The tax plan put forth by the Republican Senate majority so far is a complete train wreck!
First, according to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (of which 3 out of 5 members are Republicans) have forecasted that the tax bill in its current form would have a NET increase on the federal deficit of $1 TRILLION dollars over the next 10 years!!!
I can’t even fathom how they don’t see the cognitive dissonance around this with them supposedly being the party of fiscal conservatism!
Second, it cuts the estate tax? Are you kidding me? This was one of the few tools we, as a country use to help fight inequality and allow wealthy families to pass along plenty of money to their children (over $5M) with the rest going to support the programs that will tighten the variation in net worth and income.
Third, they did nothing to eliminate the carried interest loophole, the one that allows hedge fund managers to have their massive earnings (BILLIONS for some) to be taxed at low capital gains rates and not at ordinary income rates! Hmm, I wonder why the Republicans didn’t touch this at all. Oh, it’s because their major donors are the 1% and don’t want them to take away this nice little loophole for them!
Ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous!
I am now getting to the point where I am ashamed for having been more associated with the Right than with the Left in the past (even though I have never been registered as either party).
This whole situation is making me rethink how we might consider abandoning the two party system in a way that makes our government work better.
This is untenable and creates yet another huge hurdle to overcome in our fight against inequality!