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Comment by adrianratnapala | Hacker News Reader

I think this analysis is right, but it ignores the blue side of the bargain -- unless you mean the Dems care less about unionised workers than the Repubs. Are SV companies able to influence the Dems by some other means, or is it that the blue-team influences them.

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In this particular case they only cared about not giving Trump a win. This will move the economy forward which is something as a party the cannot afford.

My problem is they always put party before their own voters. They did it during the election and they are doing it now. I know that many are trying to portray the cuts as mostly going to the rich but looking at percentages it isn't. Even more so they are clawing back deductions that only favored high income earners, like deducting state and city taxes. Deductions the middle and lower class never got to take advantage of, plus DOUBLING the standard deduction which favors those under 100k immensely

Is this after ignoring the deliberate corruption in making the individual tax cuts temporary vs permanent tax cuts for businesses plus the individual mandate repeal resulting in skyrocketing premiums?

Didn't Obama propose bringing Corp taxes down to 28% (vs 35 now and 22% after passage?). So it isn't only Reps who recognized our corp taxes were out if sync with other nations corp tax rates.

Yes, BUT that was meant to be combined with the closing of multiple loopholes that would prevent companies from paying far less than what they're supposed to. In comparison the Republican bill leaves them open and even has a few of its own.

That's why Obama had such a tough time actually getting something done. Well, that and another obvious factor.

I don't think that's corruption, I think that's just politics. It will be easy to get agreement to extend the individual cuts before they expire. It would be much harder to get agreement to extend the corporate cuts.

If you want to cut both then you basically have to do it this way.

There is also the fact that the renewal vote happens on an election cycle. If the republicans hold the house, the tax cuts will be renewed. If the democrats take control, they will be forced to expire the cuts since they are planning to campaign heavily on the tax bills as bad for the public. This means that if the GOP loses control, the following year taxes will go up on most voters and help reinforce the GOP narrative of the Democrats as the party of taxation.

The corporate cuts are permanent. Only the individual ones expire

Yes, I am aware. And my comment explained the political reasons behind that decision.

I think it is the Republican party showing its priorities :) Tax cuts for the reach are more important than anything else.

Hopefully we get a repeal of the corporate cuts, with even an increase to compensate for the years it was cut.

Corporate taxes are bad.

1) Their inherent complexity leads to a lot of wasted work and other distortions away from an efficient allocation of resources.

2) Corporate taxes charge the same rate to rich shareholders as poor shareholders: not progressive.

Cutting them is good.

What about the additional $1.4T being added to the deficit to pay for them? Is that moving the economy forward? I'm all for a lower tax burden, but like politicians of both parties they're much happier handing out the benefits than paying for them.

Not to stir up controversy, governments have to figure out a different way to make money than taxing people. It is about time somebody figured this out. In a world run by fiat currencies, what does deficit even mean? Just print more money using leverage. Who’s gonna check?

Printing money would be de facto tax-by-inflation.

Not if that money never enters the circulation. Just use it to keep deficit down, it doesn't need to actually get all the way down to consumers.

Are you proposing having honest accounting, and assuming that nobody will look? Or are you proposing having dishonest accounting, and assuming that nobody will be able to look deep enough to prove it?

People actually do seriously read the federal budget statements...

You have the arrow backwards:

Governments create demand for money by collecting taxes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory

That's why the economy (the measure of the velocity of money) grows when taxes are raised.

Modern Monetary Theory is based on collecting taxes. I am talking about a new theory that is not based on taxes at all but instead, it is based on Government making money by selling govt. land, investing social security money in high growth funds, etc.

They're clawing back deductions that helped high income earners because they also helped fund local schools & infrastructure that benefits everyone. They had no problem letting rich people give away 5M more tax-free in estate transfers, for instance.

> In this particular case they only cared about not giving Trump a win.

No, that was the GOP's strategy against Obama over the last 8 years... I don't know how you mixed that up.

That doesn't mean the other party isn't using the same tactic now that the shoe is on the other foot.

But they're not, so you're suggesting it or for no reason. In fact, the GOP is still trying to undo everything Obama did just because Obama touched it.

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