In response to President Trump and the congressional Republicans passing a comprehensive tax reform bill, Democratic leaders have issued strong statements condemning the new changes in US federal tax code. It must be stressed that the new tax plan remains convoluted, manipulative, and deceitful. That said, the Democrats legislate in that same manner, and the GOP tax bill did improve the tax code in a few crucial ways:
- It repealed the horrifically unpopular individual mandate – a part of Obamacare that punished Americans who did not have health insurance by forcing them to pay a fine.
- The bill doubles the child tax credit from $1,000 per child to $2,000 per child, decreasing taxes for millions of middle-class families.
- The federal business tax was decreased from 35% to 21%. This has allowed companies to keep more money, which they have already passed on to their employees.
- Of the 7 tax brackets, 5 of them decreased with the TCJA. This means that middle class earners received a substantial tax cut.
- The bill placed a cap on how much money could be deducted from federally taxable income, forcing the rich to ‘pay their fair share’, as Senator Bernie Sanders has been pleading for years.
- The bill increased the bottom threshold for the ‘death tax’. This allowed family businesses and individuals to pass up to $11 million of their worth to their children without the federal government stealing 40% of the individual’s or business’ worth.
I have little interest in writing a tax policy article. It’s been done from every angle (surely by journalists and tax experts much wiser than me) ad infinitum. I hardly even care to mention how foolish many of the Democrat leaders have made themselves appear when they held press conferences condemning the GOP for “hurting the middle class,” despite this being the biggest tax cut for the middle class in my lifetime (yes, I got a large tax cut). No, none of that is what inspired me to jump back into the politics of the US, the nation that I have largely given up on. What honestly got me fired up enough to join in on the discussion relating to the most complex tax code in the history of the universe is that liberals in high-income-tax and socialist states like Governor Cuomo of NY repeatedly speak about this bill and make insane and deceitful statements, such as:
“This is like paying taxes on your taxes” and “There’s never been a double taxation in the history of our nation” and “They then eliminate the deductibility of state and local taxes”.
Many national leaders of the Democrat Party and the socialist movement embarrassed themselves when discussing the tax reform bill for the sole purpose of using opposition to Republican policy as a means to increase donations and interest in the failing party:
Senator Elizabeth Warren made at least two insane comments on the bill:
“This corruption is hollowing out America’s middle class & tearing down our democracy.”
“It’s not tax reform. It’s a heist. A heist that steals from millions of middle-class families and hands that money over to the wealthy.”
Senator Mark Warner’s comment was the most exaggerated statement in the history of humanity!
“This is the worst piece of legislation we have passed since I arrived in the Senate.”
Democrat Senate leader Chuck Schumer made his case for the ‘most ridiculous statements ever award’ with these two gems:
“It’s a bill that’s cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans…”
“Americans prefer DEMOCRATS to REPUBLICANS on taxes…”
Democrat House Leader, Nancy Pelosi tweeted this:
“Shamefully, Republicans were cheering against the children as they rob from their future and ransack the middle class to reward the rich #GOPTaxScam”
These politicians’ statements could hardly be further from the truth. But Andrew Cuomo’s stupidity goes far beyond what we generally see from partisan political statements. The socialist New York governor has been doing his best to convince New Yorkers that Trump is completely abolishing the deduction for state and local income tax and property tax. This is absolutely false. To keep things very simple, taxpayers have been able to deduct their state, local, and property taxes from their gross taxable income, allowing them to pay federal taxes on a slightly lower sum of their income. This saves middle class Americans a few hundred dollars a year on their federal income taxes. The GOP tax bill does not change that! The Tax Cuts & Jobs Act forces the wealthy to pay federal taxes without taking advantage of this ‘tax code loophole’. Before 2018, liberals in NY earning $50,000 a year might be forced to pay around $10,000 in combined state/local/property taxes and then they would pay their federal taxes as if they only earned $40,000 that year. This means that they had a tax deduction of $10,000. Now let’s take a look at the ‘evil rich people’ living in states like NY: Imagine that Mr. Richie McFascist earned a million dollars a year. Since he would be taxed 100-200k by NY, he might only pay federal taxes on 800k! Once he uses all of his other tricks and cheats, he might end up paying federal taxes on only a tiny sum of money, meaning that the federal government gets the short end of the stick. The new plan limits that deduction to $10,000. This means that it really only applies to individuals who earn more than around $100k a year and/or own a very expensive home and pay a high property tax. Those in the middle class will absolutely enjoy a significant tax cut. Those with children will keep an even larger amount of their money this year, due to the TCJA giving people an extra $1,000 for each child they have.
In what may go down in history as one of the great political lies (I know, there’s infinite competition) Cuomo remarked; “There’s never been a double taxation in the history of our nation”. There actually has been and still is double taxation, you buffoon. Like most actual fascism that has occurred in US history, this tale begins with Democrat hero, FDR. President Roosevelt created the Social Security Administration. In short, it’s this great program that entails stealing income from people based on the false promise that they will get it back when the government decides that they are old enough to use it responsibly, which at the time was 65 years old. Later, this increased to 66 years old. And then 67. In a case of incredible irony, the US government was proven to be the irresponsible party when the public learned that they lost the money in the fund, causing social security to be insolvent. President Reagan and the Democrat House decided in 1984 that American seniors must pay taxes on their social security checks – just like they do on income. This is obviously ridiculous and fascist because those seniors likely paid millions of dollars into SS throughout their entire lives via taxation.
That is the reason that I cannot bear to hear bastards like Cuomo lie about being ‘taxed on taxes’. Cuomo: Until you stop taxing your citizens into submission and until you stop worshiping FDR, and until you repeal the social security double-tax, you need to shut up about ‘taxes on taxes’.
While the GOP did little to uncomplicate the 70,000+ page federal tax code, they absolutely did decrease the income tax burden for the middle class of the US (as well as the upper and lower classes). The last people who have a leg to stand on when criticizing the changes made to the tax code are Democrat politicians. If authoritarian socialists do wish to criticize the changes, they would be wiser to be truthful and to advocate for less, not more money to be taken forcibly from the middle class. Democrats like Governor Cuomo can put his money where his mouth is by getting to work on cutting taxes for the struggling workers in New York, lest he empowers his Libertarian opponent Larry Sharpe with even more fuel.
