Trump’s tax bill comeback is a middle-class disaster

If you think House Republicans’ rush to revive Trump’s tax plan is good news for middle-class families, think again. What’s really happening is a sneaky return to a tax scheme that favors the wealthy and leaves everyday Americans stuck holding the bill.

The bill claims it’s about cutting taxes for families, seniors, and workers—echoing Trump’s 2017 promises. But don’t be fooled. The so-called “tax-free” tips and overtime pay for hospitality workers sound great, but there’s zero clarity on how the IRS will manage this without creating chaos for those it’s supposed to help.

House Republicans have moved President Trump’s big tax reform plan closer to becoming law after a key committee approved the package.

However, arguments over how much Americans can deduct in state and local taxes, also called SALT deduction, have created a serious divide in Congress that threatens to delay the next vote and may force changes before the plan can move forward. 

Republicans advance tax bill with Trump-era priorities

House Republicans moved quickly on Wednesday morning to pass the new tax legislation through the House Ways and Means Committee after spending the entire night discussing the details. 

The House’s efforts show how determined they are to push forward President Donald Trump’s economic agenda that focuses on cutting taxes for families, seniors, and workers while continuing many policies from his time in office. 

The bill follows Trump’s promises in his 2024 campaigns, where he pledged to make the tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs ACT (TCJA) permanent and to reduce the tax burden for middle-income Americans. 

Tips and overtime pay in the proposal will be tax-free to help millions of hospitality, restaurant, and retail workers, but it doesn’t explain how the government would track and manage these earnings without confusing workers and the IRS.

What’s more, the bill offers a $4,000 deduction for older Americans, but experts claim it might not help everyone equally. 

At first glance, the deduction for seniors looks like a win for retirees. However, a policy expert from the Tax Foundation, Garret Watson, explained that those whose main source of income is Social Security will see little or no benefit from this deduction, but retirees with pensions or investments may gain much more. Garret added that this $4,000 deduction would cost the federal government $90 billion over the next decade, far less than the $1 trillion it would cost to stop taxing Social Security benefits entirely. 

The bill also continues the $2,000 child tax credit created under the 2017 law and raises the amount to $2,500 per child through 2028, but critics argue that how the credit is designed still leaves many families out of the benefits. 

A senior tax policy expert from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Kris Cox, stated that around 17 million low-income children will miss out on the full benefits even if the credit amount increases because they don’t qualify for the full credit under current rules.

SALT deduction fight delays House vote and risks Senate changes

The State and local tax (SALT) deductions are causing disagreements among lawmakers representing high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, and California because middle-class families pay large amounts in property and income taxes and rely on this deduction to reduce their federal tax bills.

2017 saw people living in states with higher taxes pay more in total taxes even if their incomes weren’t very high because Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs ACT (TCJA) and lawmakers put a $10,000 cap on how much people could deduct for state and local taxes to help pay other tax cuts in the law. 

House Republicans want to help more middle-class earners in expensive states while limiting the benefit for wealthier taxpayers by raising the SALT cap to $30,000 for people earning less than $400,000 in modified adjusted gross income in the current tax bill.

However, some moderate Republicans from high-tax states remain unsatisfied and are pushing for the cap to be raised higher or entirely removed, as they claim that $30,000 isn’t enough to represent their constituents’ tax burdens fairly.

Senate Republicans and almost all Senate Democrats voiced concerns about how raising the SALT cap will mostly benefit higher-income households and reduce the tax code’s overall fairness, which made experts say the Senate could change the SALT provision even if the bill manages to pass in the House. Trump’s tax bill comeback is not the middle-class miracle it’s being sold as. It’s a half-baked plan filled with loopholes and giveaways to the rich while leaving millions of Americans behind. 

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