How Trump And The GOP Stuck It To First Responders With Their Tax Scam Bill

Donald Trump campaigned as the candidate of “law and order,” and catered shamelessly to police officers and other first responders. But a section of the tax scam bill he just signed proves that he and the Republican party truly are liars and hypocrites.

The section of the bill in question allows wealthy corporate CEOs can deduct the cost of a private jet, but a police officer can no longer deduct the cost of his or her uniform. As David Cay Johnson of DC Reports notes in an article he wrote for Salon:

“Buried in the hastily drafted tax bill’s more than 500 pages are provisions eliminating “miscellaneous” deductions taken by almost 28 million taxpayers in 2015. Those are costs you bore to support your job or an investment you own or to pay a professional to prepare your income tax return.

This year cops and other first responders can write off the costs of buying uniforms and dry cleaning them. But in 2018, cops who buy their uniforms or are required to buy their own guns and ammunition will no longer be able to deduct those costs as reasonable and necessary expenses to support their earning a paycheck, thanks to Trump and Congressional Republicans.”

And that’s not all. The bill will also punish union members:

“Cops and anyone else who belongs to a union will no longer be allowed to deduct their union dues. People who must bear travel costs without reimbursement from their employers will just have to suck it up starting in January.”

So the only question that remains is this one that every cop in America should ask him or herself: Does Donald Trump really have my back, or is he just using me as a prop? The answer is obvious.

Featured Image Via NBC News