GOP's Christmas Tax Cuts: Grinch for Middle Class, Santa for Richest Few

In what President Trump calls a ‘major, major tax cut' and a ‘giant tax cut for Christmas,' House Republicans have unveiled their long-awaited tax bill just to confirm what we already knew: the GOP tax plan will have ruinous consequences for workers and middle class families, while the wealthiest and corporate America will be handed a multi-trillion dollar giveaway in tax cuts.

Republicans' tax and budget agenda –

• Raises Taxes on the Middle Class
• Add Trillions to the Debt to Give Tax Cuts to America's Wealthiest & Corporations
• Includes Tax Incentives for Corporations to Ship American Jobs Overseas
• Ransacks Medicare & Medicaid of $1.5 Trillion

The American people aren't falling for GOP claims that this bill is ‘real relief' for hard-working families.  According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, only 13% of Americans believe the Ryan-McConnell tax bill will actually help the middle class.  It's already clear that the GOP tax bill is very bad news for middle class America.

New York Times: ‘Major, Major' Tax Cut May Not Be in Store for Middle Class

The House Republican tax bill is a clear windfall for corporate America and a roll of the dice for the middle-class families that President Trump promised would be the centerpiece of his economic agenda … the myriad changes in the code would actually raise taxes on nearly 13 million tax filers who earn $100,000 a year or less, according to preliminary calculations using the open-source economic modeling software TaxBrain.

The Nation: The GOP Tax Bill Is Out—and Now We Know Why It Was Secret for So Long

Here are some of the main features of the bill, known as the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," which really isn't that much better than the "Cut Cut Cut Act," Donald Trump's favored title. It reduces the number of income brackets from seven to four, keeping the top marginal tax rate at 39.6 percent but increasing the threshold for that to $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for couples. It cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent and, while some business deductions are eliminated to make up for that, others are expanded. It does away with the estate tax, doubling the threshold to start and then phasing it out over six years. And it repeals the Alternative Minimum Tax, which affects high-income households.

These are raw giveaways to the richest people in America, who see more favorable rates on much of their income, no restrictions on passing their money to heirs, and significant drops in the rates for the corporations they own and invest in. On the flip side, there's almost nothing here for anyone in the lower tiers of income … So the baseline of this bill is a slew of money going to the wealthy and corporate treasuries.

Bloomberg: Here's a Juicy Tax Break. Now, How to Keep Everybody From Claiming It?

House Republicans say they're determined to simplify the U.S. tax code. A long-awaited provision in the massive tax bill they unveiled Thursday, a special rate for "pass-through" businesses, could do exactly the opposite.

For the wealthiest taxpayers, the provision could create big savings by slashing top rates from 39.6 percent to 25 percent on some income … Middle-income business owners, meanwhile, won't get much benefit, if any, from the new pass-through rate.