Like healthcare, tax policy effects every American. And like healthcare tax policy would be best developed through a normal bi-partisan or no labels committee process. It takes longer but the result is better for the country. The very complicated one party bills currently in congress run to nearly 500 pages and I’m trying to sort through it like many other people. Here are some landmarks for me.
The substantial cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will have real human impacts. Taken together with continued efforts to end the Affordable Care Act, with no replacement in sight, these will cause real harm. We expect people to work, one needs to be healthy to do so. For me, this issue speaks to who we are as a nation. Do we care for the health and well-being of all our people.
High taxes on business, particularly manufacturing, contribute to companies moving offshore and/or limiting investments in the United States. Cheap labor in other countries is another major cause.
As currently written, tax breaks for the middle class are a mixed bag, with some seeing modest benefits while others will see tax increases. Far and away the largest tax cuts in the legislation are for the wealthy and Corporations.
Tax incentives (reductions) have been used to encourage research and new technology like electric cars and clean renewable energy. Those incentives would be removed.
Lastly, I have great difficulty with the theory of trickle down economics or Reaganomics, the idea that if the wealthy get richer there will be more to go around, trickle down, to everyone. I’m open to proof, but I don’t believe this works. I don’t think it has ever worked.
I have not given up on reducing the deficit or tackling the national debt which burdens the future of the Country for all of us.
