The Republican Tax Plan

This bill actually has some things I like: capping the mortgage interest deduction, and doubling the standard deduction, so millions more people won't have to itemize deductions. Our business taxes could use some serious reform, since we have among the highest posted rates of any rich country but end up collecting less than average. But mainly this bill is about cutting taxes for business and rich families:

Big-picture summary is that over the first 10 years, the bill has:

• $1 trillion net tax cut for business owners
• $172 billion tax cut for people who inherit multi-million dollar estates
• $300 billion net tax cut for individuals.

Just the cut for people inheriting estates worth more than $10 million is bigger than the "middle class" tax cut. The cut in the "pass through" rate is especially galling, since one of the biggest beneficiaries would be Donald J. Trump.