Replies

“The provision effectively raised the tax burden on citizens of high-tax states.”

A giant half truth amounting to a lie.

The provision forced the citizens of high tax states to recognize the effective high tax burden their politicians have raised on them.

Without the new federal tax provision the high tax states had federal taxpayers subsidizing their high state taxes with higher federal taxes on everyone, to fund the generous federal deductions allowed for state taxes.

In my book their should be either 1 of 2 things: Preferably no deductions for state taxes, or at the most deductions for state taxes set to be no more than what could be taken for state taxes in a state whose taxes were the median level of state taxes among all the states.

But my total preferred choice is a universal flat tax, with no deductions, no exemptions, no exclusions and no credits - just a flat tax everyone pays, period. The only exemption to it being universal is I would have an income floor below which the tax would not apply - for the very very poorest among us (but finding that level would count federal and state benefits as income).

I agree with you about preferring a flat tax (rate). We must start to educate the LIV about the difference between a tax and a tax RATE. I know you mean a flat tax rate, but, believe it or not, some people are so ignorant about numbers that the left can convince them that everyone will pay the same amount of tax if we had a “flat tax”. These are often people who pay no income tax at all, but they do vote.

This is similar to the language involving lowering tax RATES which usually leads to increasing tax revenues (taxes). It may seem like a small thing, but is even more important in this second instance. Not educating the public about the difference between a tax rate and a tax(amount) is one of the main reasons that the left got away with claiming that Trump’s tax reform only reduced “taxes for the rich.” This falsehood was a big part of the reason we lost the House in 2018. Most people do not understand numbers and so can be easily fooled.