Chuck Schumer: Donald Trump's tax reform is nothing like Ronald Reagan's

[CousinIT]

The 1986 tax act went through a bipartisan process and eliminated corporate tax breaks. Trump's is being rushed through and favors the rich.

Anyone who remembers the substance and the process of the 1986 Tax Reform Act should be baffled that President Trump has compared his current tax plan to that famous bipartisan bill signed by former president Ronald Reagan. Trump’s partisan tax cut bill differs from that one in three major ways: It helps the rich at the expense of the middle class, it would explode the deficit, and it hasn’t gone through a thorough, bipartisan process.

Reagan-era tax reform wasn’t designed to completely favor big corporations and the wealthy over the middle class. While the 1986 law lowered the top rate on individuals and businesses, it also expanded the personal exemption and the earned income tax credit. It eliminated corporate tax breaks and actually raised the tax on capital gains.

Trump’s plan, by contrast, would slash taxes for the top tax bracket, repeal the estate tax, and create a huge new loophole by reducing the rate on pass-through entities, allowing wealthy law firms and hedge fund managers to circumvent higher tax rates. The Tax Policy Center estimates that the top 1% will enjoy 80% of the benefits from Trump’s plan — while a third of middle-class taxpayers will be paying more in taxes by 2027.

The goal of the 1986 act was to simplify the tax code by bringing down rates while at the same time closing loopholes in the tax code. It did those two things in precise unison so that while the tax code got fairer and simpler, it would not add a penny to the deficit. Trump’s tax proposal eschews this model, promising lavish tax cuts to corporations and the top 1% while closing hardly any loopholes or correcting any inefficiencies in the tax code. As a result, experts predict Trump’s tax plan will add between $3 trillion and $5 trillion to the deficit.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/10/27/donald-trumps-tax-reform-nothing-like-ronald-reagans-chuck-schumer-column/803754001/

[dalton99a]

1. They're looting the Treasury

[vlyons]

2. What? You don't like building pyramids?

The 1% want us to be their serfs and wage slaves and drag big stone building blocks to erect their luxurious pyramids, where there's only room for them and their families to rest eternally.