THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

And anybody who has been paying attention can't help but notice that most of the revealed elements of the Republican Tax 'Reform' have been promoted by lies. Lies like the US having the highest corporate tax rate to support an otherwise indefensible corporate tax cut and the small business sob stories about the Estate Tax which is only applicable to maybe 5000 families who can all easily afford it. The GOP assault on the SALT deductions is another area bringing new GOP lies to the fore.

The main Republican argument for killing the state and local tax deduction is that the break forces residents of low-tax states to subsidize those in California and other high-tax states.

But when it comes to federal taxes, the data show that it’s the other way around. And it could get worse for Californians if the deduction is eliminated as part of the GOP tax overhaul.

California is among 13 states that ship more tax money to Washington than they get back in federal spending, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a public policy think tank in Albany, N.Y.

They’re known as donor states, a title California has held for years, mostly because of the state’s relatively younger population and large number of high-income earners.

Killing the state and local tax deduction, as President Trump and congressional Republican leaders have proposed, probably would tilt the equation even more against California.

“We will end up being an even greater donor state,” said Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park). “That’s not fair.”

In 2015, California residents and businesses pumped $410 billion worth of income, corporate and other federal taxes into the U.S. Treasury, the Rockefeller Institute said.

At the same time, Washington sent the state $393 billion worth of payments and services, including Social Security checks, Medicare payments, federal employee salaries and government contracts.

That $17-billion shortfall ranked as the fourth-worst state balance of payments.Calculated another way, California received 96 cents of federal spending for each dollar paid in federal taxes. While that’s close to break even, it’s well off the $1.14 national average and ranked 40th in the nation. New Jersey was last at 74 cents.

Three states — New Mexico, West Virginia and Mississippi — received more than $2 in federal outlays for every dollar in taxes paid, according to the Rockefeller Institute.

“The reason a lot of states ... have a bad balance of payments is because the relatively rich states are paying into a tax system that has progressive rates — and they pay a lot,” said Don Boyd, director of fiscal studies at the Rockefeller Institute, which is the public policy research arm of the State University of New York.

On a per capita basis, Californians paid $10,510 in taxes to the federal government in 2015. That ranked 12th in the nation. The leader was Connecticut at $15,643. Mississippi was last at $5,740.

The state and local tax deduction helps offset some of the higher costs for donor states by reducing the amount of tax money flowing to Washington, analysts said.

The deduction allowed Californians to reduce their combined taxable income by $101 billion in 2014 — one-fifth of the total value of the deduction nationwide, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.

In the great tradition of wingnut welfare, the Republican tax plan wants to increase the burden on states that work hard and prosper for the benefit of a bunch of lazy good for nothing states. Good for nothing except being dumb enough to vote Republican.