To the Editor,
I don’t know how we have found ourselves in a situation where the President of the United States who is promoting the most quickly thrown together and noxious tax reform policy in U.S. history without our citizen input, can, himself, never have publicly revealed his own taxes so that we can judge just how partially or impartially this bill is geared to the Greater Good vs. his own return on investments.
We have been put through many disgraces with this President, and seen incongruous and unflattering Congressional behavior, not the least of which has come out in this plan.
Any tax reform with so-called tax cuts being proposed that have not followed careful Congressional procedure, revue of all pertinent documents and bi-partisan deliberation such as President Reagan instituted before the last tax reform 30 years ago, is Out of Order.
And when the “cuts” are inordinately and unfairly skewed to great advantage for the wealthy, it is an affront to qualify this as a “wonderful tax plan for the middle class.”
There needs to be truth in politics.
The current President and Congress are out of alignment with the best interests of our country.
Today, one member of Congress said they had been asked not to reveal the committee conference changes to the bill. Not up for discussion and compromise or any “outsider” thoughts! ….. when it is going to affect each and every one of us for years to come.
It is our ordinary hardworking citizens struggling to make it on two or more jobs and still aspiring to a normal family life, that need tax cuts and benefits. Our Representatives in the House and Senate should have the foresight of projecting how favorable middle class earnings and healthcare, prevention and treatment of opioid addiction, infrastructure projects and the likely unexpected national disasters or emergencies yet to come, will be met. How will an additional trillion dollar deficit, the best scenario for this proposed plan, handle these needs? Let us not hear our legislators in a year or so, talk to us about the so-called “entitlements” of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, when this bill is creating permanent Entitlements for the rich and famous.
There was not even a guaranteed provision included in this plan for payroll deduction benefits or increased wages or enhanced trainings for workers as big companies benefit from their large tax savings every year. And knocking out the Individual Mandate to keep health premiums from skyrocketing for at least 13 million people? On a related aside, why has the CHIP program for our children not been reinstated weeks ago? Where is the heart and soul of this new bill?
It is shockingly absent.
To be sure, it is still up to Congress—locally that means Senator Toomey, along with his senatorial colleagues, and our U.S. Representatives, Patrick Meehan and Lloyd Smucker —to rectify the shortcomings of this bill to keep us from sinking into the abyss.
Diana Rarig
Kennett Square
