Readers give two cents on the GOP tax plan

Grad school taxes

“Tax bill could push graduate students out of universities” (Nov. 16) saying that the proposed tax bill could push students out of universities is a prime example of the unfairness of our current tax code. The bottom line is when you dissect the Duke University example, American taxpayers are subsidizing a student’s private school education. If Duke would simply pay the student a salary, earnings for work performed as a graduate assistant would be taxed just like everyone else who works. Why should Duke get a tax break by disguising work performed for the university as a gift?

As to the ridiculous quote “only the independently wealthy” would be able to attend graduate school: My wife, myself and our daughter all attended graduate school and none of us are independently wealthy. We all worked during our graduate school years as teaching assistants or research assistants and received a salary from the university for our graduate assistant work, which was subject to state and federal taxes. In addition, we all either worked part-time or held full-time jobs while pursuing our graduate degrees.

Tax bill ‘ridiculous’

Regarding “Senate plan would make individual tax breaks temporary while corporate cuts would be permanent” (Nov. 15): As a middle-class voter in Raleigh, I have been closely watching the Senate’s proposals for the “Cut Cut Cut” tax plan now developing. I am terribly disappointed that rather than a plan that will relieve the burden on poor and middle-class citizens, wealthy people and corporations will get richer, while less well-off folks will pay more. It may take a few years, but the majority will pay more, and the few truly wealthy will pay far less. And now, the proposal to further damage the Affordable Care Act has been added, which will result in 13 million people losing their health insurance.

I am appalled that the Senate continues to pander to their millionaire and big-business donors, with no regard for their voting constituents or fiscal responsibility. Trickle-down economic schemes have been shown repeatedly to mean more money for the rich and less money and services for the working class, poor and disabled members of our society. Corporate leaders have stated that profits will be plowed back in to companies, not spent in communities or passed on to workers. Sens. Tillis and Burr should vote against this ridiculous bill.

University ‘hypocrisy’

Regarding “Wealthy colleges blast Republican proposal to tax endowments” (Nov. 4): I am amused by the hypocrisy of the one-percent universities. The richest private institutions of higher education are howling about being asked to pay a 1.4 percent tax on the earnings of their endowments. Many of these bastions of liberalism, whose denizens often look down on the top one percent of taxpayers, have endowments of half a million to over a million dollars per student.

Yet, in an age of bloated, overpaid, and overprivileged administrations, these institutions still raise tuition and fees on a regular basis. Remember universities, as one of your heroes once said, you didn’t get there on your own. Somebody built the roads and bridges that get students to campus.

‘Piper must be paid’

Regarding “Senate plan would make individual tax breaks temporary while corporate cuts would be permanent” (Nov. 15): Here we go again. Republicans are again trying to dust off and polish their old “trickle down” economic policies. The idea is that if you cut taxes and encourage the rich to spend and invest, the economy will magically grow like a mushroom after a monsoon. The economic growth will increase tax receipts, making up for the tax cuts.

As much as they – and we – want to believe, it doesn’t work. We tried it in the 1980s and the yearly deficits tripled. We tried it in the early 2000s and government spending went from a $300 billion surplus to a $500 billion deficit. We then experienced the worst economic collapse in 75 years. Spending went way up and tax receipts went way down to the point that receipts covered only two-thirds of yearly spending. The U.S. now owes about one year’s total economic output ($19 trillion). Economists disagree about how long this can continue, but at some point the piper must always be paid. No one can seriously argue that the U.S. tax code does not need reform, but the case for tax cuts being part of that reform is based on wishful thinking.

Don’t tax tuition waivers

Regarding “Tax bill could push graduate students out of universities” (Nov. 16): The Republican tax increase on the middle and working classes currently working its way through both houses of Congress has dozens of disastrous policy and standard-of-living consequences for millions of Americans. Among the most destructive changes would be the elimination of the tax-free status of tuition waivers for graduate education.

Such a maneuver, simply to provide tax cuts for billionaires, would literally decimate our next generation of scientists, engineers, researchers and teachers. From a national economic and security perspective it’s as if the Republicans have simply decided to surrender to China right here and now, with a clear declaration that the American run is over and the rest of the 21st century is theirs for the taking. It’s pretty clear that their ultimate aim, via concurrent cuts to health care, education and infrastructure, is to turn the United States into a low-wage labor source. Which is good, because China is going to need one.

This story was originally published November 18, 2017 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Readers give two cents on the GOP tax plan."