Re: “GOP tax plan will hurt some, but benefit America overall,” Nov. 8 editorial.
I was disappointed in your editorial supporting the GOP tax plan, which would add $1.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, even though this year’s debt is already higher than previous years and growing. If this passes, then I promise that next year you will hear arguments to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid funds because “we can’t afford it.”
So, in essence, large tax breaks for the obscenely wealthy will be paid for on the backs of the middle class and poor. We have seen this before, as it comes right out of the Republican Party’s playbook. How could you be so gullible?
Since President Donald Trump has taken office, we have personally seen our health insurance premiums skyrocket 30 percent and would be looking at a 20 percent tax increase if the GOP plan passes. Someone is “winning” from this, but not the average American.
Cary Mikles, Denver
President Barack Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act came at the time of the very fearful Great Recession and helped dig us out of it. We are not in a recession anymore, thanks to the Obama presidency, so I see no reason to increase the deficit with a tax cut. It’s just inflationary.
Relying on assumptions that the economy will expand at more than 3 percent a year to defray some of the deficit the tax cut will create is voodoo economics, along with any assumption that a cut in taxes for the rich will trickle down to the rest of us.
John Orlando, Morrison
Re: “Bono among figures named in leak of tax-haven documents,” Nov. 6 news story.
The Paradise Papers leak shows yet again what many have been saying for decades: the biggest multinational corporations, including ones here in Colorado, are playing by a different set of rules than domestic businesses and ordinary people. The tax gimmicks that allow these companies to pretend their profits are earned in tax-haven countries cost the U.S. more than $100 billion a year, and cost Colorado hundreds of millions each year.
With the proposed tax bill in Congress already likely to raise our national debt by nearly $2 trillion, it’s irresponsible to move forward without ensuring that any tax plan completely slams the door shut on these offshore tax games — leveling the playing field for small businesses in Colorado, and ensuring that we aren’t shifting the burden of tax cuts onto future generations by exploding the national debt. Any tax bill must close tax loopholes and require more transparency with comprehensive country-by-country reporting of corporate profits.
Danny Katz, Denver
The writer is director of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group.
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