He voted for Trump?
Has he learned his fucking lesson yet?
Pulling the deduction for nursing home expenses will result in a nursing home recipients running out of money sooner and moving onto medicaid. That will increase medicaid costs.
It is unlikely that losing a deduction worth thousands of dollars is going to be made up for by a tax break. Why didn’t the writer of this article ask the Accountant that question?
In a statement, Ways and Means GOP spokeswoman Lauren Aronson said the bill would allow people to “keep more of the money they earn for expenses that arise throughout their lives — such as medical bills — rather than providing a myriad of provisions that many Americans may only use once in their lifetimes, and only if they go through the hassle and frustration of itemizing.”
Says the GOP to upper-middle income GOP voters.
Oh, they got it covered on the other end as well. What was it Paul Ryan said about eight years ago? “Die soon, lazy taker.”
For people like him, the election wasn’t about taxes. It was about knocking those uppity negroes down a notch and keeping his neighborhood white.* Losing the tax break might hurt him financially, but I suspect he’s happy as a clam with Trump’s performance on the racial front.
*I live in KC. I know this neighborhood. Nearly all-white, upper middle class.
“Several million people unlucky enough to face big medical bills not covered by their insurance would lose a valuable deduction under the House GOP bill.”
Why should we care? It’s just another “hollow victory of numbers,” not something relating to human beings. Right, Ms Verma?
This aught to sting as well
Divorce Alert: Tax Bill Targets Alimony Deduction
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/house-tax-bill-could-change-132007399.html
so people on a fixed income stream - people who have carefully planned & prepared are now going to get the rug pulled out from under them because certain unavoidable expense which have traditionally been tax deductible & thus been manageable in the planned financial structure that had been set up - those expenses will be stripped of their deductibility - leaving a substantial portion of their fixed income now subject to taxation - the net result will be that the fixed income that previously amply covered everything may now fall short.
Aside from the financial unfairness … this is also just a monumental Asshole move - that will shatter the security, confidence and dignity of hundreds of thousands of senior citizens.
No doubt. Seems like people tend to think of the southern east coast most often when thinking about the most racist states, but I’ve long thought it was a battle between Kansas and Oklahoma.
Thing is, the theory could be sound. Remove a lot of complex deductions with arbitrary cutoffs and replace with an increased standard deduction that people don’t have to justify every detail to claim. (Yes I get that the deductions framework does some worthwhile social engineering and redistribution work.) But the republicans have such a bad reputation of bait and switch, with the ocare repeal providing spectacular examples. Wouldn’t be surprised if they use that standard deduction hike to explain away 10 or more times the amount of the deductions being eliminated. It should be pretty easy to calculate what that hike really have to be to replace all the eliminations.
Regardless, this is all piddle compared to the giveaways to the ultra wealthy. Eliminating BOTH estate tax and capital gains taxes? Kevin Drum has been going to town on tax bill winners and losers. For those who still think there’s something valid in trickledown: Money is extremely concentrated among the most wealthy (those supposed job creators) right now. Are they spending it? Are they creating jobs and increasing wages? If we funnel even more money their way, will that change anything? How much money do they need to have for trickledown to kick in?
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. There’s even a historical site for it in Topeka.
While relatively few people may be using the medical expense deduction, for those who do, losing it will be as Joe Biden likes to say: a big fucking deal.
A personal anecdote: My paternal grandmother passed away this past year and spent the last 9 months of her life in assisted living and a memory care ward, none of which is covered by Medicare. Her care and other medical expenses ran about $9,000 per month, which my parents paid for.
I don’t know what my parents’ income is but I’m guessing the medical expense deduction will reduce their tax liability by about $15,000. That sounds like a pretty sweet tax windfall, but not in the context of having paid $81,000 in medical expenses. Losing the tax deduction would be adding insult to injury.
Where does Arkansas and Missouri fit into your spectrum?
Since my wife and I retired and went on a fixed income, this deduction has been very helpful in filing our taxes. Almost 25% of our total income goes towards medical costs. I do not mind removing some of the insanity out of taxes and doing something to make it a more understandable and equitable system, but these proposals do nothing even remotely like that - and the thought of having to pay more to finance unneeded giveaways to the most fortunate among us just leaves me feeling empty and abused. And very fucking angry.
The problem I see is further down the road. If ones has been itemizing their medical expenses and some years qualify for the deduction it’s good, is they don’t have it then it’s still OK. What I’m seeing/reading is that the Republicans want to double the standard deduction so that one’s income is taxed less. Then the difference between what you were taxed on and the amount you are now saving is suppose to go for the future medical expenses, but will we remember to save or spend it? If we spend it we are creating demand which in turn is suppose to mean employers will hire more people, Yeah!, creating a wealthier tax base. But if we save it, and depending on how we save it then it won’t create more demand, it won’t create more return on investment, and could be eaten up by state and local taxes going up.
Some one tell me if I have this figured out correctly.
Jesus F*ck but the AP is working overtime to be stenographers for the republicans. They’re actually reporting with a straight face that the medical expense deduction is bad because it’s targeted at people for whom medical expenses are more than 10% of their income. You know, the people for whom those expenses are a serious burden.