{"id":3820,"date":"2017-12-04T19:25:42","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T19:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westcountydemocrats.org\/?p=3820"},"modified":"2017-12-04T19:25:42","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T19:25:42","slug":"intentional-discrimination-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/?p=3820","title":{"rendered":"Intentional Discrimination – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Glenn Koenen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A decade of savings gone in a year\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

My friends planned to grow old together.\u00a0 That worked, for a while.<\/p>\n

He developed Alzheimer\u2019s.\u00a0 Her leg and foot problems trapped her in their home.<\/p>\n

Oh, they coped: \u00a0he remembered how to get to the store.\u00a0 Once there he called her on his cellphone and she guided him, up and down the aisles.<\/p>\n

Then, on a chilly spring Saturday morning, she passed.<\/p>\n

Years earlier I promised to watch over him if she went first.\u00a0 That he remembered.<\/p>\n

Keeping an Alzheimer\u2019s patient in their home costs more than placement in a care facility.\u00a0 About $100,000 a year more.\u00a0 Yet, he wants to be in the home he remembers, surrounded by memories of her \u2013 and the two cats they call their children.\u00a0 His doctors feel he\u2019ll live longer in his house and, with laddered CD\u2019s, consumption of the 401 (k) and IRA, and bulls on Wall Street I make that happen.<\/p>\n

Helping my work:\u00a0 his doctors\u2019 declarations that the bulk of the care provided by the 24\/7 in-home aides is medically necessary<\/em>.\u00a0 That care plus his many other medical expenses dramatically reduce his taxable income and thereby his tax load.\u00a0 That savings allows me to stretch out his money, giving him more time in his own house.<\/p>\n

Or, it used to reduce his taxable income.<\/p>\n

Both the House and Senate versions of the Trump tax cuts offset gifts to the Waltons and Kronkes and Gates of the nation by taking away the deductibility of medical expenses in excess of 10% of adjusted gross income.<\/p>\n

That change means my friend could now owe $45,000 more per year in taxes.<\/p>\n

Congress knew that people like him would be more than inconvenienced by the death of the medical deduction:\u00a0 they don\u2019t care.\u00a0 Just 9,000,000 taxpayers claim that deduction, far less than the portion of taxpayers claiming the mortgage interest deduction.\u00a0 To today\u2019s Republicans, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.\u00a0 Some have to suffer. [ https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/economy\/news\/2017\/11\/09\/442632\/nearly-9-million-americans-claim-medical-expense-deduction\/<\/a> ]<\/strong><\/p>\n

The other day a high school classmate buried her father.\u00a0 He had a great run, 88 years.\u00a0 Being a good Catholic, he and his wife had 11 children\u2026Yes, a family of 13.<\/p>\n

Now, based on the current tax code a family of 13 can take $65,250 off of their taxable income.\u00a0 ($12,600 household Standard Deduction plus 13 x $4,050 in Personal Exemptions) \u00a0\u00a0With the Trump dump that same family can only take $24,000 off their base, meaning they\u2019ll be taxed on an additional $41,250 \u2013 probably another $9,000 to President Donald and $2,400 to Governor SEAL.\u00a0 [based on an income of around $100,000 a year: less than that and you\u2019d have to start eating the kids\u00a0 http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2017\/12\/02\/pf\/taxes\/senate-tax-bill-passed\/index.html<\/a> \u00a0& 2016 IRS form 1040]<\/strong><\/p>\n

What, families of 13 \u2013 like unhealthy people \u2013 don\u2019t deserve sympathy?\u00a0 How about a family of four?<\/p>\n

My neighbors have two school age kids, a boy and a girl, making them the archetypical American family.\u00a0 Today they reduce their taxable base by $28,800.\u00a0 ($12,600 household Standard Deduction plus 4 x $4,050 in Personal Exemptions) \u00a0\u00a0That too drops to $24,000, meaning that without a significant reduction in their tax rate they\u2019ll pay more too.<\/p>\n

Despite the intentional discrimination against those with major health care costs, large families and others groups of Americans, the House and Senate tax proposals still need help paying their bill.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll go into that a bit in Part 2.\u00a0 See you tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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A decade of savings gone in a year\u2026 My friends planned to grow old together.\u00a0 That worked, for a while. He developed Alzheimer\u2019s.\u00a0 Her leg and foot problems trapped her in their home. Oh, they coped: \u00a0he remembered how to Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ZWUT-ZC","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3821,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820\/revisions\/3821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcountydemocrats.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}