Sunday, December 18, 2016

Health Care “Reform” and Tax Cuts for the Rich

Kevin Drum spots a rare bit of honesty from Rich Lowry:
It’s easy to see things like the Carrier deal, the jawboning of the likes of Boeing, and the saber-rattling against China on trade being quite popular, at the same time the truly big things happening in Washington aren’t, such as Obamacare “repeal” without a replacement, a deficit-increasing traditional Republican “tax cut for the rich,” and even — although this is much less likely — Medicare reform.
Lowry not only admits that the GOP tax agenda is tax cuts for the rich but he also concedes that this may increase the deficit if not offset by things like “Medicare reform” which is not reform but repeal. Of course Lowry also penned something on repealing Obamacare. As Brian Faler notes:
The big winners in Republican plans to repeal Obamacare are likely to be the rich. Rescinding the Affordable Care Act means not only taking away health coverage from some 20 million Americans. It also means scrapping two big tax increases Democrats imposed on the wealthy to help pay for it all.
That is the entire GOP agenda – more tax cuts for the rich.

5 comments:

Gerald said...

"That is the entire GOP agenda – more tax cuts for the rich." Um...that's been their agenda for as long as I can remember.

GrueBleen said...

And it's good to remember, because most can't - even yesterday grows dimmer by the moment.

Jack said...

My latest dream regarding my financial future is to one day have enough income to actually benefit from a Republican tax cut. Does anyone know what percentage of income earners did so under the Bush II tax cuts? Is there any prognostication regarding either Ryan's or Trump's proposals? Just how much income does one have to have to actually vote one's own personal gain when voting Republican? This kind of information should be part of the general knowledge and discussed routinely between friends at the barber shop and local gin mill.

run75441 said...

Jack:

The 1% of the taxpayers making greater than $500,000 annually.

Jack said...

Yikes, I don't even come close. Thank goodness I've been voting Democrat all these years, but I'm not sure I've seen, or experienced, any benefit from that habit. The wife and I retired two years ago and that made it all the more apparent that I'm paying taxes on the FICA taxes that are finally being paid back to me as benefits. Some how that seems very regressive; I pay taxes on the return of formally paid taxes. It's not as though I'm getting back a windfall on my FICA invested funds.