Tag: Trump wealthcare

The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes Than You

New York Times logoAlmost a decade ago, Warren Buffett made a claim that would become famous. He said that he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary, thanks to the many loopholes and deductions that benefit the wealthy.

His claim sparked a debate about the fairness of the tax system. In the end, the expert consensus was that, whatever Buffett’s specific situation, most wealthy Americans did not actually pay a lower tax rate than the middle class. “Is it the norm?” the fact-checking outfit Politifact asked. “No.”

Time for an update: It’s the norm now.

For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans last year paid a lower total tax rate — spanning federal, state and local taxes — than any other income group, according to newly released data.

View the complete October 6 commentary by David Leonhardt on The New York Times website here.

Trump’s Corporate Tax Cut Is Not Trickling Down

Center for American Progress logoTwo years ago, President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). At the time, the Trump administration claimed that its corporate tax cuts would increase the average household income in the United States by $4,000. But two years later, there is little indication that the tax cut is even beginning to trickle down in the ways its proponents claimed.

The Trump administration claimed its corporate tax cuts would translate into a $4,000 raise for the average household

In selling the large corporate tax cut to Congress and a skeptical American public, the Trump administration claimed that corporate tax cuts would ultimately translate into higher wages for workers. The tax cuts would trickle down to workers through a multistep process. First, slashing the corporate tax rate would increase corporations’ after-tax returns on investment, inducing them to massively boost spending on investments such as factories, equipment, and research and development. This investment boom would give the average worker more and better capital to work with, substantially increasing the overall productivity of U.S. workers. In other words, they would be able to produce more goods and services with every hour worked. And finally, U.S. workers would capture the benefits of their increased productivity by successfully bargaining for higher wages. Continue reading “Trump’s Corporate Tax Cut Is Not Trickling Down”

More Americans go without health coverage despite strong economy, Census Bureau finds

Washington Post logoIncomes are rising and poverty is falling, but the gap between the rich and poor has grown

The proportion of Americans without health insurance grew significantly last year for the first time this decade, even as the economy’s strength pushed down the poverty level to its lowest point since 2001, according to federal data released Tuesday.

The finding that 27.5 million U.S. residents lacked coverage in 2018, based on a large U.S. Census Bureau survey, reverses the trend that began when the Affordable Care Act expanded opportunities for poor and some middle-income people to get insurance.

Taken together, the census numbers paint a portrait of an economy pulled in different directions, with the falling poverty rate coinciding with high inequality and the growing cadre of people at financial risk because they do not have health coverage.

View the complete September 10 article by Amy Goldstein and Heather Long on The Washington Post website here.

Deficits to exceed $12 trillion through 2029: CBO

The Hill logoThe federal government will rack up $12.2 trillion in deficits through 2029, according to a new projection from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), an $809 billion increase from its last projection in May.

The CBO, Congress’s official budgeting scorekeeper, said that the deficits would average 4.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) through the next decade, a significant increase from the 2.9 percent average over the past 50 years.

Fueling the increase from May’s projection is the bipartisan deal to raise spending caps, which would add $1.7 trillion to the deficit over the course of the next decade. The projection is particularly high because the deal raised stringent budget caps that would have cut spending, meaning that the lion’s share of the projected new deficit is in comparison with scheduled cuts, not new spending.

View the complete August 21 article by Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

The Super-Wealthy Have Outsize Influence in Politics. Here’s How We Can Change That

In 2018, the 10 largest individual donors funneled more than $436 million to Super PACs in the most expensive midterm elections ever. Big money in politics has overwhelmed the political process, granting wealthy special interests more power now than at any time in recent American history. The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC and other court decisions left Congress and the states constitutionally prohibited from putting limits on raising and spending money in elections, unleashing a flood of corporate dollars in U.S. elections and opening the door for the super-rich to fuel their own interests in our government at the expense of ordinary Americans. While this trend has been decades in the making, these decisions further dismantled our campaign finance laws.

This summer, I joined with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and other Senate Democrats to introduce the Democracy for All Amendment, a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United v. FECand other disastrous court decisions. The amendment would give Congress and the states the power “to regulate and set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections” as well to draw a distinction “between natural persons and corporations or other artificial entities created by law.” Continue reading “The Super-Wealthy Have Outsize Influence in Politics. Here’s How We Can Change That”

How To Fix A Big Problem With The Trump-Radical Republican Tax Law

The American people got a highly misleading June 24 report from Congressional staff about the effect of repealing Donald Trump’s $10,000 limit on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT.

Millionaires and billionaires get most of the benefits if the limitation is repealed, the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation reported.

Duh.

Our major news organizations promptly parroted the findings without digging deeper. And none thought to report on whether the tax committee staff had been asked the right or best question in preparing its analysis.

View the complete July 4 article by David Cay Johnston on the DC Report website here.

What We Could Have Had for $1.9 Trillion

Center for American Progress logoThroughout his campaign and since taking office, President Donald Trump has promised to stand up for working people and families. But the most far-reaching bill he’s signed into law—the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017—was a handout for corporate America and the wealthy at the expense of working- and middle-class families. President Trump’s tax handout is estimated to cost $1.9 trillion between 2018 and 2027, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). As a result of the law, large corporations are receiving a massive tax cut—even bigger than what was originally expected. And while the law is running up federal deficits, it is having little or no positive effect on the U.S. economy, according to new research from the Congressional Research Service.

Working- and middle-class families deserve better. In fact, for the same $1.9 trillion cost of President Trump’s tax giveaway, the United States could afford to completely eliminate child poverty; double its federal investment in climate science; extend universal access to affordable child care and pre-K; provide a $10,000 raise for teachers in high-poverty schools; provide free community college; and take dramatic action to tackle the opioid epidemic. (see Methodology) Continue reading “What We Could Have Had for $1.9 Trillion”

Trump administration tightens restrictions on fetal tissue research

After Trump recently called his economy “the best ever,” MSNBC’s Morgan Radford spoke with a group of truckers who disagreed.

MSNBC spoke to a group of trucker drivers this week who say that President Donald Trump hasn’t kept his campaign promises.

>After Trump recently called his economy “the best ever,” MSNBC’s Morgan Radford spoke with a group of truckers who disagreed. Several of the truckers were Trump voters who don’t expect to vote for the president again.

“Do you feel like this administration is listening to you as truckers?” Radford asked.

“No, ma’am,” one trucker replied.

View the complete June 5 article by David Edwards of Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

‘Garbage’ GOP tax cuts didn’t benefit the economy — according to the Congressional Research Service

“It’s done nothing to raise wages and flown right into corporate execs’ pockets,” Rep. Bill Pascrell said of the Republican tax law.

Despite lofty promises from President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts that went into effect last year have done little—if anything—to raise workers’ wages, boost economic growth, or spur business investment.

That’s according to a new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), which appeared to vindicate warnings from progressive critics that the GOP tax cuts were little more than a scam designed to put more money in the pockets of wealthy Americans.

In its 23-page report (pdf), the independent research arm found that while the Republican tax law has not done much for workers or the overall economy, it has sparked a wave of stock buybacks, which primarily benefit rich executives.

View the complete May 29 article by Jake Johnson from Common Dreams on the AlterNet website.

Rigged: How the US tax law props up people like Donald Trump — while screwing over everyday Americans

The New York Times disclosure that Donald Trump  was able “to avoid paying income taxes” for years, while he racked up $1.17 billion in losses, tells you all you need to know about the American system of taxation that rewards risk, debt and speculation because it so completely insulates the greediest among us from the real world consequences of all three.

The Times compared their Trump file “with detailed information the I.R.S. compiles on an annual sampling of high-income earners. His core business losses in 1990 and 1991 — more than $250 million each year — were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.”

We know that our tax system taxes wages we earn at a much higher rate than the profits the rich earn off their investments. But it’s more perverse than that because it actually incentivizes the most predatory traits of vulture capitalism.

View the complete May 12 article by Bob Hennelly of Salon on the AlterNet website here.