certainly simplifies things for those that will now just use the doubled standard deduction rather than itemize, which is a large group. Not to mention a lot less stress and time spent on records keeping and filing taxes. I would've been perfectly fine if they just addressed the Corp taxes and pass-throughs, and dealt with actual reform of the personal side later, but I still think this is better than what we have on the whole.

Runaway pensions have everything to do with overly generous pensions and political populism. Again, take that up with those that created them, and the resulting higher taxes.

CA, NY, etc. are perfectly welcome to offer their residents all the services they want. CA can go single payer for all I care. Hoo knows, maybe I'll even move there if I think that's the right approach. Just pay for them via your own state revenue instead of asking other states that don't get that benefit to subsidize them via letting you pay less Fed taxes on the same income.