After months of negotiating amongst themselves in secret behind closed doors — no Democrats allowed! — with no committee hearings to hear from stakeholder groups and tax experts, and no plans to do so before mark up and proceeding to a rapid vote, the GOP finally released its long anticipated “tax reform” (sic) bill this week.
Dylan Matthews at Vox.com says I’ve spent months covering Republican tax policy. This bill is way worse than I expected. OK then … Matthews follows up with his detailed analysis in The House Republican tax bill, explained (an easy to understand read).
Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik writes, The GOP tax plan is filled with petty cruelties aimed at the vulnerable and the middle class. Here’s a list:
House Republicans’ determination to slash tax deductions for taxpayers and homebuyers in blue states has commanded most of the public’s attention since the unveiling of the GOP’s tax bill Thursday.
The Republicans are crowing that their measure will drastically remake the tax code to spur economic growth while giving virtually all American families a tax cut. But the bill bristles with tax increases aimed at low- and moderate-income households — small in their aggregate effect but burdensome on the targeted taxpayers — that have no apparent social rationale.
Not all these petty cruelties are easily discernible in the shadowy corners of the 429-page bill. Some are buried so deep that it will take a platoon of coal miners to bring them to the surface. But others are more thinly disguised. Here’s a sampling, listed by general category.
Continue reading Hiltzik’s piece.
