Safety net cuts coming
Sen. Susan Collins drank the Trump Kool-Aid. Passage of the tax bill she just embraced could lead to cuts to Medicare for more than 300,000 Maine seniors. Medicaid benefit cuts to over a quarter million Maine’s least well off could happen, too, as Congress looks to cut spending. And very likely Social Security recipients will also feel pain. How else will the Republicans pay for their $1.5 trillion debt their “tax reform” brings about?
Our state will be less productive, less healthy, with greater poverty and inequality because this tax disproportionately favors the rich. People like President Donald Trump whose family stands to gain a lot in tax relief.
Here in Maine far too many families already go hungry at least one day a week, facing what is euphemistically referred to as “food insecurity.” Some families can’t afford milk for their school-age children. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 16.4 percent of Maine households, or over 200,000 individuals, are in this predicament.
Our government, both federal and state, need more tax revenue, not less. We have an infrastructure problem — roads, bridges, power plants, airports, schools, communications — that need rebuilding right now. Moving ahead in these areas would immediately accomplish a number of things: provide good-paying jobs to people, thereby reducing hunger, poverty and inequality, begin to rebuild our deteriorating and dangerous infrastructure, give a great boost to our economy and increase flow of capital along with tax revenues. All constructive, positive results.
Joe Lendvai
Brooklin
How does Collins benefit from tax bill?
As one of thousands of Mainers who will be hurt, some very seriously, by Sen. Susan Collins’ vote on tax “reform,” I want to know what this bill will do to her personal finances.
If as reported she is worth more than $3 million, she may get a special Christmas present, while thousands of Mainers get lumps of coal in our stockings.
Peg Cruikshank
Corea
GOP driving America to political ruin
The Republican Party refuses to play by the rules, and we are all paying the price. Politics may be a historically dirty business, but today’s Republicans have pushed aside all norms in the name of a “win.”
They refused for a year to hold hearings for the sitting president’s Supreme Court nominee. For a decade, they pledged to do nothing that would increase the debt. Their new tax plan will increase the debt by at least $1 trillion, yet they forged ahead.
With both the health care repeal and this tax “reform,” they insisted on rushing, closing out Democrats, penciling in lobbyist wishes into the margins, forcing a vote before even most Republicans have read the bill. Sens. John McCain and Susan Collins protested against this process the first time around, but in the end seemed to have no problem with it.
The GOP refused to wait until Doug Jones, Alabama’s new senator, is seated, yet Collins called for Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts to be seated in 2010 before any major votes and then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed. They insisted Sen. Al Franken should resign, but ignore worse allegations against the president.
Now members of the GOP seem to be joining the White House in calling for an end to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. The endless investigations into both Clintons over far more trivial matters were embraced. Investigations about a foreign power interfering in our election and the possible collusion of the president? Sweep it under the rug. The GOP, including Collins, is willfully driving us into financial and political ruin.
Kirsten Platt
Portland
Tax bill posed moral questions
Lance Dutson said in his Dec. 19 BDN column that it was “ridiculous” and “not rational” for faith leaders to get arrested in their effort to convince Sen. Susan Collins to vote “no” on the tax bill. It’s not a moral issue, Dutson claims, just “arcane tax policy.”
Is it just arcane tax policy when an ever smaller number of rich families control an ever larger portion of the nation’s wealth, undermining our democracy? Is it just arcane tax policy when an $1.5 trillion burden is put on our children and grandchildren and Republicans in Congress promise that they will use that burgeoning debt as a reason for hacking away at Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security? Is it just arcane tax policy when middle-class families are scammed with a modest short-term tax cut that will turn into a painful tax increase? These are profoundly moral questions and our country faces a great moral reckoning if we continue down our current path.
With a fine air of condescension, Dutson turned up his nose at those of us who, out of deep moral and religious conviction, chose to stand with the poor and the marginalized. We lost this round, but we are not bowed — not by temporary defeats nor by the supercilious jottings of pundits.
Drawing from wells of prophetic tradition in our faith, we will continue to raise our voices, continue to march, continue to protest, and — yes — continue to get arrested for as long as it takes to call America back to her better angels.
The Rev. Dr. James Gertmenian
Cumberland Foreside
Very modest tax benefits
Recent opinion pieces in the BDN by Eric Brakey, Andre Cushing and Matthew Gagnon all touted the tax reform bill and why it is good for Maine families. They each make a point that the standard deduction is doubled, that’s 100 percent, for all filing categories. The don’t, however, tell the rest of the story.
First, under existing tax law, the standard deduction for a couple filing jointly in 2018 is $13,000. Doubling that is $26,000, not $24,000. And more important they don’t mention that the 2018 personal exemption of $4,150 ($8,300 for two) is eliminated, as is the extra deduction of $1,300 ($2,600 for two) if you are over 65.
Under existing tax law a couple over 65 using the standard deduction will reduce their taxable income by $23,900, compared with $24,000. A 0.41 percent improvement, not 100 percent.
Frank Cassidy
Union