The masters of doublespeak on tax reform

Republican leaders in Washington are perfecting the language of doublespeak these days; they are the masters.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, with a straight face, that with the GOP’s tax reform plan “nobody in the middle class is going to get a tax increase.” That is not true, non-partisan analysis shows. The middle class gets hurt most of all.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate tout their separate proposals as beneficial for most Americans, when in reality the ones who will reap windfalls are the ultra rich and corporations. The maximum 35-percent tax rate for corporations would get loped to 20 percent.

Doublespeak excels when something appears to be true. The leaders can point to the proposed near doubling of the standard deduction on federal income taxes, for example, and on the surface that would appear super and supportive of lower wage earners. But further examination reveals that exemptions of $4,000 per person for families would evaporate. Scaling back or taking away some deductions would wipe out any gain.

The Senate version that came out last week isn’t quite as punitive as the Republican’s House plan passed by the Ways and Means Committee, but it is not much better. Republicans in the House version wanted to eliminate the deductions for student loan interest and adoption credits; the Senate plan keeps both. But the Senate lowers the top tax rate from 39.6 percent to 38.5 percent; the House kept the top rate but it wouldn’t kick in until income of $1 million for a couple.

By far the most damaging “reform,” however, is the elimination of state and local tax deductions and property taxes. Interest on home mortgages would be capped at $10,000 in the House version. Those proposed changes would hurt every property owner in Connecticut who itemizes.

Doublespeak obfuscates the consequences of tax “reform.”

While benefiting the very richest (reducing the estate tax is one way), the tax plan would balloon the deficit by $1.7 trillion over the next decade, as calculated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Not all Republicans wholeheartedly embrace the tax plans. A few are concerned about the escalating deficits, others would prefer a larger child tax credit. It would take only three brave Republicans to prevent the bill from passing in the Senate; public pressure could tip the scales.

The Republicans are right about this — tax reform is needed. Simplifying the seven brackets and the complex code is not, in itself, a bad idea. Encouraging small businesses, but without loopholes, could stimulate the economy.

But these tax plans as presented, crafted in haste by one party with no public hearings, are not at all what it would take to “Make America Great Again.” Unless in doublespeak they mean just for the very wealthiest. The other 99 percent can eat cake — or, in plain language, crumbs.