{"id":9961,"date":"2017-11-22T01:09:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T06:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=9961"},"modified":"2023-05-14T01:12:30","modified_gmt":"2023-05-14T05:12:30","slug":"the-rich-get-richer-why-the-senate-tax-bill-is-a-total-sham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=9961","title":{"rendered":"The Rich Get Richer: Why the Senate Tax Bill Is a Total Sham"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Senate Republican tax plan would provide enormous, permanent tax cuts to high-income households and corporations \u2013 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\u2019s individual mandate, increasing the number of uninsured Pennsylvanians by 505,000 and raising individual market premiums nationwide by 10 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Congressional Republicans\u2019 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\u2019s families and economy.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Senate Plan Is an Assault on Our Health Care<\/strong><\/p>\n

Repealing the individual mandate was already rejected in the Senate as part of the GOP\u2019s \u201cSkinny Repeal\u201d plan \u2013 and was opposed by governors<\/a> of both parties, health<\/a> insurers<\/a>, physicians<\/a>, patient<\/a> advocates<\/a>, and experts. That\u2019s because the individual mandate is critical to keeping market coverage affordable and keeping the individual market stable.<\/p>\n

Congressional Republicans use these savings from reducing the number of people with health coverage to give large, permanent tax cuts to profitable corporations. While they say they are using the savings to pay for tax cuts for middle-income households, they are actually increasing taxes on many middle-income households \u2013 also to pay for their permanent tax cuts for wealthy corporations.<\/p>\n

Without the individual mandate, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates<\/a> that market premiums would increase by 10 percent, costing hundreds of dollars per year for about 7 million<\/a> mostly middle-income, unsubsidized individual market consumers, with premiums increasing by over $1,000 for many older people. CBO also estimates<\/a> that the number of Americans without health insurance would increase by 13 million if the individual mandate were repealed.<\/p>\n

Worse still, the Senate tax plan has the same basic flaws as the House plan:<\/strong><\/p>\n