To the editor:
I also had displeasure with Senator Corker. I was disappointed when he failed to vote in favor of the tax reform legislation the first time around. Thankfully he was able to vote in favor of this important piece of legislation after it had gone through the conference committee.
Your other comments are pretty much what we have been hearing daily from Washington Democrats. Your insinuation that Senator Corker voted for this legislation to “line his own pocket” is a sad comment. Would you say that if he were standing in front of you? Probably not. Will he get a tax break? Yes, as he currently pays a substantial amount in federal taxes. His earnings are his, not the federal government’s property. Do we all need to help financially support the federal budget? Yes, but where do we draw the line.
Please remember that almost 50% of the adults in our country pay ZERO federal tax and with the doubling of the standard exemption even more will fall into this zero bracket. Even though many pay nothing this new legislation is doubling the child tax credit, meaning that even though their tax liability is zero, they will get a check.
Further more you claim that locally we have not seen any economic growth. In the last 15 months the Carter County unemployment rate has dropped from over 6% to 3.4%, as has the rest of the region. Real estate sales are up. The value of IRA and 401K’s since President Trump’s election are up substantially for many locally, adding millions of dollars in new value. This rise was based on the financial markets expecting this tax reform to be passed. Had it not passed we would most likely see a significant drop. Sounds like a pretty good year to me. Could it be even better? Yes!
In my opinion our country’s long-term progress has been centered around the 2 C’s, Christianity and Capitalism. Thankfully we now have a president that allows for Merry Christmas to be widely used again. The cut in the corporate tax rate to 21% should help continue our economic recovery, after eight years of stagnant growth. Already today we are hearing from companies like Fed-Ex and AT&T about what they intend to do with these new dollars like funding pension plans, hiring new employees and giving raises. I wonder if there are any middle income people who work for those companies, you know the ones the Democrats claim will see no benefit from this legislation ?
Is this tax bill guaranteed to work? No, but continued negative comments by Trump haters and the media will not help anyone. We have already seen positive developments in the first 12 months of Trump’s presidency, with more to come.

Dave Wortman
Elizabethton