Free Republic

This week, the House and Senate will vote on comprehensive, pro-growth, pro-family tax reform. The legislation, known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, will give families and individuals across the country tax reduction and simplification starting in 2018. The legislation includes rate reduction and a doubling of the standard deduction. Under this change, the first $12,000 for an individual and $24,000 for a family will be tax-free. The standard deduction is already used by 105 million taxpayers across the country, who will see a significant tax reduction. In addition, the plan doubles the child tax credit to $2,000, helping...

In the interest of intellectual honesty and transparency, let's begin with a few important concessions to skeptics of the GOP tax reform bill: First, not every single American would be a winner under the plan.  A small percentage of US taxpayers would see a tax increase (disproportionately, these would be higher-income itemizers from high-tax states), and a number of deductions that help certain people with heavy medical expenses and student loan debt would be eliminated (proponents say much or all of the resulting blow would be mitigated by lower rates and a doubled standard deduction).  Second, among the "losers" would...

We'll get to the study mentioned in the headline shortly -- but first, it's already time for another tax reform fact check, necessitated by the Left's relentless machine of anti-reform propaganda and distortions.  On MSNBC, anchor Ali Velshi butchered the facts on the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the projected impact of Senate Republicans' tax reform bill.  Here's the segment in which he disseminates, well, fake news, followed by an explanation of exactly how he misrepresented the CBO chart. Via the Free Beacon: MSNBC's Ali Velshi Messes Up CBO Chart on Tax Reform (Video) "More bad news from the Congressional...

Washington, DC – Today, Club for Growth President David McIntosh issued the following statement as the House Ways and Means Committee continues to mark up the “Tax Cuts and Jobs” bill:“While the corporate tax cut will lead to some increase in our nation’s GDP, the rest of the provisions on individual taxpayers fails the pro-growth test,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh stated.“Republicans must correct at least four serious shortcomings of the House bill to follow through on campaign promises and to bring our nation closer to a tax reform proposal that is truly pro-growth.“1: millionaires’ tax rate: House Republicans...

A big tax bill is all it takes to see how perverse and dysfunctional our government has become. Why are the halls of Congress now crawling with special interest lobbyists looking for opportunities to carve out some new benefit, or to protect existing special interests in the tax code? The objective of the tax bill Republicans want to piece together is noble. Make the code more simple, logical and easy to use. The tax code should be an exercise in civic responsibility in which all participate to pay for the legitimate functions of government. But what are those legitimate...

President Trump campaigned on helping the little guy. His latest tax proposal, he says, is about helping the middle guy. “It’s a middle-class bill,” Trump promised an audience of truckers last week. Other administration officials and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) have also claimed that their primary objective in reconfiguring the tax code is to help the middle class, not the wealthy.

An October 5 New York Times op-ed by Bret Stephens calls for an all-out repeal of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He introduces the op-ed by claiming “more guns means more murder” and transitions from there to claim that guns were only used for “justifiable homicide” 268 times in 2015. He cites an FBI Extended Homicide Data Table for this figure but the table only tracks the number of times a private citizen shot and killed a felon during the commission of felony. Obviously a the number of times a private citizen justifiably shoots a felon is going...

Republicans in Washington released the framework for their new tax reform plan Wednesday, providing a few specifics on proposals to cut the corporate tax rate, change individual tax brackets, and increase the standard income tax deduction. To be clear, what was made public is still far from a detailed or complete plan. The nine-page framework is intentionally vague, offering up feel-good statements such as "the committees will work on additional measures to meaningfully reduce the tax burden on the middle class."And some aspects of the plan as outlined would apparently offer tax breaks to some middle-class families, such as an...

CAMPBELL, Ohio — Forty years ago, on Sept. 19, thousands of men walked into the Campbell Works of Youngstown Sheet and Tube along the Mahoning River before the early shift. Like every fall morning, they were armed with lunch pails and hard hats; the only worry on their minds was the upcoming Pittsburgh Steelers game on “Monday Night Football.” The only arguing you heard was whether quarterback Terry Bradshaw had fully recovered from the dramatic hit he took from a Cleveland Browns player the season before. It was just before 7 a.m., and the fog that had settled over the...

The Affordable Care Act added millions of mostly poor people to the insurance rolls. But the law is driving premiums so high that middle-class people can no longer afford insurance. Several million are expected to drop coverage in 2018. Under ObamaCare, poor lives matter. Middle-class lives? Not so much. The ACA is actually two laws glued together: a vast Medicaid expansion to cover the poor and a federal takeover of individual insurance markets, previously regulated by states. Since that takeover, individual premiums have more than doubled, and they’re predicted to rise another 25 percent to 35 percent next year. The...

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in her new book openly questions former Vice President's Joe Biden's assessment that the Democrats did not focus on the middle class during the campaign. "Joe Biden said the Democratic Party in 2016 'did not talk about what it always stood for -- and that was how to maintain a burgeoning middle class,'" Clinton said in her new book, "What Happened," which was obtained by CNN.

Middle class benefits are being revoked in the name of affordability. Because of several factors including stagnant wages, rising costs, and politics, being a member of the American middle class is quickly losing what little prestige it has remaining. Are you middle class? In its discussion of historical middle class societies, The Economist reports, “Their members are neither rich nor poor but somewhere in-between…’Middle-class’ describes an income category but also a set of attitudes … An essential characteristic is the possession of a reasonable amount of discretionary income. Middle-class people do not live from hand to mouth, job to job,...

I am a S.O.B. (son of a butcher). I see every issue through the eyes of my beloved butcher father David Root. That's how I knew Donald Trump would win the election when few others did. It's because I clearly see the attack on middle class America. I see the dramatic decline of middle class America. I understand the pain of middle class America. I've written many books about it- including "The Murder of the Middle Class" and "Angry White Male."I knew Trump's words and prescriptions would resonate with working class and middle class Americans in terrible pain and decline from the policies...

In 2015, a blockbuster study came to a surprising conclusion: Middle-aged white Americans are dying younger for the first time in decades, despite positive life expectancy trends in other wealthy countries and other segments of the US population.The research, by Princeton University’s Anne Case and Angus Deaton, highlighted the links between economic struggles, suicides, and alcohol and drug overdoses.Since then, Case and Deaton have been working to more fully explain their findings.They’ve now come to a compelling conclusion: It’s complicated. There’s no single reason for this disturbing increase in the mortality rate, but a toxic cocktail of factors.In a...

Tales detailing the plight of America's disillusioned middle class and the realities of life in the rural United States are making their way to a TV near you. Sitcom writers are now grappling with how to best reflect the slice of the electorate that voted for Donald Trump, and delve into the deep cultural and political divides exposed during the 2016 presidential race, according to television and film experts. The television industry will likely start developing new shows based on this political reality later in the year or early next year, said Eric Deggans, an award-winning author and television critic...

Liberals see Obama as an economic savior who stopped a financial crisis, created scores of (crappy or part time) jobs, and did his best to fight for the little guy. That’s what the Left says. Stoller added that the evidence presents a different picture and one that offers a reason why Trump beat Hillary Clinton last November. For starters, Obama allowed the banks for foreclose on nearly 10 million homes, favored creditors over borrowers when both probably should have been shouldering the burden of the housing crisis together, and didn’t prosecute anyone who was involved in almost setting the world...

Have the Democrats turned working class middle America against them just like the Whig Party? I know many Trump supporters who are quietly going about their day-to-day business, working 40 - 50 hours a week, paying bills and trying to keep afloat and move their lives forward. However, they are keenly aware of what is happening on the left. The violent (paid) protest, the stupid pussy hats, the suppression of free speech, and the all around anarchy that has happened in places like Berkeley, CA has not gone unnoticed. These Trump voters would like nothing better than to send the...

Many of the dominant images from President Trump’s first 10 days in office make it look as if the country is turning on him. The millions who protested him at women’s marches across the country. The thousands who jammed airports over the weekend to support immigrants and refugees hurt by his travel ban. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely any of this early backlash will mean much to the swing-state voters who sent Trump to the White House to deliver a message that the political system wasn’t working for them. “Is the white, blue-collar voter in Pennsylvania going to be upset by all...

In a roundtable interview with MSNBC's Chris Jansing that included Hollywood actors and other political leaders, former Sen. Barbara Boxer said "we" have to "make" the middle class understand that Trump is not their friend. The panel included Jamie Lee Curtis, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D), a Black Lives Matter activist, and Tony Goldwyn, star of ABC's Scandal and grandson of MGM studio mogul Samuel Goldwyn. "I want to jump in with something specific that he did on the very first day that didn't get that much coverage," Boxer said. "There was an order that was signed that...

President Donald Trump met with business leaders Monday at the White House to discuss his agenda to improve the economy. He specifically focused on bringing manufacturing back to America as well as "massively" cutting taxes for companies and the middle class alike.