Tags
4th Congressional District, franking, Mark Alford, missouri, Propaganda, sycophant, Trump sycophant
Mark Alford (r) [2024 file photo].
In today’s U.S. Mail, a franked mailing from from Mark Alford (r):
This particular piece doesn’t show up in the House Clerk’s database – yet.
The actual damage:
House Republicans’ tax and budget bill would rip away health care, food, and jobs in every congressional district
Estimated number of losses in health care coverage, people put at risk for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit cuts, and jobs at risk by 119th congressional districtDistrict MO-04
Representative Mark Alford
Party affiliation Republican
Estimated health insurance coverage losses, 2034 23K
Number of people at risk of losing some or all SNAP benefits 19K
Number of jobs put at risk by elimination of clean energy tax credits 170
Despite ‘No Tax on Tips,’ Trump’s Big ‘Beautiful’ Bill Is Bad for Tipped Workers
“No tax on tips” is a symbolic tax break that is very limited and poorly targets the workers who need tax relief the most. Many among the small number of workers who will benefit will also face the bill’s cuts to basic needs programs.
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One of the most–discussed policies in the Republican-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is the “no tax on tips” provision, which eliminates federal income taxes on the first $25,000 of tips earned by workers making less than $150,000 per year ($300,000 for married filers). Despite appearances, this provision will benefit only a small number of workers, and many of those workers will disproportionately suffer financial losses due to the OBBBA’s severe program cuts. The net result is that tipped workers are unlikely to experience significant gains from the OBBBA overall.
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Because most workers who earn tips are relatively low income, “no tax on tips” has raised hopes that the OBBBA will benefit low-income Americans. For instance, analysts at The Budget Lab at Yale find that low-wage workers are several times more likely to receive tips than are high earners. However, tipped workers are vulnerable to other policy changes in the OBBBA that will offset the benefit of the tips deduction.
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The One “Big Beautiful Bill” Provision That Says It All
How the OBBBA Cuts a Tax that Truly Benefits Only the Mega Rich.
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The estate tax is paid for by heirs not by the deceased who are, you know, dead. Those heirs are decidedly not being double taxed as they didn’t earn the money in the first place. On the small business side, there’s perhaps a bit more merit. But, the typical small business is nowhere near large enough to be affected by an estate tax, even with the smaller $5 million exemption. In my own calculations using the Survey of Consumer Finances, the median self-employed person has a household net worth of about $460,000. One has to look above the 88th percentile to find self-employed people with household net worths above the $5 million exemption. Plus, the individual exemption is doubled for couples to $10 million, moving the number to the 93rd percentilefor affected businesses with a married couple involved, as many are. The OBBBA pushes those numbers to the 96th percentile for an individual and the 99th percentile for a couple. Most small businesses wouldn’t be affected by the estate tax with or without the OBBBA.
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Indeed, the OBBBA is part of a long-term trend of weakening the estate tax so that even most very, very rich people in the U.S. are not affected by the tax at all.
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I Wish Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Was the Solution to America’s Child Care Crisis. It’s Not.
Beware the ‘momwashing’ provisions.
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The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. This expanded tax credit ups the percentage that working parents can get back on child care expenses. Good on its face, sure, but it’s a superficial bone to throw. Parents have always been able to claim a certain percentage of child care expenses up to a certain amount. Now they can claim a slightly higher percentage of child care expenses up to a certain amount. That certain amount is $3,000 for one child and $6,000 for two or more. The percentage that could be claimed prior to the OBBB expansion ranged from 34% for families right on the poverty line ($30,000-$34,000 household income) to 20% for families bringing in over $206,000 per year. With the new bill, parents in the former bracket (right on the poverty line) can claim up to 49% of that allowed amount, with families making more than $34,000, but still below $206,000, getting a little boost on a sliding scale based on income bracket.But let’s be clear, here: These are tax credits. Tax credits still require parents to pay up front for child care and then wait to recoup that break when they file their tax return. Not a single state can claim an average cost of accredited child care anywhere near the price tag of $3,000 per child annually so there’s a good chance most families are still paying beyond what they could claim. What’s more, both parents need to be working (or actively looking for work) in order to get the benefit.
Best case scenario: A family with a combined working income of $34,000, paying $6,000 for their two kids for the entire year (10% of their income) and filing everything perfectly when tax season rolls around, could now expect to get back $2,940 instead of $2040. $900 more. It is simply not realistic, in practice, and will barely dent the growing financial pressure on families that need the break the most.
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Mark Alford (r) sent his constituents a pile of bullshit. We paid for it…and we’ll continue to do so.
Mark Alford (r) [2023 file photo].
