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Lol--the GOP used to blast the Dems as 'tax and spend.'
Now their party is pretty much one of 'spend and spend.'
And they can't cut Medicare or SS, because Donny 'I-never-tell-a-lie()' Trump promised the entire country that if he was elected, he would not touch SS or Medicare. That would be a suicide "read my lips" move for Trump.
He can sell off the America the Beautiful, destroy the environment, cut health insurance, scientific research and education, to make up for the spending, but Trump will go down as someone who upped the deficit, and for no reason at all, other than to enrich himself, his friends, the donors. (and that's before all the dirt on his finances comes out). And he will be detested for what he does to the environment, scientific progress, and education, because the US is going to fall so far behind other countries, it will be pathetic.
The last republican that had a a good economy was Reagan, and we all know what happened there. He exponentially increased defense spending and defense jobs, using the Cold War as an excuse, but he's known for tripling the deficit and having left a recession for the next president, because all those defense jobs disappeared when the Wall came down.
The wall came down after Reagan’s two terms were over. So, he had nothing to do with any defense cuts after it came down. Nice try, though.
Amen. Another business owner here who's been buying health insurance for a business 20+ years. Before the ACA act, it was a free for all. Going up every year. REMEMBER these health insurance companies are FOR PROFIT. About 2005, We had a 70% increase! Long before Obama.
These people don't get it. They have no experience, get insurance handed to them by their employer, or do without. They have no businesses which they need to keep costs down on.
Here's something really precious. I know two that are on Medicaid, and complain about ACA. One is a housekeeper and the other spent her life sucking off state jobs. And yes they are both FAUX news watchers.
Up until you incorrectly spelled Fox, you spent considerable time showing how your experience was critical to your view on the matter. In the last sentence you through away all credibility as an unbiased poster.
You think employer provided insurance didn't go up too?
Lol.....that's cute.
I get mine through my employer..... my premiums tripled and my deductible quadrupled after the ACA was passed.
And just last year we were informed that everything but prescriptions now goes towards the deductible.
Which means office visits and the like are no longer covered by a co pay.....I pay full price for everything until I hit my now massively expensive deducible.
Every year.
Nice try though.
You need to find a different employer, or investigate the other options your current one offers. Over the past few years, my premiums and deductibles have gone up slightly, but remains a great deal compared to buying private insurance. We are all being asked to shoulder a bit more of the cost, but that had nothing to do with Obamacare.
One thing employers have been pushing is a high deductible plan with an HSA. I eagerly took advantage of that. My premiums are dirt cheap and I use the HSA as a sort of tax-free savings account, since I rarely need to see a doctor. However, if i did have a major health issue, there is a max out of pocket feature for protection. Anyway i sliced it I was better off with this than with the traditional plan with low deductibles and copays.
I would like to see a calculator that takes SS income into account. I keep looking, but haven't yet found one. I am curious to know how it will impact us. I really don't know how the current plan applies to me since I just retired earlier this year. The wife was on SSDI all year and I worked for six months while also getting SS all year. In 2018 I won't have anything but SS and a much smaller amount coming in from a pension. About 7% of our income will be from a pension. We are not getting the max SS benefit, but we are close to that. ~60K plus the 4.5K pension. We will see our CPA in February to get the real skinny, but I would like to know what the ballpark is now while the discussion is current.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nicet4
You don't have to wait you can work it up yourself.
I would like to see a calculator that takes SS income into account. I keep looking, but haven't yet found one. I am curious to know how it will impact us. I really don't know how the current plan applies to me since I just retired earlier this year. The wife was on SSDI all year and I worked for six months while also getting SS all year. In 2018 I won't have anything but SS and a much smaller amount coming in from a pension. About 7% of our income will be from a pension. We are not getting the max SS benefit, but we are close to that. ~60K plus the 4.5K pension. We will see our CPA in February to get the real skinny, but I would like to know what the ballpark is now while the discussion is current.
My understanding is that the way Social Security & investment income is taxed NOW, remains the same.
Basically - this is good for retirees because the Personal Exemption doubles in 2018 and IF you have Medical expenses to deduct - the rate drops from 10% of AGI to 7.5% of AGI. Social Security benefits get a raise in 2018 of 2%. We are also retired - this Tax Cut bill is a plus for retirees in just about every case.
This is the way Social Security benefits are Taxed now - expected to remain the same formula for 2018:
Social Security taxes are based on what's known as your provisional income -- your adjusted gross income (including pension payouts and retirement-account withdrawals but not counting Social Security benefits), plus any tax-free interest, plus 50% of your benefits.
If the total is less than $25,000 if you're single or $32,000 if you're married, all of your benefits are tax-free. Provisional income of between $25,000 and $34,000 for singles and $32,000 and $44,000 for married couples will trigger taxes on up to 50% of your benefits. Provisional income of more than $34,000 for singles and $44,000 for married couples will subject up to 85% of your benefits to taxes.
To figure out what you will pay this year on your 2017 income - check the income brackets and use that percentage. We dropped a bracket for our 2018 income and it's likely you will also drop a bracket.
The Calculators that are showing 2018 estimates do not factor in the rates that Social Security benefits are taxed - they show it as full taxation and it will be a percentage of that.
My understanding is that the way Social Security & investment income is taxed NOW, remains the same.
Basically - this is good for retirees because the Personal Exemption doubles in 2018 and IF you have Medical expenses to deduct - the rate drops from 10% of AGI to 7.5% of AGI. Social Security benefits get a raise in 2018 of 2%. We are also retired - this Tax Cut bill is a plus for retirees in just about every case.
This is the way Social Security benefits are Taxed now - expected to remain the same formula for 2018:
Social Security taxes are based on what's known as your provisional income -- your adjusted gross income (including pension payouts and retirement-account withdrawals but not counting Social Security benefits), plus any tax-free interest, plus 50% of your benefits.
If the total is less than $25,000 if you're single or $32,000 if you're married, all of your benefits are tax-free. Provisional income of between $25,000 and $34,000 for singles and $32,000 and $44,000 for married couples will trigger taxes on up to 50% of your benefits. Provisional income of more than $34,000 for singles and $44,000 for married couples will subject up to 85% of your benefits to taxes.
To figure out what you will pay this year on your 2017 income - check the income brackets and use that percentage. We dropped a bracket for our 2018 income and it's likely you will also drop a bracket.
The Calculators that are showing 2018 estimates do not factor in the rates that Social Security benefits are taxed - they show it as full taxation and it will be a percentage of that.
Personal exemption doubles?..........we lose the exemptions. At age 65 I got a double exemption. that has disappeared. I lost $8080........just from me.........wife and child.......$8080......The married filing joint family deduction went from $12700 to $24000..........so I lost $4860 in deductions........
You can just compare the preceding year or the year before that. Job growth has slowed down in 2017. Fewer jobs are being created annually in 2017 than in the either of the prior 2 years. Without doing the math I believe the report in Jan would have to be over 300k jobs added to come close to the total jobs added in 2016.
I will grant that the odds of keeping up the rate of growth is going to be difficult because the pool of available workers is getting smaller. However, that is the problem with the math for this tax cut. To get the growth to makeup for the lost tax revenue the rate of job growth would have to dramatically increase, which is what our Dear Leader is predicting. How, is that going to be achieved. Can the UE rate go to 0%? The number of people out of the work force who want a job is near historic lows. Granted if pay goes way up then perhaps some students would put off education, or some older people will put off retirement, but they would have to do so in large numbers.
The labor participation rate is at 63%.
In 2000 it ran closer to 67%.
The last time it was this low was 1979. That was about the time women starting working in huge nombers; before that women were not really in the work force.
Your premise that there "are not enough people to fulfill Trump's projections" is wrong. There are plenty of people available and if good jobs appear they will re-enter the work force.
The chart:
How many of those not in the work force want a job? In the last jobs report the number was 5.2 million. The lowest it has ever been measured was in the range of 4.2 million 17 years ago when the size of the labor pool was much smaller. The point is how many of those can be induced to look for work and how many out of the work force who don't want a job will change there minds? Bottom line there is no longer a large pool of available workers.
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)' Trump promised the entire country that if he was elected, he would not touch SS or Medicare. That would be a suicide "read my lips" move for Trump. 
