The main problem with the proposed Republican income tax bill is that it creates massive tax breaks for the nation’s wealthiest people, and it plans to add at least $1 trillion to the federal deficit each year after it is passed. That hole will have to be filled with debt, an increase in taxes on the middle-class (at every level of government) or massive cuts in services, such as health care for seniors, housing for veterans, public education, transportation and every other federal program people care about.

There are no credible projections that the nation’s economic growth will generate enough tax revenue to address the shortfall.

Trickle-down economics is a dead concept, but it is alive and well in this bill.

The economy grows best when money circulates through the economy from the ground up, through spending and investments by regular working- and middle-class people and small businesses.

The current economy is stagnating with wealth concentrating at the top. The proposed bill only accelerates that problem.

Sen. Angus King has rightly opposed the bill. Recently, Sen. Susan Collins has been a heroic defender of federal housing and transportation programs. She must join King and vote against this tax bill, or her latest efforts in the Senate will be completely undermined by her own actions.

Craig Saddlemire, Lewiston

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