Tax Cuts - how'd it affect your check?

Guy who sometimes gives +1 or says ^This wrote:

Um, but history tells us... wrote:

Brah, the important part of your statement is highlighted above. This is the major problem with tax cuts. They NEVER “get to govt spending cuts”.

How dumb are people? Why do they forget so quickly? The modern GOP is NOT fiscally conservative. They have cut taxes before—several times in most of our lifetimes—and they NEVER get to cutting spending.

I suppose a tax cut would be fine IF they passed a legislation slashing government spending FIRST. In other words, cut spending by X amount so they know how much less revenue they’l be taking in and then give X amount back to tax payers. But that’s not what happens. We’ve seen this playbook before—recently.

The GOP controlled both houses of Congress AND the had a GOP POTUS for 6 of the 8 Bush II years—this was not that long ago, the early 2000s. They passed a massive tax cut. What else did they do? Well they 1) said the tax cuts would “pay for themselves by driving economic growth 2) they then MASSIVELY INCREASED government spending!

What happened? We had a short term boom followed by a MASSIVE economic collapse AND a MASSIVE increase in the national debt. But since the economic collapse happened several years later dumb people with short attention spans that are obsessed with tax cuts who think that the minute tax legislation is passed the full effect of said tax legislation is felt—are and were mentally unable to connect the collapse to very bad tax & spend policies of the GOP.

So, what is happening now? 1) the GOP is saying the same thing about “tax cuts paying for themselves” by driving economic growth (sound familiar?) 2) CEOs are smart and know if they throw peons short term benefits (peanuts) that they can connect that to the tax cuts and say “see trickle down works! What’s good for corporations is good for individuals”...meanwhile they pocket > 90% of the benefit from the cut 3) the GOP proposes MASSIVE increases in defense spending, infrastructure spending, and spending for a border wall with no plan to pay for any of it.

These tax cuts will have the same effect as prior cuts—a very short term boom followed by a huge increase in the national debt and an eventual economic collapse that disproportionately effects individuals (who, yeah, got a short term increase in $) while corporations make out like bandits (their cuts are permanent). Plus, all the benefits (short term) will be attributed to the current admin, while the long term bad effects will be blamed on whomever is in office when the $hit hits the fan in several years.

Why do you tax obsess Morans not understand that at this point the ONLY rational approach is an INCREASE in taxes coupled with a DECREASE in spending. We owe too much already to get tax cuts, they are a bad idea.

^This. There will be no cuts in entitlement programs and yes that is the fault of both parties. But, republican voters need to realize that GOP members of Congress don’t actually want to cut entitlement benefits (social security and medicare) any more than the Dems because they know that despite the fact that some voters in their party say they want these cuts those same voters mean they want to cut OTHERS benefits not their personal benefits. Once voters realize that entitlement cuts actually effect them personally they change their tune, get pissed, and blame whomever is doing the cutting—which in this case would be republicans. Cutting benefits is politically toxic for either party which is why it never happens.

So, we seem to be in this cycle where the GOP takes over cuts taxes, increases spending (defense spending or starts an unnecessary war like Iraq), promises entitlement cuts but doesn’t do it, loses the next election cycle so the cuts really don’t happen, and then we have an economic crisis. Wash, rinse, and repeat over and over again. The result being a very, very dumb fiscal policy overall by the US.

I like the IDEA of tax cuts and I definitely am in favor of some sort of law that forces spending cuts PRIOR to any tax cuts being made.

We cannot sustain this cycle.

Ray wrote:

Guy who sometimes gives +1 or says ^This wrote:

Absolutely!

If my local GOP candidates where able to accomplish (not just promise) the following I would vote for them but the same list is true for Dem candidates....

1) pushes for legislation and/or pushed for a constitutional amendment requiring any tax cut to be tied to a dollar for dollar cut in spending OR alternatively tied any big government spending program (like infrastructure or increased defense spending) to be tied to a tax INCREASE (basically I want to eliminate un-funded mandates on both the tax side and the spending side)

2) pushes for a constitutional amendment that essentially invalidates the SCOTUS Citizens United decision

3) found a way to not deport DACA recipients via a compromise

4) found a compromise that allowed for tougher immigration enforcement and border security WITHOUT building a physical wall

5) removed marijuana from schedule one designation and allowed states to regulate the drug as they see fit

This makes too much sense! Will never happen. certainly not with trump in the white House. By the way, Pay actually went down by $38 per fortnight. Combine that with state adjusting their cut, gas tax going up 6% and new tolls, I stand to lose quite a bit. In addition, Cobra plan for health insurance predicts our costs will go up by $200-$250 per month because of a decrease in the number of "healthy" people in the pool. Overall, particularly as these "massive tax cuts for the middle class" are phased out, I'm pretty much screwed. But, hey, if I had put hundreds of thousands into an IRA over the last 45 years instead of putting 4 kids through college I'd be ok.