Sea Ray
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I want to devote a thread to exactly the reasons why I'm a Republican voter. I'm going to give real life specifics and for simplicity sake, narrow it down to three main financial examples. In it I'll show you how Republicans save me money and Democrats cost me money.
Simply put, voting Republican saves me thousands of dollars, not a year, but a month. You didn't read that wrong. We're talkin' 4 figures, per month. This isn't jus a few bucks. Here you go:
1) State of Ohio. Prior to John Kasich my accountant was having me put aside $1000 per quarter. Kasich re-did small business taxes and instituted what's called the Commercial Activity Tax (CAT). Simply put it works like this: Up to certain amount, small businesses pay $150 in May towards this CAT. After that we pay nothing. Zilch. I no longer have to put aside quarterly money. This saves me about $4K/yr. I now basically pay nothing in state income tax.
2) Obamacare. In December of 2008 (Republican control) my health insurance cost $487/mo with a $3K deductible. For reference sake it was $258/mo with a $1K deductible in Dec 2000. It was $215/mo in Dec of 1993 with a deductible I can't recall but that's not apples to apples because I was single at the time.
It's now $1710/mo with a $7K deductible per person, not per family. I've written a lot about health insurance here so in the interests of brevity I'll try not to repeat myself. This is far and above increases incurred in any other decade. My premiums did not go down as Obama promised...nor could I keep my doctors since companies keep dropping out of the individual market. My guess is that none of you who get your insurance from an employer experienced such as increase. That's because the costs of Obamacare were largely passed onto individuals. We (self employed) took the brunt of that hit. I get that there are winners and losers in every tax plan, but if I'm the bigtime loser, don't expect my political support. Furthermore I'm jaded as to promises from politicians. I know the reality is that bills don't often end up as they're promised so I no longer believe it when a politician like Warren or Sanders tell me that I can keep my doctor or whatever. I'm skeptical.
How do you equate how much this cost me?To be fair, I should expect my premiums to go up. I'll be generous and accept a 100% increase in about ten year's time, so let's say that this policy change is costing me $700/mo plus whatever value you want to put on the difference of $3K deductible vs $14K (two people)
Trump deregulated Obamacare so now there are more health insurance choices for me. I now can choose from some that are not Obamacare compliant. This means if I don't want a plan that includes mental health or maternity, I can buy it. But there is a catch. These plans can underwrite so if you have a pre-existing condition, you probably won't qualify. So here's what happened in December when I had to make a choice:
My existing insurance company (Anthem) sent me a letter saying that they were going to raise my premiums to $1900/mo. After going through an insurance broker, we came up with a plan where we kept my wife (who has pre-existing conditions) on Anthem, but moved my daughter and me to a non Obamacare compliant plan. My new total premiums: $1300/mo. This means a $600/mo savings due to the under the radar actions of Pres Trump. He saved me $600/mo. Thank you Mr Trump!
3) Now let's get to the Trump tax cut. I was one of the winners of it. They now give us a standard deduction of $24K (married). Our itemized deductions were $18K. That's a net plus $6K deduction. They also took away our personal exemptions. That's a minus. The tax brackets lowered our percentages, that represents a modest plus. Here's where I really benefited: Small businesses get a "pass through" deduction based upon your income. This amounted to a deduction of about $20K. Add it all up and here's the sum total: My income went up about $20K in 2018 and my taxes only went up $1.5K. My guess is that this saves me about $3.5K. My income was OK, comfortably over the SS max but not rich by any means. Thank you Mr Trump.
I could go further and say that my taxes also went up under Bill Clinton and down under GW Bush so there is a long standing pattern here.
So OK, regardless of immigration, stupids Tweets or anything else you want to throw out there, my loyalties are to Republicans because I can't afford the thousands per month that Democrat policies will cost me. I just can't and I'm sure everyone has their breaking point as to how much they're willing to fork out in order to support a political party. If Dems only cost me a hundred or so per month, I'd think about it but these examples show they're costing me well over $2K/mo. You want my vote? Quit nailing my pocketbook.
SR
Simply put, voting Republican saves me thousands of dollars, not a year, but a month. You didn't read that wrong. We're talkin' 4 figures, per month. This isn't jus a few bucks. Here you go:
1) State of Ohio. Prior to John Kasich my accountant was having me put aside $1000 per quarter. Kasich re-did small business taxes and instituted what's called the Commercial Activity Tax (CAT). Simply put it works like this: Up to certain amount, small businesses pay $150 in May towards this CAT. After that we pay nothing. Zilch. I no longer have to put aside quarterly money. This saves me about $4K/yr. I now basically pay nothing in state income tax.
2) Obamacare. In December of 2008 (Republican control) my health insurance cost $487/mo with a $3K deductible. For reference sake it was $258/mo with a $1K deductible in Dec 2000. It was $215/mo in Dec of 1993 with a deductible I can't recall but that's not apples to apples because I was single at the time.
It's now $1710/mo with a $7K deductible per person, not per family. I've written a lot about health insurance here so in the interests of brevity I'll try not to repeat myself. This is far and above increases incurred in any other decade. My premiums did not go down as Obama promised...nor could I keep my doctors since companies keep dropping out of the individual market. My guess is that none of you who get your insurance from an employer experienced such as increase. That's because the costs of Obamacare were largely passed onto individuals. We (self employed) took the brunt of that hit. I get that there are winners and losers in every tax plan, but if I'm the bigtime loser, don't expect my political support. Furthermore I'm jaded as to promises from politicians. I know the reality is that bills don't often end up as they're promised so I no longer believe it when a politician like Warren or Sanders tell me that I can keep my doctor or whatever. I'm skeptical.
How do you equate how much this cost me?To be fair, I should expect my premiums to go up. I'll be generous and accept a 100% increase in about ten year's time, so let's say that this policy change is costing me $700/mo plus whatever value you want to put on the difference of $3K deductible vs $14K (two people)
Trump deregulated Obamacare so now there are more health insurance choices for me. I now can choose from some that are not Obamacare compliant. This means if I don't want a plan that includes mental health or maternity, I can buy it. But there is a catch. These plans can underwrite so if you have a pre-existing condition, you probably won't qualify. So here's what happened in December when I had to make a choice:
My existing insurance company (Anthem) sent me a letter saying that they were going to raise my premiums to $1900/mo. After going through an insurance broker, we came up with a plan where we kept my wife (who has pre-existing conditions) on Anthem, but moved my daughter and me to a non Obamacare compliant plan. My new total premiums: $1300/mo. This means a $600/mo savings due to the under the radar actions of Pres Trump. He saved me $600/mo. Thank you Mr Trump!
3) Now let's get to the Trump tax cut. I was one of the winners of it. They now give us a standard deduction of $24K (married). Our itemized deductions were $18K. That's a net plus $6K deduction. They also took away our personal exemptions. That's a minus. The tax brackets lowered our percentages, that represents a modest plus. Here's where I really benefited: Small businesses get a "pass through" deduction based upon your income. This amounted to a deduction of about $20K. Add it all up and here's the sum total: My income went up about $20K in 2018 and my taxes only went up $1.5K. My guess is that this saves me about $3.5K. My income was OK, comfortably over the SS max but not rich by any means. Thank you Mr Trump.
I could go further and say that my taxes also went up under Bill Clinton and down under GW Bush so there is a long standing pattern here.
So OK, regardless of immigration, stupids Tweets or anything else you want to throw out there, my loyalties are to Republicans because I can't afford the thousands per month that Democrat policies will cost me. I just can't and I'm sure everyone has their breaking point as to how much they're willing to fork out in order to support a political party. If Dems only cost me a hundred or so per month, I'd think about it but these examples show they're costing me well over $2K/mo. You want my vote? Quit nailing my pocketbook.
SR
