The Republican Tax plan has been released. They are trying to sell us, the great unwashed in flyover country, that this is tax reform. Lawrence H. Summers, who served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, wrote about the tax plan in the Washington Post. From the article:

With the release of the Republican tax proposal, the most important tax debate in a generation is in full swing. Most reasonable experts agree that tax reform has the potential to spur investment and raise wages while also simplifying the system and increasing its fairness and legitimacy. The right question for debate is not the desirability of tax reform or even of business tax reform directed at spurring investment. It is the likely economic effect of particular proposals.

Unfortunately, the proposal on offer by House Republicans may well retard growth, reward the wealthy, add complexity to the code and cheat the future, even as it raises burdens on the middle class and the poor. There are three aspects of the proposal that I find almost inexplicable, except as an expression of the power of entrenched interests.

“…(R)aises burdens on the middle class and the poor?” By the stretch of anyone’s imagination and under any definition, I am in the upper middle class. I was not born here. My husband and I, jointly and severally, worked very, very hard. I don’t buy expensive stuff and I am having a yard sale next weekend. I am also in a very bad mood because my healthcare contract ends at the end of the month, and the Obamacare compliant plan I have been able to find costs three times what I paid monthly last year. Hubs is on Medicare now, which is a whole other stinky kettle of fish. I went to the doctor one time in 2017 to get blood work done so that I could get my thyroid medication refilled. What the heck. But, I digress. I called you here tonight to discuss taxing the poor.

The poor pay sales tax, Social Security and Medicare taxes, but about 43% pay no Federal Income Tax. That is a huge problem for me. The wealthy are overtaxed and the poor are not taxed enough.

There really are no poor in the United States of America. Not poor in the way the rest of the world knows poor. I don’t want to hear about food deserts. I don’t want to hear the “Fight for $15”. The poor have subsidized health care, housing, food, cell phones (remember Obamaphone lady?) and internet. And, many of the subsidies are for people three, four or five times over the Federal Poverty Level.

Who is paying for all of this? You are, you stupid sap. You work your little hooves to the quick so that you can subsidize the lifestyle of people you have never met. The poor have an iPhone 10 and you are carrying a flip phone. Epic. And, just for the halibut, you get to pay for the enormous bureaucracy that processes your hard earned pay. You lucky sap.

Now, I am not talking about kicking the poor to the curb or making them live in a cold-water flat with no heat. Many of us may need a helping hand occasionally, but when it’s a lifestyle, oh hale no.

And another thing. There are people like Warren Buffett, bless his heart, who say they don’t pay enough in taxes. Hey Buffett, here is a news flash: The United States Treasury takes checks. Make the check payable Department of the Treasury and send it to 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20220. Except the super rich don’t want to give their money to the government, either. They know what a clusterf**ck those bureaucracies are. The super-rich set up foundations so they can give out their money their own selves. You don’t get to do that, sap.

So, Paul Ryan (Lickspittle, WI) and Nancy Pelosi (Alzheimer’s, CA) can prattle on and on about tax reform and evil
Republicans and the burden on the poor, whatevs. All this talk about the system is “rigged”. Yes, it sure is. It is rigged against you and I. There will be no meaningful tax reform. They are just rearranging how they are going to screw us. Saps.

When the poor start paying into the system, then we might get meaningful tax reform.