I’ve been pretty busy lately redoing my study. It needs a refresh after 17 years I think. I may miss a few posts here and there and some may seem kinda rushed. So, pardon me if you will, .. or won’t…

At this point, we can only hope and pray that enough Republicans vote on their principles rather than taking small measures offered to them in this monstrous 515-page tax bill.

A BREAK FOR BOOZE: The Senate bill contains a special tax cut for makers of beer, wine and spirits, for no particular reason. (Perhaps it’s because these companies are doing their patriotic duty of keeping Americans in good cheer.) It would reduce levies on beer, wine and liquor produced in or imported into the country, and, while described as a boon for “craft beverage,” it would benefit the entire industry, saving it about $4.2 billion over 10 years. This is particularly galling because taxes on alcohol have not increased since 1991 and are calculated without an inflation adjustment, which means they have already shrunk substantially over time.

These policy changes, smuggled into the bill to please big Republican donors, would never survive a more transparent process. History will remember them for what they are: smaller scams aimed at winning support for a much bigger one.

Source: The Senate Is Rushing to Pass Its Tax Bill Because It Stinks – The New York Times

I’m just an ordinary guy but it seems to me that it would be a pretty easy thing to reform our taxes below the 515 pages in the Senate version. Those guys are back at it, putting in these loopholes to get a vote or two. If you want to simplify the income taxes then just do it.  If you have income, you pay taxes, it doesn’t matter where that income is from. The rich folks get their income from dividends and such but how is that really any different from the guy who has a 9-5 job to get his? Forget all these deductions. I know it would be hard to swallow for some of us, but let’s just go cold turkey.

I think I could write a tax reform bill that would fit on a couple of pages. It’s easy to simply the hell out of it and then add back what is absolutely needed than the other way around.

I am a fiscal conservative and a deficit hawk and since the GOP seems to have abandoned that idea and the Dems never had it, where is a guy like me supposed to go?

I hate to be a broken record but my solution is the Centrists.