I know political rants don't solve anything, but I think anybody who is GOP and claims to be "pro-life" needs to recognize this: The average two-parent family with two or more children will get absolutely hosed by this tax plan moving through Congress. It does not--I repeat, DOES NOT--matter how they've structured it to raise standard deduction. Unless someone has information I haven't run across, if you take those personal exemptions out as the plan proposes, you have no subtraction of line 42 from line 41 (which at that point is adjusted gross income minus either standard or itemized deduction). According to 2016 forms, a family of four loses $16,200 in deductions; a family of five loses $20,250, which means you're getting hammered for more income. Forget the child tax credit going from $1000 to $2000. That's putting a band-aid on a compound fracture. Explain to me how all this incentivizes families staying together. Explain to me how this encourages having kids!
Not everyone is a small business owner. Not everyone is a CEO. The supermajority of tax filers do individual returns with no boost from pass-through income for SBOs for a corporate tax cut (which is such a mislabel...all corporate taxes get passed down to the consumer in the form of cost of goods and services).
I say it every year to my Ethics classes, and I will say it now: Being anti-abortion and being pro-life are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS! To be pro-life means defending the unborn, but you also must expand that beyond to every stage of life, from womb to tomb! It means providing access to health care for people who need it, even if we debate on what that looks like. Going on medical mission trips or have a desire to open up free or low-cost medical clinics in poor, urban areas is pro-life. Attorneys or counselors who help people who have been physically or sexually abused are exhibiting pro-life activity. Being scientifically interested and doing research and development for drugs, surgeries, and materials to combat diseases and disabilities is pro-life. Showing compassion, giving assistance, and offering living space for pregnant mothers in difficult financial situations but want to keep their baby is pro-life. Generous maternity leave is a pro-life move.
This tax plan moving through Congress is not pro-life. At best, it is ambivalent to the diginity and protection and propagation and enhancement of human life. At worst (which is where I think it is), it is anti-life.
And no matter how many GOP legislators claim otherwise, it doesn't stop the truth from being the truth.
I'm praying for a voting landmine to go off to prevent this bill's passage. If you don't care for that, you know where the "unfriend" button is and you do not have to follow my blog along with three dozen other people around the world.
Rant over.
