Dave Brat brags about the Republican Tax Reform and says it will help “those that need it most.”

I want to know how making golf courses and private airplanes tax exempt helps those “who need it most.” I would also like to know how doubling the amount of tax-exempt inheritance to $11 million for singles and $22 million for couples helps “those who need it most.” Meanwhile, every penny of interest earned on money most of us try to save toward our retirement or emergencies is taxed!
Brat has been extolling that the change in the standard deduction will result in major savings for the majority of lower and middle income people, mostly because the standard deduction was raised from $12,000 to $24,000 for couples. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, we can no longer take the personal exemption of $4,050 per person, or $8,100 per couple, as a deduction. A family of four would lose $16,200 in personal exemptions.

Adding the previous standard deduction of $12,000 to the exemptions the family was able to deduct $28,200 in 2017--$4,200 more than the new tax plan. Millionaires are paying millions less in taxes while middle class people are paying a few dollars less and in some cases more. Tax cuts for the rich are permanent. Tax cuts for the rest of us will expire in 2025 or sooner and will cause our taxes to go up. How is the reform “helping those who need it most?”

Brat has stated that many corporations have handed out bonuses and given pay raises. One company he identified was Wal-Mart, probably one of the biggest employers in the world. Wal-Mart gave some employees bonuses and pay raises, and in the meantime, they fired thousands of employees and closed 26 of their Sam’s stores. A survey showed that only 14 percent of corporations said they would provide bonuses, pay raises, and hire more personnel because of tax reform. What the absolute majority is doing is buying back their own stock so that their profits will be larger. As for the unemployment rate going down, most of the new jobs are seasonal and temporary.

Brat gets a lot of free publicity from the media. He writes quarter-page commentaries which have been published in almost all local papers. Candidates running against him do not get the same advantage. Without an official title behind their name they have to pay for publicity.

The next thing on the Republican agenda is to make cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the Children’s Health Insurance Program in order to reduce the billions in debt they created by giving billionaires and millionaires large tax breaks. We need someone who will look at each bill carefully and vote according to the needs of his constituents instead of blindly following the party line. Vote Brat out of office before he does further damage instead of helping “those who need it most.”

Deanna Nicosia

Editors Note: this originally appeared in the May 31st edition of the Central Virginian, and has been re-posted on Blue Louisa with the author’s permission.
 

One of my favorite freedom discussions took place a few years back when a friend and I were conversing with our five-year-old daughters about whether they could or could not go play at the neighbors’ house. My friend told her daughter no, she couldn’t. Not until she was able to take responsibility for getting home at a certain time, at which the five-year-old yelled loudly with hands on hips: “I don’t want responsibility! I want freedom!”
 
So, to respond to Duane Adams’ letter to the editor published May 17, yes, we all want freedom. That would be great. Regulations are annoying. They slow me down and get in my way. Sometimes they are so poorly written they are laughable.
 
If we all took responsibility, we would have no need for government regulation. But we don’t. We are lazy. We are greedy. We say, “Everybody else is doing it.” We litter. We pollute the air and water.
 
Edmund Burke, widely regarded as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism, made a distinction between ‘individual liberty’ and ‘social liberty.’ “
 
“Permit me then to continue our conversation, and to tell you what the freedom is that I love, and that to which I think all men entitled. This is the more necessary, because, of all the loose terms in the world, liberty is the most indefinite. It is not solitary, unconnected, individual, selfish liberty, as if every man was to regulate the whole of his conduct by his own will. The liberty I mean is social freedom. It is that state of things in which liberty is secured by the equality of restraint. A constitution of things in which the liberty of no one man, and no body of men, and no number of men, can find means to trespass on the liberty of any person, or any description of persons, in the society. This kind of liberty is, indeed, but another name for justice; ascertained by wise laws, and secured by well-constructed institutions.”
 
Can we, by participating in our democracy, and by electing leaders not beholden to one group or another, construct better institutions, and thereby achieve this social freedom in which we maximize each one’s liberty without treading on others?
 
P.S. - For those who think that we should rely on the unseen hand of the marketplace: It doesn’t work when economic power and political power are one, which is what seems to have happened.
 
Mary Kranz
 
Editors Note: this originally appeared in the May 24th edition of the Central Virginian, and has been re-posted on Blue Louisa with the author’s permission.

For those of you who read the Central Virginian, you might have noticed two letters in their May 17th op-ed section. One by Mr. Jackson defends Dave Brat, claiming he has made a “difference.” And like Mr. Reynold’s and Hogan’s pieces from the week before, he makes little effort to point out where he made a difference.
 
Other than a vague libertarian proclamation that he supports “reining in the Federal Reserve banking cabal,” a grandiose rationale little removed from Mr. Adams assertion that extreme Senate candidate Nick Frietas “will defend our freedom,” from government micromanagement.

What these letters have in common is their reliance on ideological faith to justify Republicans social and economic policies, using deceptive claims like “Conservatism is a positive, uplifting philosophy” and “economic and personal liberty are the keys to prosperity” in an effort to normalize their Party’s extreme agenda.

Nor does one have to look very hard to find evidence of this mindset in Louisa, like this week’s front page story about the Board of Supervisors and Broadband.

Reporting which glosses over the fact that the Board is being hijacked by a gang of three in plain sight, starting with their 7-0 decision to allow two at-large members to serve on the Broadband Authority, a “compromise” which is intended to allow the likes of Jim Ogg, one of the persons most opposed to the Broadband project to have a say in deciding the Broadband Authorities future.
 
On a related note; most of this blogs readers know that the CV has refused to allow either Abigail Spanberger, or Dan Ward to respond to Dave Brat’s misleading letter last month. According to representatives of both campaigns, the CV claims it’s because they have a policy of not printing letters from political candidates or their campaigns.
 
A decision which is certainly their prerogative and one which they have repeatedly failed to exercise equally, like turning last year’s election week op-ed section from a “rebuttal” edition into one promoting Republican candidates, just as they did the year before.
 
What people don’t know is that Adams letter to the CV was also broadcast verbatim via a State Party controlled email system the same day this letter came out. If this were the first time that something like this happened one might be tempted to simply dismiss this as a local paper being duped by slick operators.

But it’s hardly the first time, and likely won’t be the last.

And while the CV may profess they have a responsibility to keep their readers informed about what’s going on in Virginia’s General Assembly and Congress, it should be said that they only started “informing their readers” about the deeds of the General Assembly after being called out by multiple letter writers for failing to report on several town halls with our state representatives.
 
And that their notions of what constitutes informing their readers consists of reprinting material straight from the legislators fliers, web and Facebook pages, regardless of how accurate or truthful it is. Such willingness to accept whatever these representatives say as the gospel truth shows that the CV’s editor and reporters either don’t have enough knowledge of the issues to ask relevant questions, or aren’t interested in asking those questions.
 
Inactions which allow them to call political propaganda informing their readers, and why when provided evidence that these legislators are clearly misrepresenting the material facts, and that their “guest commentaries” are appearing in other local papers and RW blogs around the state, the CV’s response continues to be the sound of silence.
 
Jon Taylor

On the day that the White House celebrated a day of prayer, Rudy Giuliani said that multiple payments to numerous women on behalf of the Donald Trump may have been possible.  Now, it appears that Michael Cohen was reimbursed to the tune of $500,000 by a Russian oligarch close to Putin.  Meanwhile Speaker Ryan tried to fire the chaplain of the House of Representatives, Reverend Patrick Conroy, a Jesuit priest who offered a mild prayer for justice during the debate over the GOP tax cut. 
 
Scott Pruitt continues his corrupt lifestyle at the taxpayers’ expense while destroying environmental protections as fast as he can.  Ryan Zinke, at Interior, is selling off our National Parks and Monuments. The swamp is not being drained; it’s becoming an open sewer with many new inhabitants.
 
Most egregious of all his egregious decisions, just this past Tuesday, Trump abrogated America’s partnership in the international agreement that was also signed by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the European Union, Russia, China, and Iran. It is a multilateral arms control deal, unanimously endorsed by a United Nations Security Council Resolution.  We are now in violation, and Iran is free to restart its nuclear weapons ambitions if it so chooses. 
 
The other signatories are decrying Trump’s decision, and informed military, scientific, national security and diplomatic experts who have served in both Republican and Democratic administrations are all horrified.  The International Atomic Energy Agency has determined, through remote monitoring and unprecedented intrusive access to all Iran’s nuclear facilities, that Iran is, indeed, in complete compliance.  Bush abrogated the last agreement with North Korea and now Trump has demonstrated that, once again, the United States cannot be trusted to keep its international commitments.
 
But change is sure to come, and the 7th Congressional District will be right in the middle of it.  Excited about the extraordinary quality of the candidates who stepped up to run against Steve Bannon protégé Dave Brat, for the first time in years, the Democratic Committee of the 7th Congressional District decided to hold a primary and let the people choose between candidates Dan Ward and Abigail Spanberger, who have been crisscrossing the district in an intense but civilized campaign for votes.
 
This is a clarion call for democracy and a demonstration of the Democratic Party’s robust confidence in the will of the people.  If you truly want America to become great again, then it must start here in the 7th District by kicking Dave Brat out of office, reelecting Senator Kaine, and taking back Congress from the Republican Party, which has effectively blocked any progress in this country for the last ten years. 
 
The Primary is scheduled for June 12th.  Be sure your voter registration is up-to-date, that you have the proper identification, and that you know where your polling place is (you can do all this at one website:  http://www.voteinculpeper.info/).  Then, go exercise your rights. 
 
The deadline for registering to vote in the June 12th Primary is May 21st.   Absentee voting has already begun.  June 5th is the last day you can request that an absentee ballot be mailed to you.  June 9th is the last day you can vote absentee in person at the Registrar’s office.  The polls open at 6:00 am on June 12th.Candidates’ yard signs are popping up around town.  Volunteers have begun canvassing door-to-door, and you may be receiving phone calls urging you to register, vote, and support one candidate or the other.  The important things are to become informed on the issues, where the candidates stand on them, and then exercise your franchise.

Mike McClary

Editors Note: This letter is scheduled to appear in the Sunday May 13th edition of the Culpeper Star Exponent, and has been re-posted here, with the author's permission.
 

Mr. Reynold’s and Hogan’s May 10th letters in the Central Virginian were similar to their previous ones; filled with misrepresentations of the material facts, unsubstantiated claims, and outright lies. Like how Mr. Hogan professes to be; a concerned citizen, not affiliated with any party, and a former CPA, yet declines to discuss the tax bill he’s ‘rebutting.”
 
Instead he chooses to divert the conversation with declarations that Democrats will spend millions unseating Brat. Perhaps, but with all that dark money pouring into his campaign coffers, it’s more likely they will be significantly outspent.

He gives lip service to the notion of following the rule of law with fancy words like obstreperous, while claiming his president is being targeted by a special prosecutor and a judicial system run amuck. Attempting to move the conversation away from our being a nation of laws where all are accountable, to antiquated ideas like constitutional revisionism.

And yet claims that he favors “not electing a representative who can just give a good speech,” knowing full well that Brat is a born carnival barker, who won’t be out shilled, at least when people aren’t up in his grill.  Perhaps that’s why for over a year, his man has been limiting his public appearances to closed audiences.
 
But when it comes to defiant misrepresentations, half-truths and outright lies Jerry Reynolds has no peer

Demonstrating his cluelessness after citing Apple’s announcement of “the largest share buybacks in American corporate history’’ and that they are “making out like bandits,” as proof of how well things are going well. Completely oblivious to the dangers which accompany such concentrated wealth.
 
Whether November produces a Blue Wave, or Democrats are swept out of the Senate, Republican’s will continue to distort the facts. Like Jerry’s claim that President Obama’s economic message was, “the best days are behind us. Get used to the decline. America has no Exceptionalism about it. America never was that great.”
 
Misrepresentations aimed at those who feel their status and privilege is being threatened, speaking to their disillusionment and anger with the modern world.  A dissatisfaction which leads one to either embrace reactionary politics fetishizing the past, or progressive politics which aims to create a better future.
 
Republicans are doing everything they can to redirect that anger, “not towards those who are the cause of their misery but against those who are just below them on the economic ladder,” using the sheer repetition of their small lies to convince the public that theirs is the only truth.
 
Meanwhile, piece by piece, notions of objective reality dissolve as facts give way to a unending barrage of alternative facts until people become so habituated to their distractions that their openly racist and xenophobic messages become normalized. 

Jerry’s claim that people despise Trump depends on who you talk to. His supporters will approve of his actions no matter what the consequences by overwhelming majorities. Meanwhile, he and Republican leaders continue to circumvent the rule of law, deconstructing and politicizing our government at every opportunity.
 
If they are being scorned, it’s because of these deeds and growing confirmation of widespread corruption.

A reality which many Republican’s will deny as long as there are FOXified myths like American Exceptionalism for them to cling to. 

While many had hoped that when the Drumpfs policies started to affect his supporters that they would start to see the error of their ways. I suspect their capacity for delusion and rationalization exceeds any means of measurement, and his supporters will continue to be willfully defiant.

Like Eddie Devine, owner of Devine Creations Landscaping in Kentucky who says restrictions on seasonal foreign labor may put him out of business, and that “I feel so stupid” and that “I feel like I’ve been tricked by the devil.”

But what makes him angriest is that Trump’s properties in Florida and New York have used 144 H-2B workers since 2016. “I want to know why it’s OK for him to get his workers, but supporters like me don’t get theirs,” Devine said.

Observations which signal two possibilities about Trump's supporters; either they voted for Trump because he is a racist or they voted for him despite his racism, which they did not see as a disqualifying character trait. They were not duped or tricked into supporting him.

They made a conscious and intentional decision: Now some are upset that he has not honored his part of the bargain. While others like Bryan Hall, owner of G.W. Hall and Sons Seafood packing plant on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, continue to cling to the belief that “Trump can fix it with his pen.” 

Living in world where any rationalization will do, incapable of admitting their hero’s actions is the cause of their circumstances, and virtually unreachable even when their livelihoods are at risk.

Jon Taylor

I read with dismay Representative Dave Brat’s highly partisan defense of the new tax law which mainly took effect on January 1. Representative Brat has ignored many important points.
 
The first point he has failed to mention is that the individual cuts are temporary and will expire in a few years. These temporary rate cuts come with many reductions or eliminations of certain deductions. Personal exemptions are gone, hurting most larger families. There are new limits on mortgage interest and real estate tax deductions. Miscellaneous deductions are gone.
 
This will hurt many individuals, such as salesmen who use their vehicles for business; medical personnel and law enforcement officers who must maintain their uniforms; contruction workers and mechanics who must purchase their own tools, as well as many others.
 
Many larger, very profitable corporations will see their tax rates go down from 35 percent to 21 percent. Personally, I have been in favor of this type of corporate tax reform for many years. However, most smaller, less profitable corporations will suffer as they will experience a tax increase from 15 percent to 21 percent.
 
The estate tax exclusion has been doubled. This will be a huge benefit to a very small number of very wealthy Americans.
 
It is time we have a tax code that is simpler and fair to all Americans—one that does not just pick winners and losers. I wrote to Mr. Brat prior to the vote, but unfortunately his reponse seemed full of platitudes. I would welcome any reasonable dialogue he would like to have with me regarding these matters.
 
Stephen Wunsh, CPA
 
Editors Note: This letter originally appeared in the May 3rd edition of the Central Virginian, and has been re-posted with the author’s permission.

In his guest column in the April 19 issue of The Central Virginian, Congressman Dave Brat painted a rosy picture of the effects of the Tax Reform Act. He claims that over 90 percent of middle class Americans will get a tax cut of $2,000 this year.
 
But wait a minute—you have to be making $76,000 a year to get that size reduction. And that is a single person’s income, not a family income. For that to be the average, you have to be using a really wide brush to paint such a picture of the middle class. It certainly isn’t the average or median income family in Louisa County.
 
If you are making minimum wage, your reduction will be less than $200 annually.
 
Mr. Brat extols the reduction of tax rates on small businesses. That’s great. But wait a minute? What do you call small? What about the dramatic reduction in corporate taxes, from 35 percent to 21 percent? That’s not just for “small” businesses.
 
There is a problem with reducing taxes. If the government takes in less revenue, how will we pay for roads, schools and other infrastructure? We won’t be able to, and they are already talking about cutting Social Security and Medicare because we “can’t afford” them.
 
Lynn Engler
 
Editors Note: This letter originally appeared in the May 3rd edition of the Central Virginian, and has been re-posted with the author’s permission.

Like most of us, I recently sent in my income tax forms. I owed and sent in a check. Then I took a look at what the Republican tax cut was going to do for me. After all, I’m a member of the middle class, so I should be happy right? Wrong. Very wrong. Next year my taxes will be higher, much higher and they’ll continue to go up as more of the so-called cuts go away.
 
Contrast this with Ford Motor Company, which just published its financials. They had a billion-dollar profit in the first quarter and expect to pay only nine percent in effective tax. Not the 21 percent the tax cut calls for. Without the tax cut their effective tax rate would have been 13 percent. So, loopholes prevail, and I’m getting hosed while Ford sends more money to their stockholders.
 
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Republican tax cut will add 1.3 trillion dollars to our national debt. Isn’t it the Republicans who scream about raising the debt? Why did they do this?
 
And why would Rep. Dave Brat write an op-ed claiming the tax cut was a good thing? Is he so misinformed, or is he just parroting the party line? I believe he’s parroting and knew the tax cut would hurt me and many like me.
 
As an independent voter, I’m going to be looking for a suitable replacement for Dave Brat. Someone I can talk to and see in person once in a while. Dave Brat has made himself practically invisible here in Louisa County. We voted out Eric Cantor (our last congressman) for many of the same reasons.
 
For now, I need to review my budget to see where the additional tax will hurt the least. I hope you are doing the same.
 
There are primaries coming up in June. Please vote.
 
Larry Zemke
 
Editors Note: This letter originally appeared in the May 3rd edition of the Central Virginian, and has been re-posted with the author’s permission.