The GOP tax plan is as shitty as expected

To prevent explosive growth in federal budget deficits and debt while cutting taxes, the Republican budget plan proposes a number of steps. First, forget about any spending increases where added spending is needed—no increases for infrastructure and none for the opioid crisis. What it does call for is massive spending cuts, mostly to programs that serve low- and moderate-income households:

$473 billion in Medicare spending;

$1.3 trillion in Medicaid, Affordable Care Act tax credits and cost sharing subsidies, and other health spending;

$653 billion in income security spending, a category that includes such items as SNAP (formerly food stamps), child nutrition, Supplemental Security Income (which provides income to poor old folks and people with disabilities), unemployment insurance, and other programs that serve people with low or moderate incomes;

$199 billion in education and social services, a category that includes grants and loans to help children from poor and moderate-income families afford college;

and $800 billion of cuts to the mélange of government programs known as ‘non-defense, discretionary’ spending — a new ‘magic asterisk’ that stands for cuts legislators are unwilling to name even in general terms.

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana took out his wallet and held it up Tuesday. “This is what tax reform is about!” he proclaimed.

But a growing number of nonpartisan analyses show that some middle-class Americans would not get more money in their pockets under the GOP plan. Instead, they would face higher tax bills, a potential pitfall in selling this plan to the public and to enough lawmakers for it to pass.

Nine percent of middle-class tax filers (those earning between $48,600 and $86,100) would pay more in taxes next year, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center released Wednesday. By 2027, 31 percent of middle-class filers would see tax hikes, the center said.