Hilarious.
Except they haven’t been silent.
from https://reason.com/2018/02/08/can-freedom-caucus-stop-budget-deal
House Freedom Caucus@freedomcaucus
Official position: HFC opposes the caps deal. We support funding our troops, but growing the size of government by 13 percent is not what the voters sent us here to do.
You find it funny that tax refund numbers are down? Shouldn’t they have gone up?
Do you not know the difference between a tax refund and tax rates? I can help if you ask nicely. But I’ll give you a financial tip in advance, always aim for the lowest tax refund possible, otherwise you are giving the government an interest free loan at your expense.
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You mean I can adjust my withholdings to NOT give the government more money than they deserve? Aww gee thanks. I didn’t know that until you told me.
Btw since tax rates went DOWN for most people… while most people kept their withholdings THE SAME (like me, why would I adjust? My tax bracket went lower) they should be getting MORE money back. All other things being equal.
Why didn’t they? Because other aspects of the tax code were NOT equal. Removing personal exemptions and capping SALT, (among other things) resulted in MANY people getting smaller tax refunds. To the tune of 6 billion dollars total so far.
I suspect that number to skyrocket after today, since most people who owe money (like me) wait until the last minute to submit.
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Oh brother, you contradicted yourself and answered your own question at the same time. Any way you slice it, the vast majority of middle class families got a tax cut and what their refunds were have nothing to do with it. When your rates went down, so did what your employer withheld. So no, you didn’t keep your withholding the same.
I got fat stacks of money back this year 
Are you bragging about your bad financial planning ability or what?
I can’t really help it I work shift with a lot over OT.
Thinking about spending it on installing a wood burning stove 
No not any way you slice it…
Most family’s got a TAX RATE cut. Even I did. But the TAX RATE is only a small piece of the overall changes to the tax code.
Currently YoY tax refund numbers are 6 billion lower. No matter how you slice it… i would expect that number to be higher YoY.
Even the IRS is saying that most people should have adjusted their withholdings last year but didn’t. Why would ANYONE need to do that if they got a tax cut?
sigh As I already pointed out, you already answered the question, because rates aren’t the only thing that changed. That doesn’t mean you didn’t get a tax cut, your withholding was lowered because your tax rate was lowered, at the same time what and how much you could deduct changed as well as several other changes. You insist on ignoring that how much was withheld dropped. I have no idea where you get the simplistic idea that your taxes can’t have been cut if your reduced withholding doesn’t result in the same tax refund, but it has no basis in reality.
Sigh
It is really a tax cut if your tax rate went down but deductions went away or were capped that negatively impact people who, before the change, were getting a refund?
Like me… my tax rate dropped 3%, I did not change my withholdings. I should not have needed to if I truly got a tax cut.
However I did not get a tax cut. I got a tax rate drop and a cap on SALT and removal of the personal exemption. Which netted me to pay the IRS (which hasn’t happened for me in 4 years).
Last year my deductions were around 70k. This year is is around 50k. Withholdings, income and deductions identical. My per check increase last year, due to the rate cut, was about $70 a paycheck or about $1500 additional per annum.
I did get the increased child tax credit but it wasn’t enough to offset the Cap on salt and losing personal exemptions.
There are others like me… which total 6 billion less in tax refunds.
How many billions did people get to keep in their paychecks during the year?
Was it more or less than 6 billion?
Again, how much extra did they get to keep each month in their paychecks?
I think you’re just complaining about the SALT cap. The previous year, you took a deduction off your income for your kids, Now it’s a credit that lowers your actual tax (most people significantly lower their tax owed).
And only $70 a paycheck??? I hope that’s a weekly paycheck. I’m every two weeks, I make les than your total deductons this year and got to keep an extra $36 a paycheck.
If I use a credit card for expenses, am I increasing my income?
No. These tax cuts were stupid on steroids. Shameful…
Maybe their plan is to destroy the dollar to make their gold they bought 8 years ago matter?
Not sure why the liberals are not falling all over themselves to pay more taxes. You know the poor, homeless, income inequality…on and on. They never seem to volunteer to pay more tax and in fact whine about tax cuts not being good enough.
Reminder today: The Federal Government of the United States accepts donations.
So it completely cool to go trillions of dollars into debt that we will never get out from under so billionaires don’t have to pay taxes. And if people are upset about it, they can donate money to the government if they want.
What a stupid argument!
There are more lefty billionaires. No one is stopping them from paying more taxes. They complain they aren’t paying enough but don’t volunteer to pay more.
