Tag: GOP trickle down economics

Senate GOP tax bill hurts the poor more than originally thought, CBO finds

The following article by Heather Long was posted on the Washington Post website November 26, 2017:

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) had a tense exchange during a markup of the GOP tax bill on Nov. 16. (Senate Finance Committee)

The Senate Republican tax plan gives substantial tax cuts and benefits to Americans earning more than $100,000 a year, while the nation’s poorest would be worse off, according to a reportreleased Sunday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Republicans are aiming to have the full Senate vote on the tax plan as early as this week, but the new CBO analysis showing large, harmful effects on the poor may complicate those plans. The CBO also said the bill would add $1.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, a potential problem for Republican lawmakers worried about America’s growing debt. Continue reading “Senate GOP tax bill hurts the poor more than originally thought, CBO finds”

GOP leaders in advanced talks to change tax plan in bid to win over holdouts

The following article by Damian Paletta was posted on the Washington Post website November 26, 2017:

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is surrounded by reporters as he goes to vote on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Susan Walsh/AP)

Senate Republicans are seriously considering several last-minute changes to their tax legislation in an effort to mollify wavering members, four people familiar with the discussions said, as GOP leaders seek to keep their members from defecting ahead of crucial votes this week.

The lawmakers attracting the most concern from leadership and the White House are Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who say the current version of the bill favors corporations over other businesses.

There are numerous members demanding changes, and their desires don’t all overlap. Together, the requests put Republican leaders in a difficult position, as they attempt to accommodate individual holdouts on a one-off basis without losing other members or creating a situation in which the bill collapses under the weight of disparate demands. Continue reading “GOP leaders in advanced talks to change tax plan in bid to win over holdouts”

To Regain Its Sanity, the Republican Party Must Give Up Voodoo Economics

The following article by Charles P. Pierce was posted on the Esquire website October 17, 2017:

This crazy might be the deepest rooted.

Credit: Getty

Professor Krugman seems miffed, via the NYT:

Modern conservatives have been lying about taxes pretty much from the beginning of their movement. Made-up sob stories about family farms broken up to pay inheritance taxes, magical claims about self-financing tax cuts, and so on go all the way back to the 1970s. But the selling of tax cuts under Trump has taken things to a whole new level, both in terms of the brazenness of the lies and their sheer number. Both the depth and the breadth of the dishonesty make it hard even for those of us who do this for a living to keep track.

You knew this was coming when the president* tweeted out how proud he was that his tax plan was praised by Arthur Laffer, the cocktail-napkin Kreskin of supply-side economics, the original sorcerer who concocted the spells that produced those magical tax cuts, and, finally, the guy who fed the Republican Party a bowl of the very tastiest monkeybrains. The prion disease’s first symptom was the adoption of what Poppy Bush called, correctly, the “voodoo economics” of Ronald Reagan’s first budget. The Republican Party bought into an economic theory that was just as detached from reality as anything Reagan ever said about trees and air pollution, or anything the current president* has said about anything. Continue reading “To Regain Its Sanity, the Republican Party Must Give Up Voodoo Economics”

It’s time to demolish the myth of trickle-down economics

The following article by Max Lawson was posted on the World Economic Forum website July 19, 2016:

The gap between rich and poor is reaching new extremes. Credit Suisse recently revealed that the richest 1% have now accumulated more wealth than the rest of the world put together.

This occurred a year earlier than Oxfam’s much publicized prediction ahead of last year’s World Economic Forum. Meanwhile, the wealth owned by the bottom half of humanity has fallen by a trillion dollars in the past five years. This is just the latest evidence that today we live in a world with levels of inequality we may not have seen for over a century.

Continue reading “It’s time to demolish the myth of trickle-down economics”

Republicans push hard on GOP tax plan, but voters just aren’t that into it

The following article by Lisa Mascaro was posted on the Los Angeles Times website November 23, 2017:

 

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) applauds after House passage of the GOP tax plan in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

Republicans are investing enormous amounts of political capital and dollars to pump up support for the GOP tax overhaul in a risky, last-ditch legislative undertaking ahead of next year’s midterm election.

President Trump is promoting the bill as a Christmas present for the American people, and a group aligned with House Speaker Paul D. Ryanhas spent $20 million so far on ads and outreach in communities across the nation. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is set to fast-track the bill through the chamber next week.

Problem is, voters just don’t seem to be that interested. Continue reading “Republicans push hard on GOP tax plan, but voters just aren’t that into it”

Need more heart in this country

I strongly oppose the tax bill proposed by either the U.S. House or Senate without major modifications.

We need to protect and push forward with health care for every person in America.

We do not need more military, we do not need more tax breaks for the very wealthy, and we certainly do not need trillions more debt.

We need more heart in this country in caring for the most vulnerable.

My plan is to write Congressman Erik Paulsen about this regularly and hope he will listen to me — and all of his constituents.

Judith Potthoff, Chanhassen
Chaska Herald, November 24, 2017

Will a Corporate Tax Cut Lift Worker Pay? A Union Wants It in Writing

The following article by Jim Tankersley was posted on the New York Times website November 23, 2017:

A demonstration last week that was organized by groups that included the Communications Workers of America. That union has urged companies to pledge to raise wages if a tax cut is enacted. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — At the heart of the Republican tax plan hurtling through Congress is an implicit promise that cutting corporate taxes will lift the middle class through higher wages and more jobs.

Speaker Paul D. Ryan, for example, said in a recent speech that “fixing the business side of our tax code is really all about helping families and workers,” adding that “cutting the corporate tax rate means more jobs here in the United States. It will foster increased competition, which will directly drive up wages for our workers.”

Yet few American companies have offered specific plans that support those promises. While many chief executives broadly praise Republicans’ efforts to cut taxes, few have detailed how they would deploy the savings from a corporate tax cut or put more money back in workers’ pockets. Continue reading “Will a Corporate Tax Cut Lift Worker Pay? A Union Wants It in Writing”

Cut Taxes or Die

The following article by Kenneth T. Walsh was posted on the U.S. News and World Report website November 24, 2017:

The Republican tax bill is about political survival, not policy.

Donald Trump meets with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on Capitol Hill. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are aiming for one main objective as they push for a bill to cut taxes: a political victory. This has become more important to them than ideology, equity or consistency, and as a result any final bill is likely to be a testament to their desire for survival rather than legislation that will stand the test of time.

“At the end of the day, when all else fails, Republicans are expected to be able to cut taxes,” says political scientist Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution, a former senior White House adviser to President Bill Clinton. “If they can’t do that, why do they exist? … This is do or die for them.” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a skeptic about the Senate bill, complains about the “awful, rushed process” and a “desperation to pass anything.” Continue reading “Cut Taxes or Die”

GOP Tax Plan Would Hurt Homeowners Everywhere

The following article by Froma Harrop was posted on the Creators.com website November 23, 2017:

The story making the rounds is that the Republican tax plan targets homeowners only in expensive blue states — people who tend to vote for the other party. That’s only partly true. Homeowners everywhere would get hit. The reasons will follow.

As a whole, the “reforms” are an abomination. Through some tricks to hide its effects early on, the plan would move more of the nation’s tax burden down to the middle class and lower. Some 13 million could lose their health coverage.

Worst of all, the GOP tax plan would cost between $1.5 trillion and $2.2 trillion over 10 years. As a result, the national debt would explode to 123 percent (!!!) of the gross domestic product by 2037 — that is, unless Republicans were to raid Social Security and Medicare. Continue reading “GOP Tax Plan Would Hurt Homeowners Everywhere”