Some good things are included. Some. Consider the child tax credit being doubled from $1,000 to $2,000 and the standard deduction being almost doubled from $6,350 to $12,400 for single filers and from $12,700 to $24,800 for joint (married) filers. Both good things. Now consider the following:
> All personal / itemized exemptions would, over ten years, disappear.
> The top level of taxation drops from 39.6% to 38.5%, but that top level of taxation that currently does not kick in until $418,000 of income for single filers would not begin until $500,000 of income ... for joint filers, whereas the higher level of taxation kicks in at $480,000, the new threshold would $1,000,000 (more than double).
> Corporate taxation would become territorial, meaning only profits made within the U.S. would be taxed.
> The top level of taxation on "flow-through" companies ("S" corporations) would drop from nearly 40% down to just under 30%. [*** Watch video below this paragraph regarding "S" corps.]
> The overall corporate tax rate would drop from 35% down to 20%.
> The estate tax exemption would double from $11,000,000 to $22,000,000 ... eventually to be eliminated altogether.
This video from the old MSNBC program 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' from 2010 will talk, in part, about "S corps". It runs about twenty minutes, but is still relevant and worth the watch...
There is much more to the Senate's bill than what I have mentioned above, but let's see who wins with it. The Republicans "win" -- I put it in quotes here because it is a shallow victory -- because they get a major piece of legislation finally passed in both houses of the Congress. Big business wins. Wealthy people win. The President wins -- he and his family, by means of his family's businesses, could gain anywhere from hundreds of millions to possibly even one billion dollars -- even though he claimed just days ago...
Some of the
I described the hand-written "final version" as clandestine. This video from Montana Senator John Tester will help explain why...
The handwritten addendum was done behind closed doors with Republican senators excluding Democratic senators from attending.
I would like to single out one Republican senator in particular, even though all but one voted in favor, Arizona Senator John McCain. During a vote in the Senate earlier this year regarding repealing Obamacare, he voted in the affirmative to move the bill forward for debate. At the time, he seemed the rare voice of reason from the Republicans on the issue, so, like many others, I was upset with him with that vote. It turned he voted that way because he wanted to see regular order followed and not a secretive jamming through of the bill. That did not happen and it resulted in his dramatic thumbs down vote on the floor of Senate on the final bill itself.
And yet, for all of his bravado about regular order in the Senate, including an impassioned "We're getting nothing done" speech just days before his thumbs down vote, Senator McCain voted in favor of this financial raping of the American people. Like the lies that prefaced this vote, it is hard to see how regular order was followed in this vote yesterday.
Unless there are those in Congress who want to remove regular order from Congress, or simply allow that to happen.
Here is a list of the senators, all Republicans, who voted in favor of this legislative abomination:
This latest act of Congress is nothing less than the behavior of traitors. Let me remind you that this vote took place in the wee hours of the night, around 2:00 a.m. EST. This disgrace affects everyone. Watch the moment when Vice President Mike Pence announces the vote...
They sure are pleased with themselves sticking it to the American people, aren't they?
The ruining of the American public has been going on for years, long before the current administration. Long before even George W. Bush's administration, if you want to look back further than the past ten months in recent history. However, it seems that, beginning with the time of Bush's administration, the raping of the American citizen has become more and more blatant, and it gets more so year after year.
They still, however, act sneakily. (Isn't that something our founders were trying to get away from with their establishment of governance here?) In this particular instance, they can argue that the debate and vote were televised. To that point: a) your amendments were handwritten, and not all of it legibly, behind closed doors, so full transparency was discarded like an old rag doll; and b) most Americans can watch a recorded copy of the vote Sunday or a summation and discussion on Sunday morning news programs, but that all takes place after the fact. You callously used the late hour to your devious advantage.
One can bemoan about why in the world would they stick it to us like this. Their feelings are not misplaced, but the reasoning behind it on Capitol Hill is correctly placed in favor of the wealthy. Here are some of the reasons I would argue for this overreach:
> Like-kinds look out for each other. (The rich look out for the rich primarily or solely.)
> Republicans still support, to whatever degree, President Trump.
> It's all about getting the win and not about doing the most good for the most people.
> Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn now aiding Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation (and that investigation getting closer and closer to the President) making Republicans feel as though jamming this disgraceful legislation through before anything worse happens (possibly including some of them) is justified.
No calling for executing the Second Amendment (raising militia) here, not at all, but we need a kind of revolutionary response of our own desperately. This is an assault, a pillaging, and a war on all of us. It has been going on for years and is being willfully accelerated at our peril. We must declare our own assault on our government and we must do it now. Complacency aids and abets these thieves.
Here is my contribution: I have just written both of my Senators about how this current debacle unfolded, thanking them for their opposition to the bill (they both voted Nay), and offered a suggestion on how to possibly address this in the future. (If your Senator voted Yea, state how disappointed you are in their vote.) Now, to be transparent, this applies to both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but I am starting with the Senate since that is where this vote took place ... and yes, what I offer as a suggestion can be ignored or gotten around, if ever put in place, but at least it's a start.
Your correspondence does not have to be long -- in fact, it's better if it's not -- but it needs to have, and get to, a point. In the subject line, I highlighted "Taxes". Even though my concern, based on the options their websites offered, would fall squarely under "Other", putting "Taxes" as the subject, in light of yesterday's vote, may garner it more attention. (Be attentive to being timely.)
Here is the full text of what I wrote to both of my senators. Feel free to copy and paste it yourself:
Dear
Senator [Senator's last name]:
My
name is [Your full name] and I am writing to you today in light of the Senate's
passage of H.R. 1 (Tax Cuts and Jobs Bill).
Thank you very much for voting against this abomination, both in
substance and parliamentary order, of legislation. This should not and must not happen again! A stop to this kind of behavior must be put
in place!
I
would like to suggest a law or constitutional amendment be introduced that
would: a) require any legislation that affects a minimum of 20% of the American
public be debated on and voted within reasonable hours as to allow the public
to avail themselves to said proceedings the same day; b) prohibit any one-party
closed door sessions regarding such a bill as noted in "a)" from
taking place [i.e. controlling a body of Congress of a party must not be akin
to willful exclusion of the other party]; and c) require a minimum of a reasonable
length of time to absorb and debate any such bill as noted in "a)".
Again,
I thank you very much for your opposition to H.R. 1 and I hope my suggestion
may be helpful to moving toward preventing this kind of unfair activity from
being allowed to continue.
For those for whom going out to a protest is their style, go out and protest. (Help organize one if there are none near you.) I sent the above message via E-mail, but if your style is to write a physical letter and mail it, or to make a call, then get to writing and mailing and calling.
We can no longer continue to do all that we have been doing so far. The people in Washington, D.C., are still doing what they are doing and their accelerated activities mandate we accelerate our activity. Get on social media, get to your paper and envelopes, get on the horn, take it to the streets, and do not stop!
They are assaulting us! We must respond likewise!
Terry
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