BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY DEC. 4,  2017) — The U.S. Senate did what most citizens in Pittsfield desperately need and for which many folks clamor in vain: They cut taxes, for corporations, small businesses, and the middle class. Like everything else these days, the action gets explained in terms of politics. Democrats predict doom, while Republicans predict salvation. It will be neither, though it should on the large prove not only to be revenue neutral (not adding to the deficit) but a revenue maker (through economic growth and additional federal revenues). The $1.5 trillion dollar reduction could and should reduce the deficit.

Bottom line is this: When government does something for (and not against) people, that’s good news.

Take the politics out of it, come at it objectively, and you will see that for virtually all taxpayers, single or married, tax rates will drop a few percentage points. Nearly three of four people defined at middle class will see their taxes reduced.  Moreover, thanks to the late-hour work by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the bill will retain the state and local tax deductions for homeowners, up to $10,000. In other words, unless you are wealthy and your property gets taxed at more than $10,000, you still can deduct every cent. Moreover, the 70% of employed Americans who claim the standard deduction will find more money in their paychecks once the bill goes into effect.

The biggest outcry among opponents of the tax cut measure have focused on the drop in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%. That’s a generous break for companies, but, unless you have a death wish for America or want to adopt a socialist or communist model where the state owns companies, you realize that this decrease will free up money for growth, expansion, and employment. You either believe in the future of the nation or you don’t. That’s the only reason, for instance, why we have a stock market. A person invests in U.S. companies because they believe in the future. They don’t think that business will go bust. The 15% drop in corporate taxes will put more people to work because government will be able to confiscate less — “steal” might be a more fitting word.  Small businesses will enjoy having more money in the coffers, since the tax bill allows companies not set up as corporations to participate in the measure.

To call this a “giveaway,” a label used by tax-and-spenders, betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of tax revenues. People and companies earned that money, not government. When government lowers taxes, it’s merely giving you back more of what they took from you in the first place, and as Pittsfudlians know only all too well, government ALWAYS takes more than it should by taking way more than it needs. They do it via the legal larceny of a fiscal-year budget. They call that slush fund “free cash.” Free cash is never “free.” It’s YOUR dough, not government’s.

A small provision that may go unnoticed in the Senate’s tax cut is one fought for by Ted Cruz of Texas. This provision allows families with tax-protected “529 savings accounts” to use up to $10,000 a year for tuition at private and parochial schools as well as expenses for those who home-school their children.  Previously, “529” savings could only be used to pay for higher education. The provision allows families more choice in their kids’ educations, freeing them, if they wish, from local public schools. Again, as bedraggled Pittsfield knows the hard way, public school districts are often totalitarian, money wasters, ovetly political, against Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, and, worst of all, provide a lousy product.

The bill is far from perfect. Then again, neither it nor the people who crafted it are Don Larsen on Oct. 8, 1956. The Senate’s action gave America a much-needed Good Day, Sunshine.

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“It is what it is” — Bill Belichick.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The Usual Disclaimer.