some headlines
The New York Times
~~ Trump's Tax Cuts Are Likely to Increase Trade Deficit
~~ Opinion | The House Just Voted to Bankrupt Graduate Students
~~ Opinion | Jay-Z: The Criminal Justice system Stalks Black People Like Meek Mill
~~ House and Senate Panel Pass Tax Bill in Major Step Toward Overhaul
~~ Alabama G.O.P. Says It Stands Behind Roy Moore
~~ Bill Signals G.O.P. Prioritizes Corporate Tax Cuts
--------- "There are tough choices at the heart of the Republican tax bills speeding through Congress, and they make clear the party values deep and lasting tax cuts for corporations above all else."
~~ Middle-Class Families Confront Soaring Health Insurance Costs
~~ Seeing U.S. in Retreat Under Trump, Japan and China Move to Mend Ties
~~ Op-Ed Columnist: Everybody Hates the Trump Tax Plan
~~ Common Sense: With AT&T and Time Warner, Battle Lines Form for an Epic Antitrust Case
_________________________
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
NYT
"It's as if the system is having a nervous breakdown, putting at risk all our city's great advantages: our economy, our environment and our mobility."
~~ Gene Russianoff, New York City's leading transit advocate for four decades, on deteriorating subway service and the decline in ridership that has followed.
_________________________
You better stop, look around,
Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes.
Here comes your nineteenth nervous breakdown....
~ The Rolling Stones
_____________________________
some Reader Comments on tax bill:
Michael
Texas
------------- Every day I wake up and ask myself, "How is the GOP planning to screw me today?" It is remarkable how little they care about the pains and worries of ordinary people.
No wonder everybody is stressed out.
Bill
New Jersey
----------- This whole thing sounds nefarious...as if the Republicans want to hurt the average citizen. Clearly we don't all make millions or own a company....we just work, make a living...go home to our family...then, go back to work.
WHY....is this tax bill put together to help wealthy people and huge corporations...WHY? This feels like a
huge middle finger
to all of us average Americans....this bill can not, should not be passed. It's just not right.
Chris
Seattle
------------ This comes as no surprise to me. The Republican establishment have brazenly supported proposals that mainly benefit the 1%. It's time for a revolution, to
take back the reins of power from these plutocrats,
and redistribute the power among the common citizens of the United States.
R. Littlejohn
Texas
---------------- Is there another advanced democratic nation where the governing party is
obsessing how to destroy the working middle-class?
Republicans have become despicable.
Aaron
Orange County, California
------------- Help corporations with WHAT? A soaring stock market, a current tax code with loopholes so corporations pay an average of 17% or less -- record profits, huge CEO bonuses, tax free offshore havens... Yeah - they really need all the help they can get right now!
I can't believe they are getting away with this! How is this happening?
Where is the tainted kool-aid coming from?
We need to find the source of this brain washing spring and add an antidote! In this age of media and instant information how are we not able to discern fact from fiction? This is
the greatest fleecing of our society
since the industrial robber barons.
Can the Democratic leadership at least get mad?
Or at least hold an all night vigil and pretend they are mad? I've never felt so alone or let down by my party! Not only did the GOP shut the lights out - the Democrats are hanging around in the dark -- not even bothering to find a light switch!
For God's sake and the sake of this nation - somebody DO SOMETHING!
Danielle2206
New York, NY
--------------- For the last time, Republicans, when you cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, they don't reinvest to help those below them get jobs and improve the economy.
THEY KEEP THE MONEY.
Pottree
Los Angeles
--------------- Say I run a very large corporation. If my dreams come true and Congress guarantees lower corporate tax rates and also lower income tax rates for my mega salary and stock options, what is my motivation to hire more employees or raise wages when it is my fiduciary responsibility to shareholders like me to reduce costs, of which labor is always the most odious?
If I have more after-tax money to work with, why would I want to waste it on workers when instead I could use it to speed automation and buy up my competitors, thus increasing shareholder value and hence earning more mega salary and stock options?
PJ Childress
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
--------------- I'm not an economist and don't play one on TV, but
I don't see how anyone can believe this shuck-and-jive
about corporate tax cuts somehow bringing The Amazing Job and Wage Growth Miracle! Has anyone ever proven a connection between lower corporate taxation and more hiring? Or, far more important, the wage increases which the US worker has desperately needed for years?
Yep: full employment, corporate profits at record highs; stock markets at record highs... yet wages stay flat.
"Investments to increase productivity" from the cuts... more smoke and mirrors: Worker productivity has been very high for quite some time now. Surprise! Wages are still flat! It's a productivity-pay gap, and
it's a Very Bad Thing, since for the first time in apparently ever, wages and productivity have been decoupled.
Increased productivity, pay the same in wages... doesn't take a supercomputer to see who benefits ...hint: It's not the workers.
So: Isn't it kind of axiomatic that generally, what does stimulate corporate expansion and that whole 'growth' thing is demand?
...Where's increased demand going to come from,
when middle and lower earners have less disposable income thanks to this tax "cut", increased health care/insurance costs, and -- don't forget -- continued flat wages?
Shuck and jive,
friends and neighbors.
Ask CEOs -- I think this has been done -- what they'll do with the tax cuts, and see how many of them say they plan to increase wages. I'll wait...
Richard Monckton
San Francisco, California
------------- Penalizing college tuition by requiring students to pay taxes on the full tuition the university doesn't charge them for, will have the effect of discouraging American students from pursuing advanced degrees.
This makes perfect sense to the Republicans. They know that Republican identity is lowest among the top educated citizens - in fact, less than 4 percent of Americans with doctorate degrees identify as Republicans. Advanced education is the GOP's number one enemy, and they know it full well.
Combating education...is precisely one of the things Republicans need to do if they want to keep a stranglehold on the nation....
Frank
Princeton
-------------- NBC says Trump and his family will benefit to the tune of one billion dollars
if the tax bill goes through as it is now. The media, especially the NYT so hated by Trump, must investigate the ethics and legality of Trump signing into law a bill that will personally benefit him to that degree.
Trump signing this tax bill is the definition of an ethics violation. If nothing else gets Trump impeached,
signing this bill has to be an impeachable offense if not an outright violation of law.
The media absolutely must investigate the possibility that Trump will break one or more laws by signing this travesty into law.
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