Once again, Republicans ignore expert opinion on tax bill

Your Tuesday, Nov, 28, article on Page 1A about the Senate’s tax overhaul proposal was entitled “Senators working on tweaks to secure votes for GOP tax bill.” I prefer the headline on The New York Times article from which yours was extracted: “Tax wrangling aims to sweeten gains of wealthy.” Both the House and Senate plans lavish benefits on those at the top of the income ladder while subjecting many in the middle class, especially those taxpayers living in blue states, to tax increases.

In addition, the legislation would cause the deficit to increase substantially over the next decade. Only one among 42 prominent economists surveyed by the University of Chicago business school thought that passage of a tax bill similar to those being considered would significantly spur economic growth. Of course, Republicans are well known for disregarding opinions of experts (see climate change).

In the past, tax reform proposals have been presented and debated in open hearings over the course of many months, and typically received bipartisan support. Now one of the most complicated pieces of legislation in decades is being rushed through with minimal scrutiny from outsiders. Very sad (Mr. Trump would never tweet that).

This story was originally published December 2, 2017 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Once again, Republicans ignore expert opinion on tax bill."