This is Viewpoints for Friday, November 24, 2017
Good work
What good news! The Bibb County school system saw a drop in student behavior incidents as reported in Tuesday’s Telegraph. Congratulations to Curtis Jones and the talented teachers and behavior intervention specialists! And, of course, hooray to the kids!
Keep up the good work!
Hetty Jardine,
Macon
Tax relief for the rich
The Republican tax proposal is a travesty. It is based on the discredited “trickle down” theory, which in numerous trials, has never worked. Apparently Republicans do not learn from experience. It is also designed to benefit the rich — both individuals and corporations — and actually threatens to result in tax increases for the middle class. It renews the Republican assault on health care by taking funding from the ACA to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy.
The American public has repeatedly made clear that it does not want millions of citizens to lose their health insurance. There are numerous other examples of unfairness in the bill. For instance, it eliminates the estate tax, which affects only 0.2 percent of Americans (multimillionaires), but it denies the deduction for state taxes, which is taken by millions of everyday people. It is appalling, and unless all the historical evidence is wrong, will be a disaster. It should be abandoned and tax reform studied thoroughly by all elements of the government and with plenty of time for public review and comment.
Fred R. van Hartesveldt,
Fort Valley
Trump’s tax cuts
Three articles in the Nov. 21 Opinion section require some comment. I recommend Jim Costello of Perry, and H.D. Linton of Warner Robins consider the following facts and read the fine letter by David Lee of Macon “Art of the deal.” Trumps tax cuts do not favor the rich at the expense of the middle class. For starters, currently, high earners, which is 1 percent of the population, pay over 40 percent of federal taxes. Trump wants to eliminate the itemize deductions, who does this hurt? The rich and high earners because they profit most from large mortgage payments on very expensive property and larger state and local taxes.
He wants to increase the standard deduction from $12,000 to $25,000. Most low-income earners take the standard of $12,000 so they pay no tax, with a $25,000 deduction 60 percent would pay none. He also wants business tax cuts (corporation earnings) from 39.6 percent (currently among the highest in the world) to 20 percent, resulting in substantial savings for business, allowing them more money for expansion and job creation; 75 percent of all employees work for small businesses.
This reduction would also be an incentive for U.S. corporations to come back home. He proposes four income tax brackets; 12 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent and the top essentially unchanged at 38 percent. Business is what drives our economy, the stock market is a measure of business success and business evidently likes what it sees. Trump is a very successful business man, let him fix our economy by helping U.S. business and the workers that drive business success.
Roger Rader
Perry
This story was originally published November 23, 2017 at 9:01 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Friday, November 24, 2017."