Tag: GOP wealthcare

How You — And Congress — Subsidize The Richest Americans

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ProPublica scored a fantastic scoop when it obtained and meticulously analyzed 15 years of raw income tax data on the wealthiest Americans. This leak of Internal Revenue Service records is by far the biggest and most important tax news in the 55 years that I’ve reported on taxes.

Thanks to the leaker, we now know beyond any doubt that the endless claims that America has a progressive income tax system are bunk. A progressive system means that the more you make, the greater the share of your income you pay in taxes. Back in 2005, I got the George W. Bush administration to acknowledge that the system stops becoming progressive near the top.

But, unfortunately, ProPublica shows that it’s even worse than what I reported back then. Continue reading.

New report reignites push for wealth tax

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A blockbuster ProPublica report on the taxes paid by the richest Americans is reigniting a push from progressives for a wealth tax.

The report, based on tax-return data ProPublica received from an anonymous source, details how prominent billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have paid little to no taxes in some recent years, particularly when compared to their wealth gains.

The article comes as President Biden has proposed raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations to pay for his major spending proposals. Democrats have increasingly made raising taxes on the rich a top priority in recent years, and some progressives have called for going even further than Biden’s proposals by establishing a wealth tax that would impose taxes on net worth rather than income. Continue reading.

Democrats demand repeal of ‘obscene’ tax cut for millionaires that GOP buried in previous COVID relief bill

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A group of 120 Democratic members of Congress is calling on their party’s leadership to ensure that a tax break for millionaires that Republicans quietly buried in an earlier coronavirus relief package is repealed in upcoming aid legislation, arguing the rollback would free up hundreds of billions in revenue which could be used to help struggling families.

Led by Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) in the House and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in the Senate, the coalition of lawmakers sent a letter to Democratic leaders on Tuesday demanding the reversal of “costly tax breaks for so-called ‘net operating losses’ that Republicans tucked into the CARES Act,” a $2 trillion relief measure that former President Donald Trump signed into law last March.

“These special-interest giveaways will confer over 80 percent of the benefits to just 43,000 taxpayers, each earning at least $1 million per year,” reads the letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “We urge you to repeal these unwarranted tax cuts, as HEROES and HEROES 2.0 proposed and President Biden has recommended. This would save over $250 billion, which should be repurposed to help Americans who have lost income due to the pandemic and its economic fallout.” Continue reading.

Here’s How Much America’s Rising Income Inequality Is Costing Social Security

President Trump talks to reporters during a meeting with members of his cabinet, February 2019. Credit: Chip Somodevilla, Getty

Just a few weeks into the 116th Congress, Democrats’ takeover of the House of Representatives has already exposed the huge gulf between what American voters want and what the previous House leadership and the Trump administration have thrust upon them in recent years. Congressional Democrats’ bold agenda—such as higher taxes on the rich, universal health care, and expanding Social Security—has strong support not just among progressives but also across party lines. This popularity is a direct rebuke to Trump’s and his congressional colleagues’ massive 2017 tax giveaway to the wealthy and corporations; Trump’s ongoing efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid; and Trump’s and congressional Republicans’ continued efforts to cut Social Security.

Perhaps nowhere is the gulf between voters’ wishes and the policies Trump and his colleagues in Congress are pursuing greater than when it comes to Social Security—a program that voters overwhelmingly want to see expanded rather than cut. A 2017 Pew Research Center poll found that 95 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of Republicans preferred to maintain or expand Social Security. Yet, despite promising not to cut Social Security on the campaign trail, President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2019 budget would have slashed $72 billion from the program—cruelly targeting people with disabilities—over the coming decade. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) didn’t even wait until the ink was dry on their $2 trillion tax giveaway to begin insisting that everyday Americans face cuts to Social Security to pay for their deficit-busting tax bill. Continue reading “Here’s How Much America’s Rising Income Inequality Is Costing Social Security”

A Sweet New Century for America’s Most Privileged

The following article by Sam Pizzigati was posted on the Inequality.org website July 12, 2018:

America’s elected leaders haven’t ignored inequality since 2000. They’ve made it spectacularly worse.

Mitch McConnel, Paul Ryan, Donald Trump and Mike Pence celebrating GOP tax cut for the rich bill. Credit: Official White House Photo

The United States ended the 20th century on a roll — for the rich. Between 1973 and 2000, the nation’s most prosperous 1 percent tripled their incomes, after taking inflation into account.

The even more prosperous top tenth of that 1 percent did quite a bit better. Their incomes more than quintupledbetween 1973 and 2000, rising an amazing 414.6 percent.

And what about Americans of less exalted means, those stuck in the nation’s bottom 90 percent? Between 1973 and 2000, their incomes rose all of . . . 2.6 percent. Continue reading “A Sweet New Century for America’s Most Privileged”

Workers’ wages fall after passage of GOP tax cuts

The following article by Ryan Koronowski was posted on the ThinkProgress website June 13, 2018:

Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds, AFP, Getty Images

The federal government just admitted that workers are earning lower wages since the passage of the GOP tax cuts.

When President Donald Trump was pushing Congress to pass his tax plan last year, which focused on lowering corporate rates and the income taxes of high earners, he pulled out a handy statistic: according to the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, the average family would make $4,000 more under the new plan. Continue reading “Workers’ wages fall after passage of GOP tax cuts”

Republicans’ laser focus on tax reform sparks backlash from midterm voters

The following article by Addy Baird was posted on the ThinkProgress website June 7, 2018:

The issue Republicans see as central to their success is a major part of what activists say drives them to fight against the GOP.

Pres. Trump listens to US Rep. Renacci (L). Credit: Nicholas Kamm, AFP, Getty Images

CLEVELAND, OHIO — When Katie Jones realized Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH) was going to be the Republican Senate nominee in her state, she said she felt “sick.”

Jones has been a community activist in Medina County, Ohio since 2011, mainly fighting a proposed pipeline in her community. That same year, Renacci “unfortunately,” as Jones put it, took office as her representative. Continue reading “Republicans’ laser focus on tax reform sparks backlash from midterm voters”

Forget about broad-based pay hikes, executives say

The following article by Steve LeVine was posted on the Axios website May 27, 2018:

Credit: Woodcock88 via Morguefile.com

Very few Americans have enjoyed steadily rising pay beyond inflation over the last couple of decades, a shift from prior years in which the working and middle classes enjoyed broad-based wage gains as the economy expanded.

Why it matters: Now, executives of big U.S. companies suggest that the days of most people getting a pay raise are over, and that they also plan to reduce their work forces further. Continue reading “Forget about broad-based pay hikes, executives say”

Jelly Bellies and big spending: Inside the GOP struggle to sell voters on its tax law

The following article by Erica Werner was posted on the Washington Post website May 10, 2018:

House Speaker Ryan, right, listens to House Majority Leader McCarthy, left. Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Republican leaders and campaign officials are scrambling to do more to sell voters on their signature legislative achievement — a $1.5 trillion tax cut — amid poor polling numbers, rank-and-file members who lack a consistent message and a president who refuses to focus on the issue.

President Trump, when given the chance to tout his party’s tax law, has repeatedly gone off topic, including on Saturday when he traveled to Cleveland for a tax roundtable. While other speakers sang the law’s praises, Trump mixed in remarks on China, North Korea, Syria, immigration, the mayor of Oakland, Calif., Congress’s budget deal, his own poll numbers and the media’s coverage of his presidency. Continue reading “Jelly Bellies and big spending: Inside the GOP struggle to sell voters on its tax law”

Marco Rubio just went way off message on the GOP tax cuts — and conservatives are furious

The following article by Jeff Stein was posted on the Washington Post website May 1, 2018:

Sen. Marco Rubio when he was a presidential candidate. Credit: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Democrats frequently claim Republicans’ corporate tax cuts enriched big businesses while doing little for workers, but now that line of criticism is coming from a prominent Republican: Sen. Marco Rubio.

“There is still a lot of thinking on the right that if big corporations are happy, they’re going to take the money they’re saving and reinvest it in American workers,” the Florida senator told the Economist in a recent interview. “In fact they bought back shares, a few gave out bonuses; there’s no evidence whatsoever that the money’s been massively poured back into the American worker.” Continue reading “Marco Rubio just went way off message on the GOP tax cuts — and conservatives are furious”