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A Temporary Setback on the Way to a Just America

  By Federal Taxes, Taxation, US

The Trump-GOP tax cut bill passed the House on a party-line vote with twelve Republicans voting against it this afternoon. It  is likely to pass the Senate tonight. This process reminds us that history does not move in a straight line. There are moments, like this one, in which America takes a step away from its promise of equality and justice for all. A combination of ideological zealotry, partisan extremism, and financial power has given us legislation that will cut taxes for the richest Americans while ultimately raising taxes and insurance premiums for working people and the middle-class and taking health insurance away from 13 million people. Wall Street will benefit, but the rest of us will be harmed by higher taxes, insurance premiums, deficits, and interest rates, and, if the Republicans have their way, deep cuts to the social safety net. This legislation will ultimately rank in the same… Continue reading

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It redistributes from working people and the middle class to the rich. And that’s just wrong.

  By Federal Taxes, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Social Justice, Tump, US

Originally published at KRC-PBPC. With all the controversy over the details of the tax cut bill that is moving towards a final vote in the House and Senate this week it is easy to forget about the basic features of the bill. As they did during the debate over repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the Republicans put forward noxious proposals—to radically reduce the state and local tax deduction, to tax graduate student stipends, to eliminate the deduction for teachers who use their own funds in classrooms, and to eliminate the deduction for extremely high medical expenses among others—and then removed them from the final proposal. But we shouldn’t be gratified that these horrible elements of the bill are gone when the basic framework of the bill, which has remained constant in every version considered by the House and Senate, remains so awful. The legislation is basically a huge and… Continue reading

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On the Passage of the US Senate GOP Tax Bill

  By Federal Taxes, PA Budget and Policy Center, Statements, US

Marc Stier, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, released the following statement on the passage of the U.S. Senate GOP tax bill: “Budgets are, it is frequently said, moral documents. If that is true, and we believe it is, then the tax plan adopted by the Senate today represents an extreme moral failure on the part of the Republican Party. At a time when incomes are becoming ever more unequal, the Republican tax plan will ultimately make the rich richer and the poor and middle class poorer. It will benefit corporations at the expense of families. And, because of the repeal of the individual mandate, it will cost 13 million people nationwide — and 500,000 in Pennsylvania — health insurance leading to 1000 to 2000 premature deaths in our state alone. Continue reading

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The GOP Tax Bill: An Assault on Economic Equality and Democracy

  By Federal Taxes, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Taxation, US

Budgets, it is frequently said, are an embodiment of our moral ideals and commitments. If so, the tax plan adopted by the Senate on Friday represents an extreme moral failure on the part of the senators from the Republican Party who voted for it. At a time when incomes are becoming ever more unequal, the Republican tax plan will ultimately make the rich richer and the poor and middle class poorer. Not only will working people and the middle class suffer, but so will our whole country. And not only that: one has to wonder what kind of democracy America has, when our government acts in such utter disregard of a majority of the country and the common good. Many of the features of this bill that work to help the rich and harm everyone else are now well known. So let’s quickly review them with links to the hard… Continue reading

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On Joint Resolution 1, The Constitutional Amendment on Property Taxes

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania, Property Taxes, Taxation

We are getting a lot of questions about what the constitutional amendment on the ballot this year means and where the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center stands on it. We haven’t rushed to judgment on it for a couple of reasons. First, we are not convinced that this amendment will, by itself, have much impact on policy in the state. And second, given that any amendment to the Constitution is important, we wanted to make sure we understood all the implications of it before reaching a conclusion. We have reached a conclusion — that the amendment won’t make much difference. And that’s why we aren’t going to offer any recommendation about how to vote. So let’s begin by explaining what the amendment does and, as importantly, does not do. The background: our uniformity clause The key piece of background information one must know to understand this amendment is that the… Continue reading

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For Many Pennsylvanians, Insurance Premiums Increase Are Greater Than Tax Cuts

  By ACA, Federal Taxes, Health Care, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Taxation

As we have pointed out previously, because it repeals the individual mandate, the Senate tax cut proposal will not only lead to 13 million fewer people having health insurance in the United States, but it will lead to much higher premiums for many who do purchase health insurance on the individual market. The CBO’s estimate was that premiums nationwide would increase by 10%. Last week we presented a very rough estimate of the impact of repeal of the mandate on the average cost of health insurance premiums in Pennsylvania and suggested that the average increase in premiums is likely to be higher than the average savings in taxes under the Senate plan. New research from the Commonwealth Fund provides more detailed information on the increase in premiums for Pennsylvanians at different ages. And their work reinforces our conclusion. In 2019, much of the benefit of the tax cut to middle… Continue reading

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Help for Your Thanksgiving Day Tax Debates

  By Federal Taxes, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Taxation

If your family is anything like ours, politics tends to come up around the Thanksgiving Day table and diverse opinions are often put forward, including by one or more of our cranky uncles who mutter about “those people” and the “damn government.” Since your cranky uncles like mine no doubt listens to Rush and his friends, they are going to present you with a lot of misinformation about the GOP federal tax cut bill. But have no fear as we have your back.   Claim: Of course we are cutting taxes for the rich and not for the poor. Only the rich pay income taxes. Answer: This is the myth that helped cost Mitt Romney the election in 2012. It’s totally misleading. It is true that in good economic years, about 40% of households don’t owe federal taxes. But: 1. If we include federal payroll taxes, only about 14% of… Continue reading

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The Rich Get Richer: Why the Senate Tax Bill Is a Total Sham

  By Budget analysis, Federal Taxes, Inequality, PA Budget and Policy Center, Taxation

The Senate Republican tax plan would provide enormous, permanent tax cuts to high-income households and corporations – all while adding at least $1.5 trillion to the deficit. And to pay for its permanent tax cuts for corporations, the bill would raise taxes on many middle-income families and repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, increasing the number of uninsured Pennsylvanians by 505,000 and raising individual market premiums nationwide by 10 percent. Congressional Republicans’ skewed and fiscally irresponsible tax plan would raise taxes on many middle-income families and drive up health insurance premiums to pay for permanent corporate tax cuts. The tax plan would fail Pennsylvania’s families and economy. The House passed its bill on November 16. Senate Republicans are moving quickly to ram through their tax bill the week after Thanksgiving and work with the House to send a final bill to President Trump by the end of the year.… Continue reading

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The House GOP Tax Plan — Redistributing Wealth to the Wealthy

  By Federal Taxes, Taxation

President Trump loves superlatives. Everything he does is record-breaking, the biggest or the best. And that goes for the tax cut plan he will sign if the House Republicans have their way. It won’t be the biggest tax cut in American history. But it will the most one-sided tax cut in our history with most of the benefits flowing to the top 1% of Americans. The House plan is truly an extraordinary piece of legislation. No tax proposal in American history — not even the big tax cut put forward by President Reagan — ever proposed giving 75% of the tax cuts to corporations and other large businesses. Yet that is what this plan does. It proposes a steep drop in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%. And rather than close the loopholes that allows most corporations to pay an effective tax rate of only 14%, it makes… Continue reading

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Why the House Tax Proposal is Bad for Pennsylvanians

  By Federal Taxes, Memos, PA Budget and Policy Center

While the tax cuts proposed in the House of Representatives plan may not be the largest in American history, they are very likely the ones most weighted to benefit the very richest Americans. This press memo, shared on November 13, 2017, outlines why the House of Representative’s tax proposal is bad for Pennsylvanians. Click here to print or read full screen.  Continue reading