Responding to Mr. Nathanson’s letter that claims many of Trump’s accomplishments have been ignored, allow me to focus on but two such claims.
Regarding tax cuts, he stated that the tax ‘has resulted in thousands of dollars in tax cuts and bonuses for millions of workers.”
In that same issue, Len Mansky, a Trump convertee, referred to an accountant who told him that 95 percent of his clients would have their 2018 taxes reduced by an average of $2,000.
Factually, the reduction ranges between $1,500 and $2,000 or $30 to $ 40 on a weekly basis,
For a family of four, that means a jar of instant coffee, a family pack of ground beef, a quart of milk, a box of cereal and packages of toilet paper and/or paper towels…perhaps one bag at a supermarket.
For major corporations, the corporate income tax rate drops from 35 percent to 21 percent or a savings of 14 percent.
Therefore, a corporation with taxable income of $100 million will save $14 million and a great deal of such savings will flow down to the corporation’s top executives.
Factually, in the United States there were over 150 public companies that had a net profit of $1 billion or more.
Therefore, their minimum tax savings would be $140 million dollars. That’s per year. How much of these savings do you think filters down to their employees? I guess saving $1,500 to $2,000 a year would satisfy these lowly employees.
But the question remains, who pays for these tax cuts?
These tax cuts will produce a yearly deficit over $1 trillion.
What does a deficit mean to an average person or family when it comes to these tax cuts? Let’s take the example of a wage earner of a family who earns $100,000 a year.
They manage to save maybe $10,000 a year and their total savings in a bank is $40,000. Suddenly the wage earner loses the job and subsequently finds another, but with the reduced yearly salary of $60,000.
For year one, the lesser income causes a deficit of $40,000, but to maintain their previous lifestyle, they break even by using their $40,000 savings.
However, in the following year, in order not to have a deficit of $40,000, they must cut some of their spending…like no vacation, having their two children drop out of college, perhaps move to housing with a lower rent, etc. In other words, with less income coming in, they have to cut their expenses somewhere…substantially!
As for the federal income tax, this represents the money the government collects to pay all their bills.
If suddenly that amount is reduced by $1 trillion that means the government will also have an additional deficit of $1 trillion and they too must cut some of their expenditures. Under this current administration, such cuts totaling some $600 million will be made to Social Security and Medicare.
The Trump people refer to them as entitlements, but as we all know, they are not entitlements.
We, the taxpayers, pay for them by having deductions made from our salaries for Social Security and Medicare.
In the most basic of terms, the deficits that are caused by the tax cuts will affect us in the most drastic way, but the major corporations will benefit to the tune of millions or even hundreds of millions.
So please present the facts accurately.
Regarding the “unverified and salacious charges” against Trump for collusion with the Russians, I guess that Mr. Nathanson has seen evidence that few other individuals have seen.
As an American citizen, shouldn’t we all be concerned that Russia might have collaborated with the Trump campaign to ensure that he wins the election?
Robert S.Mueller III, a conservative Republican appointed by George W. Bush, should be allowed to conduct a thorough investigation that should result in a provable conclusion. Doesn’t Mr. Nathanson know that Nixon’s Watergate investigation took over two years and the Clinton impeachment investigation took even longer?
Evidence does matter!
As an American citizen, I believe that we should find out, without a doubt, whether Russia collaborated with the Trump organization to help win the election and if so, was Mr. Trump involved?
If the answer is yes, I’ll let Mr. Nathanson determine the punishment.
Alvin H. Goldberg
Great Neck
Writer and retired CPA
