The local U.S. House representative, Daniel Webster, posted on July 8 on the pages of this site his front page piece, “Here’s what One Big Beautiful Bill will do for Americans.” Let’s not kid ourselves Mr. Webster, what you have scribed was done while you were coming on bended knee to what many are now calling the nation’s “false idol”, the current president. Let me just provide a couple of examples.
As of July 4, 2024 when Trump signed into law his budget bill (it is disastrous for Americans, not “beautiful” as you try to snooker us into believing), millions of Americans in our nation, including those that access this site, your constituents, and throughout central Florida I suspect, will lose their right to acquire, maintain or regain their health. Why, because in order to pay for the tax cuts Webster and all Republicans wanted to see happen to their and the president’s wealthy cronies, the money had to come from some where, so why not let it come from slicing and dicing to the tune of roughly $880B Medicaid; from taking away credits from those who have the Affordable Care Act; and, yes, even us seniors on Medicare because Medicare’s providers will be impacted through the legislative concept of sequestration, a/k/a/ taking the form of the Pay-As-You-Go Act (“PAYGO”), to the tune of also $billions over the next decade, per published reporting.
So Mr. Webster, your trade-off is to make the wealthy become wealthier by letting Americans suffer from disease, illness, even death, because they cannot obtain required health care services through present government-run health care programs. And lest we not forget the impact on hospitals serving rural communities and areas. They will be on a path to close their doors or severely restrict services due to lack of patients paid for by these programs.. UF Health and your regional hospitals here, what do you have to say on all this?
And just this past weekend, Webster following his president had their Social Security Administration publish a blast email dated July 3 to all beneficiaries who receive social security payments, titled, “Social Security Applauds Passage of Legislation Providing Tax Relief for Seniors”. Besides it being against federal law for an agency to politicize, let me quote a passage (which Webster conveniently fails to tell readers of this site) after quoting the Social Security Commissioner, Frank Bisignano. I capitalize all of it so no-one misses it: ‘THE NEW LAW INCLUDES A PROVISION THAT ELIMINATES FEDERAL INCOME TAXES ON SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS FOR MOST BENEFICIARIES…ADDITIONALLY, IT PROVIDES AN ENHANCED DEDUCTION FOR TAXPAYERS AGED 65 AND OLDER….”
Now, Villagers (all seniors that receive social security monies) think based on the highlighted above verbiage that they will not have to pay federal income tax on social security monies starting in the 2025 tax year, PLUS get another deduction. FALSE, FALSE, FALSE! Why?
Because in order for the senate to pass the budget bill through reconciliation (only needing a 50 vote majority), the senate’s parliamentarian ruled that there can be no provision that eliminates federal taxation of social security benefits. And that remains the law that Trump signed! As for that extra deduction for seniors, that amounts to $6,000.00 per qualifying senior, all in order to ameliorate, at least in part, taxes owed on social security benefits in states that still tax those amounts.
So Mr. Webster, let’s stop pulling the wool over your constituents and the readers of this site. Either be honest with us as to what this budget bill will NOT do, or our choice will be clear—vote you out of office for not being honest with us as to why this bill is one of the worst for hard-working Americans in decades!
Miles Zaremski is a resident of the Village of Dunedin.