No One Read the Bill: Republicans "accidentally nullified all of their corporate donors' favorite deductions."

Oddly, I haven't seen this story reported on cable news anywhere. 

Seems like a really HUGE deal, right? Put another way...

While Republicans were manically outlining their plans to take from the poor to give to the Trumps, they also, accidentally, nullified all of their corporate donors’ favorite deductions. The Senate bill brings the normal corporate rate down to 20 percent — while leaving the alternative minimum rate at … 20 percent. The legislation would still allow corporations to claim a wide variety of tax credits and deductions — it just renders all them completely worthless. Companies can either take no deductions, and pay a 20 percent rate — or take lots of deductions … and pay a 20 percent rate.

And you can thank Dumb Ron Johnson, who New York Magazine named specifically:

Last Thursday, the Senate tax bill already cost about that sum, and then McConnell started making expensive promises to his few holdouts. Susan Collins wanted a $10,000 property tax deduction for Americans in high-tax states; Ron Johnson wanted a 23 percent business-income deduction for the company that his family owns. This left the Senate Majority Leader searching under the tax code’s couch cushions for new sources of revenue.

Eventually, he came upon the corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT). The GOP had originally intended to abolish the AMT. But on Friday, with the clock running out — and money running short — Senate Republicans put the AMT back into their bill. Unfortunately for McConnell, they forgot to lower the AMT after doing so (AMT prevents companies from paying any less than 20 percent on their profits).

There's a reason Republicans don't like government; they can't manage their way out of a paper bag and they're ruled by anecdotes and wildly fanciful theories that have failed over and over.

Senate Republicans rewrote the American tax code over lunch — and passed their (partially handwritten) legislation around 2 a.m. the following morning. Mitch McConnell never subjected his blueprint for restructuring the world’s largest economy to a single hearing. His caucus never invited experts to offer insight into the bill’s implications for housing, health care, higher education, outsourcing, or tax evasion. 

This haste had an upside for the Senate GOP: It allowed the party to pass deeply unpopular changes to the tax code before the public had time to learn about them. But approaching major legislation like an Adderall-addled sophomore approaches an overdue term paper came with a minor drawback: It forced the party to pass a tax bill before they had time to read it.

GOP Sinks Future Economy by discouraging major research and development:

As The Wall Street Journal reports: The biggest consequence could be the research credit, often used by manufacturers, technology firms and pharmaceutical companies ... Under the credit, companies get money back from the government for what they spend on innovation, often for wages of scientists and engineers.

I think the following comment sums up the GOP tax cut bill, and it's unintended consequences very well:

… Robert Murray, of Murray Energy Corp., an Ohio-based firm and the largest privately held U.S. coal-mining company, complained ... the Senate tax plan would raise his company’s tax bill by $60 million. “What the Senate did, in their befuddled mess, is drove me out of business and then bragged about the fact that they got some tax reform passed,” Mr. Murray said in an interview Sunday. “This is not job creation. This is not stimulating income. This is driving a whole sector of our community into nonexistence.”

Kooyenga scheme to eliminate Alternative Minimum Tax not just handout to wealthy, but to "simplify tax code, clean it up?"

They’re called the “accountant caucus,” a group of self-righteous supply side republican legislators desperately trying to fit their agenda into the real world. It’s not working, but they won't admit it.  

Leading that charge is Rep. Dale Kooyenga. When he helped pass the “freeload for Big Ag and Manufacturing” tax cut, along with misguided compression of the tax brackets, he never accounted for the alternative minimum tax affect on business owners, an unintended consequence that he's now trying fix: 

Many more taxpayers including small-business owners became affected by the state alternative minimum tax after lawmakers and Walker passed manufacturing and agriculture tax credits in 2013. 

Funny thing, conservatives who hate the freeloading poor and unemployed don't mind Walker's ticket to corporate freeloading. In some cases, these freeloading tax free businesses will get a tax refund if their deductions are especially high.

The tax is meant to ensure filers with large amounts of tax deductions or exclusions pay a minimum amount of income tax.

Big surprise?

Kooyenga's tax cut has so blatantly targeted the wealthy that he's trying to disguise it;

Kooyenga framed his proposal as a means to simplify Wisconsin’s tax code. “We’re not pushing for tax cuts. We’re pushing for a tax cleanup,” he said. So by making the tax code less complicated, you're making it more advantageous to growth."

UPDATE: Thanks to Jake's Economic TA Funhouse, it looks like Kooyenga is trying to quickly repair a mistake that cost his wealth conservative constituents plenty:

The largest increases, both in the count of taxpayers subject to the minimum tax and in AMT liability, occurred for taxpayers with AGI of $200,000 to $500,000. In this income group, the count increased from 2,552 to 20,081, and the total AMT liability increased from $2.2 million to $14.3 million. By combining the third and fourth tax brackets, Act 20 created a bracket which is quite wide … Previously, the marginal rates were at or above the AMT rate, but now the rate for the combined brackets is below the AMT rate. 

Remember, Kooyenga's claim to fame centers on his experience as an accountant. Nice one Dale.

And not hearing a peep out of conservative voters.

Wealth Envy? In case you’ve missed it, the richest in our state continue to get “help” with their taxes, while the rest of us are supposed to be happy with a $5 a year tax savings.

Rep. Chris Taylor pointed out how obvious this agenda has been:

Republicans already gave this group a large tax cut in 2013 when they collapsed tax brackets so that a family making $30,000 annually now pays the same tax rate as a family making $325,000.

Between 2013 and 2015, this scheme reduced our state revenues by $647 million.

According to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Republicans have spent $1.9 billion in various tax giveaways between 2011 and 2014.

Including a $60 million tax cut for wealthy parents who send their children to private schools.

And now we’re about to see the elimination of the AMT, at the same time Republicans are making massive cuts to past public investments and complaining about a very tight state budge.

Indian Country Communications Chief Executive Officer Paul DeMain said that the "base" that conservatives are calling for to be broadened are actually picking up more and more of the tax liability instead of the wealthy.

NOTE: Kooyenga continues to blame the budget shortfall this time around on the big increase in Medicaid spending. But here's the thing; he knew that was coming, and could have planned for it. Instead, he's blaming BadgerCare help for the uninsured. Priorities?