The federal deficit hit $234 billion in February, according to new data from the Treasury Department, an apparent record for a one-month time period.
According to Bloomberg, the previous monthly record was set seven years ago, at $231.7 billion.
The GOP tax law, which went into effect last January, has been projected to cost $1.9 trillion over a decade.
via The Hill.
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Republicans are promising a comprehensive second round of tax cuts – but tax changes affecting retirement savings may be the only measures with enough political support to make it through Congress this year.
House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady said Wednesday that he plans on releasing an outline of “Tax Reform 2.0” legislation next week to his committee members, which would include making the rate cuts for individuals permanent. Extending those cuts faces slim chances in the Senate, where it would need the support of at least nine Democrats to pass. The 2017 tax law passed without any Democratic votes.
Tweaks to retirement plans, however, are likely to garner bipartisan support, especially those related to small businesses. Brady told reporters he’s including a retirement-related bill in his draft that has the backing of Senators Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.
via Bloomberg.
Unless you’re a multinational corporation or someone with a yacht, there’s a lot not to like in the GOP’s tax “reform” plan, which the party wants to ram through Congress by the end of the year – even more to despise if you’re retired, going to retire or underinsured.
To pay for this runaway train of tax goodies for global corporations and the ultra-wealthy, the GOP is raising taxes on the Middle Class and refuses to address the long-term funding shortfalls in Social Security and Medicare. Neither the House nor Senate plan addresses this issue.
via Forbes.
The GOP had scarcely emerged from the defeat of their latest Obamacare repeal legislation when they pivoted lightning-quick from healthcare to taxes. The tax reform plan the party unveiled last week may ultimately endanger the well-being of older Americans more than the vanquished healthcare bill.
Here’s why: The nonprofit Tax Policy Center estimates that the GOP tax plan will reduce federal revenues by a net $2.4 trillion in the next 10 years. As the deficit grows, Congress will look to cut spending. Republicans have already called for deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and would no doubt come after those programs looking for massive savings. Seniors’ earned benefits could be used as piggy banks to pay for reckless tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy.
Republicans in the House and Senate have taken aim at entitlement spending in recent days as Congress works to get the tax reform plan on President Trump’s desk by the end of the year. The House passed a final version of the plan on Wednesday.
“We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said earlier this month.
“We have a welfare system that’s trapping people in poverty and effectively paying people not to work,” Ryan added. “We’ve got to work on that.”
via The Hill.
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via twitter.
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President Trump, having championed one of the larger tax cuts in recent years, has now enacted tariffs equivalent to one of the largest tax increases in decades.
A CNBC analysis of data from the US Treasury Department would rank the combined $72 billion in revenue from all the president’s tariffs as one of the biggest tax increases since 1993. In fact, the tariff revenue ranks as the largest increase as a percent of GDP since 1993 when compared to the first year of all the revenue measures enacted since then, according to the Treasury Department data.
Only the revenue raised in the fourth year of the Affordable Care Act is greater, but not by much.
via MSN.
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In truth, tax expenditures (especially the Trump/GOP tax cuts) are the No. 1 drivers of the debt. Social Security and Medicare Part A are self-funded by workers’ payroll contributions and do not contribute a penny of federal red ink.
President Trump and congressional Republican leaders, a group known as the “Big Six,” recently released their latest tax plan. The president claims that his plan “will cut taxes for the everyday, hardworking Americans,” but many taxpayers will actually pay more.
Incredibly, the plan costs $2.4 trillion over 10 years, but leaves 47 million households ultimately paying higher taxes so that the wealthiest taxpayers can get huge tax cuts. In fact, a few groups of Americans may be hit especially hard. Based on the details provided so far, many seniors and blind Americans can already tell that this plan will mean higher taxes for them in particular, since the plan eliminates a longstanding deduction they can currently and exclusively claim.
via Inside Sources.
