Sen. Susan Collins received many constituents’ calls and emails requesting her response to reasonable and well-informed questions. Instead of addressing her constituents, she responded with skewed facts and an irresponsible quote in a Dec. 27 commentary.

Sen. Collins ignored the central question: Why does this bill favor wealthy Americans, who don’t need help? In an age where rich Americans are getting richer and income inequality is growing, this tax bill is not only redistributing more income to wealthy Americans, but also penalizing those states that try to narrow the gap. Sen. Collins chose in her op-ed to mislead with tax scenarios that ignore the fact that taxes will go up for many in the short term and all lower- and middle-class Americans in the long term.

She also trivializes the discussion with an out-of-context quote from Roll Call columnist Walter Shapiro. It appears she is adopting a Republican leadership tactic of promoting misinformation. The quote, in context, is actually a rebuke of the Trump administration:

“Q: But isn’t $930 tax saving enough to win a voter’s gratitude?

“A: That is the biggest political question hovering over the tax bill.”

Gary Cohn, Donald Trump’s top economic adviser and an alumnus of Goldman Sachs, claimed back in September: “If we allow a family to keep another thousand dollars of their income … they can renovate their kitchen. They can buy a new car. They can take a family vacation. They can increase their lifestyle.”

Good luck taking your entire family to the south of France on vacation with a tax cut that works out to $36 extra in each biweekly paycheck. But Sen. Collins’ friends in corporate Maine tell her new jobs are coming!

I hope more jobs come to Maine. Hopefully the reduction in property tax deductions won’t further erode our schools and towns, so workers will stick around.

Nadine Bangerter

Rockland

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