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The Trump Presidency 13: The (James) Baker's Dozen

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SuburbanTurkey said:
Why would they do this very dubious maneuver when they had the opportunity to fund the wall directly and opted not to?

Strange that Trump keeps implying that Republican legislators actually want this wall when they have made it abundantly clear they do not. The wall is a Trump agenda item, not a Republican agenda item.
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I think it is because he mistakes his popularity with republican voters with support of republican legislators.
 
Trump Tweets

Jewish people are leaving the Democratic Party. We saw a lot of anti Israel policies start under the Obama Administration, and it got worsts & worse. There is anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party. They don’t care about Israel or the Jewish people.” Elizabeth Pipko, Jexodus.

Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace: “The whole climate crisis is not only Fake News, it’s Fake Science. There is no climate crisis, there’s weather and climate all around the world, and in fact carbon dioxide is the main building block of all life.” @foxandfriends Wow!
 
Moore was not a co-founder of Greenpeace.
He hasn't been a member for over 30 years.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Tweets

Jewish people are leaving the Democratic Party. We saw a lot of anti Israel policies start under the Obama Administration, and it got worsts & worse. There is anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party. They don’t care about Israel or the Jewish people.” Elizabeth Pipko, Jexodus.

Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace: “The whole climate crisis is not only Fake News, it’s Fake Science. There is no climate crisis, there’s weather and climate all around the world, and in fact carbon dioxide is the main building block of all life.” @foxandfriends Wow!
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Bibi not doing his American conservative political allies much favors with this statement:

"an important correction: Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, and them alone.”
 
Segnosaur said:
This had been discussed elsewhere in this forum...

Not sure if this applies to you, but many people who have seen their tax refunds reduced are still paying less tax; its just that the amount of tax deducted from each paycheck wasn't adjusted properly.
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Do you have a source on that?
I feel like most people use a fairly standard formula for withholding and the only reason I can imagine changing that formula for this year would be if they expected to owe more than last year.

Most of the stories I've heard have been people who at least claim that they withheld as they always have, are making about the same as last year, but either owed money or got a lower refund.

In my particular circle, a lot of people itemize and many folks I know who work as contractors/some proprietors are paying markedly more as a percentage of their earnings. I haven't done mine yet. Took a while to get all my 1099s in and then I went in tour, so I can report in later, but I expect like many self employed people, that I'll be getting the short end of this one.
 
SuburbanTurkey said:
Bibi not doing his American conservative political allies much favors with this statement:

"an important correction: Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, and them alone.”
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Why, I don't see conservatives having much issue with that.
 
Cavemonster said:
Do you have a source on that?
I feel like most people use a fairly standard formula for withholding and the only reason I can imagine changing that formula for this year would be if they expected to owe more than last year.

Most of the stories I've heard have been people who at least claim that they withheld as they always have, are making about the same as last year, but either owed money or got a lower refund.

<snip>
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Odd datapoint here : in 2018 I made roughly the same as in 2017, and had the same withholdings. My total tax owed went down by about 15% from 2017 to 2018. Stranger still, at tax time in 2017 I owed like $20, whereas in 2018 I got a little bit back. Still doesn't make me approve of the tax cuts, or Trump to any degree.

I'm neither rich nor poor, but nicely in the middle, so I don't benefit from special conditions at either of the extreme ends. I do wonder once all is said and done which demographics are going to be the ones getting hosed in all this.
 
Cavemonster said:
Do you have a source on that?
I feel like most people use a fairly standard formula for withholding and the only reason I can imagine changing that formula for this year would be if they expected to owe more than last year.

Most of the stories I've heard have been people who at least claim that they withheld as they always have, are making about the same as last year, but either owed money or got a lower refund.

In my particular circle, a lot of people itemize and many folks I know who work as contractors/some proprietors are paying markedly more as a percentage of their earnings. I haven't done mine yet. Took a while to get all my 1099s in and then I went in tour, so I can report in later, but I expect like many self employed people, that I'll be getting the short end of this one.
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The withholding tables were changed, so your employer was taking less out of each paycheck towards taxes.

The new tax rules also put caps on a number of itemized deductions.

I hear lots of people insist they had the same amount taken out, but I have personally not seen two pay stubs from two different years to verify that.

I also hear a lot of people protest they didn't change their allowances or extra deduction. This is precisely why they now owe, and also precisely why I take anything they say about the situation with a grain of salt. There were endless articles pointing this out at the time, and a continuing trickle of them throughout the year as various budgetary departments saw the issue growing. Anyone who had time for Facebook memes and Kardashians but never bothered to read some articles on taxes doesn't get to complain about being blindsided. The information was there for anyone who wanted it, and not just quietly on a Friday evening.
 
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