Tag: Trump wealthcare

The Trump Tax Law Is Not Delivering The Results Trump Promised

Trump promised his tax cuts would pay for themselves, boost economic growth, and raise wages. Instead, Trump’s tax breaks have blown up the deficit, failed to boost long-term growth, and left working Americans behind.

Corporations used their massive tax breaks for a record-high $1 trillion of stock buybacks, not to benefit their workers.

CNN: “Corporate America celebrated the first full year under the new tax law by rolling out a record-setting $1 trillion of stock buybacks.”

Morning Consult: “Twenty-three percent of registered voters said they noticed an increase in their paycheck this year as a result of the law, while 60 percent didn’t, according to a Dec. 4 poll conducted among 1,975 registered voters.” Continue reading “The Trump Tax Law Is Not Delivering The Results Trump Promised”

Rising Deficits, Falling Revenues

President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans celebrate Congress passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on the South Lawn of the White House, Washington, D.C., December 2017. Credit: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

The Fiscal Damage Caused by the New Republican Tax Law

The law commonly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act1 (TCJA), enacted in December 2017 by the Republican-controlled Congress, is substantially increasing federal deficits—and will for years to come. Regrettably, the law increased federal borrowing while addressing none of the nation’s most pressing challenges. In particular, after decades of growing income inequality and stagnant real wages for working-class Americans, the law conferred its largest benefits on the wealthiest Americans. The law did nothing to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, advance education, or prevent climate change. Moreover, by increasing federal deficits and debt, the law will increase pressure to cut vital programs, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

This issue brief assesses the fiscal damage from the TCJA and finds: Continue reading “Rising Deficits, Falling Revenues”

GM Layoffs Reveal Trump’s Broken Promises And Failed Tax Plan

Trump promised workers he would protect their jobs and that corporations would use massive new tax breaks to benefit their workers. Neither of those happened. Instead, General Motors plans to close multiple factories, lay off even more workers, and failed to invest their tax windfall in American jobs.

BROKEN PROMISES: Trump promised workers they “won’t lose one plant” and that GM would expand jobs. Now, GM is shutting its factories and cutting more than 14,000 jobs.

Washington Post: “GM layoffs pierce the heart of Trump’s #MAGA promise”

Huffington Post: “The GM Layoffs Sure Look Like A Broken Trump Promise”

Continue reading “GM Layoffs Reveal Trump’s Broken Promises And Failed Tax Plan”

Did a Tax Increase Tucked Into Trump’s Tax Cut Come Back to Bite Republicans?

Republicans capped a popular deduction for state and local taxes to pay for the tax bill. That may have hurt some House Republicans in the midterms.

President Trump signed a $1.5 trillion tax cut into law last December. The law capped a popular tax break used by high-earning taxpayers in high-tax states. Credit: Doug Mills, The New York Times

President Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut was supposed to be a big selling point for congressional Republicans in the midterm elections. Instead, it appears to have done more to hurt than help Republicans in high-tax districts across California, New Jersey, Virginia and other states.

House Republicans suffered heavy Election Day losses in districts where large concentrations of taxpayers claim a popular tax break — the state and local tax deduction — which the law capped at $10,000 per household. The new limit resulted in an effective tax increase for high-earning residents of high-tax states who claim more than $10,000 per year in SALT.

Democrats swept four Republican-held districts in Orange County, Calif., where at least 40 percent of taxpayers claim the SALT tax break, defeating a pair of Republican incumbents and winning seats vacated by Representatives Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. Those districts include longtime Republican strongholds, like Newport Beach, and rank among the country’s largest users of the state and local tax break.

View the complete November 19 article by Jim Tankersley and Ben Casselman on The New York Times website here.

Trump Tax Law Has Not Benefited Workers And Business Investment Is Slowing

The Trump tax law is not doing what Trump said it would. Trump and his White House said it would increase business investment and spending, but new data shows that’s not the case. They also said it would raise wages, but most Americans have not seen an increase in take-home pay. The only ones benefiting are the rich and big corporations.

WHITE HOUSE: The White House cited business investment and spending on factories as evidence their tax cut was working.

Kudlow: “Business investment is booming.”

Hassett: “Because what’s happened is that the capital spending boom that we promised would happen if we passed the tax cuts is underway.”

REALITY: Business investment and spending on factories was extremely weak in the third quarter of 2018.

Wall Street Journal: “Investment by companies was weak. Nonresidential fixed investment-reflecting spending on commercial construction, equipment and intellectual property products such as software-rose only 0.8% in the third quarter after rising at a 8.7% rate in the second quarter and 11.5% in the first. The third-quarter rate of business investment was the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2016. Spending on structures fell at a 7.9% rate in the third quarter.” Continue reading “Trump Tax Law Has Not Benefited Workers And Business Investment Is Slowing”

Mitch McConnell Calls for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid Cuts After Passing Tax Cuts, Massive Defense Spending

After instituting a $1.5 trillion tax cut and signing off on a $675 billion budget for the Department of Defense, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that the only way to lower the record-high federal deficit would be to cut entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

“It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem,” McConnell said of the deficit, which grew 17 percent to $779 billion in fiscal year 2018. McConnell explained to Bloomberg that “it’s a bipartisan problem: Unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future.” The deficit has increased 77 percent since McConnell became majority leader in 2015.

New Treasury Department analysis on Monday revealed that corporate tax cuts had a significant impact on the deficit this year. Federal revenue rose by 0.04 percent in 2018, a nearly 100 percent decrease on last year’s 1.5 percent. In fiscal year 2018, tax receipts on corporate income fell to $205 billion from $297 billion in 2017.

View the complete October 16 article by Nicole Goodkind on the Newsweek website here.

Retiring Speaker Ryan in campaign push for imperiled Republicans

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Retiring U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday launched a whirlwind tour of a dozen states, where he aims to pump up the campaigns of 25 embattled Republican members of Congress as the party fights to keep control of Congress.

With three weeks until the Nov. 6 congressional elections, most projections show Democrats holding a strong chance of gaining the 23 seats they would need to take a majority of that chamber and more effectively counter President Donald Trump.

Ryan will begin campaigning in the northeast, where he will appear with Representatives John Faso in New York and Leonard Lance in New Jersey, then go on to the Midwest next week to back Erik Paulsen in Minnesota and Rod Blum of Iowa and later return to the East Coast to campaign with Dave Brat of Virginia and Ted Budd of North Carolina.

View the complete article on the KFGO website here.

‘Working mom’ in Erik Paulsen ad is actually a Pennsylvania politician

The scene is straight from Campaign Cinema 101. Natalie Mihalek, self-proclaimed “working mom,” appears in a nice-but-not-too-nice living room, making her seem just like you.

She never says where she’s from. But since this is an ad for suburban Minneapolis Congressman Erik Paulsen, the implication is she’s just an everyday mom from, say, Plymouth or Osseo. The kind who brings lemon bars to science fairs and cheers supportively at her daughter’s T-ball games.

She’s here to talk about how “thrilled” she is with Erik Paulsen’s “middle-class tax cut.”

View the complete October 16 article by Pete Kotz on the CityPages website here.

DNC on McConnell Confirming Republican Goal to Cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security

In response to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying the budget deficit increase is “disturbing” and suggesting cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security programs were the only way to pay for it, DNC spokesperson Daniel Wessel released the following statement:

“The deficit increase is ‘disturbing’ because of the trillion-dollar tax break Trump and Republicans gave to the rich and big corporations. The Trump tax law was always a scam, and now Republicans are suggesting taking seniors and middle-class families to the cleaners by gutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to help pay for it.

“Make no mistake: These vital programs are on the ballot this November. The only thing left for Americans to do is vote.”

Abandoning Any Pretense of Fiscal Responsibility, Republican Leader Calls for Cuts to Social Security and Medicare to Pay for Trillion Dollar Tax Cut for the Ultra-Wealthy

‘At the end of the day, this is a question of priorities. The GOP continues to make it painfully clear that their first priority is to make the rich even richer, at the expense of the middle class.’

This morning, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Bloomberg News what we’ve long suspected: the GOP’s only plan to address the ballooning federal deficit is to make deep and painful cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. His statement comes on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that the deficit has reached a six-year high of $779 billion, due largely to the trillion dollar tax cut for billionaires and wealthy corporations the GOP pushed through earlier this year.

Over 900,000 Minnesotans rely on Medicare for their health care coverage, and one-sixth of all Minnesotans receive Social Security benefits.

“The hypocrisy of Congressional Republicans is stunning,” said DFL Chairman Ken Martin. “After years of hawkish attitudes about the federal deficit, Erik Paulsen and Jason Lewis threw those principles overboard and decided passing tax cuts for special interest donors was more important than balancing the federal budget. Now they want us to believe that the only way to solve their manufactured crisis is to slash programs that millions of Minnesotans rely on. Continue reading “Abandoning Any Pretense of Fiscal Responsibility, Republican Leader Calls for Cuts to Social Security and Medicare to Pay for Trillion Dollar Tax Cut for the Ultra-Wealthy”