Tag: GOP corporate welfare

Trump’s opportunity zones are supposed to help the poor. But billionaire GOP donors cashed in instead

A Trump tax break designed to help impoverished neighborhoods has lined the pockets of wealthy Republican donors. President Trump and congressional Republicans passed new tax legislation in 2017, introducing one provision in particular that was supposed to encourage business owners to invest in poor neighborhoods. Under the code, these communities are labeled opportunity zones, and if a developer builds anything in these zones, they receive a tax break. This reward is for new projects only.

At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Instead, it appears that former Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) bent the rules for a few of his wealthy friends, ProPublica reported Thursday. Scott, now a senator for the Sunshine State, designated the Rybovich superyacht marina an opportunity zone at the request of owner Wayne Huizenga Jr. Huizenga Jr. is the son of Wayne Huizenga Sr., the late billionaire co-owner of Blockbuster Video and founder of Waste Management.

View the complete November 14 article by Ashleigh Atwell on the Mic.com website here.

Two-Thirds of Americans Say Trump Has Not Helped Them Financially

Trump promised to put more money in people’s pocket. Instead, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they’re not better off financially. Meanwhile, manufacturing is in decline and the unemployment rate continues to increase in key states.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they’re not better off financially than they were when Trump was elected.

Financial Times: “Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they are not better off financially than they were when Donald Trump was elected, casting doubt on whether economic expansion and a record bull market will boost the president’s re-election campaign in 2020. According to a poll of likely voters conducted by the Financial Times and the Peter G Peterson Foundation, 31 percent of Americans say they are now worse off financially than they were at the start of Mr Trump’s presidency. Another 33 per cent say there has been no change in their financial position since Mr Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, while 35 per cent say they are better off.” Continue reading “Two-Thirds of Americans Say Trump Has Not Helped Them Financially”

Falling investment revives attacks against Trump’s tax cuts

The Hill logoThe GOP tax law passed in 2017 was supposed to super charge the economy, but the lack of major impact is spurring critics to renew their attacks against the signature measure from President Trump.

Republicans said the tax law would help the economy through several avenues, including by sending business investment soaring. But just 15 months after it took effect, business investment has actually been contracting, falling 1 percent and 3 percent in the past two quarters.

Republicans who supported the tax law are blaming Trump’s trade war with China as the reason why it failed to have the intended impact.

View the complete November 10 article by Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

Company insiders are selling stock during buyback programs and making additional profits when stock prices jump. And it’s legal.

Washington Post logoIn February 2017, the company behind the hit games Candy Crush and Call of Duty signaled optimism in its future and announced a $1 billion program to buy back its own shares — and investors responded by buying heavily.

But few of them could know that as they were buying, insiders at the mobile gaming titan Activision Blizzard were selling, and taking home additional profits as the stock price jumped.

On Feb. 10, a day after the company announced the buyback plan, Bobby Kotick, Activision’s chief executive, sold nearly 4 million shares for $180.8 million. The average share price of his sales was 15 percent higher than he would have gotten before the stock rose on the news.

View the complete November 6 article by Gary Putka on The Washington Post website here.

‘GOP Tax Scam 2.0’: Warnings as Trump pushes another round of tax cuts ahead of presidential election

AlterNet logoSparking warnings that the Republican Party is preparing another massive gift for the rich and corporations, the Washington Post reported Thursday that President Donald Trump is “agitating to announce a new tax cut proposal heading into the 2020 election.”

According to the Post, the tax cut discussions are being led by National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow, a “Wall Street cheerleader” and fervent believer in the discredited idea of trickle-down economics.

“The early-stage discussions reflect Trump’s desire to refocus the economic narrative amid some signs of a slowing economy,” the Post reported.

View the complete November 1 article by Jake Johnson from Common Dreams on the AlterNet website here.

Experts: Trump Tax And Trade Policies Slowing Economy

Economic growth in the United States slowed to just 1.9 percent in the past three months, far slower than promised Donald Trump made during his 2016 campaign. The sluggish growth is even worse than the second-quarter numbers, when the economy grew at 2 percent, NPR reported on Wednesday.

In his annual budget to Congress, Trump predicted a more robust 3.2 percent growth.

“That’s not going to happen,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, told NPR, adding, “we won’t get a 3-plus percent growth rate for the year.”

View the complete October 31 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

20 Very Rich Americans Demand Higher Taxes On Wealth

When the grand vacation homes of Newport Beach were empty on a beautiful Memorial Day weekend, Molly Munger decided it was time for the U.S. to consider taxing wealth.

As her family’s boat moved through the harbor a few years ago, Munger, whose father is a billionaire investor, saw that many of her neighbors’ houses were sitting dark and vacant. She knew why: The owners now controlled enough money to holiday at one of their several other luxury homes. It didn’t sit right, she said.

When the grand vacation homes of Newport Beach were empty on a beautiful Memorial Day weekend, Molly Munger decided it was time for the U.S. to consider taxing wealth.

View the complete October 27 article from the Associated Press on the National Memo website here.

Symbol of ’80s Greed Stands to Profit From Trump Tax Break for Poor Areas

New York Times logoRENO, Nev. — In the 1980s, Michael Milken embodied Wall Street greed. A swashbuckling financier, he was charged with playing a central role in a vast insider-trading scheme and was sent to prisonfor violating federal securities and tax laws. He was an inspiration for the Gordon Gekko character in the film “Wall Street.”

Mr. Milken has spent the intervening decades trying to rehabilitate his reputation through an influential nonprofit think tank, the Milken Institute, devoted to initiatives “that advance prosperity.”

These days, the Milken Institute is a leading proponent of a new federal tax break that was intended to coax wealthy investors to plow money into distressed communities known as “opportunity zones.” The institute’s leaders have helped push senior officials in the Trump administration to make the tax incentive more generous, even though it is under fire for being slanted toward the wealthy.

View the complete October 26 article by Eric Lipton and Jesse Drucker on The New York Times website here.

House Dems take aim at ‘trust fund babies’ with estate tax designed to combat obscene wealth inequality

AlterNet logoCalifornia Congressman Jimmy Gomez on Friday introduced legislation in the Democrat-controlled U.S. House that aims to address “our country’s rapidly increasing wealth inequality by strengthening the estate tax and ensuring the wealthiest among us pay their fair share.”

“Trust fund babies who have done nothing to earn their wealth besides being born into the right family have no right to pay a lower tax rate on their millions than hard-working Americans do on the income that they work for.”

—Charlie Simmons, Patriotic Millionaires

The For the 99.8% Act would impose a progressive tax on the estates of the richest Americans. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, introduced the companion bill in the Republican-controlled Senate in January.

View the complete October 26 article from Common Dreams on the AlterNet website here.