Washington Post: They spent years planning to live with Alzheimer’s disease. The GOP tax bill threatens those plans.
These are the faces of Americans who will be hurt by the GOP plan to cut taxes on the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. The GOP bill released last week eliminates a number of vital tax deductions Americans use to make ends meet, including the medical expense deduction. The Washington Post features one family whose lives will be turned upside down by the GOP’s bill:
“When Diane Thorsen began to show signs at an early age of the Alzheimer’s disease that had stolen her mother’s mind, she and her husband, Richard Davis, were as ready as they could be.”
“But as the Republican tax plan took shape, Davis felt as though the rug was being pulled out from under them. He plugged numbers into a spreadsheet as details of the plan emerged, finally arriving at the conclusion that after all his budgeting to avoid digging into savings, he would need to withdraw about $24,000 next year.”
“‘I kind of had everything all planned out. I had it planned out to where I really wasn’t spending any time worrying about the finances,’ Davis said. ‘It’s kind of a kick in the stomach to have it all figured out and then to have it kind of all start falling apart.’”
“In their plan to cut taxes and declutter the tax code, Republicans have proposed repealing all but a small handful of tax breaks. But people rely on those tax breaks in budgeting for medical expenses, adopting children, replacing stolen or disaster-damaged property, and even paying for business expenses.”
“These credits and deductions don’t feel like loopholes to the people who depend on them. Those tax breaks have shaped people’s financial lives in fundamental ways, providing relief from taxes on spending that isn’t optional.”
“But the medical expense deduction, taken on about 8.8 million tax returns in 2015, is one of the many being repealed.”
“Eliminating the medical deduction could affect parents of children with special needs, who might use the tax break to deduct expenses not covered by insurance.”
“Working-age people with a serious illness such as cancer might also use it in the face of high out-of-pocket medical costs and earnings that are lower because they can’t work.”
“But those with very large medical expenses may be in the most difficult position of all, and it might lead to difficult choices — pushing some families to put parents on Medicaid rather than pay for the nursing home.”
“‘It entails dipping into savings. There’s no getting around that,’ Davis said. ‘If it ever got to a point where it becomes too unmanageable — where we would see the end of the road in our savings — there is an end to the road.’”
“When Diane Thorsen began to show signs at an early age of the Alzheimer’s disease that had stolen her mother’s mind, she and her husband, Richard Davis, were as ready as they could be.”
“But as the Republican tax plan took shape, Davis felt as though the rug was being pulled out from under them. He plugged numbers into a spreadsheet as details of the plan emerged, finally arriving at the conclusion that after all his budgeting to avoid digging into savings, he would need to withdraw about $24,000 next year.”
“‘I kind of had everything all planned out. I had it planned out to where I really wasn’t spending any time worrying about the finances,’ Davis said. ‘It’s kind of a kick in the stomach to have it all figured out and then to have it kind of all start falling apart.’”
“In their plan to cut taxes and declutter the tax code, Republicans have proposed repealing all but a small handful of tax breaks. But people rely on those tax breaks in budgeting for medical expenses, adopting children, replacing stolen or disaster-damaged property, and even paying for business expenses.”
“These credits and deductions don’t feel like loopholes to the people who depend on them. Those tax breaks have shaped people’s financial lives in fundamental ways, providing relief from taxes on spending that isn’t optional.”
“But the medical expense deduction, taken on about 8.8 million tax returns in 2015, is one of the many being repealed.”
“Eliminating the medical deduction could affect parents of children with special needs, who might use the tax break to deduct expenses not covered by insurance.”
“Working-age people with a serious illness such as cancer might also use it in the face of high out-of-pocket medical costs and earnings that are lower because they can’t work.”
“But those with very large medical expenses may be in the most difficult position of all, and it might lead to difficult choices — pushing some families to put parents on Medicaid rather than pay for the nursing home.”
“‘It entails dipping into savings. There’s no getting around that,’ Davis said. ‘If it ever got to a point where it becomes too unmanageable — where we would see the end of the road in our savings — there is an end to the road.’”