Congressman cannot be believed

Time will tell how the new tax law will impact individual people but Peter Roskam's comments on the topic prove that he cannot be trusted to provide his constituents with accurate or complete information.

He highlights the doubling of the child tax credit and the standard deduction. But he conveniently leaves out the elimination of individual and dependent exemptions from the equation. When those changes are taken together, the actual benefit is significantly less than what has been communicated. Those just taking Roskam at his word will be unpleasantly surprised.

Roskam also talks about how the new law is eliminating loopholes and results in reform. Not true. In fact, the new law created a loophole for real estate investors and failed to eliminate the unfair carried interest loophole.

He highlights employers providing bonuses and other benefits to employees but ignores the fact that the majority of the money being saved by businesses is being used to buy back stock and increase dividends. The majority of the tax benefit is going to those who need it the least.

In the past, Roskam was very concerned about deficits. In a 2014 interview, he praised the tax reform act of 1986 for closing loopholes and being revenue-neutral. This new law will add over a trillion dollars to the deficit even with GDP growth but he suddenly doesn't care about the deficit. That is until it's time to go after Medicare and Social Security.

AARP highlighted a couple in Idaho who have a combined income of $80,000, pay $3,000 a month to cover medical expenses and whose tax burden will increase by $1,500 under the new law. The "losers" in this new law are ignored by Roskam. In his mind they do not exist, but they do.

Linda Kallas

Downers Grove