Highlights Of The GOP Tax Plan: Republican House speaker Paul Ryan unveiled his party’s tax plan Thursday. The “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” is much more about tax cuts than jobs. Those who will benefit most? Big corporations, the super-rich, people paying the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax), and “pass through” companies. The top corporate tax rate would be slashed from 35% to 20%; the estate tax would be eliminated by 2024; the alternative minimum tax would go away; and sole proprietorships, partnerships, and LLCs tax rate would plummet from 39.6% to 25%, and only on 30% of business income.
The losers under the proposed tax code overhaul? Homebuilders, some small business owners, people in high-tax blue states, charities, and the working poor. The mortgage interest deduction on new mortgages would be cut in half; some small business owners would pay 70% of their taxes at a rate of 35%; the state–and-local-taxes deduction would be almost eliminated; and although kept, the earned-income tax credit for low wage earners would not be expanded.
Suu Kyi Makes First Visit To Rohingya Conflict Zone In Myanmar: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate who heads Myanmar, visited conflict-ridden Rakhine State for a one day trip, her first since an outbreak of violence in August forced over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. Myanmar has denied it is working to force the Rohingya from Rakhine, instead arguing that the military is carrying out necessary countermeasures to protect innocent civilians against “brutal acts of terrorism” perpetrated by Rohingya extremists. Critics say that Suu Kyi, in the “most charitable interpretation of her actions,” has allowed herself to be blinded to the realities of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine. “Important is the need for Aung San Suu Kyi to understand what happened. Some scales need to fall from her eyes about northern Rakhine State, and one hopes that this could be the beginning of that,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. Suu Kyi’s governing party has not investigated the stories of the Rohingya who have fled.
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