skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Report says a second Trump term would add 4 billion tons of climate pollution; Trump predicts a bloodbath for the country if he is defeated in November's election; Nevada leaders discuss future of IVF, abortion in the Silver State; and anglers seek trawler buffer zone as Atlantic herring stock declines.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

New Analysis Finds More Pain for Nation’s Poor in Senate Tax Plan

play audio
Play

Tuesday, November 28, 2017   

HARRISBURG, Pa. – New Numbers from the Congressional Budget Office show poor Americans would be hurt even more by the Senate GOP tax plan than originally forecast.

The CBO found that those with earnings of more than $100,000 would do quite well. But by 2019, Americans earning less than $30,000 would be worse off than today, and by 2027 most making less than $75,000 would be net losers.

According to Marc Stier, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, like the bill in the House, the Senate bill already heavily favored the rich. But, the Senate bill also would end the Affordable Care Act's requirement that everyone buy health insurance.

"The additional burden of eliminating the individual mandate and its effect on the kinds of subsidies that low-income people get has made that effect much more dramatic," he laments.

Republicans argue that ACA subsidies are paid directly to insurance companies, so taxpayers would be unlikely to see any change in their tax bills.

But Stier says eliminating the mandate has consequences. He notes that an estimated 13 million people nationwide, including half a million Pennsylvanians, would lose their health insurance. And for everyone else, premiums would increase by an average of $860 a year.

"That average includes people young and old," he notes. "For people 27, 28 years old, it might only be $400 or $500. For people 50 years old, they may be looking at a premium increase of $1,600 a year."

The Senate bill also would also allow individual tax cuts to expire in 10 years while business and corporate tax cuts would continue.

Stier believes the reasoning behind the tax cuts, giving tax breaks to corporations to encourage investment and create jobs, is flawed. He points out that with profits at record highs and interest rates at record lows, businesses should have no trouble investing.

"They do have trouble finding enough customers because wages have been so stagnant," he explains. "Cutting taxes for businesses isn't going to lead to higher investment because it's not going to lead to more demand for business products. What we really need to be doing is raising wages for working people."


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…


A draft rule would require Maryland employers to provide at least 32 ounces of water per hour to each employee exposed to heat stress conditions, every workday. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

The Amesbury School Committee will hear from educators and parents tonight as they rally to prevent more than $2 million in proposed cuts to their sch…

Out-of-state money is pouring into Texas as the contentious issue of "school choice" looms large ahead of November's election. (Dzmitry/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

Social Issues

play sound

Women are treated much differently than men by the criminal justice system, according to a new report detailing how and why mass incarceration is …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021