Federal Budget and Taxes

The GOP Tax Bill: An Assault on Economic Equality and Democracy

Posted by Marc Stier on December 2, 2017 1:20 pm
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Budgets, it is frequently said, are an embodiment of our moral ideals and commitments. If so, the tax plan adopted by the Senate on Friday represents an extreme moral failure on the part of the senators from the Republican Party who voted for it. At a time when incomes are becoming ever more unequal, the Republican tax plan will ultimately make the rich richer and the poor and middle class poorer. Not only will working people and the middle class suffer, but so will our whole country. 

For Many Pennsylvanians, Insurance Premiums Increase Are Greater Than Tax Cuts

Posted by Marc Stier on November 24, 2017 5:09 pm
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As we have pointed out previously, because it repeals the individual mandate, the Senate tax cut proposal will not only lead to 13 million fewer people having health insurance in the United States, but it will lead to much higher premiums for many who do purchase health insurance on the individual market. The CBO’s estimate was that premiums nationwide would increase by 10%.

Help for Your Thanksgiving Day Tax Debates

Posted by Marc Stier on November 23, 2017 2:34 pm
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If your family is anything like ours, politics tends to come up around the Thanksgiving Day table and diverse opinions are often put forward, including by one or more of our cranky uncles who mutter about “those people” and the “damn government.” Since your cranky uncles like mine no doubt listens to Rush and his friends, they are going to present you with a lot of misinformation about the GOP federal tax cut bill. 

But have no fear as we have your back.

The Rich Get Richer: Why the Senate Tax Bill is a Total Sham

Posted by John Neurohr on November 22, 2017 4:59 pm
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The Senate Republican tax plan would provide enormous, permanent tax cuts to high-income households and corporations – all while adding at least $1.5 trillion to the deficit. And to pay for its permanent tax cuts for corporations, the bill would raise taxes on many middle-income families and repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, increasing the number of uninsured Pennsylvanians by 505,000 and raising individual market premiums nationwide by 10 percent.

GOP-Trump Tax Plan: A Windfall for Top 1% of Pennsylvania, a Tax Increase for Many Middle Class Pennsylvanians

Posted by Marc Stier on October 4, 2017 11:21 am
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A 50-state analysis of the GOP tax framework reveals that in Pennsylvania, the top 1 percent of taxpayers would receive a substantial tax cut worth $67,970 while many upper middle class Pennsylvanians would face a tax increase. This plan is bad for Pennsylvania and our country.

Rigging the Economy to Further Benefit the 1% -- the Pennsylvania Numbers

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on October 3, 2017 4:07 pm
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Last Friday, we got the first national estimates of who benefits from the Trump Tax plan -- the "Unified Code for Rigging Our Tax Code Further to Benefit the 1%." While that's not the official title, it's more accurate than the Trump Administration name -- "the Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code." Last week's analysis by the Tax Policy Center showed that, by 2027 (Table 3 in the Center's report), 80% of the benefits would go to the top 1%, an increase from 53% in 2018 (Table

The GOP Federal Tax Proposal: Multiple Reasons to Worry

Posted by Marc Stier on September 27, 2017 12:00 am
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The outline of the tax proposal released by President Trump and Republican House and Senate leaders should worry all Pennsylvanians for multiple reasons.

How Would Trump’s Food Stamp Cuts Hurt Americans? Let Us Count the Ways.

Posted by Shelley Aragoncillo on July 20, 2017 12:16 pm
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This guest post is from Brian Barth, a writer for Modern Farmer. Modern Farmer is a quarterly magazine devoted to the people, policy, issues, animals, plants, and technology of farming and food. The piece ran as a blog post on the blog of the Coalition for Low Income Pennsylvanians.

President Donald Trump has proposed deep cuts to funding for the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps. The administration’s fiscal year 2018 budget seeks a $193.3 billion decrease in SNAP funding over the next decade, a nearly 30 percent reduction over current levels. Such deep cuts have virtually no chance of gaining congressional approval, but they lay bare the President’s approach to our nation’s security net. Who stands to lose?

Pennsylvanians Ask PA Congressional Delegation to Reject Inhumane Cuts to Vital Federal Budget Programs

Posted by John Neurohr on June 19, 2017 4:24 pm
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Nearly 70 Pennsylvania organizations signed on to the letter below asking members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation to reject inhumane cuts to vital federal government programs:
 
To The Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation: 
  
President Trump’s budget features deep cuts in assistance that helps struggling families afford the basics – food on the table, a roof over their heads, and access to health care – as well as stunning cuts in a range of basic public services and investments in our nation, such as job training, K-12 education, access to college, scientific research, and economic development. At the same time, the President has called for massive tax cuts that will overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest households and corporations.

The Trump Budget

Posted by Marc Stier on May 23, 2017 12:00 am
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President Trump’s budget is a triple betrayal — of his campaign promises, of working people in Pennsylvania and around the country, and of a uniquely-American economic order that has created the shared prosperity that America once enjoyed and should enjoy again.

The President is, first, betraying his promise not to cut Medicaid, Social Security, and the social safety net — that is, programs relied on by those left behind in a changing economy.

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