As we’ve discussed, House Republicans have passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut that, if signed into law, would, among other things, take health care coverage from 13 million Americans and raise taxes on the middle class. You would think those two things alone would be enough to motivate people to call their elected officials and raise holy hell. As that doesn’t seem to be happening, though, at least not like it did the last time the Republican tried to kill the America Cares Act, I thought that I’d try something different. Instead of posting yet again about how this Republican tax bill will fuck working Americans and raise our insurance premiums, I thought that I’d appeal directly to those of you who either benefit in some way from university research, or know of someone in higher education… Given that we live in the shadow of one of the largest and most well-respected research institutions in the world, I suspect that’s quite a few of us, right?
Well, it would appear that killing the America Cares Act, and raising taxes on the American middle class, doesn’t free up enough money to offset Republican plans to eliminate the estate tax and give billions of dollars in permanent tax cuts to America’s most wealthy, which, as everyone knows, is what this so-called “middle class tax cut” has always been about. [Trump, Ryan and McConnell pitched it as a tax cut for the middle class, but it’s not. Middle class tax cuts are small and temporary, while tax cuts for the rich are large and permanent.] So, the Republicans in Congress had to find other sources of revenue… and one of the places they decided to focus, because they are as stupid as they are evil, was higher education.
The tax plan passed by House Republicans, if signed into law in its current form, would eliminate several tax credits for higher education expenses. Among other things, this would make both free tuition and stipends taxable. This, as others have noted, could raise taxes on graduate students by nearly 300%, subsequently shrinking university research programs, and seriously constricting America’s research and development efforts… It is, to put it bluntly, the stupidest fucking thing the Republicans could have ever fucking done, and it very well might become law of the land.
The Republicans, by backing this legislation, are literally sacrificing our future, and our nation’s competitiveness, in order to repeal the estate tax, essentially allowing for the creation of an American aristocracy… And that, by the way, isn’t hyperbole. That’s the actual trade-off here. They’re actually sacrificing a generation of people studying things cancer therapies and green energy technologies so that a small handful of their billionaire donors can avoid paying taxes when moving money into the accounts of their darling little Ivankas, Erics, and Donnie Jr.s. [“I’m sure you really could have used that cancer therapeutic, but, unfortunately, Ivanka really wanted another yacht, America.”]
And, as you can imagine, the smart people of the United States aren’t exactly happy… The following comes from a letter sent to Congress a few days ago by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which, by the way, was co-signed by every major scientific organization in the United States. [“Make no mistake,” the letter says, “this plan will undermine research and eventually the economy of the USA.”]
…(The) Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1) will increase the financial burden for graduate students by repealing existing provisions in tax law. While the goal of the House tax reform plan is to help grow the U.S. economy, the language to repeal the student loan interest deduction, graduate student tuition waivers, the Hope Scholarship Credit, the Lifetime Learning Credit and educational assistance programs ultimately will have the opposite effect. By making advanced education less affordable, it is likely to drive some students away from seeking higher education. Because a majority of graduate students are in the key areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), these provisions will have an outsized impact in the sciences. U.S. scientific and technological ingenuity has helped to make our nation one of the most innovative in the world and generated tremendous economic benefit to our country. This inventive spirit starts with people and ideas – and it is our higher-education system that has fostered the development of inventors, entrepreneurs, Nobel Laureates, and business leaders. Repealing the very provisions that allow graduate students to continue to study in critical STEM fields means that we will be shutting the door on new opportunities for discovery, exploration and innovation…
And, here, to give you a sense of how this legislation, if signed into law, could actually impact America’s young scientific researchers, is a clip from an article written for the New York Times by Erin Rousseau, a graduate student at M.I.T. who studies the neurological basis of mental health disorders.
…My peers and I work between 40 and 80 hours a week as classroom teachers and laboratory researchers, and in return, our universities provide us with a tuition waiver for school. For M.I.T. students, this waiver keeps us from having to pay a tuition bill of about $50,000 every year — a staggering amount, but one that is similar to the fees at many other colleges and universities. No money from the tuition waivers actually ends up in our pockets, so under Section 117(d)(5), it isn’t counted as taxable income.
But under the House’s tax bill, our waivers will be taxed. This means that M.I.T. graduate students would be responsible for paying taxes on an $80,000 annual salary, when we actually earn $33,000 a year. That’s an increase of our tax burden by at least $10,000 annually.
It would make meeting living expenses nearly impossible, barring all but the wealthiest students from pursuing a Ph.D. The students who will be hit hardest — many of whom will almost certainly have to leave academia entirely — are those from communities that are already underrepresented in higher education.
The law would also decimate American competitiveness.
Some universities might be able to cover tuition for some students, but in so doing, they would be forced to decrease the total number of graduate students they accept. American applicants to graduate school will leave the United States in favor of less expensive international institutions, and United States institutions will be unable to attract international candidates. At M.I.T., 43 percent of graduate students are foreign nationals, many of whom receive international funding. These students conduct transformative research, and bring so much diversity of culture, experience and expertise to our schools. Do we really want to shut out the next generation of innovators from our universities?
…The House bill would also end the student loan interest deduction, which allows individuals who make up to $80,000 and are repaying student loans to decrease their debt. It also eliminates the Lifetime Learning Credit, which is instrumental for many nontraditional students…
So, have you got all that?
To put it simply… At this moment in history, when we’re confronting antibiotic resistant super-bugs, global warming, and any number of other incredibly terrifying things, our Republicans in Congress are passing legislation that would disincentivize talented young people with scientific aptitude from entering graduate programs. Furthermore, at a time when the middle class is contracting, and wealth inequality is growing more and more pronounced, this legislation would make it more difficult for the non-wealthy to obtain advanced degrees… And for what? So that wealthy campaign donors can get even larger tax breaks.
Oh, and not only would free tuition be taxed under this Republican bill, but, individuals with student debt would no longer be able to write-off the interest paid on that debt. So, as I just read in the New York Times, “If students take out more loans to pay their new taxes, they would face another surprise: Under the House bill, interest paid on student loans — a deduction that more than 12 million people used in 2015 — would no longer be tax deductible.”
But this is what the Republicans in the House, when trying to find a way to pay for their $1.5 trillion in tax cuts came up with. They figured out a way to make this completely shortsighted and irresponsible legislation work by, in the words of the Washington Post, “(raising) the cost of college for millions of Americans.” Is that really what we want? Should we prioritize tax cuts for the wealthy over science and education?
One last thing… I’d like to share this video of Republican Senator Orrin Hatch defending the Republican plan to cut taxes, saying that, as someone who “(came from) the lower middle class,” he’s “sick and tired” of hearing Democrats claiming that this Republican legislation really just helps the rich… I bring it up because Hatch, according to his official biography, received a full scholarship to law school… And I can’t help but wonder how his life might have been different, as a member of the lower middle class, had he been taxed on that tuition… If you’d like to ask him, he can be reached at @OrrinHatch.
I grew up in a shack with a Meadow Gold Dairy sign for a wall. I worked as a janitor to pay for law school. I believe in opportunity because I’ve lived it.
And that’s what we’re going to deliver with #TaxReform. pic.twitter.com/D4VUj3lwls #utpol
— Orrin Hatch (@OrrinHatch) November 17, 2017
So, if you haven’t already, find the phone numbers for your Congressperson and Senators and call them… while it’s true that the Senate version of the legislation may not be as anti-education and anti-science as the House version, there’s a chance that these items could find their way into the reconciled bill that Trump will sign into law, and we cannot afford to take that chance. We need to kill this legislation right now in the Senate, so it never makes it to Trump’s desk in any form. This isn’t just the biggest wealth grab in modern American history. It isn’t just incredibly cruel. It’s bad policy. And it needs to be stopped.
