Ryan, House Republicans to unveil U.S. tax reform plan

[TomCADem]

Source: MSN/Reuters

U.S. House of Representatives Republicans want to lower the top individual income tax rate to 33 percent and slash the corporate tax rate, according to a blueprint released on Friday as an agenda for this year's re-election campaign.

The tax reform plan, to be officially unveiled on Friday morning at the U.S. Capitol, is the sixth and final plank of a conservative policy agenda being rolled out by House Speaker Paul Ryan in an effort to unify Republicans after a divisive primary campaign.

Ryan, the country's highest-ranking elected Republican, has described the agenda as a way to offer voters a coherent policy message across key legislative areas for 2017. He has already released segments on poverty, national security, regulation, constitutional authority and healthcare.

Aides describe these issue areas as common ground between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Ryan, who withheld his endorsement of the billionaire businessman until recently.

Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ryan-house-republicans-to-unveil-us-tax-reform-plan/ar-AAhz54v

---

Vote Republican in November so that Donald Trump and Paul Ryan can bring the right wing utopia that is Kansas to the rest of the country.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. More tax cuts

Why not get it over and just mandate taxes be burdened by anyone who isn't rich or a corporation?

[tclambert]

4. I belive zero corporate tax is one of their goals.

I can't remember which Republican said it before the others shushed him. And of course their big money donors don't want to pay any taxes either. They just talk about fairness as a pretense to justify inching closer to their Ayn Rand ideal of "I got mine. The rest of you can suck it."

[Friend or Foe]

11. But remember, a politician's first allegiance is to their own pocket book

A Zero corporate tax rate would mean that big money donors would no longer need to bribe (I mean lobby) politicians because they would have achieved all they wanted. Furthermore, the loopholes in the current tax code are there to open competitive advantages for specific businesses and industries. Without those loopholes, those businesses and industries would need to compete on an level playing field.

The best response is to first fully repeal the corporate tax and then subject all corporate dividends and capital gains (regardless of whether those dividends were attributable to onshore or offshore profits) paid at the shareholder level to the top tax rates. This would break the bribery chain, level the competitive playing field and increase tax revenues.

[mountain grammy]

2. Well, that'll help the rich

so the working class Republicans fools should have no problem with it. These are the same fools who will swallow a rise in the Medicare eligibility age to 67, another of Ryan's bright ideas.

[1939]

3. It depends on what is meant by "tax reform"

If dropping the top rate from 39.6% to 33% is coupled with the closing of various loopholes in the system, it might be worthwhile. For starters, I can think of carried interest, accelerated depreciation, extending the holding period for long term capital gains from one years to three years, special surtax on stock transactions held less than 30 days, etc.

The economy needs investors and not traders.

[edhopper]

7. How about taxing

cap gains the same as income?

[Wounded Bear]

8. You may be right...

but what are the chances the Repubs will actually propose or allow such measures. Given recent history (say the last 40 years or so) I'd say nil.

This is more of the same. Much like with the ACA when they say [font size=150]REPEAL[/font] and [font size = 1]replace[/font].

[1939]

16. If you dangle rate cuts

in front of them, they might become very flexible. Remember 1986 and Roth-Gephardt?

[Wounded Bear]

17. They're the ones dangling "tax cuts"...

again, in a effort to get out the rube vote that won't admit that these won't help anyone in lower brackets.

History tells me: don't trust Republicans promising me tax cuts.

[1939]

18. That is their opening bid.

Instead of just rejecting it out of hand, make a counter-offer.

It is called negotiation.

[Wounded Bear]

19. Oh, I'm sure they will...

The question is, will the goal posts stay in the same place when the Dems do?

History is with me on this. Never trust a Repub plan to cut taxes.

Oh, and Republicans? Flexible?

Good one.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. The parties are the same!!!11!!!!1!

!!111!!!!!!1111!1!!1

[Wounded Bear]

6. So, after 6 years of doing basically nothing...

they offer us Reaganomics 2.0.

[Botany]

9. Well that plan worked so well in Kansas

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/sam-brownback-kansas-tax-cuts-trickle-down

Republicans have long sung the praises of trickle-down economics: Just cut taxes, and the economy will flourish as companies and individuals use the windfall to boost investment and create jobs. But a grand experiment in implementing those policies at the state level has revealed a far less rosy reality—and the consequences are threatening to spark a civil war among Republicans.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, launched an "experiment" in conservative policy after he was elected in 2010, drastically slashing the state's income taxes under the assumption that the move would kick-start Kansas' economy and rev up job creation. With help from Arthur Laffer, Ronald Reagan's mastermind of trickle-down economics, Brownback convinced lawmakers in the state to cut personal income tax rates across the board and eliminate the top tax bracket, with further reductions to come. Kansas also completely erased the income tax bills for the owners of certain "small" businesses, totaling 330,000 by this year and including a host of subsidiaries of Wichita-based Koch Industries. The Koch-funded organization Americans for Prosperity helped Brownback push the bill and has remained a staunch defender of the changes. The tax cuts were sold by Brownback with the idea that they would pay for themselves when a renewed economy boosted state revenues despite the lower rates.


Four years after those tax cuts first went into effect, the opposite has occurred. The promised explosion of private-sector growth hasn't come to pass, as the state's economy has generally lagged the rest of the nation. In March, the Kansas Department of Labor reported, the state had only 800 more private-sector jobs than a year prior. The loss of tax revenue has decimated the state budget, creating a fiscal crisis necessitating drastic cuts, since the state, unlike the federal government, can't run a deficit. As the Kansas City Star's editorial board recently highlighted, so far this fiscal year, Kansas is $420 million short of the revenue it had the year Brownback's tax cuts first went into effect.

[cstanleytech]

15. The problem isnt cutting the taxes though it is that there isnt a stick to go along with the

tasty free carrot of low taxes to them for them to care about following through on creating new jobs and why should they?
Probably in their opinion it just takes money out of their pocket to create real jobs and so they just end up investing it in stocks and bonds which create no real new jobs to earn even more money for themselves without much effort on their part.

[Javaman]

10. let me guess: reward the rich, screw the poor. nt

[liberal N proud]

12. Any time a republican starts talking reform, be afraid, be very afraid

This will cost everyone but the rich and powerful.

[cstanleytech]

14. Exactly. nt

[cstanleytech]

13. If we put the Republican plan for the country to music it would probably be along the lines of

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

or if not that one then

I wish I was in the land of cotton,

Old times there are not forgotten;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

In Dixie’s Land where I was born in,

Early on one frosty mornin,

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

[workinclasszero]

20. Let me guess...

Zero taxes on the 1% and big business...kill social security/food assistance etc to pay for it?

IOW make the whole country operate like Kansas.

[Grins]

21. I didn't even have to read that first sentence and I KNEW it was "TAX CUTS!"

That's all they care about, other than Evil Unions and any employee getting paid more than some immigrant in a bean-field.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

22. More of the same

Their one note song is getting pretty old.

[sinkingfeeling]

23. Oh goody. Trump and I will be paying the same tax rate even

though he makes about 3000 times what I do.