Nothing is stopping them from paying in extra to the government. Doubt that will happen. Political posturing.
The bottom line is this is a huge give-a-way to the wealthy and the businesses they own and run. The whole reason they are ramming this thru is because they control everything at this point. This is the best chance they think they have for a very long time to get this done. The President has a fantastic way with words that people fall for. This massive, massive tax cut for the middle class is actually for the rich.
It just amazes me that people still fall for the trickle down effect that they chant. Businesses pay people what they need to driven my the marketplace. Jobs are global now.
So lets play this out.
Business tax cut = increased profits = increased worker pay.
Increased worker pay = higher payroll costs
higher payroll costs = incentive to move jobs/production overseas for cheaper labor
How does this benefit people? The whole reason jobs left the USA in the first place was due to our high wages. Raising them higher will only drive the jobs overseas further.
this will go down as one of the largest taxpayer scams ever.
Business tax cuts = higher profits = higher stock prices = people’s 401(k)s increase in value = retirement is more secure.
@TatinG lol. So true also. The stock bump from the increased profits is a good thing.
the problem apparently is that only 20% of the population really has any stock holdings (even with retirement assets) of any significance. The vast majority of even the middle class is lacking in stock wealth. Sad but true apparently.
Oh that can be easily solved. Just let the government invest our social security funds into stocks. 
Well I’m not looking at the letter cynically. Its not funny that we heard all year that carried interest would be modified, etc and yet the loopholes that real estate moguls and hedge fund managers were left untouched. At least they are saying "hey, we’re good give he cuts to someone else. ".
They are absolutely correct in that things like Medicare and Medicaid will be cut, all to give wealthy individuals more money.
Problem is, fewer people these days have a defined benefit pension plan (which is an indirect interest in capital markets), and most people do not save enough in defined contribution (401k, IRA, etc.) plans or otherwise to either have a financially secure retirement or significant interest in capital markets.
As far as the plutocrats saying that they do not want their taxes to be cut, they know that the optics of a tax cut aimed at them are bad. They realize that social and political instability that may occur if the majority of people no longer feel that the capitalist system offers them the opportunity to move up in SES will be a bad thing even for the plutocrat class.
Speaking as someone who has myself on occasion made donations (which are tax-deductible, a fact I find supremely amusing) to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, I would suggest that you have no basis for claiming that they haven’t and won’t.
It’s unlikely that people will decide to make government donations, however, there is a big gap between making donations to the government and spending hoards of money and using your influence to preserve your specific tax break (that the vast number of people are unable to use).
I actually do donate extra to the government through my taxes. I do not go through any gyrations whatsoever, rarely even keeping receipts for charitable donations or rental expenses. It fulfills my laziness and disinterest in keeping records, and I don’t feel badly about paying a bit extra in taxes. Win/win.
If any of them had, they would not be shy about telling us about it.
Here in MA, when we lowered the income tax rate from 5.85% to 5.1% via voter referendum, they left the option to pay at the higher rate on the tax form. Approximately no one elects to pay the higher rate and it raises around $250,000 per year or so against a state budget of $40 billion. And you can’t make it any easier than having a line on the tax form for it.
It seems like the vast majority of people in my liberal, high tax state who want higher taxes, don’t walk the walk, and are only willing to pay more if everybody has to pay more along with them.
So I don’t expect any millionaires or billionaires to voluntarily pony up extra money in any meaningful amount, based on our experience here.
In fact I find it a bit hypocritical that people like Buffett say “tax me more!” while at the same time he is giving away his wealth in part to avoid having to pay taxes on it. I could get behind a lifetime cap on tax-free charitable donations of $10 or 20 million. Beyond that donations are treated as asset sales first, and you pay the dang taxes on them.
True. So few people are in the market. I’ve been noticing this for a long time. The people who are really profiting are not even necessarily the ones with good jobs, but those in the market and who own real estate. If you have neither, chances are, you are getting behind, getting in debt and have little savings.
The level of armchair psychoanalysis necessary to make claims such as “If any of them had [made charitable donations], they would not be shy about telling us about it” about people most (none?) of us here know is astonishing, really.
Adding to that you had better hope you aren’t near retirement when the market plunges. Honestly I wish they would hike interest rates. I’m not near retirement but it’s a shame you can’t earn a decent return on a CD, especially when banks are getting money basically at zero percent.
@dfbdfb If they are extroverted to the extent that would pen a letter saying “Please tax us”, one would think they would also be unafraid to say how many millions they have donated to the US gov. But I guess that would not fit the narrative.
The House is making a push right now to vote tomorrow.
The current state of interest rates tells me that cutting tax rates on capital doesn’t seem necessary. Along with the report today that 1% of the world’s population holds 50% of the wealth, it makes me think that the type of tax reform in this bill is mosty not what we need.
Another thing from my seat here in MA is that the economy is chugging along just fine. It seems to me that paying taxes is more palatable during times like this. Tax cuts in my opinion should be done during recessionary times in order to boost the economy. I do not feel we are in need for a boost. God…we have almost zero percent interest to banks. Why inflation has not happened is a mystery to me. But goosing the economy more with a tax cut now (plus adding to the deficit) might cause inflation.
Maybe in the horrible, decrepit, brown-scape that President Trump spoke about during his inaugural address, the economy needs a boost. But here in a high tax, high cost of living state, our economy is doing just fine. Hmmm. Why is it that the places on the coast with high taxes and liberal social programs seem to be doing just fine? Why is it the so called blue states are doing well?
We are not talking about charitable donations, we are talking about giving extra money to the gov’t. There’s a huge difference, and inserting “charitable donations” into my words when I feel like it was pretty clear what I was talking about (and it wasn’t charitable donations), is not appreciated.
The proof is in the pudding: in FY 2017, the gov’t received donations totaling a whopping $2.7 million. This is not the work of millionaires and billionaires.
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/gift/gift.htm
They’re planning to put repealing the ACA individual mandate in the Senate bill. This is an excellent way to raise insurance premiums in the individual market.
@MassDaD68 I pretty much echo your sentiment. We have a real life case study that shows tax cuts don’t work(Kansas) So what happens is that education and other required services will be cut to shore up the budget. We also have a case study in Minnesota that shows a tax increase and a budget surplus.
Seriously I don’t know why they think raising taxes on folks making as a rough estimate 200k-400k is a good idea.