Annnnd they pulled the AMT repeal.
Gotta tax those rich people
US Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul bill
31–40 of 123 posts
Re: US Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul bill
#32I have been watching comments on NYTimes and Fox News and what surprised was not a single person (out of couple of thousands) actually estimated their tax bill and compared. There is one calculator out here (which might not be accurate because of changes): https://www.calcxml.com/calculators/trump-tax-reform-calcula... I used it to arrive at following numbers. If this tax calculator is right then there is indeed ~$10…
Those numbers you posted are probably inaccurate. The true numbers really depend on whether you itemize your deductions, and how much. This particular tax bill substantially raises taxes for people who itemize, in particular states with high local taxes like California. I don’t know about Fox News but The NY Times had a good analysis of this: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/28/upshot/what-t... Obviously m…
I assumed standard family (married filed jointly, 2 kids, standard deduction).
Re: US Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul bill
#33One of the problems of US is the fact that protesting is virtually impossible. Unless there are 1,000,000 people in the streets of DC for two weeks, no one will care. Protesting in your city has little impact on the federal level. Also The general lack of public spaces makes it hard. And the fact that the police cracks down pretty hard on things after the first display of some sort of "disobedience". Look at the phot…
This bill doesn't fundamentally change very much besides the corporate tax rate, so the explosive reaction seems unnecessary. You aren't going to get a million people in the street because their tax bill went up, or down, several hundred dollars, which is what this amounts to for most people.
Re: US Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul bill
#34I think the US doesn't have enough accountability for its leaders. These guys just come in, serve the lobbyists and keep renewing their terms. They say one thing and do another.
Is there any consequence of this directly to the congress people? Not really, cuz come election time, they'll lie through their teeth to get votes, all the while forgetting that they are the ones who did the damage in the first place.
They should either ban lobbying or have penalties for congresspeople who lie to their electorates. As it stands, I can't see that happening.
Re: US Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul bill
#35One of the problems of US is the fact that protesting is virtually impossible. Unless there are 1,000,000 people in the streets of DC for two weeks, no one will care. Protesting in your city has little impact on the federal level. Also The general lack of public spaces makes it hard. And the fact that the police cracks down pretty hard on things after the first display of some sort of "disobedience". Look at the phot…
This bill doesn't fundamentally change very much besides the corporate tax rate, so the explosive reaction seems unnecessary. You aren't going to get a million people in the street because their tax bill went up, or down, several hundred dollars, which is what this amounts to for most people.
It changes a lot more than that. Although we don't know precisely what, because the House and Senate bills need to be reconciled (or the House will just pass the Senate bill) and the Senate bill was literally written on the floor tonight. Nobody has done a serious analysis of its effects. What we do know suggests that it will increase the uninsured rate substantially, increase the deficit dramatically, and trigger automatic cuts to Medicare and other programs.
Re: US Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul bill
#36What a horrible process. You don't get good legislation written by ramming it through without time to evaluate the consequences of the law.
"We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy."
Re: US Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul bill
#37It's sickening how large corporations make more and more money but pay almost no taxes because (through the money) they have so much influence on politics.
And yet corporations have many of the same rights as people do these days.
Re: US Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul bill
#38One of the problems of US is the fact that protesting is virtually impossible. Unless there are 1,000,000 people in the streets of DC for two weeks, no one will care. Protesting in your city has little impact on the federal level. Also The general lack of public spaces makes it hard. And the fact that the police cracks down pretty hard on things after the first display of some sort of "disobedience". Look at the phot…
> Protesting in your city has little impact on the federal level.
Sure, if you're trying to effect change on a federal level. Do you think that marching in a small town in France or Egypt would have a different effect?
Marching in your town is worth it for changing laws in your town, or possibly your county. Protesting at the state capital would be effective for changing laws in your state. Protesting in DC would be effective for changing the laws in the country.
Is any of that surprising?
Edit: I suppose it is a little surprising as the US and Canada are the only two 'free' countries as big as we are that allow protesting in any real capacity. China and Russia are out of that category (China pretty much always, Russia for most of recent history.) It does make protesting more difficult than in smaller countries, but what's the alternative? Every single protest in every city should be recognized by the federal government?
Re: US Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul bill
#39It's sickening how large corporations make more and more money but pay almost no taxes because (through the money) they have so much influence on politics.
One of the main reasons large corporations pay no tax is that they hide the money in other countries with lower corporate tax rates. You can argue that it is a race to the bottom, or ineffective for other reasons, but the lower corporate tax rate is an attempt to deal with the issue, and get a cut of that money, albeit at a lower rate.
Re: US Senate passes sweeping tax overhaul bill
#40The Republicans have been so skilled at digital jerrymandering that we have digital technology delivering us a single party state. Only mass voter outrage will be enough to overcome a decade of very effective data driven jerrymandering.