By Steve
Ahlquist in Rhode Island’s Future
President Donald Trump‘s tax plan “would give the richest Rhode Island taxpayers an average $86,610 tax cut, which is 1.7 times the annual income of middle-income Rhode Islanders,” reports the Economic Progress Institute (EPI) based on a new analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).
The report shows that “a federal tax reform plan based on Trump’s April outline would fail to deliver on its promise of largely helping middle-class taxpayers, showering 61.4 percent of the total tax cut on the richest one percent nationwide.”
In Rhode Island, the
top 1 percent of the state’s residents would receive an average tax cut of
$86,610 compared with an average tax cut of just $430 for the bottom 60 percent
of taxpayers in the state.
“All too often, policymakers talk about tax cuts as though they don’t have consequences,” said Rachel Flum, Executive Director of the Economic Progress Institute. “But the truth is, tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy would come with a heavy dose of cuts to vital programs and services.
Reducing investments in health care, education, food assistance, disability insurance and other programs is too steep a price to pay to give Rhode Island’s wealthiest residents a tax cut that is more than the household income of most Ocean State working families.”
The tax cuts will
result in savage cuts to programs that benefit the poor as well. “Trump’s tax
proposals would cost at least $4.8 trillion over ten years,” says the ITEP
report, “In the short-run this might just mean higher government deficits, but
eventually Congress and the President would almost surely have to cut major
programs like Medicare, Medicaid, food assistance and
others to offset the costs.
"This reality is reflected in the draconian cuts from programs for low- and moderate-income people that the Trump administration recently proposed in its budget. Low- and middle-income families would probably lose far more as a result than they gain from the small tax cuts President Trump would provide them.”
"This reality is reflected in the draconian cuts from programs for low- and moderate-income people that the Trump administration recently proposed in its budget. Low- and middle-income families would probably lose far more as a result than they gain from the small tax cuts President Trump would provide them.”
Steve Ahlquist is
an award-winning journalist, writer, artist and founding member of the
Humanists of Rhode Island, a non-profit group dedicated to reason, compassion,
optimism, courage and action. The views expressed are his own and not
necessarily those of any organization of which he is a member. atomicsteve@gmail.com and Twitter:
@SteveAhlquist