Lisa Benson for January 06, 2018

I get a tax cut this year! So as long as I die within the next eight years, I’ll be fine!

https://www.statista.com/statistics/246597/projected-us-average-family-health-insurance-premium-estimates/

" …

A tax deduction for medical expenses will be more generous for the next two years under the Republican tax plan. You will be able to deduct healthcare expenses that exceed 7.5 percent of your gross income, down from 10 percent currently. The deduction goes back to 10 percent in 2020.

…

The GOP tax plan doesn’t explicitly address Medicare. But it could possibly trigger large cuts to the health insurance program for people 65 and older, starting in 2018. That’s because a 2010 law, known as Pay As You Go, requires cuts to certain federal programs if Congress passes legislation that increases the federal deficit. The tax bill is estimated to add $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit in the next decade, according to the CBO.

Medicare would be the largest program affected, with a potential 4 percent, or $25 billion a year, cut to its budget. If that happens, people aren’t expected to be kicked off Medicare but could pay more for the benefits they get, says Banerjee from S&P. Senate GOP majority leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan say the cuts to Medicare will be waived but have not proposed any specific legislation to do that yet.

…"

https://www.consumerreports.org/healthcare-costs/what-the-gop-tax-overhaul-means-for-your-healthcare-costs/

And the US still has a big fat jerk for a president.

I’m sure the Rexnord and Carrier workers here in Indianapolis appreciate your … perspective.

FYI – Rexnord is 100% in Mexico, now, and Carrier has only about 350 jobs, instead of the several thousand Hair Furor said he’d saved.

fusilier

James 2:24

I think this diary by BradBlog, titled “Will Trump’s Ringer at IRS Game 2018 Paychecks to Boost GOP Tax Scheme?” is extremely important … it describes a potentially devastating Republican strategy to artificially raise paychecks during the runup to the November midterms, through a sneak appointment of a Trump agent as acting IRS director.

I quote the diary:

Investigative financial journalist DAVID DAYEN, who recently wrote about this for The Nation, joins us today to explain how Trump’s ringer at the Internal Revenue Service may be able to game the nation’s paycheck tax withholding scheme, beginning in February, in order to try and turn the tide in favor of the GOP tax scam in advance of the 2018 mid-terms.

“Instead of putting someone up for a vote in the Senate and going through the confirmation process, they just made this guy, Kautter, the IRS Commissioner, and there is nobody on the horizon who is set to replace him,” Dayen explains. “So, this guy is doing two separate jobs, essentially. He is the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy — which is a position where he was working with members of Congress to put the tax bill forward — and he’s supposed to be the non-partisan official who is implementing that same policy.”

Since most of the changes to the tax law won’t be seen by average Americans until 2019, when they file their 2018 taxes, paycheck withholding is “the only way that people are really going to experience this tax bill between now and the midterm elections,” says Dayen. “And they’ll see that difference in their paychecks, allegedly, by the beginning of February.”

Something good happens and all you people can do is gripe.

I got a raise in line with inflation and a tax increase. Get stuffed.

Let’s see, those who are retired and on Social Security will get a reduced inflation increase because of the change in how it is calculated. The GOP has already signaled they want to reduce Medicare and Medicaid. Many people will lose part of their State and local tax and property tax deductions. The personal exemption goes away. On the other hand Trump will save millions along with many rich real estate people. Just what the Republicans have been wanting to do for years.

Among those issues is the strange matter of the wildly unpopular GOP tax bill which, oddly enough, most Republicans members of Congress don’t seem overly concerned about. Why would that be?

One reason, as cited by GOP leadership in Congress, is that they believe Americans will come to love the new scheme once they begin to see more money in their paychecks this year. But how much more money will average middle-class Americans actually see, if any? That may be up to one man who now heads the IRS, with an “Acting” title, even as he works for the Trump Administration’s Treasury Department at the same time in what seems a blatant conflict of interest.

Remember the phony “IRS Scandal” that Republicans and Fox “News” and Donald Trump all still pretend was an actual scandal involving Barrack Obama using the IRS for political purposes (which the IRS Inspector General has since completely debunked with far less fanfare)? Well, now the President of the United States actually does have a ringer at the IRS, his unconfirmed Acting IRS Chief David Kautter. Could he be the “Ace in the Hole” for Republicans on their tax bill?

“Instead of putting someone up for a vote in the Senate and going through the confirmation process, they just made this guy, Kautter, the IRS Commissioner, and there is nobody on the horizon who is set to replace him,” Dayen explains.

No, you didn’t get a pay raise. Not because of any law passed by Congress. And you’re a fool and a liar if you claim you did.

Distract the masses with a few crumbs and set the country on the path to insolvency. Then retire from congress to a cushy job as a lobbyist while keeping your “government run free healthcare” for you and your spouse for life. Nice work if you can get it I guess. The Bush tax cuts gave my family about $600 one time and replaced a 10 billion dollar surplus (from the Clinton years, btw) with a trillion dollars worth of debt and helped trigger a recession and eight years of GOP mandated “austerity” with everyone screaming that those deficits had to be addressed immediately no matter what the social cost. People deserve the government that they elect.

And that price you paid to get the bonus doesn’t bother you? Come back in 6 ~ 10 months and tell us what a bargain you got.

The native Indians were bought off with beads and baubles .. and here we go again.. suckers!

For every million corporations get in tax breaks for eternity, they might give an employee a thousand dollars, this year.

Just another distortion from Ms. Benson — She wouldn’t dare to depict that this Tax “Cut” benefits the upper 10% !!!

Two weeks later they were told their jobs are being eliminated. ( ATT come to mind?)

My prediction is the Republican Party will claim in November 2018 that they supported President Trump as a result of a personality disorder brought on by a non-approved but totally natural remedy/drug for Erectile Dysfunction.

Sure you did. Bonus? I haven’t seen a pay raise in seven years. Everybody in the big business and down is being laid off as the coal fired power plant closes.

It may not be as bad as the Losey and the Democrats say, but it sure as hell isn’t as good as Trump and the Republicans want to pretend either!

One must actually pay taxes to get a tax cut.Which leaves out all the lefty, free,free,free,everyone else pay’s for me ,no paying types.

^ If you control 70% of the wealth, you should pay 70% of the taxes! If you control 1% of the wealth, WHY should you pay >2.5% of the wealth?

Sorry, @GEEZER, for the confusion … I’m for progressive taxation — like we have in the great country of ours!

too bad that raise and bonus (which you get every year) won’t keep up with inflation. Trump has delivered what we always get, and pretended like it was because of him, and that it is enough.

C’mon, Lisa; you haven’t slimed Oprah yet. You wanna get with the program here? You’re falling behind.