The Trump Presidency | Biden Inaugurated

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GOP’S LIST OF ECONOMISTS BACKING TAX CUT INCLUDES GHOSTS, OFFICE ASSISTANTS, EX-FELONS, AND A SPRINKLING OF REAL ECONOMISTS


One of the signatories, Gil Sylvia of the University of Georgia, does not have a biography page or any online trace of employment at the university. A university representative told The Intercept that no one with the name Gil Sylvia is employed there.
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Another signatory to the RATE letter, Seth Bied, is not an economist. He is a low-level office assistant at the New York State Tax Department, whose spokesperson said Bied does not remember signing the economists’ letter.

Other names on the economists’ letter may raise eyebrows. John P. Eleazarian is listed as an economist with the American Economic Association. But membership to the AEA is open to anybody who coughs up dues, and membership simply grants access to AEA journals and discounts at AEA events. Eleazarian is a former attorney who lost his law license and the ability to practice law in California after he was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison for forging a judicial signature and falsifying other documents.
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Professor Ashley Lyman is listed as a signatory who works at the University of Idaho, but his biography pageshows that he is actually retired. The same goes for Richard Kilmer of the University of Florida, Jerold Zimmerman of the University of Rochester, Stephen Happel of Arizona State University, and William R. Allen of the University of California, Los Angeles. All are listed as current academics while they are, in fact, in retirement.

Other signatories are far from independent voices. One is an in-houseeconomist at a financial services firm based in Illinois. Another is an in-house economist with Bank of America.

Others on the list are part of advocacy groups that have made tax cuts their biggest legislative priority. James C. Miller III, one of the signatories, is an official with Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers-run advocacy organization hell-bent on passing tax cut legislation. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, another signatory, is head of the American Action Forum, the sister group of the American Action Network, the dark money group aligned with Ryan’s political team.
 
https://www.facebook.com/corey.robin1/posts/1574268712638844
It's interesting, though not surprising, that in a fair amount of the reporting on Flynn's discussions with the Russian ambassador, it's seldom mentioned that the reason Flynn was trying to get the Russians to oppose or delay the UN resolution condemning the Israeli settlements—in defiance of the official US position on the resolution (which gets reported merely as "Obama's position," as if he were some random private citizen)—is that Netanyahu, or at least senior Israeli officials, instructed the Trump transition team to seek the defeat of the resolution. I guess that kind of work with or on behalf of a foreign power is not newsworthy, at least according to the Washington Post, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, CNN, Talking Points Memo, and CBS.
 
How the grad student tax is class war:
I'm assuming it is intentional, and that the effects on other students are similar to those for me: take-home pay of ~1k/month (poverty line.) It also means that income used for paying back student loans becomes taxable.

Undergrad college in the US is expensive, and bar a small percent of rich families, and exceptional students with scholarships, many students go into significant debt for their degree. The total student loan debt in the US is $1.5 trillion. This steep cost means that for borderline middle class families, joining college is a dilemma with a big risk. However, getting a degree is a significant boost to future income generally and an important part of class mobility.
What about a PhD? Universities generally pay tuition and a stipend for PhD students. Though this isn't high compared to typical salaries, it is comfortable enough and there is a promise of higher future incomes once you complete a post-doc (mid-30s). It is also the only route to get into academia.

1. This obviously means that the next generation of professors - and the current generation of actual researchers - will be from even richer families. I would not be surprised if the GOP want this to affect social science research, particularly in the types of questions being asked.

2. It means that non-rich Americans who pursue a subject because they like it, are good at it, and are willing to sacrifice their income and time to study it, will no longer be able to do so. It means further diversion of these people into industry, and thus a worse job market even in "safe" fields.

3. The Kochs and deVoses etc have charities which run free-market and other such think-tanks within universities. As funding for research decreases, these think-tanks become more important. These have open ideological biases, and choose students that match their ideology. With this rule change, scholarships offered by such think-tanks will become extremely valuable. Obviously as these scholarships become more vital, there will be a change in ideology of grad students.

4. It is a safe guess that within a year, as the deficit skyrockets, the GOP will start cutting all non-defence spending including research budgets. I'd guess that they would target the very meager funding that remains for social sciences and humanities. Colleges and students have already been painted as the enemy by 30 years of anti-PC rhetoric; this will be a fairly popular move. It will lead to the feudal situation, where studies depend on ruling-class patronage. (And as discussed above, there are a few very ideological families engaged in this patronage)

Edit: the bill also killed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness. My friend, for example, is in law school and was going to work in legal aid, relying on laon forgiveness to pay ff his tuition debt. So this is another obvious act of class war, when public defenders are already bankrupt all over the US, it means that the solid, permanently criminal and unemployable underclass will expand.
 
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Yeah but he wasn't on the ballot and he endorsed the dem candidate on the ballot. I have no sympathy for idealogues wishing death on John McCain because they were thick enough to vote for third party candidate.

He tried to bomb Vietnam, fecked up the flying, got tortured, and then decided to organise and support every bombing and massacre his country did.
He got a brain tumour and decided that poorer people with brain tumours don't deserve to live.
I'm on #teamtumour.
 
He tried to bomb Vietnam, fecked up the flying, got tortured, and then decided to organise and support every bombing and massacre his country did.
He got a brain tumour and decided that poorer people with brain tumours don't deserve to live.
I'm on #teamtumour.

You can wish whatever you like,but you didn't have a vote. If you had a valid vote last election and didn't vote for the party which tried to stand for what you believed in because they had to win your vote by nominating your choice of candidate, you really are a special kind of stupid. It's that simple really. When you sucked your thumb while voting and now complain about Republicans voting for Republican policies, you deserve a hard slap.

He's a Republican senator from Arizona. Of course he is going to vote for a tax cut. What the feck is strange about it? Perhaps it's now the time for Clinton is bad as Trump YouTube clip.
 
How the grad student tax is class war:
I'm assuming it is intentional, and that the effects on other students are similar to those for me: take-home pay of ~1k/month (poverty line.) It also means that income used for paying back student loans becomes taxable.

Undergrad college in the US is expensive, and bar a small percent of rich families, and exceptional students with scholarships, many students go into significant debt for their degree. The total student loan debt in the US is $1.5 trillion. This steep cost means that for borderline middle class families, joining college is a dilemma with a big risk. However, getting a degree is a significant boost to future income generally and an important part of class mobility.
What about a PhD? Universities generally pay tuition and a stipend for PhD students. Though this isn't high compared to typical salaries, it is comfortable enough and there is a promise of higher future incomes once you complete a post-doc (mid-30s). It is also the only route to get into academia.

1. This obviously means that the next generation of professors - and the current generation of actual researchers - will be from even richer families. I would not be surprised if the GOP want this to affect social science research, particularly in the types of questions being asked.

2. It means that non-rich Americans who pursue a subject because they like it, are good at it, and are willing to sacrifice their income and time to study it, will no longer be able to do so. It means further diversion of these people into industry, and thus a worse job market even in "safe" fields.

3. The Kochs and deVoses etc have charities which run free-market and other such think-tanks within universities. As funding for research decreases, these think-tanks become more important. These have open ideological biases, and choose students that match their ideology. With this rule change, scholarships offered by such think-tanks will become extremely valuable. Obviously as these scholarships become more vital, there will be a change in ideology of grad students.

4. It is a safe guess that within a year, as the deficit skyrockets, the GOP will start cutting all non-defence spending including research budgets. I'd guess that they would target the very meager funding that remains for social sciences and humanities. Colleges and students have already been painted as the enemy by 30 years of anti-PC rhetoric; this will be a fairly popular move. It will lead to the feudal situation, where studies depend on ruling-class patronage. (And as discussed above, there are a few very ideological families engaged in this patronage)

Edit: the bill also killed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness. My friend, for example, is in law school and was going to work in legal aid, relying on laon forgiveness to pay ff his tuition debt. So this is another obvious act of class war, when public defenders are already bankrupt all over the US, it means that the solid, permanently criminal and unemployable underclass will expand.

Is this bill really going to pass with proposed cuts to PhD students? I am applying for my PhD in US this year, what am I looking at?
 
You can wish whatever you like,but you didn't have a vote. If you had a valid vote last election and didn't vote for the party which tried to stand for what you believed in because they had to win your vote by nominating your choice of candidate, you really are a special kind of stupid. It's that simple really. When you sucked your thumb while voting and now complain about Republicans voting for Republican policies, you deserve a hard slap.

He's a Republican senator from Arizona. Of course he is going to vote for a tax cut. What the feck is strange about it? Perhaps it's now the time for Clinton is bad as Trump YouTube clip.

Since we are just throwing out examples here:
My room-mate was in the army in Iraq. She is religious, and she made a vow after coming back to never vote for an Iraq war supporter. She broke her vow to stop Trump.
She is trans, so she gets special treatment from the GOP especially here in NC), but she still regrets her vote. Hillary did not "stand for what she believed in."

Hillary did some things, including Iraq, that people find very hard to morally accept.
 
Since we are just throwing out examples here:
My room-mate was in the army in Iraq. She is religious, and she made a vow after coming back to never vote for an Iraq war supporter. She broke her vow to stop Trump.
She is trans, so she gets special treatment from the GOP especially here in NC), but she still regrets her vote. Hillary did not "stand for what she believed in."

Hillary did some things, including Iraq, that people find very hard to morally accept.

Your roommate is a really good person. I admire her for a tough compromise.
 
So the GOP tax bill is about to pass? When it comes down to cut taxes for the rich the right is always united.
 
Is this bill really going to pass with proposed cuts to PhD students? I am applying for my PhD in US this year, what am I looking at?

It is not final yet, but it is in one of the bills (senate I think). Now the house and senate have to sit together and pass a compromise bill, so there is some small chance it goes away.

There is a trade-off. Public univs are required to charge tuition by law, but charge lower amounts. Pvt univs can do what they like (incuding waive tuition), but generally charge high tuition (which will now be included for calculating tax). But it won't be easy for pvt univs to waive tuition, since they currently get a lot of income that way (indirectly from the professors' grant).
My univ has sent a mail that they are "aware of the issue", but nothing concrete.

I would honestly look at European colleges, many of them have later application deadlines. Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany (maybe more) all have funded PhD programs, and many of those are mostly English-speaking inside the univs. There's also Canada but I don't know much about it.
I think the final bill must be passed before Dec 31, and the PhD decision deadline is April, so you will definitely know about the taxes before you need to decide. You can also try writing to the univs you are applying to about what they are planning. I can let you know what's happening with the univs here - I have friends in both public and pvt colleges, and colleges with and without unions.
 
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From my understanding, they are till 2025?

That depends on what income bracket you are in and the poorest that don´t pay much tax will lose massively. They will lose public financial support for Medicare, Medicaid and programs like SNAP or other assistance programs. The pittance that some middle class Americans get is generally far below what they lose as many rely on government funded programs just to get by. Paul Ryans poor attempt recently illustrates it perfectly that if you get 700 dollars extra a year ( short term ) but if you lose most of the support for Medicaid as a result, then you lose out massively.

The small tax break for some middle class people are nothing but a deceptive rhetorical ploy to fool people into supporting it. It is like telling your significant other that you went out to dinner with a friend last night. But you leave out the part where you paid for that dinner with a mutual bank account and banged that friend after the dinner. As with everything the Republicans tent to do is they tell half truths leaving out the parts that would turn voters away. It is massive political dishonesty to say ordinary people benefits from this tax cut plan.
 
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But as long as someone I've never seen can't abort a pregnancy, I don't care.
That's how a lot of the poor will think.
And that's exactly the problem with a broken fptp two party system.
 
Is this bill really going to pass with proposed cuts to PhD students? I am applying for my PhD in US this year, what am I looking at?
Are you and @berbatrick on the March for science fb group? Some excellent examples of tax with and without the plan on there. Basically, if you get a stipend for say 30,000 you are taxed at 30,000. These assholes want to tax you at 80,000. The 30,000 stipend plus the 50,000 tuition waiver. They'll be after scholarships in undergrad next, those should be taxable gifts.
 
Cutting corporate tax from 35 to 20% further adding to an already massive deficit which will inevitably be taken from social security and medical provision. These people are just disgusting
That's what Reagan used to do. Think the USA deficit was very high during his presidency.
 
Cutting corporate tax from 35 to 20% further adding to an already massive deficit which will inevitably be taken from social security and medical provision. These people are just disgusting
But this tax cut will help America. Jobs are already coming back into the country, wages up, consumer confidence is at an world record high (no planet has ever succeeded under a President more than me(massive yuge hands)) when will the FAKE news stop lying and start reporting the facts? Ignore the FAKE news media and trust what I tell you - your favourite President with the big hands (me!)

That’s all it’ll take to keep at least half of Trump voters on his side.
 
Cutting corporate tax from 35 to 20% further adding to an already massive deficit which will inevitably be taken from social security and medical provision. These people are just disgusting
Deplorable you might say.
 
Ugh. The Churchill bust thing, and making the Native American people stand beneath the watchful painted eye of Andrew Jackson - of all people! - screams of 'Don't forget that we white folks still have all the power'.

The Jackson thing was no accident, regardless of Trump's admiration of the man - it was a message to Trump's supporters.
 
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