Monday, April 22, 2019 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
April 15 was the day we all paid our fair share of taxes. Well, some of us. If you are one of the 4.3 percent of working Americans who got any kind of pay bump tied to the tax cuts that took effect in 2018, congratulations. If you are among the 95.7 percent who did not, here’s why: The 2017 Trump-GOP tax cuts favored the wealthy and corporations and will explode the national debt to the tune of $2 trillion. What does that mean for the average Nevadan?
Besides a debt that future generations have little hope of paying off, the crushing weight of these tax cuts is being used by the very lawmakers who pushed it through Congress as an excuse to cut programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, housing, education and other programs aimed at helping working families.
Those programs are on the chopping block to the tune of $1.4 trillion, if President Donald Trump gets the budget he proposed. His budget also calls for $1 trillion in additional tax cuts that benefit mainly the wealthy. For families and the elderly, who are constantly squeezed, losing these programs that help them survive would be a gut punch. Children with chronic disorders, working adults suddenly hit by illnesses and seniors are all vulnerable if these programs are starved for funds.
Medicaid, in particular, is a program I found myself needing several years ago. After being on medical leave for a diagnosis of a rare cancer in 2014, I lost my company-sponsored health insurance. I was recovering from a partial laryngectomy and had an unhealed stoma (hole) in my neck from a recently removed tracheostomy. To top it off, my airway was narrowing as an unexpected side effect of four surgeries spanning six months.
I used the Affordable Care Act to obtain insurance to continue the care I desperately needed. I was told that due to the Medicaid expansion, I qualified for care. Ignorant of how Medicaid works and living on a desperately thin disability check, my first question was, “How much does it cost?” The answer, “Nothing,” was an unimaginable relief. It meant I could receive the critical health care I required while still being able to pay my bills.
Shortly after receiving my Medicaid card, I suffered a potentially deadly infection in my stoma that spread into my lungs. Medicaid not only allowed me to seek immediate medical attention, it kept me healthy enough to get future surgeries to heal the gaping hole in my neck and open my airway. Eventually, I was able to return to work. Medicaid served its purpose and allowed me to become a productive taxpayer once again.
It is beyond imagination how heartless it is to take the care away from a child born with a debilitating birth defect so a billionaire can have another private jet. Had I not had Medicaid, my children would have buried their father. I would have missed my daughter’s upcoming wedding and the chance to walk her down the aisle.
To make matters worse, the ACA is once again under threat to be repealed by Trump, via his budget, taking away protections for every American, such as guarding against losing health insurance or being charged more for a pre-existing condition. It would end health care for 20 million Americans while handing insurance companies $600 billion in additional tax cuts.
Economic growth is the oft-repeated rationale for Republicans who support tax cuts for the rich. But the evidence does not support this. The federal deficit skyrocketed in large part due to the 40 percent slash in corporate tax rates. While the wealthy and well-connected enjoy the spoils of a tax system created with their interests in mind, Trump and the GOP expect to balance the budget on the backs of working families.
Let’s demand a tax system where the wealthy pay their fair share. A good start would be the repeal of the Trump-GOP tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, and closing the already existing loopholes that favor the ultra-rich. The trillions of dollars this would save could be invested back into helping working families and our state, and to create an economy that works for all Americans.
Joe Merlino is a 30-year resident of Las Vegas, a cancer survivor and health care advocate since 2017.
