Growing old appears to be a common human trait. Retirement on a modest fixed income is often the result. It’s hard to see how the passage of the recent Republican tax plan does much for a significant portion of our elderly population.
Assuming most of these seniors (both Republican and Democrat) will opt for the doubling of the standard deduction, the benefit loses a lot of its glitz when offset by a retired couple losing the former $8,100 exemption allowance. With the scheduled future expiration of the doubling, I haven’t seen any indication the exemption will ever be reinstated.
Add the dismantling of the individual mandate and seniors get treated even worse. Not requiring the young and healthy to contribute to the cost of health care means retirees will end up paying more. Those young ones may wish one day they could have benefited by the mandate.
Finally, when cuts to Medicare are legislated because the trickle down, as in the past, has failed to offset the projected deficit caused by the enormous giveaway to the super rich, it’s once again we older folk who will be left behind in the dust of this Republican debacle.
Raymond A. Hult, Bountiful