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By Heather Long December 15, 2017
Republicans were joyful Friday as they finalized their tax plan, bridging differences between the House and Senate bills and moving another step closer to getting legislation to President Trump by Christmas. They also appear to have locked down the votes they need to pass the measure through the House and Senate after Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) pledged their support. Overall, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act represents the largest one-time reduction in the corporate tax rate in U.S. history, from 35 percent down to 21 percent. The bill also lowers taxes for the vast majority of Americans, as well as small-business owners — at least until the cuts expire after eight years.
Last-minute changes to the GOP's big plan give a larger tax break to the wealthy and preserves certain tax savings for the middle class, including the student-loan interest deduction, the deduction for excessive medical expenses and the tax break for graduate students. A change made Friday morning to win over Rubio would expand the benefits of a child tax credit to give more money to working-class families.
What is changing.....
continued @ link above
Is passing the Alexander-Murray deal still attached to this? I haven't heard it being mentioned here or in any of these House-Senate negotiations and I don't see how premiums would not skyrocket without those payments and with the insurance mandate going away.
If they pass the tax bill as is, and don't pass Alexander-Murray or something comparable that could be really bad.
Is passing the Alexander-Murray deal still attached to this? I haven't heard it being mentioned here or in any of these House-Senate negotiations and I don't see how premiums would not skyrocket without those payments and with the insurance mandate going away.
If they pass the tax bill as is, and don't pass Alexander-Murray or something comparable that could be really bad.
I saw where the Mandate is done as of 2019, but didn't see a re-expansion of Cost Sharing.
Some parts of this look very good. The changes to the 529 plan will help my family, and it's hard to imagine that business will do worse under those lower rates.
Is passing the Alexander-Murray deal still attached to this? I haven't heard it being mentioned here or in any of these House-Senate negotiations and I don't see how premiums would not skyrocket without those payments and with the insurance mandate going away.
If they pass the tax bill as is, and don't pass Alexander-Murray or something comparable that could be really bad.
Collins has made it clear that she wants to see two bills become law that would help stabilize the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace, and for Congress to waive $25 billion in automatic Medicare spending cuts that the bill would trigger. But the timing remains tricky, as it looks increasingly likely that the ACA-stabilization bills would be brought up after tax reform is voted on early next week. Collins said this week that she would be “much more comfortable” if the votes for ACA stabilization occurred before the tax reform vote. On Nov. 30, she told reporters in Washington at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast that having the ACA votes go first was “hugely important” to her. The fixes Collins touts would mitigate the mandate’s repeal with $5 billion per year for two years of reinsurance, which would help alleviate the cost spikes of having fewer young people in the insurance pools. Another bill, Alexander-Murray, would restore the “cost-sharing payments” to insurers that the Trump administration halted this year.
Annie Clark, a Collins spokeswoman, said “it’s our expectation” that next week, the two ACA fixes would be attached to a must-pass continuing resolution government-funding bill. And Clark said Collins wasn’t concerned that the Affordable Care Act bills she supports might be in jeopardy now that the Senate appears to have the votes it needs to pass tax reform regardless of how Maine’s senior senator votes. “We remain very confident in the agreements we have,” Clark said in an email Friday night. Critics argue that House conservatives will balk at passing the Collins bills, and that House Speaker Paul Ryan was not part of any deal made between Collins and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell promised Collins that the bills would be voted on by the end of the year. McConnell and Ryan issued a joint statement on Dec. 1 promising to avoid the automatic spending cuts to Medicare. But after tax reform passes, Collins would have much less leverage to make sure the bills are approved, critics have said.
The two ACA bills have been the subject of several studies by health policy experts, but one analysis released Thursday indicates that the Collins-Nelson reinsurance bill and Alexander-Murray would, for two years, more than offset the 10 percent premium increases caused by the mandate’s repeal. “This means that the package of provisions would more than offset the impact of repealing the individual mandate, and result in premiums that are roughly 10 percent lower,” according to Oliver Wyman Health, an actuarial consulting firm.
A "very preliminary" projection by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the congressional scorekeeper, estimated that the bill would lead to budget deficits increasing by $1.46 trillion over a decade. That falls just shy of the maximum $1.5 trillion it could add to the deficit under rules set by the Senate earlier this year.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/15/gop-releases-its-final-tax-plan--heres-whats-in-it.html
I hate to be a jerk, but you really have to read the article, follow the links, and apply them to your personal situation. There is a whole lot of misinformation out there. The vote I understand is Tuesday. Merry Christmas!
The democrat argument is this:
The republican argument is basically:
"If you believe the economy won't grow due to the tax plan then the deficit numbers from the Join Committee on Taxation will prevail." It's that simple.
So your job as a responsible person is to cut away from the bull**** you are seeing from the media, get out a calculator, last years tax returns, and work it out. (or ballpark your '16 earnings) You can't ignore the two competing forces: Democrats out of power, and Republicans in. Republicans are writing the plan in the plain daylight the way things of this magnitude are supposed to be done.
If the plans fails and the economy flops, then fine. The Republicans failed, Democrats can cheer, but historically, betting against tax cuts has been a losing bet.
Note: There will be a quiz on Monday...
It's designed so that it will goose the economy in the near term - that's what the 1.5 trillion does, at least hopefully. You need to look down the road and think about what happens when portions of this package expire. Either they won't be allowed to expire and the result will be added government debt, or they will expire and the middle class will get hit with a tax increase.
The "tax cuts pay for themselves and more" myth has been disproved by Reagan, GWB and more recently Kansas.
If the plans fails and the economy flops, then fine. The Republicans failed, Democrats can cheer, but historically, betting against tax cuts has been a losing bet.
One massive overarching problem though:https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/15/gop-releases-its-final-tax-plan--heres-whats-in-it.html
I hate to be a jerk, but you really have to read the article, follow the links, and apply them to your personal situation. There is a whole lot of misinformation out there. The vote I understand is Tuesday. Merry Christmas!
The democrat argument is this:
The republican argument is basically:
"If you believe the economy won't grow due to the tax plan then the deficit numbers from the Join Committee on Taxation will prevail." It's that simple.
So your job as a responsible person is to cut away from the bull**** you are seeing from the media, get out a calculator, last years tax returns, and work it out. (or ballpark your '16 earnings) You can't ignore the two competing forces: Democrats out of power, and Republicans in. Republicans are writing the plan in the plain daylight the way things of this magnitude are supposed to be done.
If the plans fails and the economy flops, then fine. The Republicans failed, Democrats can cheer, but historically, betting against tax cuts has been a losing bet.
Note: There will be a quiz on Monday...
Exactly.It's designed so that it will goose the economy in the near term - that's what the 1.5 trillion does, at least hopefully. You need to look down the road and think about what happens when portions of this package expire. Either they won't be allowed to expire and the result will be added government debt, or they will expire and the middle class will get hit with a tax increase.
The "tax cuts pay for themselves and more" myth has been disproved by Reagan, GWB and more recently Kansas.
If the plans fails and the economy flops, then fine. The Republicans failed, Democrats can cheer, but historically, betting against tax cuts has been a losing bet.
Exactly.
And they're not even trying, they made the middle-class stuff temporary! It's just a temporary bone thrown to obfuscate their real actions --> payback to their donors.
Don't get sold by this blatant snake-oil hucksterism!
One massive overarching problem though:
In 2024 all the individual rate reductions go away. Corporate reductions stay.
How is this possibly good?
One massive overarching problem though:
In 2024 all the individual rate reductions go away. Corporate reductions stay.
How is this possibly good?
I live in a highly taxed state. While I'm not thrilled with taxes, for the most part I accept it because I have a pretty high quality of life, with excellent services and great schools, though that's more a function of my local governance than the state's.The gall of this bunch is astonishing. I'm lucky to be living in a state where they don't tax my income. I hope the dems take over and reverse most of this idiotic bill. It's needlessly cruel, but at least Trump and the GOP are doing it out in front of everyone's face.
Interesting concept there, that I hadn't thought of.Because it sets the table for the next presidential election in 2024 assuming it's Trumps last term. If not, it's a mid term for someone else.
So you get to vote on whether you like your new lot in life or you don't.
The Socialist reply: "It's cruel". Is that all you have?
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