Tax bill crafted to benefit only the rich

Regarding the Republican consultant whose editorial was titled, “Deducting state taxes is gaming the federal tax code and must end” (Monday). The assertion is that “simple fairness would demand equity rather than giving discounts to some because the states where they live have higher tax rates.”

This is the worst case of Republican doublespeak and hypocrisy I’ve heard yet. It isn’t bad enough Republicans are able to accept an additional $1.5 trillion in deficits, but they have done another aboutface and now consider double taxation fair. Taxing income at the state and federal level without deductions is double taxation. Yet in the same tax bill, they are repealing the inheritance tax because it is considered “double taxation.”

This demand for fairness is rich coming from a Republican tax bill that taxes income from investments at lower rates than income from wages. And this demand for equity is hypocritical coming from a tax bill that continues the carried interest provision, which allows Wall Street investment bankers to pay lower rates than middle-class taxpayers.

In the coming year, we will hear a Russian-style propaganda campaign to convince voters that this tax bill is “fair and equitable.” But none of that will change the facts that the middle class will continue to struggle financially, the deficit will swell and the rich will get richer.

RANDY JOHNSON,