Here's a question for you: You earn 60,000 per year and you currently pay $2000 in federal income taxes. The tax laws get changed by Congress so that we go from seven tax brackets to three or four. How much tax do you pay after the change?
If you answered the question with anything other than to say that you do not know, then you were wrong. There's no way to answer that question. You can't figure out your new tax payment unless you know what income will be taxed at each new rate.
In reality, what this question actually means is that no one can say what the effect will be of the new tax proposals from the GOP until we learn the size of the tax brackets and some other important details. We know the general structure, but we don't know the details, and in tax law, the dollars are in the details.
Despite these facts, there have now been a number of supposed think tanks and experts who have announced the effect of the GOP plan. For example, the Tax Policy Center (which the media always calls the non-partisan Tax Policy Center) issued a report that details which groups will get benefits under the tax plan. The report is nonsense, but that doesn't stop the TPC; they tell us what percentage of benefits the rich and the middle class will get to a tenth of a percent. Think of that! No one has the facts to know what the effect will be on anyone's taxes, but the TPC claims to be able to tell us the effect of changing those taxes in great detail. But there's more. The TPC also tells us the effect of the tax changes without considering how lowering taxes will increase economic growth. We know that tax reductions will increase growth, a fact which means that many more Americans will have jobs and earn higher incomes, but TPC ignores this and still announces in detail who will benefit from the tax changes.
So what happens when the TPC puts out their bogus numbers? Do they get exposed for the gibberish they must be? No, the media reports that the rich will get major benefits from the tax cuts because they have the "non-partisan" TPC saying that. Then the politicians jump in and complain about that result without ever getting to the point of knowing the actual effect of the tax proposals.
It's not going to be very long before we get to see the total proposal on taxes. The only reasonable way to deal with this is to wait until we know the facts before we analyze the possible results. Someone ought to explain that to the media and the Democrats.
If you answered the question with anything other than to say that you do not know, then you were wrong. There's no way to answer that question. You can't figure out your new tax payment unless you know what income will be taxed at each new rate.
In reality, what this question actually means is that no one can say what the effect will be of the new tax proposals from the GOP until we learn the size of the tax brackets and some other important details. We know the general structure, but we don't know the details, and in tax law, the dollars are in the details.
Despite these facts, there have now been a number of supposed think tanks and experts who have announced the effect of the GOP plan. For example, the Tax Policy Center (which the media always calls the non-partisan Tax Policy Center) issued a report that details which groups will get benefits under the tax plan. The report is nonsense, but that doesn't stop the TPC; they tell us what percentage of benefits the rich and the middle class will get to a tenth of a percent. Think of that! No one has the facts to know what the effect will be on anyone's taxes, but the TPC claims to be able to tell us the effect of changing those taxes in great detail. But there's more. The TPC also tells us the effect of the tax changes without considering how lowering taxes will increase economic growth. We know that tax reductions will increase growth, a fact which means that many more Americans will have jobs and earn higher incomes, but TPC ignores this and still announces in detail who will benefit from the tax changes.
So what happens when the TPC puts out their bogus numbers? Do they get exposed for the gibberish they must be? No, the media reports that the rich will get major benefits from the tax cuts because they have the "non-partisan" TPC saying that. Then the politicians jump in and complain about that result without ever getting to the point of knowing the actual effect of the tax proposals.
It's not going to be very long before we get to see the total proposal on taxes. The only reasonable way to deal with this is to wait until we know the facts before we analyze the possible results. Someone ought to explain that to the media and the Democrats.
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