# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1786
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35702 "2017-11-14T22:08:26Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Yes. That’s the point of THIS tax reform, but the idea of tax reform is a concept is to get rid of deductions, and any GOOD tax reform will probably get rid of the mortgage interest deduction and state and local tax deductions. All those are are payoffs to upper middle class voters, who are extremely valuable voters to politicians. They exist in large numbers and they donate to campaigns. But those are two of the biggest deductions in the tax code, so tax reform is meaningless without eliminating them or cutting them. This seems like a strangely specific definition of the term “tax reform”. I personally would consider any significant change in the tax system intended to improve, correct, or simplify it “tax reform”, including a reform explicitly intended to eliminate the rich escaping taxation via various methods. I do not believe you have to toss the middle class on the altar to call something tax reform, and that it’s disingenuous to claim that tax reform is impossible without doing more harm than good. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35703 "2017-11-14T22:14:34Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Now we’re getting “When he was molesting those girls, he was a Democrat.” Seriously? Haven’t seen that claim. eta. Oh Limbaugh. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35704 "2017-11-14T22:18:41Z")
Those are the biggest deductions, and if you raise the standard deduction and lower rates, most middle class taxpayers pay less. The upper middle class would pay more and the rich a lot more. Anything else is just moving stuff around in the tax system in order to pay off one group and harm another, which is what the GOP tax reform is really all about. But upper middle class taxpayers really need to get over their entitlement mentality that they should pay less than people making half their income because they have a mortgage and college expenses and high local taxes. It’s their privilege that creates such expenses. You are supposed to pay about 15% of your income in income taxes above the $60K level or so. If you aren’t, you’re privileged by the tax system and that should probably change. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35705 "2017-11-14T22:26:59Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > You are supposed to pay about 15% of your income in income taxes above the $60K level or so. If you aren’t, you’re privileged by the tax system and that should probably change. I take all the usual deductions, including a pretty big mortgage interest deduction, and I pay a hell of a lot more than 15% of my income in taxes. Where can I sign up for some of that privilege stuff? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35706 "2017-11-14T22:40:01Z")
They certainly exist. About 25% of households making six figures but less than $500K end up having to pay the AMT, and politicians think that’s a hardship and want to shield these taxpayers from it. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35707 "2017-11-14T23:16:04Z")
Are there any figures on how much in deductions are taken on second homes? Is there any good reason to include second homes in the mortgage deduction? Also, are there gaping loopholes that can be closed? For instance, I know if you rent the place, you can deduct interest as a business expense. Can you rent out a room in a mansion and then claim the interest as a business expense, and further, as a loss since revenue aren’t meeting costs? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35708 "2017-11-15T00:10:54Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Now we’re getting “When he was molesting those girls, he was a Democrat.” Yeah? How about this nice [robocall](http://wkrg.com/2017/11/14/curious-robocall-seeks-damaging-information-on-moore/) _Hi, this is Bernie Bernstein, I’m a reporter for the Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5000 and $7000 dollars. We will not be fully investigating these claims however we will make a written report. I can be reached by email at [albernstein@washingtonpost.com](mailto:albernstein@washingtonpost.com), thank you._ ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35709 "2017-11-15T00:17:37Z")
[Robocall already outed as a hoax](https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/11/14/hoax-robocall-going-around-alabama-claims-washington-post-seeking-information-roy-moore/) Who would believe such crap? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35710 "2017-11-15T00:25:40Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > How many times do they have to fuck over ordinary voters before they try something fresh and new? So long as the voting public keeps bending over and begging for more, they’ll keep fucking them over. No tax reform plan can be called “reform” if it still allows “carried interest” and such. Bring back the 91% bracket! ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35711 "2017-11-15T00:26:25Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > [Robocall already outed as a hoax](https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/11/14/hoax-robocall-going-around-alabama-claims-washington-post-seeking-information-roy-moore/) > > Who would believe such crap? I like how they picked a Jewish-sounding name for the reporter. I’m sure that was just a coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35712 "2017-11-15T00:48:09Z")
They probably did not actually [steal it](http://powerpuffgirls.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_minor_characters) _ **Bernie Bernstein:** A criminal posing as a film director with yellow-tinted eyeglasses, thin mustache and black beret who tries to fool everyone in Townsville that he is filming a movie starring the Powerpuff Girls, so he can steal money from the Bank while shooting a robbery scene. Appears in the episode “Film Flam.” Voiced by Tom Kenny._ from the PowerPuff Girls, but … ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35713 "2017-11-15T00:48:35Z")
Well see, he was a Democrat back then and thus a bad person. Now he’s a good person, he’s changed, he’s a Republican! He has upstanding moral values, just Donald Trump! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35714 "2017-11-15T02:47:58Z")
> [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > The more I read about this tax plan, the more I think the whole thing needs to be posted to this thread. > > [Republican tax plan would tax graduate student tuition waivers as income.](http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-the-GOP-Tax-Plan-Could/241702) > > So we are going to stimulate growth by cutting taxes on the rich and then significantly increasing taxes on people going to college, especially those in graduate school. When I was in graduate school, my university waived my tuition, a benefit of nearly $40,000 a year. They also gave me a position as a research assistant and paid me around $20,000 a year. I dutifully paid taxes on the 20 grand, but under this new tax plan I would have been on the hook for taxes on $60,000 every year. Talk about a disincentive. I was eating ramen and beans in grad school and occasionally making choices on which bill not to pay in any given month. If I was on the hook for another couple thousand in taxes, I would not have gone. I wonder how many other engineers and physicists are in the same position as me. > > I don’t know why Republicans think attacking higher education is a good idea for stimulating growth in this global economy, but I think this is probably one of the stupidest things I have read in a long time. They don’t want to stimulate growth, economic or intellectual. They want an uneducated populace because an educated populace is harder to control and to fool. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35715 "2017-11-15T04:30:03Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Yes. That’s the point of THIS tax reform, but the idea of tax reform is a concept is to get rid of deductions, and any GOOD tax reform will probably get rid of the mortgage interest deduction and state and local tax deductions. All those are are payoffs to upper middle class voters, who are extremely valuable voters to politicians. They exist in large numbers and they donate to campaigns. But those are two of the biggest deductions in the tax code, so tax reform is meaningless without eliminating them or cutting them. This is a catastrophically wrong-headed “definition.” Also, are you high? You had better believe that even lower-income voters take deductions like that where they can. I would say that overall low baseline taxes without deductions are more injurious to industry and to working people than high marginal taxes with generous deductions for (for example) research and development. I think your Reaganite definition of “tax reform” is deadly silly, just as it was in 1981 when Ronnie was pushing it. ---
**Author:** ![skylyn12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@skylyn12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skylyn12)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35716 "2017-11-15T10:44:06Z")
This chart(?) was used by a real republican Rep yesterday during the Sessions questioning- [![](https://i.imgur.com/lHHHSkH.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/lHHHSkH.jpg) I’m at a loss for words. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35717 "2017-11-15T13:32:24Z")
One \*might \*consider tax reform to be an improvement in the fairness of the distribution of the tax burden, combined with movement toward balancing the budget and paying down the debt. This bill, in whatever form it may plausibly emerge, does the opposites of all those things and could not claim the mantle. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35718 "2017-11-15T14:23:54Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > They don’t want to stimulate growth, economic or intellectual. They want an uneducated populace because an educated populace is harder to control and to fool. I can’t wrap my head around where this plan is going to end up. Republicans want to eventually concentrate ALL the power and wealth in the .1%…so that they…rule over a nation of the stupid, fooled, sick, and uneducated? Reintroduce slavery? Close off the borders and recreate Fortress America, screw the rest of the world? What comes afterward? They spend all day diving into swimming pools filled with gold coins? There’s only so much ice cream you can eat before you get sick. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35719 "2017-11-15T15:20:46Z")
It isn’t a Stupid Republican idea, but I have to quote this exchange. It’s from a HuffPost piece on the hypocrisy of the GOP believing Moore’s accusers but not TRump’s: > [@](#): > > “I’m working on taxes right now and concentrating on that and heading to a meeting where I have to speak and that’s what I’m concentrating on,” Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) told HuffPost, walking quickly down a Senate hallway. > Asked if he has any thoughts at all on the Moore scandal, he replied, “My thoughts are on taxes. If you want to talk about taxes.” > “OK. Do you want to tax Roy Moore?” asked HuffPost. > Enzi said nothing and walked away. > **[GOP Senators Believe Roy Moore's Accusers But Not Donald Trump's](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/roy-moore-trump-accusers_n_5a0b63d0e4b0bc648a0e8541?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009)** > > They have no idea why and don't want to talk about it. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35720 "2017-11-15T15:39:31Z")
> [@skylyn12](#): > > This chart(?) was used by a real republican Rep yesterday during the Sessions questioning- > > [Presented by Representative Louie Gohmert at the House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing: The Truth Is Out There - Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/lHHHSkH.jpg) > > I’m at a loss for words. Fake chart - doesn’t show any of the people Clinton murdered and left in the woods. Nor does it mention Obama killing Scalia in his sleep. SAD ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/35721 "2017-11-15T15:39:57Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I can’t wrap my head around where this plan is going to end up. Republicans want to eventually concentrate ALL the power and wealth in the .1%…so that they…rule over a nation of the stupid, fooled, sick, and uneducated? Reintroduce slavery? Close off the borders and recreate Fortress America, screw the rest of the world? More or less, although I don’t think they’d get away with reintroducing slavery. > [@](#): > > What comes afterward? They spend all day diving into swimming pools filled with gold coins? There’s only so much ice cream you can eat before you get sick. You said so yourself: screw the rest of the world. Your president won’t even talk to democratic world leaders, praises dictators and mass murderers, constantly cries “Lugenpresse!”, is a Nazi sympathizer and racist who is opposed to freedom of expression, has said outright that he doesn’t need to staff the state department because he’s the only one that matters, wants to use your government’s judicial branch to imprison his political opponents, and laments that you don’t drop enough nuclear weapons on people. I expect that next he’ll be arguing that what America needs to be Great Again is a little breathing room. I hope I’m wrong. Or, I hope I’m right but you guys manage to stop him first, which is a decent second prize. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1785) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1787)