Tag: GOP corporate welfare

Not in a Million Years: The House’s Proposed Windfall for Donors

The following article by Galen Hendricks and Sam Berger was posted on the Center for American Progress website November 13, 2017:

The Capitol is seen at dawn on October 30, 2017, in Washington. Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

Congressional proponents of the House Republicans’ tax plan, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, claim that it will benefit the middle class. But in reality, it is a huge giveaway to the donor class—including a handful of top donors who have bankrolled the campaigns of Republican leaders in Congress. In fact, just the bill’s estate tax cuts alone would allow the families of 11 prominent donors, listed below, to pocket up to $67.5 billion. The typical U.S. family couldn’t earn that much in a million years.

That’s not a figure of speech: The typical American family would have to work for 1,144,020 years to make the same amount of money as congressional majority leaders want to give away to the heirs of just these 11 wealthy individuals who helped them get elected. Continue reading “Not in a Million Years: The House’s Proposed Windfall for Donors”

More than 400 millionaires tell Congress: Don’t cut our taxes

The following article by Heather Long was posted on the Washington Post website November 12, 2017:

The Trump administration says its tax plan is intended to help ordinary Americans, but some key Republican figures have acknowledged that big business and political donors stand to benefit. (Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)

More than 400 American millionaires and billionaires are sending a letter to Congress this week urging Republican lawmakers not to cut their taxes.

The wealthy Americans — including doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and chief executives — say the GOP is making a mistake by reducing taxes on the richest families at a time when the nation’s debt is high and inequality is back at the worst level since the 1920s. Continue reading “More than 400 millionaires tell Congress: Don’t cut our taxes”

Republicans Search for Proof Their Tax Plans Will Pay for Themselves

The following article by Jim Tankersley was posted on the New York Times website November 12, 2017:

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, delivering remarks on Capitol Hill last week before a meeting on the Senate tax plan. Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Republican leaders keep insisting that their plans to cut taxes by $1.5 trillion over the next decade will not add to the national debt — yet economic analyses of the Senate and House proposals keep predicting that the plans will do just that.

The disconnect is prompting House and Senate Republican leaders and the Trump administration to hunt down — and promote — more optimistic forecasts, even if they exclude large parts of the tax bills from their analyses or assume growth-boosting features that are not, in fact, in the bills. Continue reading “Republicans Search for Proof Their Tax Plans Will Pay for Themselves”

How Could a Tax Change Affect You? This Is What the Senate and House Propose

The following article by Ron Lieber and Tara Siegel Bernard was posted on the New York Times website November 10, 2017:

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaking during a Senate news conference this week. House and Senate tax plans differ on a number of important issues. Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times

On Thursday, Senate Republicans unveiled their tax bill. It differs from last week’s version in the House of Representatives on a number of important issues. For instance, the Senate plan would completely eliminate the ability to deduct state and local taxes; there is no exception for up to $10,000 in property taxes each year, as there is in the House bill.

It’s too soon to predict what, if anything, will come of all this. In the coming days and weeks, we will see which proposals survive as Congress moves toward possible full votes on these or modified bills. In the meantime, here’s a guide to some of the consumer-facing issues under consideration.

Tax Brackets

What’s in place now:

Seven brackets, with a top rate of 39.6 percent, which people pay on income they earn beyond $480,050 for couples filing their taxes jointly. Continue reading “How Could a Tax Change Affect You? This Is What the Senate and House Propose”

The Cost of Lower Taxes

The following article by Andrew Soergel was posted on the U.S. News and World Report website November 10, 2017:

Lawmakers are in the midst of a battle to keep constituents and interest groups happy without exploding the deficit.

The Capitol dome in Washington. (Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump rode into town on the backs of several ambitious campaign promises.

But after one year in office, his border wall along America’s southern border remains unbuilt. The Obamacare legislation he vowed to gut while on the campaign trail remains in effect.

And although he’s had more success on deregulation through executive orders and memoranda, the ongoing tax reform battle on Capitol Hill represents the president’s last, best chance for a big-ticket legislative victory this year – and arguably before the 2018 mid-term elections. Continue reading “The Cost of Lower Taxes”

‘I don’t feel wealthy’: The upper middle class is worried about paying for the tax overhaul

The following article by Todd C. Frankel was posted on the Washington Post website November 9, 2017:

House Republican leaders on Nov. 2 proposed legislation that would overhaul the U.S. tax code. Here’s what you need to know about it. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — On the income distribution charts at the center of tax overhaul plans, Courtney Mishoe knows she’s doing well. She works as a tax manager at a firm in the Atlanta suburbs. Her husband is a police officer. Together, they make more than $180,000 a year. They are solidly in the upper middle class. But they have a mortgage and three kids, including one in day care and another in high school with plans to go to college. It all adds up. They depend on tax deductions to make their budget work. Continue reading “‘I don’t feel wealthy’: The upper middle class is worried about paying for the tax overhaul”

House Panel Approves GOP Tax Measure

NOTE:  Rep. Erik Paulsen serves on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.

The following article by Ryan McCrimmon was posted on the Roll Call website November 9, 2017:

Chamber’s version differs markedly from Senate proposal

From left, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, ranking member Richard E. Neal and California Rep. Mike Thompson attend a committee markup of House Republican tax bill on Thursday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday approved the Republican tax plan after making key changes such as raising repatriation tax rates on corporate cash held abroad, restoring the adoption child credit and changing the bill’s treatment of “pass-through” businesses.

Committee members voted along party lines, 24-16, to approve the legislation setting up a likely House floor vote next week. The substantive changes Thursday came in a so-called manager’s amendment from Chairman Kevin Brady who unveiled the package less than an hour before the panel took it up, prompting an outcry from Democrats.

After the four-day Ways and Means markup, the legislation will next head to the House Rules Committee — likely early next week — where any final changes could still be made by Republican leaders before the bill goes to the House floor later in the week. Continue reading “House Panel Approves GOP Tax Measure”

Senate GOP to Delay Corporate Tax Cut, Repeal ‘SALT’ Deduction

The following article by Joe WIlliams and Niels Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website November 9, 2017:

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven at a news conference in the Capitol on Tuesday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Updated 5:25 p.m. | Senate Republicans proposed Thursday to delay a corporate tax cut for one year and fully repeal the deduction for state and local taxes, taking a different approach than the House on overhauling the tax code.

The plan highlights released by the Senate Finance Committee show shared goals with the House bill advanced by the Ways and Committee on Thursday. Both would provide tax cuts at all income levels, slash the corporate rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, and expand benefits for families with children. For multinational companies, the proposals would shift to a new territorial tax regime.

But the mechanisms for achieving such goals are different.

Unlike the House bill, the Senate proposal would keep seven tax brackets for individuals. The brackets would be adjusted to 10 percent, 12 percent, 22.5 percent, 25 percent, 32.5 percent, 35 percent and 38.5 percent, according to Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota. The House bill has four brackets of 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and 39.6 percent. Continue reading “Senate GOP to Delay Corporate Tax Cut, Repeal ‘SALT’ Deduction”

Top economic adviser: Tax plan that mostly benefits millionaires is about ‘wage growth’

The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website November 9, 2017:

White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House on Sept 28. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Gary Cohn left his position as president of Goldman Sachs shortly after President Trump’s inauguration to take a job with the White House. He now serves as director of the National Economic Council, meaning that he’s Trump’s top adviser on economic issues. As part of that job, he sat down with CNBC’s John Harwood to explain the administration’s goals for overhauling the country’s tax system.

It was an interesting explanation.

Cohn is well aware by now (after some initial confusion) that the anticipated benefits of the proposal are heavily stacked toward the richest Americans. The Tax Policy Center estimates that about a quarter of the benefits of the tax cuts would be seen by the bottom 80 percent of the American economy — and another quarter of the benefits would be seen by the top 0.1 percent. When Harwood noted this discrepancy, Cohn blithely replied, “I don’t believe that we’ve set out to create a tax cut for the wealthy. If someone’s getting a tax cut, I’m not upset that they’re getting a tax cut. I’m really not upset.” Continue reading “Top economic adviser: Tax plan that mostly benefits millionaires is about ‘wage growth’”

Trump’s claim that the House GOP bill is ‘so bad for rich people’

NOTE: We still have no knowledge how either the House GOP or Senate GOP tax cut/corporate welfare bills will impact Pres. Trump and his family members/White House advisers because he has refused to let the people of the country he was elected to represent know what his financial situation is.

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website November 9, 2017:

The wealthiest Americans pay the largest proportion of taxes. Consequently, any tax cut, unless very carefully tailored, will benefit them. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

“The deal is so bad for rich people, I had to throw in the estate tax just to give them something.”
— President Trump, in reported comments to Senate Democrats, Nov. 7, 2017

We do not normally fact-check secondhand comments, but the White House does not dispute this phrasing. Moreover, it cries out for a fact check. Is there really nothing in the House GOP tax plan for the rich but repeal of the estate tax?

Let’s take a look.

Continue reading “Trump’s claim that the House GOP bill is ‘so bad for rich people’”