1. Reducing the number of tax brackets is trivially stupid, with no real effect on anyone's effort. Taxes are not hard to do because we have to integrate under a curve of continuously-increasing rates.
2. This is actually a case where the Democrats have an easy message to make, and the Republicans have to argue nuance:
Democrats: They are literally increasing the tax rate on the poorest and lowering the tax rate on the richest!
Republicans: Actually, when you consider the increase in the standard deduction, the net effect on the average taxpayer earning (whatever) is that their taxes will go down!
I actually think that second message is a totally reasonable point, but the public at large has shown they don't give a **** about Vox-type explanations. So here's a case where the Democratic message is really easy. (I'm sure they'll still screw it up.)
3. No more state and local tax deduction is a LOL middle finger at blue states and large cities. I don't think there's any way that that sticks.
4. Estate tax repeal because of course. This of course means that they should end the step up of cost basis on assets transferred at death, but of course they won't.
5. As mentioned above, eliminating refundable tax credits (e.g., EITC) is a huge **** you to people.
Paul Ryan policy genius, though.
Edit: A legitimately good idea, based on the Vox summary:
Quote:
Companies would face a limit on how much debt they can deduct from their taxable income, a significant change for highly leveraged companies like banks; Mnuchin had signaled skepticism about this provision, which makes its inclusion a little surprising. Interest deductibility wouldn’t go away completely however.
[Obviously it should say "how much interest they can deduct" not "how much debt they can deduct".] No way that actually happens, though. LOL at banks saying yes to not being able to deduct interest.
Last edited by spidercrab; 09-27-2017 at 03:09 PM.