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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>This is chilling!<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>
mzs@mcn.org [mailto:mzs@mcn.org] <br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Monday, December 25, 2017
11:47 AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Merry Christmas from
Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<h1 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><font size=4 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif";font-weight:normal'><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article</a></span></font></b><o:p></o:p></h1>
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visible' id=headline><b><font size=6 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:26.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>You Cannot Be Too Cynical About the Republican
Tax Bill<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
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color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
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<p class=MsoNormal><span class=count><font size=3 color="#333333"
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#333333;border:solid #666666 1.0pt;
padding:4.0pt'>1052</span></font></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span class=visually-hidden><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
padding:0in'>Photo</span></font></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<div style='margin-bottom:5.25pt;cursor:pointer;flex-shrink: 0'>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><img border=0 width=768 height=576
id=A5B3BECF-3CC1-4C48-8608-3EF059BD80CE
src="cid:645E6B5F-44D2-4A14-B66F-F8500905B305@Home"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=visually-hidden><font size=3 color="#999999"
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#999999;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
padding:0in'>Credit</span></font></span><span class=credit><font color="#999999"><span
style='color:#999999'>Jon Elswick/Associated Press </span></font></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>The rush to enact the
tax bill was designed to mask — as a break for the middle class — what is in
fact a $1.4 trillion package of benefits for key donors and lobbyists, the
richest members of Congress, President Trump, his family and other families
like his.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>The speed from introduction to passage — seven
weeks, with no substantive hearings — effectively precluded expert examination
of the <a
href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-final-version-of-the-gop-tax-bill-is-a-corrupt-cruel-budget-busting-hairball"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>legislation’s regressive core</span></font></a>,
its special interest provisions and the long-term penalties it imposes on the
working poor and middle class through the use of an alternative <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/12/11/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chained-cpi-in-one-post/?utm_term=.73cc99b400b0"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>measure of inflation</span></font></a> —
the “<a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-20/the-big-permanent-tax-increase-inside-the-tax-cut-act"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>chained CPI</span></font></a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Only last Friday, when the legislation came out
of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/tax-bill-2017/card/1513378286"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>conference committee</span></font></a>and
was no longer subject to amendment — and when decisive majorities of House and
Senate Republicans had publicly committed to vote for the legislation — did
experts and journalists begin to fully catch up with its defects.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Two days before Congress gave final approval, a
group of 13 tax law experts released the most incisive critique of the tax bill
to date, a 30-page document called “<a
href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3089423"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>The Games They Will Play: An Update
on the Conference Committee Tax Bill</span></font></a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none' id=story-continues-1><font size=3 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>The primary authors of
the report — Ari Glogower, David Kamin, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/opinion/republican-tax-bill-unstable.html?_r=0"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>Rebecca Kysar</span></font></a>,
and Darien Shanske — describe the legislation as “a substantial blow to the
basic integrity of the income tax” that will “advantage the well-advised in
ways that are both deliberate and inadvertent.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-2"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
padding:0in;text-decoration:none'>Continue reading the main story</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<div id=supplemental-1>
<div style='margin-bottom:33.75pt;display:flex;flex-flow: column nowrap;
justify-content: space-between'>
<div>
<h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;
margin-left:0in'><b><font size=5 face=Arial><span style='font-size:18.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";text-transform:uppercase'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></h2>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div style='margin-right:11.25pt'>
<h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.75pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><font size=5 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333;letter-spacing:
.25pt'><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/column/thomas-b-edsall"><font
color="#333333"><span style='color:#333333;text-decoration:none'>Thomas B.
Edsall</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<h3 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:0.75rem;line-height:0.9375rem'><b><font
size=4 color="#999999" face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999;font-weight:normal'>American politics,
inequality, campaign strategy and demographics.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
</div>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:6.75pt;
margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=2 face=Symbol><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font face=Georgia><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
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</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>The authors cite a wide
range of specific flaws, but their main argument is that the measure is gravely
deficient at its core:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>The most serious structural problems with the
bill are unavoidable outcomes of Congress’s choice to preference certain
taxpayers and activities while disfavoring others — and for no discernible
policy rationale. These haphazard lines are fundamentally unfair and
inefficient, and invite tax planning by sophisticated taxpayers to get within
the preferred categories.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Glogower, Kamin, Kysar, and Shanske argue that
some of the most egregious loopholes and schemes permitted by the legislation
are that individual taxpayers<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>will be able to shield their labor income from
tax by simply setting up a corporation and having their income accrue in the
form of corporate profits. As a result, income that would have been taxed at
the high individual rates is instead taxed at the low corporate rate.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Second, the legislation creates a huge incentive
for anyone in a position to do so to change his or her status from employee to
“independent contractor or a partner in a firm. The game is clear: Don’t be an
employee, instead be an independent contractor or partner in a firm.” The
ability to make this shift is available primarily to the well-paid.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>The legislation, according to Glogower and his
colleagues, also fails to present a coherent rationale:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>the fundamental problem is the lack of any
underlying logic in deciding who benefits from the pass-through deductions, and
who does not. Independent contractors and partners benefit, but not employees.
Why? An owner of real estate through a REIT benefits, but not the doctor in the
building. Why? An architect benefits in some ways that a lawyer does not. And
so on.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>The bill encourages tax evasion. Glogower and
his colleagues cite<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>opportunities to use rate differentials and
ill-considered transitions to engage in transactions that serve to basically
pump money out of the Treasury and into the pockets of well-advised taxpayers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>To provide an example, they use a company that
purchased equipment under existing law, which provides them with tax breaks on
the cost spread out over the years in a depreciation schedule. The new law
allows companies to immediately write off the full cost of buying equipment,
known as expensing.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>“So,” the authors ask, “what does that mean?”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>It means that old property can still get the
benefit of expensing, but only if it is sold to another party. If the original
owner holds it, they have to depreciate according to the old rules; if they
sell it to another party, then suddenly the full cost is eligible for
expensing, and the net effect is an immediate deduction of the existing tax
basis of the asset. The parties can split the resulting surplus. It appears
that the buyer of the asset could even lease it back to the existing owner, so
that the property doesn’t even have to go anywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>I emailed some of the authors of this report for
their individual thoughts.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Mitchell Kane, a law professor at N.Y.U., wrote
in response that the bill will<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>create new incentives to shift tangible assets
(and jobs) abroad. Given President Trump’s relentless message about U.S. jobs,
it is incomprehensible to me that we are about to pass something that has this
effect without any kind of meaningful discussion of the issue.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Daniel Hemel, a law professor at the University
of Chicago, raised a crucial question about the long-term effects of the
legislation’s adoption of chained CPI, <a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-11-20/why-chained-cpi-has-links-to-u-s-tax-debate-quicktake-q-a"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>a method</span></font></a> of
calculating the rate of inflation for the earned-income tax credit and other
sections of the tax code that provide breaks to working- and middle-class
families.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>He noted that<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>lower and middle-income families, who are
especially dependent upon inflation-indexed deductions, credits, and bracket
thresholds, will feel the impact increasingly as time goes on.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>In the first year, 2018, the changed inflation
rate raises a relatively modest $31.5 billion but it grows every year, reaching
$37 billion in 2027. “To be sure,” Hemel wrote, “this affects everyone to some
degree, but most of the burden is paid for by families in the bottom four
quintiles.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>In the long term, Hemel argued,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>this is a very subtle way to increase taxes on
the lower and middle classes and then use those revenues to pay for a massive
tax cut for corporations.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>What may prove even more significant is that the
shift to chained CPI — a <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/03/us/politics/five-changes-for-families-in-the-republican-tax-bill.html"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>less generous</span></font></a>,
slower-growing measure of inflation than the one currently in use — would not
only result in a tax increase over time, it would set a precedent for
Republicans who would like to use the same method to pare back so-called
entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. It is, in effect, <a
href="http://www.ncpssm.org/Document/ArticleID/964/Chained-CPI-Will-Hurt-Seniors"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>a backdoor method</span></font></a> of
reducing benefits for the elderly and the disadvantaged without public scrutiny
or debate.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none' id=story-continues-4><font size=3 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>This full-speed-ahead
strategy simultaneously constrained the ability of the press to explore the
special interest provisions buried in the legislation.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div style='border-top:solid #E2E2E2 1.0pt;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid #E2E2E2 1.0pt;
border-right:none;padding:11.0pt 0in 11.0pt 0in;margin-left:56.25pt;margin-top:
5.25pt;margin-right:22.5pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt;float:left'
id=newsletter-promo>
<h2 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><font size=5 face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Newsletter Sign Up<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#continues-post-newsletter"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
padding:0in;text-decoration:none'>Continue reading the main story</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h3 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><font size=4 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></h3>
</div>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>One exception is the work of three reporters
from International Business Times — Alex Kotch, David Sirota and Josh Keefe —
who have pursued this line of inquiry for the past week. <a
href="http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/republican-senators-will-save-millions-special-real-estate-tax-break-2630037"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>A recent story </span></font></a>disclosed
that a provision inserted at the last minute into the bill stands to lower taxes
on the income of 14 Republican Senators.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Along parallel lines, a liberal think tank, the
Center for American Progress, now estimates that Senator Ron Johnson,
Republican of Wisconsin, will get an annual tax break of somewhere between
$21,500 and $205,000 based on his 2016 <a
href="https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/view/annual/707e1424-a5f3-4a24-998f-f64af848454c/"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>financial disclosure statement</span></font></a>.
The center’s calculations are based on Johnson’s reported income from three
holdings he said produced a minimum of $215,002 up to a maximum of $2,050,000.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>And the 2016 <a
href="https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/view/annual/d41ff99d-4c7f-46d0-b649-c88bf007374e/"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>financial disclosure statement</span></font></a> filed
by Senator Steve Daines, Republican of Montana, shows income from real estate
holdings of $487,500 to $4,305,000. If Daines’ tax cut is computed using the
same method that the center used for Johnson, it would be between $47,582 and
$430,500.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Not only are many senators direct beneficiaries
of the legislation, but 15 of the top 20 Senate recipients of contributions
from the real estate industry are Republicans, <a
href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=F10&recipdetail=S&sortorder=A&mem=Y&cycle=2016"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>according to Open Secrets</span></font></a>,
ranging from Marco Rubio at $3.27 million to Chuck Grassley at $276,636.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Perhaps most important, the measure
rewards <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/business/the-winners-and-losers-in-the-tax-bill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>those who need it least</span></font></a> —
the very wealthy — while <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/17/gop-with-tax-bill-finalized-makes-its-case-to-a-skeptical-public/?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_wb-taxbill-1122am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.08dd82519087"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>leaving those most in need</span></font></a> with <a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/middle-class-gets-10-of-republican-tax-cut-1513644268"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>modest and temporary tax breaks.</span></font></a> The
bill will diminish opportunities for social mobility by <a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/final-trump-republican-tax-bill-promises-details/548603/"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>doubling the estate tax exemption</span></font></a>,
further entrenching generation after generation at the top of the income
distribution.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>As my colleague Jim Tankersley <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/republican-tax-plan-simple-tax-returns.html"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>put it on Dec. 16</span></font></a>,
the final version of the legislation<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>offers little redress to workers who have
grown to believe that the country’s tax law thicket advantages those with
power, political connections and lawyers on retainer. Its evolution undermines
a central selling point for a bill that is already <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/business/economy/tax-survey.html"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891;text-decoration:none'>seen by most
Americans as unlikely to benefit them</span></font></a>, according to polls.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>The accompanying chart, which is based on an
analysis done by the nonpartisan <a
href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/tcja-would-cut-taxes-average-1600-2018-most-benefits-going-those-making-300000-plus"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>Tax Policy Center</span></font></a>,
describes the distribution of the benefits by income groups over the next
decade.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-5"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
padding:0in;text-decoration:none'>Continue reading the main story</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</div>
<div id=story-continues-5>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article#story-continues-6"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
padding:0in;text-decoration:none'>Continue reading the main story</span></font><font
color="#333333" face=Georgia><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#333333;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'>Despite
the fact that the measure is a tax cut, the majority of Americans, 53 percent,
currently disapprove of the law and 35 percent approve, </span></font></a><a
href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-americans-say-tax-plan-helps-wealthy-not-middle-class/"><font
color="#326891" face=Georgia><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#326891'>according to a CBS Poll</span></font></a></span></font><font
color="#333333" face=Georgia><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#333333'>. Most Americans believe the bill will help large corporations
(76 percent) and the wealthy (69 percent), while 35 percent believe it will
help the middle class and 24 percent said their own families will gain.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt'><font size=3 color="#333333"
face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:#333333'>A tax expert who insisted on anonymity in order to protect
client confidentiality, emailed me his critique of the bill:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>(1) The corporate rate reduction is permanent,
for individuals only temporary. Completely obnoxious. In effect the money
“saved” within the 10 year budget window by making those individual cuts
temporary helped to underwrite the cost of making the corporate/pass though
side permanent<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>(2) Carried interest provision. When Trump was
careening around in his populist candidate mode, he promised to end it. Here is
one campaign promise that he “somehow” failed to redeem when the clear and
available chance presented itself.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>(3) Restriction on state and C local tax
deduction — consciously vindictive imposition of double taxation on citizens of
certain Democratic states; corporations and pass through businesses, the
darlings of the Republicans, still get to deduct those very same taxes in full.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>(4) Expanding the standard deduction but
financing the cost of so doing by repealing the personal exemptions is a bit of
a bait and switch maneuver. Some people might be worse off.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>(5) In a bill in which 100s of billions of
dollars were sloshing around to provide steep tax cuts for already wealthy and
highly prosperous corporations and pass through businesses, the Republicans
could only find the will to raise the refundable portion of the child care tax
credit from $1000 to $1400. Rubio wanted it to be raised to $2000 and his
Republican brethren refused to even meet him halfway. Pitiful.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>(6) Deduction for extraordinary medical
expenses — retention of this deduction did not even get the five-year sunset
window applied to all the other individual tax provisions, two years only.
Vicious.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>(7) Pass through business taxation — the bill
is a massive tax gift to some of the wealthiest people in the country, who are
conducting business operations in non-corporate form or are investors in same.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>The tax
bill not only alters the competitive structure of American industry but
includes such major provisions as opening the <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/climate/tax-bill-wind-solar.html"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>Arctic National Wildlife Refuge</span></font></a> in
Alaska to oil drilling and the elimination of <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/business/the-winners-and-losers-in-the-tax-bill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>mandatory individual health
insurance</span></font></a> under Obamacare.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>What
amounted to three major pieces of legislation were approved by the full House
and the Senate Finance Committee, “two weeks after the bill was unveiled,
without a single hearing on the 400-plus-page legislation,” as Thomas Kaplan
and Alan Rappeport put it in The Times.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>How well
does this procedure stand up to the requirements Senator Ben Sasse specified
in <a
href="https://www.sasse.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2015/11/senator-ben-sasse-s-maiden-speech"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>his maiden Senate speech</span></font></a> on
Nov. 3, 2015? In it, Sasse argued that the Senate was failing in its
responsibility to fully air and debate the important issues before the county,
calling for what he called “a cultural recovery inside the Senate”:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>One of our jobs is to flesh out competing
views with such seriousness and respect that we should be mitigating, not
exacerbating, the polarization that does exist ...<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>Good teachers don’t shut down debate; they try
to model Socratic seriousness by putting the best possible construction on
arguments, even — and especially — if one doesn’t hold those positions.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>Or, for
that matter, how well does the bill fit with Senator John McCain’s
determination to lay down the law on “regular order,” as outlined in an Aug. 31 <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-mccain-its-time-congress-returns-to-regular-order/2017/08/31/f62a3e0c-8cfb-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2_story.html?utm_term=.febef795d919"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>op-ed in the Washington Post</span></font></a>?
“We are proving inadequate not only to our most difficult problems but also to
routine duties,” McCain wrote. Or as McCain noted during the debate over
legislation to repeal Obamacare, he was calling<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>for a return to regular order, letting
committees of jurisdiction do the principal work of crafting legislation and
letting the full Senate debate and amend their efforts. We won’t settle all our
differences that way, but such an approach is more likely to make progress on
the central problems confronting our constituents. We might not like the
compromises regular order requires, but we can and must live with them if we
are to find real and lasting solutions.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>So far,
however, only one Republican senator has suffered real costs for deciding to
vote for the tax bill.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>Just over
two months ago, Bob Corker drew <a
href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-10-17-steven-mnuchin-sen-bernie/story?id=50200661"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>a line in the sand</span></font></a> on
the bill: if it raised the deficit, he would vote no:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>No way that Bob Corker is going to vote for a
tax reform bill that I think in any way is going to add to the deficit. It’s
not going to happen, never. It’s never going to happen. Never, never, ever.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>On Oct. 5,
Susan Davis of National Public Radio put Corker <a
href="https://www.npr.org/2017/10/05/555949768/sen-bob-corker-gets-candid-about-tax-cuts-calls-budget-proposal-a-waste-of-time"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>on record</span></font></a> with
a series of quotes that he may have come to regret:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>This is the most passionate thing for me,
period, that I work on. Not foreign policy. Not banking. It’s this deficit
issue.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>For
Corker, this issue went way beyond routine politics: “Deficits matter,” he
forcefully asserted. “They are a greater threat to us than North Korea or
ISIS.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>This past
week Corker has decided that the deficit is no longer “the most passionate
thing for me.” Instead, he voted for a tax bill that will increase the deficit
by <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-latest-rubio-threat-to-vote-no-imperils-tax-bill/2017/12/14/2b3702a0-e13a-11e7-b2e9-8c636f076c76_story.html?utm_term=.dd9bb41ec94f"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>$1.46 trillion</span></font></a> over
ten years. <a
href="https://www.corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-list?ID=5FBCEA10-ABE4-47D4-A16B-035263C985F7"><font
color="#326891"><span style='color:#326891'>In a statement</span></font></a>,
Corker declared:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<blockquote style='margin-left:78.75pt;margin-right:78.75pt;max-width: none'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem'><font
size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>In the end, after 11 years in the Senate, I
know every bill we consider is imperfect and the question becomes is our
country better off with or without this piece of legislation. I think we are
better off with it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>All of
this raises a basic question. How could nearly every Republican representative
— and all 52 Republican senators — support the tax bill? The best answer may be
the most cynical: because it benefits key leaders, their friends, their heirs
and their donors.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=story-body-text style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:56.25pt;font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.625rem;
max-width: none'><font size=3 color="#333333" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>After
looking at the legislation in its entirety — its substance and the procedures
used to get there — it is difficult to conclude that the motivations of its
sponsors are either benevolent or somehow in the best interests of the country.
More likely it is hypocrisy and venality mixed up into one awful bill.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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