PBS高端访谈:谁将从共和党税改中获利?

Hari Sreenivasan: The delivery of the 1000 page plus GOP tax plan late yesterday marks an important step toward the first major legislative¹ victory for the Trump² administration. The final vote on the bill is expected next week before heading to the president's desk for signature. For some analysis of who won and who lost financially and politically I'm joined from Washington D.C. by political reporter Erin Lorenzo. Let's be optimistic – who fares better because of this tax plan?

Aaron Lorenzo: I think a lot of taxpayers³ are going to feel ultimately that they're doing better at least for a while. Some of these individual tax cuts that they don't last – they expire after eight years in a lot of cases. But at least in the first couple of years, with the new tax bill there's going to be a much higher standard deduction⁵ and they're going to have a lower tax of less of their income is going to be taxable going forward. Again at least for these first few years.

Hari Sreenivasan: So instead of trying to save all your receipts of charitable contributions and so forth⁶ you just get a higher bar that you automatically say to the government to deduct⁴?

Aaron Lorenzo: That's right. A lot fewer of us will itemize. Like you said, we won't have to save those receipts and tab everything up at the end of the year. And so the advocates of this bill think that there's a lot of upside to that.

Hari Sreenivasan: OK let's talk a little bit about businesses. They've been a huge part of this conversation. There was a lot of discussion about lowering the corporate⁷ tax rate down. What was the end result?

Aaron Lorenzo: So the end result is 21% for the corporate tax rate – that's down from 35% today.

Hari Sreenivasan: Is that going to make a difference in all these companies who are keeping large hoards⁸ of cash offshore⁹? Does it make America more competitive as they drive them to pull their business back into the United States?

Aaron Lorenzo: That's certainly part of the design for this. A lot less business income will be taxable. And so the idea is to motivate those companies to do things here in the U.S. more. The lower corporate tax rate is paired with some changes on how international income is taxed and all of those things combined. The idea is to make US companies want to operate more in the U.S. And when they operate globally, do so more competitively.

Hari Sreenivasan: There is also a lot of tension between states along the coast. New York, New Jersey¹⁰, California and how they would be impacted negatively by this. So what ended up happening?

Aaron Lorenzo: Those are areas where people particularly high income people might actually not come out ahead with the tax changes. When we talked earlier about itemizing, they are now going to have a ceiling or a cap on the big bucket items that they typically itemize. So your state and local taxes that that includes property taxes, income taxes that you pay at the state or local level that includes sales taxes too. So a combination of these things. Now there's a $10,000 ceiling on them.

Hari Sreenivasan: One thing regardless of party stripes the people do agree on is that this is going to increase the deficit¹¹ significantly.

Aaron Lorenzo: Yes. There really is no official estimate or analysis that shows that this does not increase red ink. Earlier I mentioned to you that some of these provisions are temporary so if you operate on the assumption that they get extended or made permanent down the road there's a cost to that too and that also adds to that that deficit issue down the road. So the deficit as of this plan is $1.4 – $1.5 trillion. That's what the budget plan allowed for and they pretty much came right in at that level a little hair underneath¹² it.

1 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

4 deduct   

vt.扣除，减去

参考例句：

• You can deduct the twenty - five cents out of my allowance.你可在我的零用钱里扣去二角五分钱。
• On condition of your signing this contract,I will deduct a percentage.如果你在这份合同上签字，我就会给你减免一个百分比。

5 deduction   

n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎

参考例句：

• No deduction in pay is made for absence due to illness.因病请假不扣工资。
• His deduction led him to the correct conclusion.他的推断使他得出正确的结论。

6 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

7 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

8 hoards   

n.（钱财、食物或其他珍贵物品的）储藏，积存( hoard的名词复数 )v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She hoards her money - she never spends it. 她积蓄钱，但从来不花钱。 来自辞典例句
• A squirrel hoards nuts for the winter. 松鼠为过冬贮藏坚果。 来自辞典例句

9 offshore   

adj.海面的，吹向海面的；adv.向海面

参考例句：

• A big program of oil exploration has begun offshore.一个大规模的石油勘探计划正在近海展开。
• A gentle current carried them slowly offshore.和缓的潮流慢慢地把他们带离了海岸。

10 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

11 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

12 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。