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 Proposed Tax Bill: Middle class to be squeezed BAD!

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The NY Times (failing, according to the ONE with the BIGGEST megaphone in the land) published “What’s in the Final Republican Tax Bill”. 

Here is a look (caution: It’s scary) at the issue of deductions and personal exemptions, important to middle class taxpayers:

 

Standard deduction and exemptions
Standard deduction Current

$6,500 / $13,000
(singles/couples)

  

Proposed 

$12,000 / $24,000

(singles/couples)
Personal exemptions $4,150 per taxpayer and dependent Eliminates

So, a family of 4 would be a big LOSER (a word loathed by the ONE with the megaphone) under the so-called middle class tax cut.  Here is  my math based on the numbers in the table above.  Under current law, deductions and exemptions (D&E) add up to $29,600:  $13,000 (couple standard deduction) + $16,600 (4*4150) for the 4 exemptions. Under the proposed tax cut, the D&E add up only to $24,000 for this family. That is a 18.9 %  ($29,600-$24,000)/(29,600)) tax increase.

Somebody tell me my math is WRONG.  If not, we are headed for some serious problems in the years to come.  I know first hand (Indian experience)  what happens when a country lacks a robust  middle class.

 

Will America break up?

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Today, after a divisive campaign (to say the least) is election day  when Americans will elect their next president.  The bi-partisan distrust of the two major political parties, namely, the Democrats and Republicans, the power brokers of this nation, raises the question: How long can such a divided and acrimonious United States of America last as one country?  Indian history offers a not so optimistic answer.

 

india-map
Religion-Based Division of A Country (1947)
usa-red-and-blue-states
Red and Blue States of America (2016)

 

 

 

 

 

To explain, I shall show two maps – a geographical map of British India  at the time of partition (top, left) and the  political (“Red and Blue States”) map of America (top, right).  What is important is that you see the distribution of the two colors – yellow and green on the map to the left, and red and blue on the map to the right.

Serious religious differences resulted in the breakup of British India into two countries – predominantly Hindu India (shaded yellow)  with predominantly Muslim Pakistan (shaded green) on either side of India (East and West Pakistan). East Pakistan became the new country of  Bangladesh in 1971.

So, coming back to the political discord in America, blue states (mostly on the two coasts), have more than the necessary 270 electoral votes to elect a president – no red states (the middle part) needed.  A rather  discomforting thought!