The GOP tax plan is Robin Hood in reverse
The Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump have promised “massive” tax cuts, ostensibly to stimulate economic growth. But, in reality, the cuts are aimed at handing mountains of cash to the super rich.
The meat of the GOP plan will lower the corporate tax rate, phase out the estate tax and do away with the alternative minimum tax. This will result in a windfall for businesses and their shareholders, leaving the government with a gaping hole in the budget.
To offset the shortfall, the GOP bills end deductions for home equity loan interest, student loan interest (in the House bill), major medical expenses (in the House bill) and payments for state and local income and sales taxes. In other words, the poor and middle class will finance tax cuts for the wealthy, redistributing income from the bottom to the top. Robin Hood in reverse.
This comes at a time when wages for average people have stagnated for the better part of four decades, while corporations have never had it so good. The concentration of income at the top has not been this obscene since the days of the Robber Barons. The Republican proposal will exacerbate what is already a corrosive level of income inequality in this country.
Worse, despite tax hikes on regular Americans, the GOP proposal still leaves the government with an additional $1.7 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. The same politicians who are pushing tax cuts this year will be the same ones demanding cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid next year, all in the name of deficit reduction.
For the rich seeking a payday, how much is enough? NICK CUNNINGHAM
Squirrel Hill
We welcome your opinion
something greater than the individual. CAROLE McLAUGHLIN Squirrel Hill
George Luketich (”The OneParty System Is Bad for Pittsburgh,” Nov. 8 letters) asks, “Is 80-plus years of one party rule not the definition of disenfranchisement?”
I will vote for any party that: stands behind “freedom and justice for all”; believes in complete freedom of the press; maintains separation of church and state; stands against bigotry (racial, cultural, religious, political); puts forth candidates who, unlike George W. Bush, do not cordon off protesters to keep them out of view of cameras; stands against the violence of angry, insecure individuals; fights for commonsense measures to limit access to weapons of war; respects women and grants them equal pay for equal work; fights for wages that allow all to earn a decent living; will arrest, convict and jail scamming CEOs; eliminates nondisclosure clauses of those who have wronged fellow citizens; try to enable every voter to get to the polls. Need more? A party that understands the importance of women’s health issues; declares the KKK is a terrorist organization and makes serious efforts to shut it down; emphasizes the education and lifting up of all members of society in order to make the entire country stronger.
I could go on and, no, 80 years is not long enough. Decent treatment of and the uplifting of all members of our society should never have a time limit! BARRY G. GOVENOR
Brentwood
We have all heard the arguments: We can’t legislate enough to protect from the insane, it is too soon to politicize the shooting, we have enough gun laws already, yada, yada, yada.
I agree that we can’t predict who will be the next assassin, but we should admit that the presence of semi-automatic guns, or large ammunition clips, or bump stocks have no place in modern society. If we can’t stop the next event, and we can’t, we can at least eliminate the tools these people use to magnify their carnage.
The Second Amendment was never intended to be absolute and all-encompassing. Just as we restrict libelous speech or the right to shout “fire” in a crowded theater, we can apply commonsense restrictions to the Second Amendment. We are dealing with gun issues, and they can be debated and dealt with now. It is time.
Keep the Second Amendment intact, but apply sensible limitations that can have a real impact on the next event, because we all know that next event will certainly happen. DAN KORTUM
McCandless