Tag: GOP corporate welfare

Senate Republicans refuse to believe the official analysis of their tax plan

The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress website December 1, 2017:

Williams/CQ Roll Call

A key analysis of the Senate Republican tax plan released late Thursday afternoon threw a wrench into the GOP leadership’s rush to pass tax reform this week. In response, Republican lawmakers are choosing to simply ignore the report’s findings.

Just as the Senate was about to vote on Thursday on whether to advance their tax plan, the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation released a troubling report. The JCT report found that the $1.4 trillion dollar tax plan would generate around $400 billion dollars worth of growth, leaving the total net cost of the plan to be $1 trillion dollars — completely eviscerating any notion that the plan would pay for itself, a key White House talking point.

“We think we can pay for the entire tax cut through growth over the cycle,” said Chief White Economic Adviser Gary Cohn told CNBC in September. Continue reading “Senate Republicans refuse to believe the official analysis of their tax plan”

Tax bill could trigger historic spending cuts

The following article by Adam Cancryn and Sarah Ferris was posted on the Politico website November 30, 2017:

Medicare alone could see cuts of $25 billion a year. Credit:
Alan Diaz/AP Photo

Republicans are on the verge of a massive tax overhaul that would hand President Donald Trump his first major legislative victory. But the $1.5 trillion tax package could trigger eye-popping cuts to a slew of federal programs, including Medicare.

Unless Congress acts swiftly to stop it, as much as $150 billion per year would be cut from initiatives ranging from farm subsidies to student loans to support services for crime victims. Medicare alone could see cuts of $25 billion a year. And the specter of those cuts has thrust Congress into a high-stakes game of political chicken. Continue reading “Tax bill could trigger historic spending cuts”

Podcast: The Lies of Trumponomics

The following article by Dorothy Wickenden was posted on the New Yorker website November 30, 2017:

he Republican tax-reform bill, which relies on big tax cuts for corporations to stimulate economic growth, has much in common with Ronald Reagan’s “trickle-down economics,” but it would be more damaging to the middle class and to the economy. And, unlike Reaganomics, which passed with bipartisan support, Trumponomics cheats just about every voter except the super rich. John Cassidy joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss how the plan would perpetuate the new Gilded Age and betray the central promises of Trump’s Presidential campaign.

View the post here.

From phone campaigns to screaming street protests, Republicans are “under siege” over their tax plan

The following article by Will Drabold was posted on the Mic website November 30, 2017:

Protest signs are seen in front of the office of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as protesters urge him and others in the U.S. Senate to vote against the $1.5 trillion tax cut. Credit:
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The relentless push by members of the Republican party to gut the Affordable Care Act as part of the GOP tax plan has become deeply emotional among demonstrators in the halls of Congress.

Fearful they will lose Medicaid coverage, citizens who use wheelchairs stormed Senate offices and hearings on Tuesday. Some were arrested and carried away, screaming. Children with pre-existing conditions lobbied politicians, as did people who worried they’d lose coverage for maternity care or birth control.

Those tactics from the health care fight have carried over to tax reform, where organizers say activism has been super-charged by Republicans moving to gut the ACA as part of their tax plan. Initially, they expected it would be difficult to match the energy around tax reform. But the number of people taking action to oppose the Senate tax plan, in particular, has matched or exceeded health care activism, organizers said. Continue reading “From phone campaigns to screaming street protests, Republicans are “under siege” over their tax plan”

How Corporate Donors Get Their Tax Breaks and 5 Ways to Fight Back

The following article by Alex Tausanovitch and Liz Kennedy was posted on the Center for American Progress website November 30, 2017:

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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, economic adviser Gary Cohn, and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) speak at a news conference in Washington, November 9, 2017. Credit: AP/J. Scott

See also: “Fact Sheet: Committee Contributions Ban”

Introduction and summary

A Congress that fairly represented the American public would not be racing to finalize a tax bill that gives hundreds of millions of dollars to corporations and the wealthy.1 By 2027, almost half of the benefits included in the bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives—and well over half in the U.S. Senate version—would accrue to the top 1 percent of the population.2 The immense cost of these cuts would eventually result in higher taxes for tens of millions of Americans and at least $1.4 trillion added to the budget deficit, threatening programs such as Medicare and Medicaid as well as other middle-class priorities such as infrastructure and education.3

Continue reading “How Corporate Donors Get Their Tax Breaks and 5 Ways to Fight Back”

I’m a Depression historian. The GOP tax bill is straight out of 1929.

The following article by Robert S. McElvaine, a historian who teachers at Millsaps College and author of “The Great Depression:  America, 1929-1941.”:

People gather on the subtreasury building steps across from the New York Stock Exchange in New York on “Black Thursday” on Oct. 24, 1929. The Great Depression followed thereafter. (AP)

“There are two ideas of government,” William Jennings Bryan declared in his 1896 “Cross of Gold” speech. “There are those who believe that if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them.”

That was more than three decades before the collapse of the economy in 1929. The crash followed a decade of Republican control of the federal government during which trickle-down policies, including massive tax cuts for the rich, produced the greatest concentration of income in the accounts of the richest 0.01 percent at any time between World War I and 2007 (when trickle-down economics, tax cuts for the hyper-rich, and deregulation again resulted in another economic collapse). Continue reading “I’m a Depression historian. The GOP tax bill is straight out of 1929.”

Collins: Republican Leaders Expected to Back ‘Pay-Go’ Waiver

The following article by Niels Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website November 30, 2017:

Maine Sen. Susan Collins wrote to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over her concerns with the GOP tax plan. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Sen. Susan Collins said Republican leaders have assured her that automatic cuts to entitlement programs that would be triggered if the GOP tax overhaul becomes law would be stopped.

The reductions, which could amount to $25 billion in cuts to Medicare, would occur under the 2010 statutory pay-as-you-go law unless Congress approves a waiver.

“I would not even be considering voting for this bill,” the Maine Republican said of the tax plan, if there weren’t a path to stop the automatic cuts. Continue reading “Collins: Republican Leaders Expected to Back ‘Pay-Go’ Waiver”

5 Ways the Senate GOP Tax Bill Will Undermine America’s Economic and National Security

The following article by Andy Green was posted on the Center for American Progress website November 29, 2017:

The Capitol Dome is reflected on the hood of one of the presidential limousines as it is parked on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 2017. AP/Susan Walsh

The Senate is reaching the final stages of consideration of a large and significant tax bill. Here are five ways that the tax bill will undermine America’s economic and national security.

1. The tax bill will increase taxes on the middle class and working families

By 2027, 87 million Americans making less than $200,000—including in every state—will see a tax increase under this bill. Essentially, that’s because the Senate GOP tax bill pays for the deficit-increasing tax cuts for corporate and business pass-throughs by raising taxes on the middle-class and working Americans. Sadly, this tax increase will undermine the economic security of the very people who have been hit hardest by the middle-class squeeze, especially working class Americans without a college degree. Continue reading “5 Ways the Senate GOP Tax Bill Will Undermine America’s Economic and National Security”

Tax you twice, ain’t it nice?

To the editor:

Under current law, you don’t have to pay federal income tax on money that you paid for state and local taxes — money that buys things like police, streets, schools.

Our representative to the United States Congress, Erik Paulsen, thinks that’s wrong. He voted this month for a tax law change that will make you pay federal income tax on some of the money you already spent on state and local taxes.

He wants to tax you twice.  Won’t that be nice? Continue reading “Tax you twice, ain’t it nice?”