Category: The Real Erik Paulsen

GOP strategists worry incumbents aren’t ready for a blue wave

The following article by Elena Schneider was posted on the Politico website November 15, 2017:

“We lost a dozen seats in 2006 that were preventable had incumbents had done their work, and at this point, we may be seeing the same thing in some seats,” said former Rep. Tom Davis, who once chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee. | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Republican strategists are warning that some of the party’s veteran House incumbents aren’t adequately preparing for the 2018 election, putting the GOP majority at risk by their failure to recognize the dangerous conditions facing them.

Nearly three dozen Republicans were outraised by their Democratic challengers in the most recent fundraising quarter. Others, the strategists say, are failing to maintain high profiles in their districts or modernize their campaigns by using data analytics in what is shaping up as a stormy election cycle.

“There are certainly incumbent members out there who need to work harder and raise more money if they want to win,” said Corry Bliss, executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund, the House GOP’s top super PAC. “They’re fundamentally not prepared for how they’re about to be attacked.” Continue reading “GOP strategists worry incumbents aren’t ready for a blue wave”

The Congressional GOP Tax Plan: A Bad Deal for the American People

The following is from an email from the Center for American Progress received November 16, 2017:

The Capitol is seen at dawn on October 30, 2017, in Washington. Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

The Congressional Republican tax plan is not a good deal for middle-class and working Americans. It fails to cover the full cost of the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, adding to the deficit and putting middle-class priorities such as Medicare, Medicaid, education, and infrastructure at risk. Many states would see tens of thousands of families with tax increases, while nearly three-quarters of U.S. states would see hundreds of thousands—and in a few cases well more than 1 million—families with tax increases under the plan. Here’s what you need to know: Continue reading “The Congressional GOP Tax Plan: A Bad Deal for the American People”

Letter: GOP tax plan isn’t good for everyone

The new tax rates proposed by the Republican House will increase what a typical Eden Prairie homeowner pays in income taxes. Rep. Erik Paulsen is pitching this deficit-busting plan by saying it’s good for everyone. It’s not.

Fortunately, it’s not too hard to check the facts. The median household income for Eden Prairie is $97,600. The median Eden Prairie home value is $303,000. The typical property tax for this home value is about $4,000.

If one assumes a 240,000 at 4 percent interest for 30 years, the interest for one year is $9,500. Continue reading “Letter: GOP tax plan isn’t good for everyone”

Shocking: Erik Paulsen backs a tax plan that helps his corporate supporters

The following article by Cory Zurowski was posted on the CityPages website November 14, 2017:

The ink on the Republican tax bill blueprint was still wet when Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) shared morning coffee with MPR’s Cathy Wurzer.

What’s in the GOP tax plan for you? According to Rep. Paulsen, it’s making filing returns so simple you will “complete it on a postcard.” Credit: Star Tribune/Glen Stubbe

It was late September. GOP leaders had unveiled what could become the most significant tax code overhaul in generations, the centerpiece of which is slashing the corporate rate by around 43 percent.

Paulsen, who represents a district that wraps around the western metro from Chanhassen to Wayzata to Coon Rapids, sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, the body tasked with banging out the bill’s details.

“That’s a great question,” Paulsen told Wurzer after she asked how “big tax cuts for everyone” would benefit low-income and middle class earners. Continue reading “Shocking: Erik Paulsen backs a tax plan that helps his corporate supporters”

House Panel Approves GOP Tax Measure

NOTE:  Rep. Erik Paulsen serves on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.

The following article by Ryan McCrimmon was posted on the Roll Call website November 9, 2017:

Chamber’s version differs markedly from Senate proposal

From left, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, ranking member Richard E. Neal and California Rep. Mike Thompson attend a committee markup of House Republican tax bill on Thursday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday approved the Republican tax plan after making key changes such as raising repatriation tax rates on corporate cash held abroad, restoring the adoption child credit and changing the bill’s treatment of “pass-through” businesses.

Committee members voted along party lines, 24-16, to approve the legislation setting up a likely House floor vote next week. The substantive changes Thursday came in a so-called manager’s amendment from Chairman Kevin Brady who unveiled the package less than an hour before the panel took it up, prompting an outcry from Democrats.

After the four-day Ways and Means markup, the legislation will next head to the House Rules Committee — likely early next week — where any final changes could still be made by Republican leaders before the bill goes to the House floor later in the week. Continue reading “House Panel Approves GOP Tax Measure”

Letter: Trickle-down doesn’t work

At last Congressman Erik Paulsen has found an issue sufficiently worthy to draw him out of hiding (“America’s broken tax code needs some repair” Nov. 2).

The tax bill he and his Republican comrades are pushing through Congress was drafted behind closed doors, with no hearings and no input from Democrats.

Paulsen, Trump and the other Republicans have forgotten that trickle-down economics have not worked in the past and certainly did not work in the 1980s when Reagan foisted them upon the country. Reagan’s own budget director, David Stockman, even authored a book admitting they do not work. Continue reading “Letter: Trickle-down doesn’t work”

This is Medicaid Coalition warns Paulsen: Medicaid cuts would depreciate life for many

The following article by Lara Bockenstedt was posted on the Lakeshore Weekly website November 3, 2017:

People with signs joined storytellers at the press conference on Wednesday, Nov. 1. Credit: Lara Bockenstedt

WAYZATA — When representatives told stories of people who depend on Medicaid to live comfortably, each had the same message: cuts to Medicaid would depreciate life for many in Minnesota.

Representatives from Hammer Residences, Lutheran Social Service, Jewish Family & Children’s Service and St. David’s Center for Child & Family Development spoke Wednesday, Nov. 1 at Hammer Residences.

It was part of the This is Medicaid Coalition, calling on 3rd District U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen, who is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Continue reading “This is Medicaid Coalition warns Paulsen: Medicaid cuts would depreciate life for many”

Blue states will be hit hardest by GOP tax plan’s limits on deductions

NOTE:  Minnesota CD3 Rep. Erik Paulsen supports this legislation.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), joined by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

The following article by Carolyn Y. Johnson, Reuben Fischer-Baum and Aaron Williams was posted on the Washington Post website November 2, 2017:

The GOP tax plan’s changes to deductions would hit people in blue states hard, with limits on popular tax deductions that would have the biggest effects on people with high property taxes and expensive homes.

The tax plan doubles the standard deduction to $24,000 for a married couple, meaning most people wouldn’t itemize their mortgage interest or property taxes. But for those who do, the popular mortgage interest deduction would be capped at $500,000 of the loan amount for home purchases made after Nov. 2, 2017, instead of the current $1 million cap.

The deduction of state and local property taxes would be capped at $10,000, and state and local income and sales taxes could no longer be deducted. Continue reading “Blue states will be hit hardest by GOP tax plan’s limits on deductions”

DFL Chairman Ken Martin Statement on GOP Tax Plan

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party Chairman Ken Martin today released the following statement on Congressional Republicans newly released tax plan.

“We need a simpler, fairer tax code for all Minnesotans. The plan Republicans released today is not that. By limiting a major tax deduction that families depend on every year, it could cost thousands of dollars for nearly a million Minnesota taxpayers. It will take away other critical deductions that help Minnesotans afford college, offset the cost of medical expenses, and purchase a new home. Meanwhile, the wealthiest Americans receive massive handouts and the federal budget is decimated.”

“Republican Representatives Tom Emmer, Jason Lewis, and Erik Paulsen have a duty to stand against this disastrous plan that disproportionally hurts their constituents in Minnesota.”

The tax plan released today limits the State and Local Tax (SALT) Deduction, which provides an average $12,000 tax deduction for 900,000 primarily middle-class Minnesota families and results in about $12 billion in tax benefits to Minnesotans every year.

  • 42 percent of taxpayers in Lewis’ district claimed the SALT deduction last year for nearly $1.8 billion in federal tax relief.
  • 40 percent of taxpayers in Paulsen’s district claimed the SALT deduction last year for nearly $1.7 billion in federal tax relief.
  • 40 percent of taxpayers in Emmer’s district claimed the SALT deduction last year for nearly $2.5 billion in federal tax relief.

How a Republican Idea for Reducing Medicare Costs Could Affect You

The following article by Austin Frakt was posted on the New York TImes website October 30, 2017:

Credit: Lennard Kok

Last month, as Republican leaders were preoccupied with another unsuccessful attempt to replace Obamacare, a senior Trump administration official issued a warning about a different major medical program, Medicare.

The official, Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Medicare was facing a fiscal crisis. She announced that she was asking the agency’s innovation center for ideas to address it, and that part of the answer was to give consumers “incentives to be cost-conscious.” This has some Democrats worried that she’s trying to move Medicare toward something called premium support, which would be a huge change for consumers.

Before we get into the pros and cons, what’s the fiscal crisis? According to projections from this year’s Medicare Trustees’ report, the fund that pays for Medicare-financed hospital care will be depleted in 12 years, and care for other services will consume an ever-larger share of the economy and federal revenue. Citing trends like those, Republicans included the outlines of a Medicare premium support plan in the House of Representatives’ fiscal year 2018 budget resolution, as they did in several prior ones. Continue reading “How a Republican Idea for Reducing Medicare Costs Could Affect You”