If the House of Representatives GOP Tax Plan survives Senate approval and is signed by President Donald Trump, it will be the single biggest tax cut in American history – bigger even than the Ronald Reagan tax cuts in the 1980s. The Reagan tax cuts introduced an era of economic growth and prosperity for American taxpayers lasting for decades.
The House GOP Tax Cut and Jobs Act is designed to ignite America’s economy to produce more job opportunities and higher wages for American workers. First of all, it would lower the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent, thereby removing the main reason for American companies leaving the United States. Presently, the U.S. has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. When corporations leave to relocate overseas, Americans lose those job opportunities to other countries.
The President’s Council of Economic Advisors has shown how a lowering of corporate tax rates in a number of other countries has boosted wages. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act would benefit the middle class in two ways: from a growing economy resulting from the corporate tax reduction, and a doubling of the standard deduction for individual tax filers. The plan doubles the standard deduction to $12,200 for single filers, and to $24,400 for married couples, creating a significant benefit for middle-income taxpayers. In addition, the proposal lowers most rates.
Whether or not the tax reform proposal can pass in this Congress is questionable because of the hyper partisanship in Washington at present. The time for pure partisanship and petty reasoning on policy issues is during a political campaign, not after the people have made their choices in an election. When the campaign is over and the leadership has been duly elected, it is time to set partisanship aside and to focus on the needs of the nation. That time is now.
Those in Congress who vote against tax relief for overtaxed American workers had better have a very good explanation for their constituents; indeed for the whole country. This is the best opportunity for tax relief in decades.
So what is America to do? While major issues like tax reform go unresolved, scandals swirl in Washington. Congress seems unable to resolve important issues like sustainable healthcare reform, relations abroad with other countries, a national crisis with drugs/opioids raging throughout the population, attacks on our shores by terrorists, violence against law enforcement officers, and delays in helping restore areas of the nation hard hit by natural disasters. And then there are the numerous scandals regarding sexual crimes by powerful men in Hollywood, Washington and the news centers in New York.
Citizens are not unreasonable in their expectations of better behavior and effective results from those they elect to represent them in the nation’s capital. Tax reform and relief is the linchpin to other changes in Washington, and would go a long way to help restore the people’s faith in the federal government. Mere simplification of the tax system would truly benefit the average American. Taxpayers deserve to be liberated from a tax process based on a code consisting of hundreds of pages of arcane gobbledygook that employees of the IRS themselves do not understand nor can they explain. The insult to taxpayers is that it is complicated on purpose to benefit certain taxpayers at the expense of others.
Give Americans a break – reform and reduce taxes, and simplify the filing process. Americans know better how to provide for their own needs with their own money if the government will only allow them to keep more of their earnings. There is a point beyond which Americans will no longer allow further confiscation of their hard-earned income.
The selling points for this plan are (1) simplification and (2) more money in private hands. The spending decisions of politicians have already put our country $20 trillion in debt, and they should not be trusted with more taxpayer money.
What a Christmas present to the American people that would be – a tax cut and tax simplification.
Peace and Merry Christmas to all people everywhere. ■
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