This ain't gonna fly

OK, so the new tax cut bill has passed and the Repubs will own it, lock, stock and barrel.

Here's what it does:

Makes health care insurance unavailable to at least thirteen million people.
Makes insurers even more leery of offering insurance to non-urban areas, which in turn, makes rural hospitals uneconomic to operate. Result: more people without health care at all in rural areas.
Drives up premiums for the rest of us that are left in the exchanges by 10-20%.

Gives billions to the already rich hedge fund managers and real estate developers via the 'pass-through' loophole.

Rate cuts are disproportionately aimed at the rich by twenty-to-one ratio, meaning that the wealthy get twenty times more money from the cuts than all of the lower one-third of the wage-earners in the country.

Drives up the debt (which is already at twenty TRILLION dollars) by one-and-a-half trillion more. They claim that this figure will be offset by the economic gains given to the wealthy and corporations. They claim that the middle class is bolstered by the fact that these companies will use the money to expand and hire more workers at higher wages.
This is wrong in a number of areas, and those job increases and wage hikes will never materialize.
First, when the Treasury Secretary asked a roomful of CEO's the other day what they would do with the increased profits due to the tax reduction. Only a small handful said that they would use it to expand. The rest said that it would go either to stock buybacks or as dividends to the stockholders.
Second, if they were to expand, they would invest in automation for a number of reasons. The investment in automation is a capital expense that can now be deducted right away from any taxable income.
Any investment in more people is an operating expense that cannot be deducted. That includes higher wages, better benefits, and a host of other costs. Robotics and automation works twenty-four/seven and doesn't complain or take days off or vacations.
There has to be more goodies for special interests buried in a thousand-page bill that very few people have any idea what's in it.

In addition, because of the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge deficiet, look for the Repubs to hypocritically start clamoring for massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other leftover New Deal programs that are still in existance. This means you, retirees that get SS benefits and Medicare (of which I am one). Watch out, they're coming for you next.

All in all, this is a REALLY bad idea, and should never have been passed.

This ain't gonna fly

OK, so the new tax cut bill has passed and the Repubs will own it, lock, stock and barrel.

Here's what it does:

Makes health care insurance unavailable to at least thirteen million people.
Makes insurers even more leery of offering insurance to non-urban areas, which in turn, makes rural hospitals uneconomic to operate. Result: more people without health care at all in rural areas.
Drives up premiums for the rest of us that are left in the exchanges by 10-20%.

Gives billions to the already rich hedge fund managers and real estate developers via the 'pass-through' loophole.

Rate cuts are disproportionately aimed at the rich by twenty-to-one ratio, meaning that the wealthy get twenty times more money from the cuts than all of the lower one-third of the wage-earners in the country.

Drives up the debt (which is already at twenty TRILLION dollars) by one-and-a-half trillion more. They claim that this figure will be offset by the economic gains given to the wealthy and corporations. They claim that the middle class is bolstered by the fact that these companies will use the money to expand and hire more workers at higher wages.
This is wrong in a number of areas, and those job increases and wage hikes will never materialize.
First, when the Treasury Secretary asked a roomful of CEO's the other day what they would do with the increased profits due to the tax reduction. Only a small handful said that they would use it to expand. The rest said that it would go either to stock buybacks or as dividends to the stockholders.
Second, if they were to expand, they would invest in automation for a number of reasons. The investment in automation is a capital expense that can now be deducted right away from any taxable income.
Any investment in more people is an operating expense that cannot be deducted. That includes higher wages, better benefits, and a host of other costs. Robotics and automation works twenty-four/seven and doesn't complain or take days off or vacations.
There has to be more goodies for special interests buried in a thousand-page bill that very few people have any idea what's in it.

In addition, because of the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge deficiet, look for the Repubs to hypocritically start clamoring for massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other leftover New Deal programs that are still in existance. This means you, retirees that get SS benefits and Medicare (of which I am one). Watch out, they're coming for you next.

All in all, this is a REALLY bad idea, and should never have been passed.

May I ask a few questions, please? How will insurance be unavailable to 13 million people? Are you saying that,
without the tax write off, these people will not be able to afford insurance? If I have read the bill correctly,
it seems to me that people will now have a choice with employee offered insurance, they can opt out. This is about 2 million people. Is it true that repealing mandate penalties would not change Medicaid eligibility, meaning that anybody who didn't sign up would still qualify, and could be signed up if they ever needed medical care. Similarly, repealing the mandate penalties would not mean that those employees would lose their offer of coverage. Did I read this wrong? Also, it is worth mentioning, about 6.5 million people elected to pay a penalty rather than signing up for ACA. So, when I read the bill, about 5 million people may (and the emphasis is on may) have to pay higher premiums because healthy people may (and there is that crystal ball to predict what people may or may not do) decide to pay per visit rather than supporting those who must have, due to their failing health, insurance. This is a long distance from 13 million....

Second question, where did you find the projected premium increase? Forbes ran an article on the increases under ACA... were you aware that premiums were declining the four years before ACA and actually increased an average of 46 percent after ACA? "Overall, Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) premiums actually decreased 4.6% in the four years before the ACA reforms came into effect (that is, from 2009 to 2013), but increased 46.4% in the first four years under the ACA. Point-of-Service (POS) premiums decreased 14.9% before the ACA, and increased a whopping 66.2% afterwards. Premiums for the more common Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans increased 15% in the four years before the ACA, and 66.2% afterwards." https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2017/03/22/yes-it-was-the-affordable-care-act-that-increased-premiums/#3a0b6ce811d2

Now then the Pass Through Loophole..... this will not affect many business. Pass-through businesses are companies organized as sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, or S corporations that don't pay the corporate income tax and instead are taxed at individual rates. So, what you are saying is this handful of business who elect to pay 39.6 percent taxes rather than a corporate rate tax is somehow bad. I would be interested in reading how you came to this conclusion. The "rich" will still pay more than 85 percent of the taxes.

Superficially it looks as if our National Debt will increase. But, this does not take in consideration the rider... that of Jobs act. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a pro-growth tax plan, which would spur an additional $1 trillion in federal revenues from economic growth, with approximately $600 billion coming from the bill’s permanent provisions and approximately $400 billion from the bill’s temporary provisions over the budget window. These new revenues would reduce the cost of the plan substantially. Depending on the baseline used to score the plan, current policy or current law, the new revenues could bring the plan closer to revenue neutral. In my opinion, this is a wait and see. Personally, after crunching the numbers, I think that this will grow the economy. But, I do not have a crystal ball to see the final fall out from this overdue reform. https://taxfoundation.org/final-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-details-analysis/

Did I read this wrong? Also, it is worth mentioning, about 6.5 million people elected to pay a penalty rather than signing up for ACA. So, when I read the bill, about 5 million people may (and the emphasis is on may) have to pay higher premiums because healthy people may (and there is that crystal ball to predict what people may or may not do) decide to pay per visit rather than supporting those who must have, due to their failing health, insurance. This is a long distance from 13 million....

Second question, where did you find the projected premium increase? Forbes ran an article on the increases under ACA... were you aware that premiums were declining the four years before ACA and actually increased an average of 46 percent after ACA? "Overall, Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) premiums actually decreased 4.6% in the four years before the ACA reforms came into effect (that is, from 2009 to 2013), but increased 46.4% in the first four years under the ACA. Point-of-Service (POS) premiums decreased 14.9% before the ACA, and increased a whopping 66.2% afterwards. Premiums for the more common Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans increased 15% in the four years before the ACA, and 66.2% afterwards." https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2017/03/22/yes-it-was-the-affordable-care-act-that-increased-premiums/#3a0b6ce811d2

Now then the Pass Through Loophole..... this will not affect many business. Pass-through businesses are companies organized as sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, or S corporations that don't pay the corporate income tax and instead are taxed at individual rates. So, what you are saying is this handful of business who elect to pay 39.6 percent taxes rather than a corporate rate tax is somehow bad. I would be interested in reading how you came to this conclusion. The "rich" will still pay more than 85 percent of the taxes.

Superficially it looks as if our National Debt will increase. But, this does not take in consideration the rider... that of Jobs act. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a pro-growth tax plan, which would spur an additional $1 trillion in federal revenues from economic growth, with approximately $600 billion coming from the bill's permanent provisions and approximately $400 billion from the bill's temporary provisions over the budget window. These new revenues would reduce the cost of the plan substantially. Depending on the baseline used to score the plan, current policy or current law, the new revenues could bring the plan closer to revenue neutral. In my opinion, this is a wait and see. Personally, after crunching the numbers, I think that this will grow the economy. But, I do not have a crystal ball to see the final fall out from this overdue reform. https://taxfoundation.org/final-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-details-analysis/

This is a variation on trickle-down economics which has never worked in the past and shows little hope of working in the future. As I stated originally, much of the savings in taxes for the corporations will not go to workers, but to stockholders or just in retained cash. Little to no expansion was predicted by the CEO's that the Treasury Secretary was talking to. To me, that means that the promised job gains and wage increases most likely won't increase, and any expansion will be with automation for the reasons I stated before.

This ain't gonna fly

OK, so the new tax cut bill has passed and the Repubs will own it, lock, stock and barrel.

Here's what it does:

Makes health care insurance unavailable to at least thirteen million people.
Makes insurers even more leery of offering insurance to non-urban areas, which in turn, makes rural hospitals uneconomic to operate. Result: more people without health care at all in rural areas.
Drives up premiums for the rest of us that are left in the exchanges by 10-20%.

Gives billions to the already rich hedge fund managers and real estate developers via the 'pass-through' loophole.

Rate cuts are disproportionately aimed at the rich by twenty-to-one ratio, meaning that the wealthy get twenty times more money from the cuts than all of the lower one-third of the wage-earners in the country.

Drives up the debt (which is already at twenty TRILLION dollars) by one-and-a-half trillion more. They claim that this figure will be offset by the economic gains given to the wealthy and corporations. They claim that the middle class is bolstered by the fact that these companies will use the money to expand and hire more workers at higher wages.
This is wrong in a number of areas, and those job increases and wage hikes will never materialize.
First, when the Treasury Secretary asked a roomful of CEO's the other day what they would do with the increased profits due to the tax reduction. Only a small handful said that they would use it to expand. The rest said that it would go either to stock buybacks or as dividends to the stockholders.
Second, if they were to expand, they would invest in automation for a number of reasons. The investment in automation is a capital expense that can now be deducted right away from any taxable income.
Any investment in more people is an operating expense that cannot be deducted. That includes higher wages, better benefits, and a host of other costs. Robotics and automation works twenty-four/seven and doesn't complain or take days off or vacations.
There has to be more goodies for special interests buried in a thousand-page bill that very few people have any idea what's in it.

In addition, because of the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge deficiet, look for the Repubs to hypocritically start clamoring for massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other leftover New Deal programs that are still in existance. This means you, retirees that get SS benefits and Medicare (of which I am one). Watch out, they're coming for you next.

All in all, this is a REALLY bad idea, and should never have been passed.

This ain't gonna fly

OK, so the new tax cut bill has passed and the Repubs will own it, lock, stock and barrel.

Here's what it does:

Makes health care insurance unavailable to at least thirteen million people.
Makes insurers even more leery of offering insurance to non-urban areas, which in turn, makes rural hospitals uneconomic to operate. Result: more people without health care at all in rural areas.
Drives up premiums for the rest of us that are left in the exchanges by 10-20%.

Gives billions to the already rich hedge fund managers and real estate developers via the 'pass-through' loophole.

Rate cuts are disproportionately aimed at the rich by twenty-to-one ratio, meaning that the wealthy get twenty times more money from the cuts than all of the lower one-third of the wage-earners in the country.

Drives up the debt (which is already at twenty TRILLION dollars) by one-and-a-half trillion more. They claim that this figure will be offset by the economic gains given to the wealthy and corporations. They claim that the middle class is bolstered by the fact that these companies will use the money to expand and hire more workers at higher wages.
This is wrong in a number of areas, and those job increases and wage hikes will never materialize.
First, when the Treasury Secretary asked a roomful of CEO's the other day what they would do with the increased profits due to the tax reduction. Only a small handful said that they would use it to expand. The rest said that it would go either to stock buybacks or as dividends to the stockholders.
Second, if they were to expand, they would invest in automation for a number of reasons. The investment in automation is a capital expense that can now be deducted right away from any taxable income.
Any investment in more people is an operating expense that cannot be deducted. That includes higher wages, better benefits, and a host of other costs. Robotics and automation works twenty-four/seven and doesn't complain or take days off or vacations.
There has to be more goodies for special interests buried in a thousand-page bill that very few people have any idea what's in it.

In addition, because of the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge deficiet, look for the Repubs to hypocritically start clamoring for massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other leftover New Deal programs that are still in existance. This means you, retirees that get SS benefits and Medicare (of which I am one). Watch out, they're coming for you next.

All in all, this is a REALLY bad idea, and should never have been passed.