The tax cut package is fiscally irresponsible

I am deeply disappointed in the Republican Senate tax “reform” package that just passed. It includes a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate to purchase health insurance (by reducing to zero the fine for not having coverage). The Congressional Budget Office predicts this repeal will raise the number of uninsured Americans by 13 million and increase the cost of individual health insurance plans by 10 percent.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the package will raise the deficit by a trillion dollars over the next 10 years, adding a trillion dollars to the national debt. By 2027 our debtto-GDP ratio, a measure of our fiscal solvency, will be approaching 100 percent, endangering Social Security, Medicare and many other programs our seniors depend on.

In addition, the “reform” includes many provisions for the rich. It retains the carried-interest deduction loophole that President Donald Trump promised to eliminate. It allows hedge-fund managers and private-equity tycoons to pay a low tax rate on their profits. And the “reform” also cuts the tax on “pass-through” income, income on unincorporated businesses that is reported on individual tax returns. Eighty percent of this cut benefits millionaires, like Mr. Trump, who owns a number of these ventures.

In short, Sen. Pat Toomey, regarded as the fiscal leader of the Republican Party, has crafted a bill to benefit the rich, attack the middle class and throw fiscal responsibility out the window. JIM MORGAN Squirrel Hill will never believe the actual truth. It will all somehow be President Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s fault. Yet if this had been either of them, they would have been armed with their pitchforks and screaming, “Lock them up!” DON DROLET

Edgewood

To some, socialists are simply scary “radicals.” But we believe we are the heirs to a proud tradition that puts human dignity over corporate interests.

The men and women who agitated and organized a century ago won victories we take for granted — like fair wages and the 40-hour workweek. They fought the profit motive of the industrialists to build workers’ power. In short, their commitment was to democratic socialism.

I am proud of the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America for continuing this tradition. Together, we fight for universal health care, reproductive justice, fair wages and union rights for workers, and more. We host education sessions, potlucks and community events. On a recent Sunday, we fixed broken taillights to prevent Pittsburghers from being pulled over by the police. And for months, we put in the work to lead our two endorsed candidates, Mik Pappas and Anita Prizio, to unexpected electoral victories.

But there’s work ahead. Large employers like UPMC do not pay their fair share in taxes. Politicians listen to developers instead of residents displaced from their homes. Drug companies reap massive profits while the opioid crisis fractures communities. These problems are the product of our capitalist system and the powerful establishment interests that maintain it.

I and hundreds of others in Pittsburgh DSA — and more than 31,000 nationally — are working to build a society that benefits the many, not the few. Join us at an upcoming meeting to find out how you can plug into our work. Our radical great-grandparents would demand nothing less. ADAM STOKES

North Side