Despite the histrionics of the president, it is far too early to say whether the Amtrak derailment had anything whatsoever to do with the infrastructure involved. There are plenty of arguments for investing in infrastructure. This is not one of them.
The NYT reports that it was speeding well over the limit for those tracks.
Back to taxes:
Does anyone think large donations to non profits will be affected?
As we scurry to the vote, more revelations. I won’t say the two choices here, but I will present some evidence:
From Senator Cornyn’s twitter feed:
Totally normal family right?
And then I will present this:
And finally, this:
Exactly what conclusion should I draw?
@Dave_N I saw that, yeah totally average family. (Insert eye roll)
I’m fascinated by the craft beer provisions…
B-) Craft beer, common ground at last!
(No beer mug emoji in this emoji set)
Reading some of these posts is funny. Anyone who doesn’t want their tax cut, feel free to send it my way. I’ll make sure it will get put to good use. 
Is it good well thought out policy on every page? Heck no. But that is the way things work in Congress with their stupid rules and partisanship. Sometimes you play they hand your dealt.
And just so you know. Spending causes deficits. Not taxes. Tax revenues will go up after this is enacted, just like they do every year. Want to control deficits? Stop spending. It’s simple.
Point of fact/clarification: New only in the sense that there had been upgrades—it was mostly existing trackage with existing service.
I’ll send you my tax cut, yourmomma. Oops, it’s actually a tax increase. Thanks for volunteering to pay it! PM me your address and I’ll tell you where to send the check.
^ Only bitcoins accepted.
“And just so you know. Spending causes deficits. Not taxes. Tax revenues will go up after this is enacted, just like they do every year. Want to control deficits? Stop spending.”
Where do you think the $1.5 Trillion increase in the deficit is coming from? This tax bills reduces taxes on the extremely wealthy by $5 Trillion dollars, but the tax increases on everyone else totals “only” $3.5 Trillion - creating a deficit of $1.5 Trillion. The Senate wrote that $1.5 Trillion deficit limit into the spending bill a few months ago. They are admitting this bill will increase the deficit by that amount.
Of course, they somehow believe that the $5 Trillion will trickle down to the unwashed masses - despite zero evidence from previous tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations that they do not trickle down or help the economy,
Personally, I avoid having a deficit in my personal finances by making sure that my income exceeds my expenses. The government’s income is taxes.
"Where do you think the $1.5 Trillion increase in the deficit is coming from? This tax bills reduces taxes on the extremely wealthy by $5 Trillion dollars, but the tax increases on everyone else totals “only” $3.5 Trillion - creating a deficit of $1.5 Trillion. The Senate wrote that $1.5 Trillion deficit limit into the spending bill a few months ago. They are admitting this bill will increase the deficit by that amount.
Of course, they somehow believe that the $5 Trillion will trickle down to the unwashed masses - despite zero evidence from previous tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations that they do not trickle down or help the economy, "
The $1.5 Trillion deficit increase is a fiction. I can make that whatever you want, based on assumptions. If you’re going to use that as a hard and fast number, you better look at the track record of the entity making such “prediction.” They are usually wrong. And many times, way wrong.
@Hunt - that naturally sounds like a great idea, when possible. But we live in a semi-socialist state, and have made a social contract to attempt to care for some of our less fortunate common citizens. These promises are often called entitlements. We have been running serious deficits for many many years. Nobody likes taxes, but we also dislike it when programs are cut. We don’t like it when hospitals have to layoff nurses, and we see that granny in the ER is ignored in what may be her last hours.
Passed the House. Reports say Senate may vote later today.
Why wouldn’t it pass? They need to stick a fork in it so they can stick forks in their Christmas hams and turkeys.
“The $1.5 Trillion deficit increase is a fiction.”
Sigh.
The Senate specifically wrote in the spending bill that the tax bill could not increase the deficit more than $1.5 Trillion. They chose that figure and crafted the bill so it wouldn’t exceed more than the $1.5 so they could pass it under reconciliation.
The tax bill cuts taxes on corporations and the wealthy by $5 Trillion and increases taxes on everyone else by $3.5 Trillion - leaving a deficit of $1.5 Trillion.
The bottom line is that these tax cuts are not fully paid for and will increase the deficit.
The issue isn’t so much how much are you paying out in taxes, but the totality of all of your income and outgo.
For instance: today’s LA Times had an opinion piece written by a retiree living off of social security saying that even though his social security monthly stipend is going up, his monthly check will drop, because Medicare Part D and B premiums are going up, and more than wipe out the income gain. His rent will be increasing in January, and he’s been noticing his grocery bill increasing as well.
It’s likely that my family’s tax bill will be going up for 2018, but it’ll be impossible to tell until we actually run the numbers. Even if our federal taxes were somehow to drop, the difference will likely be eaten up by new fees that’ll be created to cover costs. I expect national park entry fees to go up, and the security charges for air flights. Ditto the costs for ID, both passports and drivers licenses (the latter because these need to meet stricter security guidelines). I’m going to hope that we’re not subject to catastrophic losses that only impact a very unlucky minority, like losing our house in a fire when it’s not part of a disaster classified as such by the federal government.
@“Snowball City” - RE charitable contributions -
The food pantry/soup kitchen I work with has prepared a mass email to its regular donors - we are expecting that some people will no longer itemize, and therefore be less likely to donate if they cannot write it off. We are explicitly asking that our regular January donors try, if possible, to accelerate their contributions to December, so they may count it under the current tax rules.
One of the board members shared with us an article that indicated organizations like ours might expect charitable contributions to drop by 25 to 35%. We aren’t big enough to get the large scale donations in the millions - the article suggested the bigger groups that get those will see less of an impact.
I’m unhappy about this tax reform, but I’m delighted that @yourmomma has volunteered to pay the increase in my family’s taxes. Thanks, @yourmomma! I hope your tax cut covers my tax increase. But that’s not my problem!