Tag: GOP tax cut for the rich

Why so Many Americans Hate Trump’s Tax Reform

The following article by Jim Hightower was posted on the creators.com website November 29, 2017:

Sam Rayburn of Texas, who was a legendary Speaker of the U.S. House in the 1940s and ’50s, offered this piece of ethical advice for lawmakers who were conflicted over whether to vote for the People of the lobbyists: “Every now and then, a politician ought to do something just because it’s right.”

Wow, ethics — how quaint! Today’s House Speaker, Paul Ryan, has put his own perverted twist to Rayburn’s ethics, advising his Republican majority to vote for anything just because it’s right-wing. Along with Donald Trump and Senate leader Mitch McConnell, Ryan is now pushing for a rewrite of America’s tax law that’s so far to the right that it’s horribly wrong. Continue reading “Why so Many Americans Hate Trump’s Tax Reform”

Listen: Booming economy may not yield results GOP is hoping for

The following article by Alexis Simendinger was posted on the Hill website November 30, 2017:

Encouraging economic data and booming financial markets may not produce the political dividends President Trump and Republicans once envisioned.

The Hill’s Reid Wilson explains what voters say they’re most concerned about. 

View the post here.

How Tax Bills Would Reward Companies That Moved Money Offshore

NOTE:  President Trump has repeatedly stated that by lowering the corporate tax rate, American corporations will be encouraged to bring funds back into this country. Like so much else in this bill, the opposite appears to be the case. 

The following article by Jesse Drucker was posted on the New York Times website November 29, 2017:

An office on the island of Jersey for Appleby, a law firm specializing in offshore holdings. The Republican tax plans would lower rates on corporate profits held overseas to encourage American companies to bring the money to the United States. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Over the past few decades, some of the largest companies in the United States made a big bet: By stashing hundreds of billions of dollars of profits offshore, they could slash their taxes and bolster their profits.

It would take a generation to see if the strategy would fully pay off, because the law allowed companies only to defer the taxes on overseas earnings, not to permanently avoid them. Would they ever be able to bring the profits back to the United States without incurring huge tax bills?

Some 20 years after the tax-avoiding technique became widespread, it is poised to pay off in a big way. The Republican tax bills making their way through the House and Senate would allow companies to bring nearly $3 trillion in profits home, at greatly reduced tax rates. Continue reading “How Tax Bills Would Reward Companies That Moved Money Offshore”

Trump Wanted a Bigger Tax Cut for the Rich, Ivanka Went Elsewhere

The following article by Jim Tankersley was posted on the New York Times website November 29, 2017:

From left, Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s daughter, and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida spoke at a news conference on expanding the child tax credit last month. Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump urged senators this month to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most Americans have health insurance and use the proceeds to slash the top tax rate paid by the richest Americans, a suggestion that pitted his priorities against his daughter and Republican senators intent on helping the middle class.

In the end, the president accepted only a partial victory. He got the repeal of the health law’s individual mandate, but gave up on an income tax rate cut that would have directly benefited him personally. Instead, Ivanka Trump and her allies in the Senate prevailed in their push to include an expanded child tax credit.

“This was certainly an uphill battle, especially given that it is not an issue that is as widely understood,” said Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah and a leading advocate of the expanded child tax credit. “We didn’t necessarily have the sense that the president was opposed to it. I still don’t have that sense. I think if he had been, things would have worked out differently than they did.” Continue reading “Trump Wanted a Bigger Tax Cut for the Rich, Ivanka Went Elsewhere”

Minnesotans, don’t forget about the tax bill

The following commentary by Lori Sturdevant was posted on the StarTribune website November 17, 2017:

Franken news is just one of the big things going on.

There’s never a good time, I suppose, to learn that one’s U.S. senator groped a sleeping woman while mugging for a camera. Still, it was particularly irritating to be interrupted with the news about U.S. Sen. Al Franken on Thursday just as the U.S. House was passing a mammoth tax bill that’s skewed against Minnesota and other high-tax/high-services states.

How’s an editorial writer supposed to summon readers to think high-minded tax policy thoughts when the day’s news is about other body parts?

That’s not a plea for pity — not entirely, anyway. It’s also a lament on behalf of the 250 people who crammed into the Minnetonka City Council chamber Wednesday night to hear from three DFLers who want to replace one of the architects of the House’s tax bill, five-term Republican U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen of Minnesota’s Third Congressional District. Continue reading “Minnesotans, don’t forget about the tax bill”

Deeply unpopular Congress aims to pass deeply unpopular bill for deeply unpopular president to sign

The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website November 29, 2017:

Republicans are forging ahead with their promise to overhaul the tax code, even with very little public support for their proposal. (Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Something odd is happening on Capitol Hill.

It’s not odd that Republicans are pushing for a tax bill that’s tilted toward business and the wealthy. It’s a return to the argument that benefits at the top trickle down to workers in the form of more jobs and better pay. (Whether this would actually happen is a question of its own.) Republicans control the House, they control the Senate, they control the White House. This tax bill is the Republican agenda, and advancing political priorities when you have the majority is how representative democracy works. Continue reading “Deeply unpopular Congress aims to pass deeply unpopular bill for deeply unpopular president to sign”

Senate Officially Begins Debate on Tax Overhaul Bill

The following article by the Roll Call staff was posted on their website November 29, 2017:

Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

The Senate voted Wednesday to officially begin debating the GOP tax overhaul bill, moving one step closer to a drastic rewrite of the nation’s tax code.

The Senate adopted the motion to proceed to the House-passed tax overhaul bill, 52-48.

The procedural vote had been delayed as senators worked through language that would open a part of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

The chamber will now debate the measure for 20 hours before proceeding to a marathon “vote-a-rama” session, where nearly unlimited amendments can be offered by either party. Continue reading “Senate Officially Begins Debate on Tax Overhaul Bill”

Tax Overhaul’s Arctic Drilling Byrd Problems Resolved

The following article by Niels Lesniewski and Jeremy Dillon was posted on the Roll Call website November 29, 2017:

Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, right, have been working through the snags with their tax bill. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Updated 7:45 p.m. | Most of the focus has been on taxes, but the portion of the Senate reconciliation bill that would open up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge needed to be revised, too.

Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the fixes that are being worked out for Byrd violations in her portion of the bill would be added to a substitute to be offered by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

“We are finishing up the last of that and expect to have a curative amendment if you will as part of the process going forward,” she said.

Murkowski suggested that provisions of the bill violated the Byrd problem by either not having a budgetary impact or being extraneous in other ways. Continue reading “Tax Overhaul’s Arctic Drilling Byrd Problems Resolved”

What Republicans say when asked why their tax bill benefits the rich most of all

The following article by Jeff Stein was posted on the Washington Post website November 29, 2017:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) holds a news conference to talk about the Republican tax plan. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

A number of studies have made clear that the tax bill Senate Republicans are trying to pass this week offers some of its biggest rewards to wealthy Americans. The GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would cut taxes on wealthy Americans, while raising taxes on those earning between $10,000 and $75,000 over the next decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official scorekeeper. The Tax Policy Center found that everyone outside the top 5 percent of income earners would see a significantly smaller tax cut in both the short term and the long term.

At a time of high inequality, when many of the economy’s rewards have already flowed to the wealthy, critics of the plan say this is an unnecessary gift. The plan “provide large benefits to the wealthy but little or nothing to everyone else,” says the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-of-center think tank, citing its large corporate tax cut and reduction of the estate tax. An NBC/Wall Street Journal pollfrom September found that 62 percent of Americans think taxes on the wealthy should go up. Twelve percent think they should go down. Continue reading “What Republicans say when asked why their tax bill benefits the rich most of all”

The Tax Bill’s Automatic Spending Cuts

NOTE:  The New York Time’s article has a great interactive graphic at it’s top that we aren’t able to import.

The following article by Margot Sanger-Katz was posted on the New York Times website November 29, 2017:

If Congress passes its tax bill and then takes no other action, the funding for dozens of federal spending programs could be cut — in many cases to nothing — beginning next year.

The cuts would be automatic, the consequence of a 2010 law that Congress passed to keep itself from increasing the deficit too much. Continue reading “The Tax Bill’s Automatic Spending Cuts”