@Dave_N et al
It occurred to me while driving that Hillsdale is largely funded by the DeVos family and Koch brothers.
A pure coincidence, I’m sure.
(ETA: To be clear, I’m not driving now. I don’t CC and drive. It just made me angry for the duration of my driving.)
Yep; we are officially a banana republic. Someone help me with the adjectives.
An oligarchic, kleptocratic banana republic.
Can we at least get a few fist fights on the Senate floor for amusement?
Don’t schools run the risk of paying less than minimum wage if the tuition waivers don’t count as income, or they work around it with scholarships or whatever? Especially in states with a high minimum wage.
Or are there special rules for graduate school?
Politico has an article on the triggering of sequestration/PAYGO. There are $150 billion in cuts that will be triggered by the new bill. Republicans say they will just override that – but they need 60 votes in the Senate to do so, so will need 8 Dems to help. Susan Collins signed onto the tax bill with the understanding that the PAYGO cuts will be stopped. What a dirty trick – now they want the Dems to bail them out from their robbery. Dems have made no commitment.
@intparent I’m not buying it. There will be some republicans that will love paygo
Yeah – but they would LOVE to get the Dems to vote for it. It is something the Dems would want, of course. But I think you are right – she was suckered.
And Jeff Flake caved after DACA concessions, but it sounds like all he got promised was a “seat at the table when it is discussed”. Those two, with Corker who is a “no”, could have stopped this.
I believe I suggested that on the first page of this thread, but was then pooh-poohed.
btw: there is no reason that grad programs can’t offer need-based aid to cover tuition. I would assume that most grad students have no other income and little assets, so their need is great. (Harvard, Stanford and Yale Law only offer need-based aid, whereas all other law schools provide mostly merit.)
No Dem will support.
This entire process is a travesty.
Actually… quite a few PhD students have income and assets. Many of us are married and our partners have careers. Remember, PhD students are often quite older than those pursuing degrees usually earned right out of college (ie law).
My EFC would be quite significant and Mr R doesn’t even have a well-paying job.
Here’s the bill. “enjoy”. Oh, it’s not searchable so y’know… good luck.
https://www.casey.senate.gov/download/gop-tax-bill-substitute
I am really curious about Susan Collins. Surely she knows that Ryan and McConnell are lying. Even the letter from McConnell concedes nothing. It mentions existing mechanisms. I am genuinely curious about why she switched.
She proposed an amendment that was rejected, but accepts a non-binding letter?
When did Collins decide against the ACA repeal? Was it before or after she decided she wasn’t running for governor?
ETA: I’m looking at the bill. How in 2017 is it legal to have handwritten notes on bills? It seems like at the very least, things should be in print. Jesus.
The sections on deductions for religious education are crossed out.
Bicycle commuters get screwed.
They just don’t care. Must pass this bill regardless of how horrid it is.
Seriously, I read handwritten laws from times when paper was scarce that aren’t as convoluted as this thing.
Individual mandate is gone.
AMT is still a thing, but the exemption amounts have been increased by about 40%. With only $10,000 in SALT deductions, it will affect far fewer taxpayers.
The depreciation time for rental property is reduced to 25 years, and the AMT depreciation time is also reduced to 25 years, which has the effect of removing depreciation as an AMT preference item. Hoorah for us landlords.
The same way there rest of the countries (to which comparisons for healthcare are often made on this site) do it.
Support of private companies doing research. Could have the added benefit of getting ‘kids’ out of college and into the real world earlier.
Savvy move by the Democrats in my opinion. They offer an amendment to delay the vote until they have time to read it.
The Republicans are on the record as denying the Senate time to read the bill.
Which is nice.
DARPA and other military grants go to private companies, too. But (1) Private companies will never support fundamental research. If you are talking about Europe, they have grad schools, too. Who funds them? Definitely not private money. And (2) private companies working on those more applied DARPA etc. funded projects need qualified workforce. Guess where that comes from? We will have to steal them from abroad if the US PhD programs dry out.
@dietz199, see this article. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/corporate-tax-cuts-wont-spur-ceos-to-invest-say-ceos.html
[A]n editor at The Wall Street Journal asked the room: “If the tax reform bill goes through, do you plan to increase investment — your company’s investment, capital investment?”
People were asked to raise their hand.
When few hands were raised, Cohn, the White House Economic Council director, asked: “Why aren’t the other hands up?”
Remind which private company is researching Zika? Which private company came up with the polio vaccine?