalculation in 1983 when the congress addressed the issue ; was not the demographic distribution of age in the population. It was the distribution of income in the population. As more of the nations wealth was diverted to the wealthiest Americans they reached the cap and paid no further withholding taxes. If income distribution had not change; more in the bottom four quin-tiles and there employers would be paying more withholding tax on higher incomes.
But will the Democrats reverse this? Not a pigs chance in hell . Their answer will always be “where are you going to go ” . This is a party that has been dysfunctional since Jim Crow. I think I will start throwing up before the mid terms; before I have to cast the lesser
evil vote again. Its been ground hog day since George McGovern was defeated.
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Joel,
In that case – and O think you’re right – new parties will form or more progressives will start slowly to reinvent the DNC party.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
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This is completely unsurprising… it was part of the GOP game plan from the outset… and it’s being buried in the news behind the endless rumors coming from the Mueller investigation and the coverage of primary elections that are far less consequential than what is happening right now… the distraction campaign is working…
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Sure is. Dump and the GOP are BAD and sick people. They are SELFISH and yet go to church and praise their invisible friend.
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SICK!
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