Two things, primarily: I spent all of 2020 and most of 2021 sheltering-in-place as a result of Trump's incompetence at managing COVID-19; and he raised my taxes.
In 2016 I voted against him as one of his campaign promises was to terminate FSMA, the Food Safety Modernization Act, which funds my work. (That's not solely why, of course there was everything else, but the thing that affected me was his promise to make me lose my job. Of course he had no more competence in following through with that promise than he did any of the others, it turned out.)
I have no desire to pay more in taxes but I also accept it's the cost of civilized society.
Most liberals are fairly dumb as they think Trump's "tax cuts" impacted the poor the most. The SALT tax cap was a smart move on Trump's part where it was a hidden tax on the rich. That is what nailed my taxes hard, but as a conservative, my state taxes shouldn't be a tax write-off for my federal taxes. Each coffer needs filling exclusive of the other.
As I said, I am not overly partisan. You have to look at the polices and view them as good or bad, without looking at the party.
I have no desire to pay more in taxes but I also accept it's the cost of civilized society.
If the Trump tax increases had coincided with an increase in public services, that would have been one thing. But they coincided with lower taxes on richer business owners, so I was opposed. I don't see why lower taxes on rich assholes should be my burden to bear but then I'm not Paul Ryan.
The SALT tax cap was a smart move on Trump's part where it was a hidden tax on the rich.
I mean it wasn't very hidden, and it wasn't on the "rich", it was on me.
That is what nailed my taxes hard, but as a conservative, my state taxes shouldn't be a tax write-off for my federal taxes.
Of course they should be. Don't be absurd.
Each coffer needs filling exclusive of the other.
But they aren't "exclusive." States receive large portions of their operating funding from Federal grants, but with the SALT cap, the state gets two bites at my income. That's unjust and something conservatives used to say they care about. Of course, it was always lies, wasn't it?