Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Tax Reform and Its Ramifications for America




As I type this post, the United States House of Representatives has just passed the reconciled tax reform bill by a 227 to 203 vote, which now goes to the Senate for a vote later today.  It too will pass there, barring any totally unforeseen last minute defections of "yes" voters.  President Trump will likely sign the bill into law later this evening.  The enormously positive ramifications on the passage and implementation of this act will be felt for nearly all tax paying Americans for many years to come as middle class tax payers get to keep more of their own money.

Yes, we absolutely should have preceded this tax reform with a spending cut reform bill.  There are huge amounts of waste, fraud, abuse, and frankly extra-constitutional (un-constitutional) spending sprees that occur every year in our federal government.  Billions of dollars need to be trimmed there, but frankly it simply is not ever going to happen with the progressive, foolish, and entrenched members of congress that we currently have from both parties sitting there. 

All of that said, I find it amusing how some of our good leftist friends are  all of a sudden concerned about this tax reform act and what it will do to the national debt.  While I can think of one or two of them who are sincere and consistent in this concern, most of these otherwise well-meaning leftist folk are simply playing partisan politics.  If they were legitimately concerned about our national debt, they would have been protesting like I did when President Obama's policies saw a doubling of our national debt from $10 trillion to nearly $20 trillion during his administration.  Needless to say, their concern rings a bit hollow now.

This is particularly true because this tax reform act will absolutely grow the economy and expand the tax base accordingly.  More jobs will be created, and many of them will be good paying jobs.  This means more taxes paid and more federal income accordingly.  Will the expanding economy pay for the tax cuts that will ensue?  Most objective economists don't think it will... as it is predicted to add $1 trillion over ten years by some of the more objective prognosticators.  Some of the more partisanly optimistic ones are sure it will pay for itself, while the partisans on the left are predictably claiming doom and gloom and ridiculously that it will increase taxes for the middle class, as per the congenital liar Nancy Pelosi.

The fact that this was passed without any Democrat support at all in the House and likely none in the Senate to come this afternoon means that when the already-improving economy further accelerates, the Democrats will have no cover with the American people of why they voted against giving more of OUR OWN MONEY back to us.

And then of course we have some leftists that wish to play the class warfare card as they continue to hate the rich first, last, and always.  This comes out particularly in the case of the decreased corporate tax rate reduction from 35 to 21%.  Now I am the first to agree that large corporations in particular should not be subsidized with tax payer dollars to effectively lower their tax rate; however, it is a pretty basic economic fact that the consumers and share-holders are the ones that end up paying that tax in the form of higher prices of goods and services needed to offset the companies' tax liabilities and in reduced returns and dividends to stock holders.  By making American corporations more competitive on a global scale, we will further see a growth in our economy and the creation of more jobs. 

Indeed, here are just a few examples of corporations that will be investing in our economy specifically because of Trump economic policies and  the tax reform: 

  • Foxconn Technology Group announced it was investing $10 billion in Wisconsin to build a factory that will employ 3,000 workers. The company predicted it will benefit another 22,000 workers indirectly.
  • Corning Inc. announced during a White House ceremony with Trump that it was investing $500 million in new U.S. production, creating 1,000 jobs.
  • Broadcom Limited announced at another White House ceremony its plan to move headquarters back to the United States, bringing $20 billion in annual revenue.
  • My own company of AT&T has said that if this tax reform is passed, they will invest $1 billion creating 7000 new high paying jobs domestically.

While serious debt reduction needs to take place, and I will continue to lobby my elected officials ad nauseum on this issue, I think this once-in-a-generation tax reform has far more upside to it than not.  It will indeed help far more Americans directly in their pocketbooks than anything done by the Democrats over the last eight years of the Obama administration.  Despite the sycophantic media towing the Democrat line as always, I truly think come mid-term elections in 2018 when people vote with their pocket-books that the Democrats will be horrified at the outcome once again, and the nation will be better off for it.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Crazy Life and Random Topics

Life has been crazily hectic for me lately, hence my silence in the blogosphere over the last several weeks.  That said, I have noted so many things going on in the world which I would really have loved to spend the time putting virtual pen to paper on the blog  to discuss lately.  As I am still pretty busy, I figured I'd do a quick summary of some random topics and my overall thoughts regarding them.  Cheers!

Tax Reform

While congress should also be introducing legislation into where they are going to cut spending that is wasteful, redundant, inefficient, or not in line with our constitution, I think that the tax reform legislation that is going into reconciliation between the House and the Senate is pretty good thus far overall.  First, despite our friends on the left's predictable whining on the topic, the return of some of our tax dollars is a good thing.  After all, this is NOT the government's money.  It is ours.  If the tax reform stays pretty close to its current iteration, it will help spur the economy via corporate tax cuts that finally make the U.S. competitive on the global stage.  (And it is not corporations that pay taxes anyway, but rather the consumers that do.)  Further, the increase in deductions for children and in improved tax rates will help a vast majority of middle class Americans.  No, my Leftist friends, the poorest half of Americans do not get a tax cut per se, as they do not currently PAY any income taxes.

Jerusalem is Israel's Capital

Duh.  It has been the capital of the Jewish people since the time of King David.  President Trump's official recognition of this fact along with the promise of moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is long overdue.  Legislation was passed and signed into law stating this was to be done all the way back in the Clinton administration.  It has been waived every six months for decades now.  Every nation has the sovereign right to declare its own capital.  Israel has done so.  President Trump did a good thing by finally officially recognizing what has always been.  Kudos accordingly on this issue.

Sexual Harassment

Al Franken and John Conyers are resigning from congress for their disgusting behavior towards women.  Further, Roy Moore was not elected to the senate for his behavior also.  These are all good things, as our government should hold accountable those members of the House, Senate, and other federal offices to the same standards that the rest of the civilized world shares.  Further, the secret "settlement account" that is funded by the Treasury Department to the tune of $17 million over the last decade should have its expenditures brought forth into the public eye so we the people can see who has had TAX PAYER money used to settle sexual harassment claims against them.  If we cannot get these scum out of office via term limits, perhaps we can clean house somewhat through some more forced resignations.

Concealed Carry Reciprocity

The House of Representatives has passed a measure which now the Senate should take up that allows anyone with a valid concealed carry permit issued in a given state to travel so armed to another state legally.  This removes some of the legal liabilities that anti-gun states have erected in order to circumvent our second amendment rights, which effectively legally disarms law-abiding gun owners as they travel from their home state to certain other states.  This is akin to states being required to acknowledge and accept a drivers license issued in another state as legal and valid in their own state.

Planned Parenthood Investigation

The Department of Justice is finally starting an investigation into the illegal, barbaric, and ghoulishly reprehensible acts of Planned Parenthood selling body parts of aborted children.  If there is truly any justice in this world then the most innocent of all people, our unborn children, will finally have our government working on their behalf to hopefully serve justice and shut down this heinous practice of Planned Parenthood's.  Perhaps then we can start by removing all tax payer dollars from this vile agency next.

Hiking in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

Last, I did manage to spend a few warm autumn days with my wife hiking in some of the red rock country in the south part of the state of Utah right before Thanksgiving.  The crowds were non-existent in Canyonlands and for the first time in a long long time, I was able to look out over a magnificent landscape of desert canyons and hear... absolutely nothing!  It was truly something for which I was thankful.  I hope everyone had a similarly wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!


 






 Cheers to all, as I hope to return to regular posts soon hopefully.