How Trump's tax cuts hurt the GOP in America's wealthy suburbs

Yahoo Finance ^ | November 13th, 2018 | Brian Cheung

[EVO X]

“Many wealthy suburbanites are required to pay the AMT tax, which means that you don’t get to take a property tax deduction.”

The link below suggests there are only going to be 200K households filing AMT for 2018, down from 5.25M for 2017.

https://money.cnn.com/2018/01/18/pf/taxes/2018-amt-exemption-increase/index.html

[Vigilanteman]

And the point is? Almost nobody paid that rate in the 1950s . . . inflation alone has moved us to the point where more and more people pay the maximum rate.

Still, I look at it as a lesser factor. A lot of the DINKS, YUPPIES or whatever you want to call them are bringing in incomes well north of $100K and have the luxury of voting with your emotions unlike, say, two working class types who make $15-$20 hour and might pull in a combined $40K per year and must think (and vote) more logically.

[del griffith]

I think what we need to be concerned with is the total difference in the number of votes in 18 was larger than in ‘10. That vote is now mostly concentrated in the once republican/safe burbs. If it grows into areas that are more country than suburban, then there may be a problem.

[SkyPilot]

Thanks for the pings.

Several of us warned we would lose the House if the tax bill stood as it did.

Unfortunately, this is one time we all hate being right.

Read this:

A Trump-Fueled ‘Wipeout’ for House Republicans in Northeast

In New Jersey, voters slashed the number of Republicans in Congress from five down to two, and possibly only one.

In New York, Democrats declared victory in three congressional races in President Trump’s home state, ejecting the last remaining Republican from New York City. “This was a wipeout for Republicans in the Northeast,” declared Christopher H. Shays, a former moderate Republican congressman from Connecticut who lost his own re-election a decade ago.

And in the six other states in the Northeast, the lone remaining Republican congressman, Representative Bruce Poliquin of Maine, was clinging to his seat on Wednesday, his fate to be decided by the second choices of third-party voters through ranked-choice voting.

……Mr. King had warned Republicans late last year that the tax bill would harm them in the Northeast, talking about a suburban “tsunami” in high-tax states on Fox News. He opposed the tax bill even as he remained largely allied with Mr. Trump, who called Mr. King a “hardworking gem” on Twitter on Election Day.....John McLaughlin, who served as a pollster for Mr. Trump in 2016 and who was involved in House races in 2018, blamed Republican congressional leaders more than the president for the losses in the region, citing the tax bill in particular as “a policy mistake that hurt many Republicans in the Northeast and others in high-income suburbs.” While the measure cut taxes across the board, it placed a cap on the popular state and local tax deduction that is heavily used in the wealthier parts of high-tax states like New York and New Jersey. “The tax cut was good policy to grow the economy and create jobs, but when Republican leadership refused to negotiate a higher cap or phase it out over time, it made many suburban Republicans vulnerable,” Mr. McLaughlin said

The two Toxic Goldman Sachs twins, Cohn and Mnuchin, now admit they "only cared about the corporate side."

Someone should pay us Freepers $10,000,000 to do political consulting, because we called it.

And too late to do anything about it.

[lightman]

Someone should pay us Freepers $10,000,000 to do political consulting, because we called it....

and we were called some pretty vile names in the process.

[central_va]

All tax cuts are good. All.

[Ronniesque]

I’m from California and will be getting a nice refund boost.

[Alberta's Child]

Even tariffs?

:-)

[central_va]

income taxes are not tariffs. But you knew that.

[Alberta's Child]

You didn't say income tax. LOL.

Is an income tax deduction for homeowners to install solar panels a good idea? I'm not so sure about that. Subsidizing industries that can't compete on their own is a losing proposition.

[central_va]

Is an income tax deduction for homeowners to install solar panels a good idea?

The income should be abolished and replaced with combination of tariffs, NRST and payroll taxes(SSi and MC).

[moehoward]

”I know in the case of NJ and CA, they pay far more in Federal taxes than they receive in Federal expenditures.”

I have no idea how you quantify “much more”, but according to what I’ve read CA pays 1 cent on the dollar more than it receives. New Jersey, less.

”In January 2017, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office said ..... it receives $0.99 in federal expenditures per dollar of taxes paid,...”

[mewzilla]

I don’t care. It was still the right think to do.

[Alberta's Child]

Dude, payroll taxes ARE income taxes.

[central_va]

Payroll taxes are not considered income taxes and a separate tax from the income tax. But you can call it an income tax if you want to confuse everyone.

Income taxes cover all forms of income and payroll taxes are matched by the employer and based only wage income.

[Alberta's Child]

I know there's a distinction under the law, but if you tax my income, it's an income tax.

And making the employer contribute to a payroll tax is one of the dumbest ideas ever to take root in our economy. It's one of several big reasons why I don't hire a single employee in my business. Everyone is a 1099 contractor. If Uncle Sam wants to punish me for hiring employees, then I'll only hire "employees" who pay 100% of the payroll tax for their employment.

[central_va]

The tariff/NSRT could replace the income tax, the payroll tax must stay until either SS and MC are privatized, we go to single payer or the Baby Boomers die off alleviating the problem for future generations.

[Alberta's Child]

Fund SS and Medicare out of general revenues. That’s basically what we’ve been doing for decades in reverse — i.e., putting SS and Medicare tax revenues into the general treasury to reduce our budget deficit.

[central_va]

Fund SS and Medicare out of general revenues.

That needs to stop. BTW you are the one defending the income tax which make you the globalist/progressive here and me the patriot/conservative/nationalist.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm not defending the income tax at all. All I'm saying is that IF we're going to have a personal income tax, then it should be a flat tax with no deductions other than standard deductions and personal exemptions.