Story highlights Jeff Yang: Tax plan makes it clear GOP only interested in policies that help rich donors

Asian-Americans may have even more reason to vote Democratic in future, he says

Jeff Yang is a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion, a featured writer for Quartz and other publications and the co-host of the podcast "They Call Us Bruce." He co-wrote Jackie Chan's best-selling autobiography, "I Am Jackie Chan," and is the editor of three graphic novels: "Secret Identities," "Shattered" and the forthcoming "New Frontiers." The opinions expressed here are his own.

(CNN) It says something about the present state of the Republican Party that some of the leadership are likely breathing a sigh of relief that the horrific distraction du jour -- e.g., "traditional values"-focused US Senate candidate Roy Moore facing accusations of sexually predatory behavior toward minors -- is stealing the spotlight from its disastrous plan for tax reform.

Let's get the headlines out of the way: Under both versions of the plan, issuing from the House and the Senate respectively, the richest 1% in our country and big corporations will get an enormous windfall, which will cause the federal deficit to soar by as much as $1.5 trillion over the next decade. Neither does much to help the vast majority of Americans. But -- depending on what mess emerges from the conferences that will weave the two versions into a common compromise -- some groups will be disproportionately harmed. Among them are Asian-Americans, who have voted increasingly with the Democratic Party over the past few decades, and may have even more reason to do so in the coming ones if this bill passes.

Both the House and Senate plans eliminate many tax breaks, though they also roughly double the standard deduction, which makes it tricky to determine definitively whether someone's tax bill will go up. An expanded child tax credit to go along with rate reductions across middle income brackets would also create, at least in the near term, some tangible benefit.

We do know the GOP House version of tax reform ends tax deductions for student loans, while taxing free tuition as if it were ordinary income. The plan would hit people with student loans with tax hikes of up to $625 a year on top of their already-onerous payments, and --- by forcing them to pay taxes on free tuition -- slam grad students with annual taxes reflecting as much as three times the income they get in actual salary.

The net result would likely be a major penalty for those who choose to go to college, and an even greater one for those who pursue advanced degrees. Asian-Americans would be devastated by this change as the group with the highest rate of college and graduate school attendance in the nation: More than half of Asians in the United States 25 and older have at least a bachelor's degree, compared with about 28% of Americans in general, and 21% have advanced degrees, versus 10% of all Americans.

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