Nov 10, 2017 3 min read

The tax plan negotiated in secret by congressional Republicans is just what one would expect from the party of the 1 percent and big business, as it would provide the lion’s share of the benefits to its natural constituency.

Tax rates under this plan would rise for those at the bottom from 10 percent to 12 percent, while remaining the same for the wealthy, with a top marginal rate of 39.6 percent.

I am not in principle a supporter of the estate tax, but it would be eliminated in order to provide a new break to those with more than $5.49 million in assets at the time of death. Members of Congress and their supporters who argue for an elimination of the estate tax usually fail to note that the tax currently applies only to the very wealthy, not the typical owners of small businesses.

I am all for tax simplification, and this plan would achieve some measure of it, as it would eliminate a host of deductions. These deductions, however, have been taken by members of the middle class, many of whom would be worse off under the plan despite its increase in the standard deduction. Real tax simplification will not occur from continuing to penalize through taxation wage-earning, saving, and investing. It would be achieved through substituting a consumption tax for our convoluted, confounding taxation of income. One would think that a revolutionary president would be clamoring for such a system.

Finally, the $1.5 trillion in new red ink which is forecast under the plan is a betrayal of yet another ludicrous promise by President Trump – that he would increase military spending, not touch entitlements, and provide tax relief while moving to not only balance the budget, but also eliminate the national debt of over $20 trillion. It is a pipe dream that many chose to accept. They will wind up with egg on their faces, as will the few economists who are forecasting that Trump tax reform will boost the salaries of the middle-class worker.

History has shown that trickle-down economics and starving the treasury in order to provide tax cuts to the wealthy has only a limited effect in juicing the economy, and it is clear that an increasing national debt would ensue.

The president believed that enacting the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and providing tax relief for himself and his wealthy friends would be easy. Repeal of the ACA went down in flames, and this could well be the fate of his tax reform scheme. There is a great deal of skepticism about it among elected officials, and only three GOP senators need to defect in order to sink it.

The president will sign any tax reform bill in order to achieve a victory, something he desperately needs after almost a year of futility in attempting to enact legislation. Let us hope for the sake of the country and fairness that he fails and must go back to the drawing board. Maybe he will have to someday work with the Democrats on a tax bill that remembers the members of the middle class, whom he has forgotten.