U.S. science groups make last-minute push to influence final tax deal

[Rhiannon12866]

It wasn’t your typical graduate school experience. But earlier this week, eight graduate students, including doctoral students in anthropology and astrophysics at major U.S. universities, ended up in handcuffs after they refused to end a noisy protest outside the Washington, D.C., office of Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R–WI).

The arrests were just one dramatic development in a frenzied, last-minute effort by the U.S. scientific and academic communities to shape a major rewrite of the nation’s tax code now being finalized by Congress. The protesters, for instance, want Ryan to help block a House-passed provision that would impose a new tax on tuition assistance that graduate students receive from universities. Biomedical and environmental scientists, meanwhile, are targeting provisions they argue will harm drug development and efforts to promote renewable energy. But time is running short.

The U.S. Senate last week approved a massive, Republican-backed rewrite of the federal tax code that mirrors, in key respects, a bill passed on 16 November by the U.S. House of Representatives. Both bills would dramatically cut corporate rates and, over a decade, deliver a majority of their benefits to the most affluent individuals.

There are also major differences between the measures, however. The Senate bill, for example, would eliminate the penalty that the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, now requires individuals to pay if they don't acquire health insurance; the House bill would not. Critics say the move could result in millions fewer Americans obtaining health insurance.


Much more: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/us-science-groups-make-last-minute-push-influence-final-tax-deal

[Hortensis]

1. It's such an astonishingly malignant bill that we will

be forced to redo it. Taxing higher education? There'll be no waiting for a generation to pass another. We can't.

A provision liable to be passed is a big driver toward both fewer and lower paid employees and lower taxes, and thus even less money in a national kitty that's being intentially bankrupted.

Marketplace:

Hurtling toward the tax bill's unintended consequences

Well, I guess if I have to pick one, the one that I think is most interesting is how they're going to divide in a small business the wages which will be subject to a high tax rate from the profits which will be subject to a low tax rate. So in a small business, if I'm the owner, how do I divide what I should be paid as a worker from what I should be paid as a capitalist? And there's no bright line between those.

Ryssdal: This is that thing known as pass-through, right?

Sullivan: That's correct.

Ryssdal: OK. So what is to stop me or anybody else in this economy who is just going to work every day from making themselves into a pass-through corporation — and yes Congress is putting guardrails in there — but come on, we know smart tax lawyers can figure this out for us. And I get the lower rate, right?

Sullivan: The bill is still in flux. But it looks like if you're under $500,000 of income, you will be able to incorporate yourself and then make a contract with your employer. The income that you receive instead of wages would be considered a tax-preferred income, and you pay a lower rate.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Exactly! How many members of Congress have read it, let alone the American public??

Trump (who probably has no clue) keeps getting out there and boasting about "tax cuts" - which sounds great to the uninformed and they believe him! Unless you're paying extremely close attention it's impossible to know which benefits that Americans count on they're going after every day - most of it behind the scenes...

[Hortensis]

3. Personal loss deduction for natural disasters is gone.

I think people will notice and talk about that. What that means is already being reported in California media in some detail. Of course.

Congress can still pass special bills for major disasters, but most disasters that hit people, fires, tornadoes, flood, just don't get that kind of attention.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. I heard that on MSNBC tonight. WTF???

Recently I heard - or read - Trump's administration compared to that of some third world dictator. And the more I hear - or read - the more I see the similarities. I think the discussion was how he's constantly surrounded by - and only trusts - his family members. And the other similarity is how he's using any powers he can muster to punish anyone who he believes dissed him. President Obama is his biggest target - and now he's going after states that are obviously not in his corner, starting with California.

[Hortensis]

5. It's not Trump. He's being used by "libertarian"

billionaires to take over the nation we inherited.

While a bunch of silly-billies on the left imagine they're a "revolution," the real thing is happening from the right, and the revolutionary leaders are all operating out of their private offices in penthouses and estates.

You're so right about "third world." I've a few times commented to conservatives about how the "small government" government they insisted they wanted was found in every underdeveloped nation, and in no advanced nation. None could ever discuss that. They'd never thought about it.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. I agree he's being used - it's embarrassingly obvious he has no idea what's going on

And he really doesn't care. As long as he has people treating him like the king he believes he is - and he doesn't have to think or learn or read - that's all he's in this for. And you're sure right about "small government." Will people be happier without Social Security or Medicare or any of the government benefits they've come to expect and depend on? The people of North Korea are starving...