Duane Mooring | The Truth About the Tax Cuts

Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
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This is in response to Betty Arenson’s letter on Sept. 10, “Letter Perpetuates Falsehoods.” 

I would like to reiterate to Betty Arenson that I was quoting a Brookings Institute analysis of the TCJA (Trump’sTax Cuts and Jobs Act). I don’t have a “crystal ball” as Ms. Arenson noted – but the Brookings Institute analysis was written by expert economists who basically do. The purpose of my letter was to point out the falsehood behind Max Morgan’s letter in which he claimed that the Brookings Institute analysis supported his claim that the TCJA was beneficial to the middle class exactly as advertised by the president.

Again, this is the quote from Brookings: “About 80%t of taxpayers did receive a direct tax cut from TCJA, but that is not the end of the story. Tax cuts eventually have to be paid for. When Donald Trump said he was giving Americans a tax cut for Christmas, for example, he neglected to add that they (or their children) eventually would receive the bill. It is unclear how TCJA will eventually be financed, but in the most likely scenarios, most households will end up worse off than had the TCJA never passed. In short, TCJA likely made the current generation of high-income households better off at the expense of lower-income households and future generations.”

I will admit that FOX News has been set back on its heels lately as the president makes himself more and more difficult to be loved. For instance, the weather map that Mr. Trump displayed to reporters that falsely showed a large projected impact of Hurricane Dorian on Alabama was discredited by Shepard Smith and then defended by Sean Hannity on the same day. Even so, FOX seems to find a way to let true believers cling to the president’s lies.

On the TCJA impact on the Affordable Care Act, it’s simple economics that everyone must be in an insurance pool to make the insurance most effective. Many healthy people who have to buy their own coverage opt to not carry insurance to the detriment of those who need insurance. That’s why employer pools that force everyone in a company to have insurance work well. This individual mandate feature of the ACA was tested in the courts and upheld. Repealing this feature raises insurance rates for the self-employed and others – throwing millions out of the market. 

I know. I was diagnosed with bone cancer just as I was laid off. The ACA was a life saver for me personally.

Duane Mooring

Castaic

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