The Political Aftermath of the Tax Bill

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To the Editor:

Bret Stephens (“Tax Bill Hysteria,” column, Dec. 22) argues that the Democrats won’t do well attacking the new tax bill because “in 2018, according to the Tax Policy Center, 91 percent of middle-income filers will get a tax cut, averaging close to $1,100. That’s real money.”

But Mr. Stephens overlooks the debit side of the bill. The money may be real, but it’s entirely inadequate to cover the losses many of those middle-income earners will incur. How much health care will $1,100 buy them when they find that, with the individual mandate repealed, the new premiums become unaffordable?

How many credit hours at college will it buy their children if colleges reduce financial aid to cover the cost of endowment taxation? Just how secure will Social Security and Medicare remain as the government makes cuts to reduce the skyrocketing deficit?

If Democrats clarify the high and painful costs of the new bill, I think that their attacks can be very effective indeed.

GAIL POOL, SANIBEL, FLA.

To the Editor:

As Bret Stephens and the Republicans crow about lowering corporate tax rates to get them in line with other developed countries, they don’t mention that all of those countries have a higher personal income tax rate that helps guarantee the public a variety of benefits.

These include health care, a comfortable retirement and a general sense that the individual’s health and welfare are indeed a shared responsibility administered by the government.

AMY NADEL, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

To the Editor:

Unfortunately, I believe that Bret Stephens is correct. Once folks see the tax savings, much of the opposition will vanish. No amount of Democratic argument about why the new tax law will ultimately prove to be ill conceived or slanted in favor of the wealthy can stand against more money in taxpayers’ pockets. Clearly and convincingly demonstrating the temporary nature of middle-class tax cuts will not make a difference.

“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” (as Wimpy said) is apparently quite acceptable to the American public that receives the hamburger. It’s only when the burger goes to the poor and the vulnerable that it is no longer acceptable, and it is only then that the G.O.P. deficit hawks go hunting.

We have become a terribly selfish society.

AVI WINOKUR, HADDONFIELD, N.J.

To the Editor:

As a Democrat, I am amazed at how much I enjoy and agree with Bret Stephens’s columns. Even though he is a conservative, I find myself in agreement on a vast array of subjects he has written about — until this column.

Nowhere does he mention the likelihood of this tax bill adding over a trillion dollars to the deficit. Nowhere does he mention that the middle-class tax cuts are temporary but the corporate tax cuts are permanent. Nowhere does he mention how blue states seemed to have been targeted by capping the state and local tax deductions.

Nowhere does he mention leaving intact the carried interest loophole, which Donald Trump had promised would be eliminated.

I am truly surprised at the one-sided point of view that heretofore has been absent from his otherwise evenhanded and excellent columns.

LINDA DRUM, JERICHO, N.Y.