OK fair enough. And lol at me as I do use this as a little windfall (usually around 2k) because I know it would be money I'd just waste on **** otherwise. Yes yes I know its dumb. But as a percentage of my annual its way less than the %'s you tax pros are putting up here so I'll concede to your expert knowledge.

I think we need to establish some common ground. First of all does anyone argue any of these things is NOT true?

1. $5B is mostly a symbolic # that will barely break ground on a tiny section of wall
2. Trump himself does not care about a wall - only about not pissing off his supporters
3. Higher functioning members of Trump's base, and propagandists like Ann Coulter also realize the $5B is mostly symbolic - but approve of the message it sends
4. Country Club/moderate suburban Republicans don't care about a wall either way
5. Democrats of course realize the $5B is a symbolic win for Trump, which they have the power to deny
6. Almost none of Trump's base knows what the border actually looks like right now
7. Trump probably can't go to Mar-a-Lago or golf until this is over due to terrible optics (although nothing would shock me)
8. The National Parks are very popular

This was my entire point during that stupid tax cut. Someone's take home pay went up because they kept claiming the same allowances while the law changed. But if their refund is lower they'd never know because it's just some big magic number the IRS pulls out of a hat every year. And it always feels good because it's something.

And even that is ****ing temporary. Republicans are evil geniuses.

Lamar Alexander (R-TN) writes in an op-ed that Trump should be more like Obama in working with legislators

Not bad trolling

I haven't verified this but I've read that people in the Northeast who are subject to state and local taxes will actually see an INCREASE because those can't be deducted anymore.

Hell, even Dubya went to the trouble of having Treasury send out $600 checks to everyone when his tax cut passed to make it at least look good for the working man.

It's a true **** story.

My income nearly tripled in the last year, i’ll be honest i have no ****ing idea what to even expect from my refund. Half of 2018 was on my old income and the other half on the new. So i expect a fat one

Earned income credit

Refundable child tax credit

If you click on that link above and fill in the numbers you can get a decent idea if you have your last pay stub of the year. There are other free calculators out there too I just always use the IRS one.

Yep, plus child & dependent care expenses, student loan interest, etc. There were lots of little things that added up.

I ninja edited, yea i know how to calculate it, i just havent bothered to look. And i’m saying if i’m this ignorant of it, guaranteed trumpies are too

If you relied on SALT deductions last year, ie, had 40k sitting on schedule A

You are losing a lot of that relief

But. Lower tax brackets with larger brackets



So you will prob pay less compared to what you would have under 17 tax law.

Why don't you just set up an autodraft to put $100 per pay period into an online savings account? You won't have the money burning a whole in your pocket, and you'll make a couple hundred bucks in interest every year. Hell, take $200 a year and then owe the IRS money when you file.

Trump will probably try to figure out a way to send $1000 rebates to everyone who voted for him.

Agreed. I absolutely expect some sticker shock from people who are used to getting big refunds when their H&R Block guy tells them they're only getting $1,000. Like suzzer mentioned, most barely noticed the slight bump in take home pay throughout the year because of how small it is. (Mine was more than offset by an increase in health insurance costs fwiw)

Looks like we found out how TSA employees are going to deal with the shutdown: by not showing up to work.

-rep is trying to slip the bolded by because deep down he understands that the key to turning a negotiation into a political win is to force the Republicans to block popular demands. It was not a mistake or abbreviation on his part to describe the Republican demands in terms of both reasonableness and popularity while subtly holding Democrat proposals to a different standard. He's reframing the argument so that people who overlook the shift are more likely to believe that he has a reasonable argument. He only cares about winning the debate though, not about developing a consensus on the issues through a good faith discussion. He's not worth engaging.

Also I should point out this is the generous interpretation. The other option is that he has no idea what he's talking about. His highlights over the last page are emphatically denying making strawman arguments, then making the strawiest of arguments in all caps in the very next sentence, and playing dumb regarding the legislative process as if a clean CR -> negotiated funding bill for the wall + huge Democratic priorities is impossible or somehow a loss for Democrats if the negotiated bill never happens and it ends with a clean CR. Of course if this is the case he's still not worth engaging.

This is ideal.

Hardcore Trumpites will just blame Democrats.

I thought we outlawed slavery a while ago butnahhh you have to be at work and we'll maybe get around to paying you at some point

Simple answer, I'm a lazy ****er.

Longer answer, Interest on a couple of Grand going into a savings account over the year ain't $200, nearer $20.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/04/polit...ing/index.html

True but putting it in your mattress would be better than letting uncle sam hold it for free.

I guess the mattress could catch fire though but gubmint seems to already be on fire.

( twitter | raw text )

You could be wrong about number 2. I think a lot of his BS starts out as a lie but then his NPD takes over and he ends up believing it. Especially when Hannity keeps repeating the lie every night. Also he could put his name on that wall in big gold letters. How could he not want that?

Fair point!