title:  Republicans Want To Tax Democratic States More To Pay For Tax Cuts For The Rich
text: When Republicans talk about cutting taxes, they generally talk about cutting the taxes of the wealthy and the major corporations under the absolute lie that those tax cuts will lead to prosperity for everyone else. But that s not working, and they know it. They just can t admit it. To make up for the shortfalls caused by these tax cuts, they now want to effectively raise taxes on certain other people: Their opponents, the Democrats.Their current tax reform plan calls for eliminating the federal deduction for state and local taxes. But wait, you might ask, how is that only raising taxes on Democrats? Doesn t that raise taxes on everyone? Well, yes, but this would disproportionately affect blue states   specifically, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and California.These are the states where taxpayers get the biggest deductions. Therefore, these people would see their taxes go up considerably more than people living in red states. These four states have high taxes, but they also have high property values and high cost of living. No red state ranks in the top 10 for this particular deduction. One might say that the low taxes in red states are better anyway, but then why is it that blue states tend to be more wealthy and prosperous?It s a well-known fact that blue states generally subsidize red states at the federal level. They send more dollars to the federal government than they receive. Red states, on the other hand, take in a lot more and pay a lot less to the federal government. Essentially, red states live off the backs of blue states while whining up one side and down the other about socialism and having to pay to subsidize other people.The national average for this particular deduction is just over $11,000, but the four states listed above all deduct more than $17,000. What better way to ensure that the residents of these states pay even more for the poverty in red states than to eliminate thousands of dollars of deductions?Republican lawmakers from these blue states are pushing back very hard on this, because it is, in effect, selective tax increase on people who actually do need to see their taxes cut. However, other Republicans are claiming that eliminating this deduction will actually allow Congress to lower other taxes.Oh, please. It won t work that way, not because it can t (this would raise enough money to pay for lower income taxes, if done right), but because Republicans are incapable of coming up with a plan that s actually beneficial to low- and middle-income Americans.Here s a novel idea: Why don t they eliminate certain tax breaks and loopholes that only apply to the top 1 percent, instead of one that the shrinking middle class benefits from too? Oh wait, they can t do that. They ll lose their rich backers if they do.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images