The Senate approved a tax overhaul bill was approved early Wednesday with a 51-to-48 vote. When news broke about the GOP bill, most of us didn't know what to think, but we knew it couldn't be good for us. Well, it couldn't be good for those of us who don't make millions of dollars. 

According to the NY Daily News, the $1.5 trillion package will return to Congress for another vote because certain provisions in the bill violated Senate rules. 

While the cuts to corporate taxes are permanent, tax benefits for the middle class disappear after a few years. According to The Intercept, it is both the biggest tax cut and tax increase in American history. The tax bill levies an across-the-board increase in taxes for Americans earning less than $75,000 by 2027, according to an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation. The bill cuts taxes by a full $6 trillion over a decade. 

It goes back to the Republicans belief in "trickled down economics." If the company has less to pay in taxes, they'll pay their workers more or hire more workers. Cute idea, low fruition rates. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said that Senate Republicans have the votes to pass the plan, which gets referred to as only a $1.5 trillion cut because it raises $4.5 trillion in taxes elsewhere. 

The bulk of the tax cut is going toward the rich, while the tax increases go to everybody else. The people living below the poverty line barely get a break at all, while those making between $500,000 and $1 million get the biggest break of all. 

The Tax Policy Center estimated that about 80 percent of the benefits of the tax plan will go to the top 1 percent. 

The Intercept lays it out thoroughly:

  • A full $1.5 trillion alone is going to slash the corporate tax rate. CEOs have said repeatedly they plan to pocket that money rather than invest it or give workers higher wages.
  • The alternative minimum tax paid almost exclusively by the rich, is also eliminated. That’s a $700 billion giveaway.
  • Another $150 billion goes to repealing the estate tax, which currently exempts the first $11 million of the deceased’s estate, so nobody even remotely middle class pays it. The repeal benefits so few people you can practically list them out.
  • More than $200 billion in cuts goes to a provision that allows a greater deduction for dividends on foreign earnings. That’s not for you.
  • Roughly $600 billion goes to reducing taxes on “pass-throughs” and other businesses not set up as corporations, which law firms, lobby shops, and doctors’ offices often benefit from. Poor and middle-class people do not tend to set themselves up as pass-throughs. 

So, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Our communities are greatly affected, and to be real, there's not much we can do about it. 

“Republicans in the House have committed fraud against the American people,” Gov. Cuomo blasted New York Congress members who voted for the bill.

Fraud. No better way to describe it.  Trump has said that he plans to sign the bill by Christmas. Happy Holidays? Maybe, if you're already rich.

GOPTax Reform