As the House GOP tax bill was being debated in Committee this week, we were treated to this masterpiece of researching and framing questions by US Rep. Suzanne DelBene (D-Wash). In this clip Rep. DelBene is asking the Chief of the Joint Committee on Taxation (the independent organization in Congress that gives information about tax bills) about what types of expense deductions go away for individual workers like teachers and fire fighters who buy their own supplies, and contrasts it with the fact that corporations would still be able to write off the exact same expenses.
Not only would teachers and people who move for a job end up paying higher Federal income taxes because their personal expenses would no longer be deductible, note that the Chief of the JCT mentions that it's an "above the line" deduction, which means the person's adjusted gross income also goes up. Which means Federal AND State income taxes go up again, because the person's income went "up". This also would apply to student loan interest and the Health Savings Account deduction.
That makes it a multiple screw job on teachers and other multiple professionals, while allowing corporations to not have to pay another cent for the same activities. And as I understand it, corporations would also still be able to write off their 3-martini steakhouse dinners and sports tickets as "entertainment expense", and those same corps would get a significant tax rate cut and whatever "profits" they have left over after writing everything else off.
Gee, and you wonder why it appears that we have a two-tier society in this country? Why do you GOP voters allow this garbage to go on?
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