News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by fzeroracer on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @03:17PM (#15973384)
Is this after ignoring the deliberate corruption in making the individual tax cuts temporary vs permanent tax cuts for businesses plus the individual mandate repeal resulting in skyrocketing premiums?
Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by mc32 on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @03:40PM (#15973593)
Didn't Obama propose bringing Corp taxes down to 28% (vs 35 now and 22% after passage?). So it isn't only Reps who recognized our corp taxes were out if sync with other nations corp tax rates.
Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by fzeroracer on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @04:03PM (#15973790)
Yes, BUT that was meant to be combined with the closing of multiple loopholes that would prevent companies from paying far less than what they're supposed to. In comparison the Republican bill leaves them open and even has a few of its own.

That's why Obama had such a tough time actually getting something done. Well, that and another obvious factor.

[dead]
Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by specialist on Thursday December 21, 2017 @08:21AM (#15978537)
Obama is the benchmark for how to get elected.

ACA was kinda a big deal.

Of all the criticisms one could make, you parroted least reality-based.

Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by fzeroracer on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @05:37PM (#15974533)
I'm not here to argue about the whether or not Obama was a good president, but your second point is incorrect. The ACA was formulated in an almost entirely bipartisan way, taking influence from many Republican plans. It was a bandage on the bleeding wound of Healthcare and one that was desperately needed.

I would say it was particularly effective, considering my family personally benefited from the removal of pre-existing condition denial. That said, it was obvious more needed to be done and gutting the ACA just means ripping open the wound once more and hoping we don't bleed out.

Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by prepend on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @07:45PM (#15975359)
“The ACA was formulated in an almost entirely bipartisan way,“

While the idea for health exchanges initiated with repub policy people, the implementation is really different. So I don’t think it’s accurate to say the ACA was bipartisan. That’s why not a single republican voted for it, https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/111-2010/h165.

I suppose you could say that this bill is bipartisan because a democrat came up with the idea of lowering corporate tax rates. While true at face, the implementation is super different. Thus the zero democrat votes.

Interestingly, the ACA kind of set precedent for shoving stuff through with only a single party. If the ACA hadn’t been so super partisan, it would have been a lot harder to pass this bill.

Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by fzeroracer on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @09:02PM (#15975744)
There's an important distinction to be made between what happened with the ACA and what happened with the current tax bill. It was bipartisan because republicans at all stages were given the opportunity to engage, plus a lot of the basic foundations of the ACA were praised by conservative economists and it was directly based off of Romney's healthcare plan. At no point were republicans shut out or their opportunity to amend the bill taken away. Many republicans even supported the individual mandate before the ACA came along!

With the republican tax bill, democrats were outright denied any opportunities to work with republicans. They were shut out of the entire process, all of their amendments were denied and there was no opportunity for bipartisan legislation because the GOP viewed it as 'my way or the highway'. Similarly, republicans simply backed away from any and all debate or attempt to amend the ACA because they refused to work with democrats.

This is the important distinction between what happened with the ACA and with the recent tax bill. Many republicans immediately turned face against what they had previously supported. Which is also a reflection of the modern-day GOP and reflected in how disastrous their attempt at governing has been.

Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by harryh on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @03:46PM (#15973648)
I don't think that's corruption, I think that's just politics. It will be easy to get agreement to extend the individual cuts before they expire. It would be much harder to get agreement to extend the corporate cuts.

If you want to cut both then you basically have to do it this way.

Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by okaram on Thursday December 21, 2017 @12:11AM (#15976610)
I think it is the Republican party showing its priorities :) Tax cuts for the reach are more important than anything else.

Hopefully we get a repeal of the corporate cuts, with even an increase to compensate for the years it was cut.

Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by harryh on Thursday December 21, 2017 @08:45AM (#15978665)
Corporate taxes are bad.

1) Their inherent complexity leads to a lot of wasted work and other distortions away from an efficient allocation of resources.

2) Corporate taxes charge the same rate to rich shareholders as poor shareholders: not progressive.

Cutting them is good.

Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by junkcollector on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @04:58PM (#15974226)
There is also the fact that the renewal vote happens on an election cycle. If the republicans hold the house, the tax cuts will be renewed. If the democrats take control, they will be forced to expire the cuts since they are planning to campaign heavily on the tax bills as bad for the public. This means that if the GOP loses control, the following year taxes will go up on most voters and help reinforce the GOP narrative of the Democrats as the party of taxation.
Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by notfromhere on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @05:56PM (#15974648)
The corporate cuts are permanent. Only the individual ones expire
Re:AT&T giving $1000 bonus to all its employees because of t... by harryh on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @06:54PM (#15975049)
Yes, I am aware. And my comment explained the political reasons behind that decision.