Tag: GOP tax scam

The GOP doesn’t care if you like its tax plan. Here’s why

The following article by David C. Barker, Profession of Government and Director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, American University, was posted on the Conversation website December 2, 2017:

Credit: Christopher Penler / Shutterstock

Congressional Republicans’ collective sigh of relief after passing tax legislation may seem confusing. Won’t voters hold them accountable in 2018 for passing such an historically unpopular bill? The answer is “no,” for several reasons.

First, the bill’s unpopularity may be somewhat overstated. A lot of the disapproval expressed in surveys is more about the bill’s sponsors than about the bill itself. In these polarized times, almost anything carrying the president’s endorsement is going to be a nonstarter for more than half the population. If Trump were to designate ice cream the official White House dessert tonight, at least a third of us would stop “screaming for it” tomorrow.

This is not to say that this legislation should be more popular. But let’s face it, efforts to win over Blue America with fewer corporate tax cuts, fewer cuts for wealthy individuals or fewer changes to popular tax breaks would have probably fallen on deaf ears in this environment. Continue reading “The GOP doesn’t care if you like its tax plan. Here’s why”

Carried Interest Reform Is a Sham

NOTE:  Rep. Erik Paulsen serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, and would be aware of this and has voted for this in committee and then voted for the bill on the House floor.

The following article by Allan Sloan was posted on the ProPublica website December 1, 2017:

Republicans claim they’re fixing a tax loophole that benefits wealthy money managers. Don’t believe them.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, center, Speaker Paul Ryan, left, and other members of the GOP after unveiling the tax reform plan on Nov. 2 (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

This column was co-published with The Washington Post.

Donald Trump isn’t exactly shy when it comes to denouncing things he doesn’t like. And there’s one particular part of the tax code that he denounced over and over both during the campaign and after taking office.

He said that the people benefiting from this portion of the code were “getting away with murder.”

So you’d think that the tax bill being pushed through Congress with Trump’s eager backing would be closing this loophole. But you’d be wrong. As you’ll see in a bit, talking about closing the loophole isn’t the same as closing it.

The loophole is called “carried interest.” That’s tax jargon for the share of investors’ profits that goes to the managers of private equity funds, venture capital funds and hedge funds. The standard rate is 20 percent of a fund’s profits, although there’s wide variation, both up and down. Continue reading “Carried Interest Reform Is a Sham”

‘Wait, the tax bill is about to pass the Senate?’ … said everyone following the Michael Flynn news, basically

The following article by Amber Phillips was posted on the Washington Post website December 1, 2017:

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Dec. 1 said he supports Senate Republicans’ bill that would overhaul the tax code. (Jordan Frasier/The Washington Post)

Now that they have the votes to pass a bill revamping the tax code, Senate Republicans are on the verge of accomplishing something that has eluded them all year: fulfilling a major campaign promise. Politically speaking, it’s a much-needed victory after they failed to repeal Obamacare this summer.

But oh, the irony. Advancing a tax bill has been hugely overshadowed by literally the last thing Republicans want to talk about: a massive development in the investigation into whether their president’s campaign colluded with Russia. On the same day Senate Republicans were set to pass the first reform of the tax code in three decades, President Trump’s former national security adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. Continue reading “‘Wait, the tax bill is about to pass the Senate?’ … said everyone following the Michael Flynn news, basically”

Winners and losers in the Senate GOP tax bill: A running list

The following article by Heather Long was posted on the Washington Post website December 1, 2017:

The Senate on Dec. 2 passed a Republican bill overhauling the tax code. The bill passed by a 51-49 vote. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

Republicans in the Senate just passed a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax code, the largest change since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. The bill zipped through the process in a mere three weeks (you can get a quick rundown of what’s in the bill here). It’s still not a totally done deal though, as substantial differences between the House and Senate bills need to be ironed out before President Trump can sign the final piece of legislation into law. But there’s little doubt this is a major victory for Trump.

Here’s a rundown of the winners and losers so far (you can read the entire 479 page document here): Continue reading “Winners and losers in the Senate GOP tax bill: A running list”

How an unequal tax cut grew more unequal

The following article by Heather Long was posted on the Washington Post website December 2, 2017:

The Senate on Dec. 2 passed a Republican bill overhauling the tax code. The bill passed by a 51-49 vote. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

When Senate Republicans introduced their tax bill in mid-November, they faced competing interests: Some senators thought it wasn’t generous enough for working-class families. Others thought it didn’t deliver enough to business owners.

As Republicans moved closer to a final vote on the bill Friday night, they made several tweaks to the tax legislation. They announced more benefits for business owners, particularly wealthy ones, but they voted down a proposal by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) to give low-income families a bigger tax break. Continue reading “How an unequal tax cut grew more unequal”

Timelines for passage of Obamacare vs. the 2016 GOP Tax Bill

Sen. Mitch McConnell has stated that there was plenty of time for review and discussion of their 2016 GOP tax bill that will add $1.5 trillion (that number looks like this, folks:  $1,000,000,000,000 — a LOT of zeroes, with most of the benefit going to corporations and the wealthiest Americans with no expiration while what small tax relief the middle class and poor receive expires in 10 years).

We knew that wasn’t the case.  Republicans are saying that what they’ve done is the same as what happened with the passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacase.) So, we decided to look into it.

Here’s what we found: Continue reading “Timelines for passage of Obamacare vs. the 2016 GOP Tax Bill”

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.