OPINION: New Tax Bill is Pure Evil and Disastrous for Working People

Letter to the editor, by Marianne P. Clemente, Chair, Barnegat Democratic Municipal Committee

Many of us rushed to our municipality’s tax office last week to pay the part of our 2018 taxes already assessed in 2017 so that you can deduct those additional taxes in 2017 to take advantage of the tax deductions which won’t be available to us in 2018. What saddens me is the fact that most people were not able to take advantage of this short window because they simply don’t have any excess cash on which to draw. It’s a sad commentary on the times we live in where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer thanks to this new tax bill.

Our representative in CD3, Tom MacArthur and the rest of his Republican cronies in Congress must wake up and realize how ruthless their new tax bill is to the middle class, working poor and those most vulnerable among us…….and to be clear, MacArthur is the only one of the NJ Delegation to vote “YES” for this evil bill.

Yes, I do say it is evil because there’s no other way to describe it. At every turn, it favors the top 1%, at the expense of we the people – the 99%, who will be paying billions of dollars for these tax cuts for the wealthiest – the 1%.

Here’s how we the people will be paying: by not getting tax deductions for state and local taxes (SALT), medical, dental, casualty loss, student loan, mortgage interest and teachers’ school supplies. Eliminating the Affordable Care Act Mandate will cause insurance premiums to skyrocket because of the reduced insurance base and Medicare and Medicaid cuts are expected….and don’t forget the trillions of dollars added to the debt because, once again, the Republicans are not “paying for” all their tax cuts. (Remember the Bush tax cuts and him not paying for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Medicare Part D and how that in part brought down our economy in 2008, almost causing a depression as President Obama took office in 2009.)

Those above losses by the middle class and working poor (99%) and the increase in debt will be the revenue used to pay for these tax cuts for the 1% giving the wealthiest a permanent reduction of corporate tax from 35% to 21%, an elimination of the estate tax (affects millionaires and billionaires); an average tax cut of over $700,000 every year for folks making more than $3.5 million and the elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax.

We must vote MacArthur out in November. We must support Andy Kim for Congress in CD3. You can come and meet Andy at our Barnegat Democratic Club meeting on Wednesday, January 24, 2018 at 7:00 PM at the Barnegat Community Center, 900 West Bay. Call Marianne at 212-249- 6292 for further information.

Editor’s note: The opinions in this letter are the author’s only.

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