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So-called ‘middle-class’ tax cut is anything but

To the editor:

Obviously, the Republicans believe that the United States is faced with several pressing problems which I was unaware of.

The first problem is that the rich are not rich enough. I know this because their tax cut proposal in Congress is aimed at solving this problem. According to ABC News, of the $1.5 trillion tax cut, $850 billion goes to companies and “almost all the savings for families and individuals come from the repeal of the alternate-minimum tax and the estate tax — changes that benefit the wealthy.” I think they are confused because we are at almost full employment and corporations’ profits are soaring.

Another pressing problem identified by Trump and the Republicans is that some in the middle class are benefitting too much from too many tax breaks. Again, to solve this problem, they plan, through their tax bill, to eliminate deductions for state and local taxes, high medical expenses deductions, deductions for interest on student loans and personal and dependent exemptions.

The beauty of their tax cut is that it manages to solve even a third pressing problem — the national debt is too low. The Trump tax bill will add $1.5 trillion to the national debt over 10 years. Now I could be wrong about this because they also just passed a budget that eliminates over $1 trillion in spending on social safety net programs including cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, health care services, education, medical research, substance abuse and mental health, transportation, veterans benefits, environment and much more. So, maybe that’s how they are planning to cover the $1.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthy.

But the Trump administration and Republicans must be confused because they keep referring to it as a middle-class tax cut.

Gary Gill

Lewistown

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