Dear Editor:
The Nov. 10 edition of Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer's Bulletin seemed so sensible and friendly.at first read. It states that the H.R. 1, Tax Cuts and Job Act, is a "pro growth bill that will help, not hurt, American families." Wow, that sounds fantastic, unless you are elderly, disabled, and live in a nursing home. The bill will eliminate the medical expense deduction generally used by this population and those with extremely high medical costs. So you could predict those costs to get shifted from private insurers to medicaid, emergency room care, and uncompensated county-owned nursing homes; and we already know the Trump administration plans to cut Medicaid budgets.
Blaine says the bill will be "eliminating costly deductions that drive up tax rates and add frustration." But according to the National Association of Counties, by eliminating State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions, there will be huge revenue shifting away from local and state governments to the federal government. Also homeowners are most likely to see property and local tax rates increase. Talk about frustrating! The Counties Association also predicts "negative effects to our local infrastructure development by the elimination of the tax-exempt status that the advance refunding bonds" hold. These bonds are the financing that help support community economic development such as the building of low- to moderate-income single-family housing, hospitals and projects like water and sewer systems. The Tax Foundation predicts with the tax changes that 80 percent of the working population will receive from 1.1 - 1.9 percent increase in wages over the next 10 years. With an earnings of $45,000 a year that would be $495 dollars, hopefully that will cover your increased expenses and inflationnot likely I bet. The top 1 percent will receive a 7.5 percent increase in their earnings. The GDP may grow slightly with this plan, and the rich will continue to get richer, but 80 percent of our nation will likely see stagnation or decline. I don't feel that the benefit of filing my "taxes on a form as simple as a postcard," as Blaine puts it, is enough of an incentive. Thanks, but no thanks, Blaine.