Today’s analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) says that the proposed tax cut does not stimulate the economy enough to offset the tax cut. It will grow the economy by 0.8% and this will add $400 billion in revenues over the next decade. The other $1 trillion will be added to the national debt. In other words, they are saying the exact same thing as almost every economist “the GOP tax reform” will not pay for itself.

The CBO estimate is dated November 26, 2017. It finds that the proposal would increase the federal deficit by $1,441 billion over the next ten years. Revenues would be reduced by $1,663 billion and spending by $219 billion. Of the total, $1.1 trillion would be individual tax relief. Those changes are about $140 to $150 billion annually between 2019 and 2025, then many of them would be sunset so that the corporate tax changes can be made permanent.

The Centers for Disease Control reported that California’s uninsured rate has declined from 17% in 2013 to 6.8% in the first six months of 2017.

Three giveaways stand out: the alternative minimum tax repeal, the estate tax repeal and the reduced rates for pass through incomes. Repealing the alternative minimum tax costs $440 billion over the next decade. Repeal of the estate and gifts tax adds an additional $239 billion to the deficit over the first ten years and $443 billion over the next decade. The pass through tax rate of 25% costs $770 billion. All are designed to help President Trump, his donors and friends and his family members. Let’s discuss them in reverse order.

The GOP Senate tax proposal is Robin Hood in Reverse. It steals from the poor to give to the very rich. At a time when three people own half our nation’s wealth, the depth of the theft envisaged in this proposal is simply inexcusable. This analysis does not include the GOP budget proposal’s efforts to cut a trillion from Medicaid and $500 billion from Medicare to balance these tax cuts.

We grew up next to a local school and spent the better parts of nearly every summer playing baseball with all the neighborhood kids and friends on the school’s ball fields. Our neighborhood was filled with large catholic families and so with the neighborhood and friends we had enough for nearly two full teams.

The House and Senate Republican tax reform proposals agree on the big-ticket items, but differ on some key matters of interest to many Californians.

House GOP proposes to reduce the deduction for home mortgage interest from $1 million to $500,000. This will strike hard at California home buyers beginning 1/1/18.

The House and Senate GOP tax reform plans propose to restrict and eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT). This deduction has been in existence since 1913 and about 1/3rd of all taxpayers use this deduction. Its purpose is to avoid double taxation – i.e. you do not have to pay federal taxes on income you do not actually have because you paid it in taxes to the state or local government.

The House GOP tax reform bill proposes to end the medical expense deduction. This deduction is available only for individuals whose medical expenses exceed 10% of their incomes. About 8 to 9 million Americans use this tax deduction every year.

Separatism, autonomy and nationalism have seemed like excellent ideas at various times in history, too often they have also gone in some very bad directions. Everywhere we look today, an important group wants their separate state: the Kurds, the Scots, the Catalans, the Ukrainians, the Palestinians, the Irish, the Flemish and the Walloons, the Quebecois, the Tamils, the Northern League of Italy and the different components of the ex-Yugoslavia to name a few. It is partly related to language, religious and cultural differences, partly due to economics, resources and financial disputes, and partly rooted in long histories of political, religious and linguistic oppression. These conflicts can and do get out of control and can lead to terribly destructive civil wars with long tails.

Open Enrollment for Covered California starts 11/1/17 and ends 1/31/2018. https://www.coveredca.com/apply/ Despite Republican efforts to repeal and replace, they have not succeeded. Despite President Trump’s efforts to sabotage ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act), California has developed workarounds to continue California’s remarkable progress in covered our state’s uninsured.

Code Talk is an innovative job-training program for homeless and low-income women. http://www.stjosephctr.org/codetalk/ It is run by the St Joseph’s Center in Venice, CA.

California’s public school performance ranks 42nd in the nation. https://www.edweek.org/media/ew/qc/2015/shr/16shr.ca.h34.pdf Before Prop 13, we ranked 7th. We have got to start fixing the state’s poor performance right now. Our children and our state’s futures are at stake if we fail to act.

In thinking about the United States response to Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, I began to wonder why they cannot vote in Presidential elections, and why their representatives cannot vote in the House of Representatives or the Senate. These policies appear to be vestiges of our short imperial quest to acquire colonies during the late 19th and early 20th century, keeping up with the Europeans.