I have become a lot smarter in my approach to my good liberal friends at Saturday’s breakfast. Some Saturdays I don’t join in the conversation about Trump and McConnell. Other Saturdays I will agree with them about Trump and McConnell if what they are saying is true, and some days I release a zinger.
“Why don’t the Democrats propose a tax cut for the middle-class?” was my question. Guess what their answer was? I didn’t get one. Instead, they steered the conversation back to Trump and McConnell. I am going to keep asking the question because it’s so important.
I strongly believe that it is time to help those in the middle class. Their jobs are insecure and their wages are stagnant. Just a little bit of tinkering with our tax laws and regulations would do wonders for their standard of living and secure their jobs.
Just who are the middle class? Well, it depends on where you live. For instance, $60,000 a year goes a lot further in Bozeman, Montana, than in Brooklyn, New York. The Brookings Institute says if you earn between $37,000 and $145,000 for a household of three, you are in the middle class. But I am of the opinion that other things must be considered.
I think you need to consider consumption, education and relative social standings. Maybe you can be considered middle class if you only spend $50,000 a year. Maybe you can be considered middle class if you only have a high school degree and maybe you can be considered middle class if you are a drywall installer or union member.
No matter what way you classify who is middle class, as I mentioned before, their jobs nowadays are in peril and they feel insecure. This is what elected Donald Trump as president of the United States.
The Trump administration and Congress are on the right path in tax reform and deregulation and it’s a shame the midterm elections elected a Democratic House of Representatives. This puts the middle class in even more jeopardy. Congress has a responsibility to make sure all citizens are on the gravy train by lowering middle-class taxes and reducing the cost of complying with regulations that would help immensely.
Warren Buffett is wrong to say that his tax rate is lower than his secretary’s. I guarantee you that Buffett pays more taxes than she does. A hefty tax cut for the middle class is needed. I cannot fathom why my Democratic friends don’t want to lower taxes for the middle class. All I can think of is that they think it will reduce the revenue of their favorite federal programs.
Not only are students shackled with student debt, so are their parents. Higher education is a monopoly and the middle class has assumed a debt that historically they didn’t have before. If you chart the growth of higher education as compared to healthcare or the consumer price index, you should be as disturbed as I am with higher education’s skyrocketing cost that doubles that of healthcare and as compared to the CPI. It is mercurial.
Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute have estimated that 47 percent of U.S. jobs are at risk in the current wave of computerization. The middle class is insecure about their jobs and this has led to insecurity in family life.
And this brings us back to the cost of education. The middle class has always had the majority of debt in our great nation and adding the cost of higher education to the middle class is horrific. If you are between 50 and 80, this new consumer debt is a huge burden. Yes, the kids are also suffering and this is not right.
The 2018 midterm election is history and a decade of tax reform, deregulation and school choice is stymied. This makes the middle class the big loser. If the Democrats want to guarantee a win in the White House in 2020, they should propose and pass tax cuts for the middle class.
Robert Pembroke is the former chairman and CEO of Pembroke’s Inc. in Salt Lake City.