The war of words over the recently enacted Republican tax package continues, and farm state GOP lawmakers are pushing back against claims by Democrats, that the new tax law benefits mostly the wealthy.
Farm-state Republicans weighed in, as the partisan sniping over the successful tax legislation continued, ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst said her neighbors are “suffering”.
Democrats attacked the tax package as a ‘wasted effort’ and a ‘giveaway’ to the rich and big corporations. No Democrats, urban or rural, red state or blue, voted for it. Ernst countered, her farmers are not rich, but small family businesses.
Expanded Section 179 equipment expensing and 5-years of 100-percent bonus depreciation for new equipment were also included.
Arkansas U.S. Senator John Boozman.
The new law also preserves the interest deduction, cash accounting and ‘like-kind’ exchanges for property, and doubles the estate tax exemption, while keeping so-called ‘stepped-up’ basis, that softens asset value growth and tax bills, when farms are passed on.
Democrats highlighted the estate tax relief as another example of a tax bill, tilted largely toward the rich.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.