Thursday, October 1, 2020

Gems in the Rubble


OK, the first Presidential debate was a goat rodeo. There was a lot of heat and not much light. A number of gems of hard information were present in the rubble, however, including this beauty from Biden about tax policy. He made his point unambiguously:

“That’s why I’m going to eliminate the Trump tax cuts. And I’m going to eliminate those tax cuts.”

That's pretty straightforward, but what is the impact. Good question.

The Trump tax cuts were a boon to the middle class:

"... doubled the standard deduction for singles from $6,350 in 2017 to $12,000 in 2018; nearly doubled the standard deduction for married couples from $12,700 to $24,400, and bumped up the child tax credit up from $1,000 in 2017 to $2,000 in 2018."

The impact of this on the average working couple is a tax INCREASE of $2,300. Do you have $2,300 more  to shell out to the Feds next year ? And at the same time, Biden can still play the shell game and say with a straight face that he wouldn't raise your taxes if elected. Moi? How so Joe? Well, he isn't proposing to raise the tax rate, ergo no new taxes. Oh no, he is just exposing more of your earned income to taxation by eliminating deductions. The net effect is the same and we need to see through the word games and see the reality - something that the Democrats are trying to avoid at all costs.

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