Reforming the US Tax Code: Who Comes Out on Top?
THE ISSUE: The GOP’s tax-reform proposal, which would slash corporate taxes and some deductions.
I’m becoming convinced that Republicans would mess up a one-car funeral (“Dem Tax-Cut Delusions,” Betsy McCaughey, Nov. 8).
The GOP tax plan will cause my wife and me to pay an additional $1,140 a year, and we’re in our 80s, retired, on a fixed income and right in the middle of middle class. The elimination of the medical-expense deduction and other exemptions are the culprits for us.
If the plan becomes law, I think there will be many surprised and angry middle-class people. Bill Keegan Manahawkin, NJ
It took real effort for former President Barack Obama to sink our economy into the 2 percent growth range.
Tax increases, the highest corporate-tax rate in the developed world and regulation upon regulation choked off business start-ups and expansion.
President Trump has pushed the economy into the 3 percent growth range by cutting regulations. But without a corporate-tax cut, the billions of dollars companies have stashed over- seas will stay overseas. Without a personal tax cut, expansion is still in trouble.
Republicans were elected to enact a progrowth agenda. Failure isn’t an option. Steve Heitner Port Jefferson Station
McCaughey writes that the GOP’s proposed tax plan “is designed to produce higher wages and more job opportunities for workers.”
According to the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, the top tax rate under President Bill Clinton rose to 39.6 percent, and job creation also increased to an average of 2.9 million jobs each year. Under President George W. Bush, the top tax rate declined to 35 percent, yet job creation declined to an average of 275,000 new jobs each year.
History does not justify McCaughey’s optimistic predictions. John Engelman Wilmington, Del.
The Republican plan is a straightforward effort to lower taxes for the middle class and encourage job creation by lowering taxes on corporations.
Why can’t the opposition realize that when you lower taxes, richer people will always benefit more? The top earners already pay the bulk of the tax bill. If we want lower taxes, the people who pay the most will benefit the most.
Lowering corporate taxes is supported by both sides, yet the naysayers argue that only the top will benefit. Robert Morie White Plains