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1margd
Donald Trump, President of the United States:
A corporate tax cut “would likely give the typical American household around a $4,000 pay raise.”
Speech at Heritage Foundation – Tuesday, October 17, 2017
FactCheck.org: Don't count on it.
_____________________________________________
Trump’s Dubious $4,000 Claim
Brooks Jackson | October 23, 2017
Would American households really see an average income increase of $4,000 a year if President Donald Trump succeeds in cutting the corporate income tax? Don’t count on it. This claim is dubious at best.
Consider this simple arithmetic:
There were 125,819,000 households in the U.S. last year, according to the Census Bureau. An average increase of $4,000 for each household would amount to a total income gain of more than $503 billion annually.
But the U.S. collected just $297 billion in corporate income taxes in fiscal year 2017, which ended Sept. 30, according to the U.S. Treasury.
So let’s say that Trump’s proposal to drop the top corporate rate to 20 percent (from the current 35 percent) reduces the corporate tax accordingly by $127 billion. How can that spur an income gain of $500 billion?
The president’s Council of Economic Advisers doesn’t specify exactly how it arrived at the $4,000 per household estimate. The report it released Oct. 16 cites a number of economic research papers and asserts that these “suggest” that the proposed rate drop would “increase average household income in the United States by, very conservatively, $4,000 annually.”...
http://www.factcheck.org/2017/10/trumps-dubious-4000-claim/
2lriley
A regurgitation of the Milton Friedman inspired Reagan economic policies known as trickle down economics. They just don't want to call it that because it's already failed again and again for most everybody who isn't super wealthy. The theory: Give corporations and the super wealthy a huge tax break and eventually (maybe 10,000 years from now) their benevolence, munificence and patriotism will flow down to everybody and corporations will just lay off their ever higher and higher production standards and hire more people.
Anyway as to the $4000 income increase which they say could show up in 4 years but might have to wait for 8 years notice how they push them off to the next election cycle(s). They don't have the numbers to back up their claims is why. If worse comes to worse they'll blame on the next congress, POTUS, whatever. Basically this is bandits doing what bandits do. They just happen to be of the super rich pillars of the community kind.
Anyway as to the $4000 income increase which they say could show up in 4 years but might have to wait for 8 years notice how they push them off to the next election cycle(s). They don't have the numbers to back up their claims is why. If worse comes to worse they'll blame on the next congress, POTUS, whatever. Basically this is bandits doing what bandits do. They just happen to be of the super rich pillars of the community kind.
3jjwilson61
These days if you allow a company to keep more money, they'll spend it on automation equipment so they can lay off more people.
5proximity1
If you cannot figure out what is logically fallacious in the following, (too) "simple arithmetic,"
"Consider this simple arithmetic:
There were 125,819,000 households in the U.S. last year, according to the Census Bureau. An average increase of $4,000 for each household would amount to a total income gain of more than $503 billion annually."
then your example may help illustrate how and why it is that the Trumps of the U.S. have gotten away with such "logic" as tax-cuts for the wealthiest for decades and decades.
6margd
If You Want to Collect Social Security, Trump’s Tax Plan Is an Outrage
You probably pay about four times more of your income to Social Security than millionaires, who want to cut their taxes and your benefits.
Sam Pizzigati | Oct 25, 2017
...individuals who took home $1 million in 2016 had $16,265 deducted from their paychecks for Social Security and Medicare. Those deductions totaled a meager 1.6 percent of their paycheck income. Working Americans making $60,000 last year, by contrast, had 7.65 percent of their take-home deducted for Social Security and Medicare.
In other words, Americans making $60,000 paid over four times more of their income for Social Security and Medicare than Americans who made $1 million.
Our tax code currently has a ceiling on earnings subject to the Social Security tax. That ceiling this year rests at $127,200. All paycheck income up to that level faces a 6.2 percent tax for Social Security and a 1.45 percent tax for Medicare.
Income above that ceiling faces no Social Security tax at all.
Until the Obama years, income above the earnings ceiling faced no payroll tax for Medicare either. But President Obama succeeded in getting that changed. Individual income over $200,000 now faces an additional 0.9 percent Medicare tax.
If all income over $200,000 faced a Social Security tax as well, we’d have enough new revenue to significantly improve Social Security benefits.
The Trump administration is moving in the opposite direction. Earlier this year, the White House tried and failed to get the Obama Medicare tax on the rich repealed.
Now the administration is pushing a tax “reform” that totally ignores the unfairness of the current Social Security payroll tax and instead hands America’s wealthiest a stunningly generous assortment of tax giveaways.
If this Trump tax plan passes, Americans making $60,000 will still be paying over four times more of their income in payroll taxes than Americans who make $1 million. And America’s millionaire-packed top 1 percent will get 80 percent of the new Trump tax cuts, the Tax Policy Center calculates...
http://otherwords.org/want-collect-social-security-trumps-tax-plan-outrage/
You probably pay about four times more of your income to Social Security than millionaires, who want to cut their taxes and your benefits.
Sam Pizzigati | Oct 25, 2017
...individuals who took home $1 million in 2016 had $16,265 deducted from their paychecks for Social Security and Medicare. Those deductions totaled a meager 1.6 percent of their paycheck income. Working Americans making $60,000 last year, by contrast, had 7.65 percent of their take-home deducted for Social Security and Medicare.
In other words, Americans making $60,000 paid over four times more of their income for Social Security and Medicare than Americans who made $1 million.
Our tax code currently has a ceiling on earnings subject to the Social Security tax. That ceiling this year rests at $127,200. All paycheck income up to that level faces a 6.2 percent tax for Social Security and a 1.45 percent tax for Medicare.
Income above that ceiling faces no Social Security tax at all.
Until the Obama years, income above the earnings ceiling faced no payroll tax for Medicare either. But President Obama succeeded in getting that changed. Individual income over $200,000 now faces an additional 0.9 percent Medicare tax.
If all income over $200,000 faced a Social Security tax as well, we’d have enough new revenue to significantly improve Social Security benefits.
The Trump administration is moving in the opposite direction. Earlier this year, the White House tried and failed to get the Obama Medicare tax on the rich repealed.
Now the administration is pushing a tax “reform” that totally ignores the unfairness of the current Social Security payroll tax and instead hands America’s wealthiest a stunningly generous assortment of tax giveaways.
If this Trump tax plan passes, Americans making $60,000 will still be paying over four times more of their income in payroll taxes than Americans who make $1 million. And America’s millionaire-packed top 1 percent will get 80 percent of the new Trump tax cuts, the Tax Policy Center calculates...
http://otherwords.org/want-collect-social-security-trumps-tax-plan-outrage/
7margd
The Memo: Trump tax reform nears crunch time
Niall Stanage - 10/27/17
...as they rush forward, lawmakers have not resolved basic questions about how the tax overhaul would affect the wealthy, the middle class or lower-income earners. Still unresolved were several questions: whether the legislation would moderate the expected benefits for the wealthy; whether it would cap or eliminate popular middle-class tax breaks like the state and local tax deduction or the tax benefit of 401(k) retirement plans; and how dramatically it would expand a child-care tax credit that helps working-class families. Also on the table were several critical questions about how the corporate tax code would change.
...With the budget behind them, Republican lawmakers can no longer put off answering a host of thorny questions. There are deep divisions over which taxes or deductions to eliminate to offset some of the trillions of dollars in revenue lost to proposed steep tax cuts for corporations and some individuals.
...Options to raise revenue have been met with stiff resistance. A Republican proposal to eliminate or scale back a deduction that allows individuals to deduct state and local taxes from their federal payment turned into a major sticking point in Wednesday’s budget vote...Democrats are accusing Republicans of pursuing tax cuts that will expand the budget deficit to deliver tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthy and corporations.
Democrats also have seized on the potential changes to retirement accounts and to the state-and-local-tax deduction, arguing that the GOP plan could lead to a tax increase for many middle-class households — particularly in high-cost-of-living suburban areas.
...Republican strategists argue that the tax overhaul will pay political dividends — not only by benefiting middle-class voters, but also by broadly restoring conservative voters’ faith in the GOP’s ability to get things done.
Striking SALT (state and local tax deduction) from the tax code entirely would generate more than $1 trillion in additional revenue that could offset the rate cuts that are integral to the GOP plan. If Republican leadership is forced to compromise, they may have to set less ambitious goals for tax cuts more broadly or find other ways to offset them.
...After reports this weekend that Republicans were considering changing the rules for 401(k) and other retirement accounts, Trump on Monday promised in a post on Twitter that the new GOP tax plan would leave the 401(k) rules untouched.
On Wednesday, the top two congressional tax writers — Brady and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) — said they were not bound by Trump’s promise and were open to changing the rules.
Sweeping changes planned for business taxation, meanwhile, could prove to be thorniest of all.
Ryan warned that hundreds of lobbyists would soon travel to Capitol Hill...
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/357417-the-memo-trump-tax-reform-near...
Niall Stanage - 10/27/17
...as they rush forward, lawmakers have not resolved basic questions about how the tax overhaul would affect the wealthy, the middle class or lower-income earners. Still unresolved were several questions: whether the legislation would moderate the expected benefits for the wealthy; whether it would cap or eliminate popular middle-class tax breaks like the state and local tax deduction or the tax benefit of 401(k) retirement plans; and how dramatically it would expand a child-care tax credit that helps working-class families. Also on the table were several critical questions about how the corporate tax code would change.
...With the budget behind them, Republican lawmakers can no longer put off answering a host of thorny questions. There are deep divisions over which taxes or deductions to eliminate to offset some of the trillions of dollars in revenue lost to proposed steep tax cuts for corporations and some individuals.
...Options to raise revenue have been met with stiff resistance. A Republican proposal to eliminate or scale back a deduction that allows individuals to deduct state and local taxes from their federal payment turned into a major sticking point in Wednesday’s budget vote...Democrats are accusing Republicans of pursuing tax cuts that will expand the budget deficit to deliver tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthy and corporations.
Democrats also have seized on the potential changes to retirement accounts and to the state-and-local-tax deduction, arguing that the GOP plan could lead to a tax increase for many middle-class households — particularly in high-cost-of-living suburban areas.
...Republican strategists argue that the tax overhaul will pay political dividends — not only by benefiting middle-class voters, but also by broadly restoring conservative voters’ faith in the GOP’s ability to get things done.
Striking SALT (state and local tax deduction) from the tax code entirely would generate more than $1 trillion in additional revenue that could offset the rate cuts that are integral to the GOP plan. If Republican leadership is forced to compromise, they may have to set less ambitious goals for tax cuts more broadly or find other ways to offset them.
...After reports this weekend that Republicans were considering changing the rules for 401(k) and other retirement accounts, Trump on Monday promised in a post on Twitter that the new GOP tax plan would leave the 401(k) rules untouched.
On Wednesday, the top two congressional tax writers — Brady and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) — said they were not bound by Trump’s promise and were open to changing the rules.
Sweeping changes planned for business taxation, meanwhile, could prove to be thorniest of all.
Ryan warned that hundreds of lobbyists would soon travel to Capitol Hill...
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/357417-the-memo-trump-tax-reform-near...
8lriley
#7--lawmakers do know or at least have a very good idea who is going to benefit from their so-called tax reform. The rich and corporate entities are going to do wonderfully well--that group is pretty much what they would call their donor class. They're doing this for them. Everyone else is really a piece of shit in their eyes. So if you didn't think of yourself in those terms before--welcome to piece of shitdom.
Now at least pretty much every republican legislator would rather you not think of yourself this way even if that's what the intent of their bill is--so they'll be coming around with fairy tales to make you feel better about it and yourself.
Now at least pretty much every republican legislator would rather you not think of yourself this way even if that's what the intent of their bill is--so they'll be coming around with fairy tales to make you feel better about it and yourself.
9margd
"Wouldn't it be great to Repeal the very unfair and unpopular Individual Mandate in ObamaCare and use those savings for further Tax Cuts....."
@realDonaldTrump 7:59 AM - 1 Nov 2017
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/358201-trump-suggests-repealing-obamacare-m...
@realDonaldTrump 7:59 AM - 1 Nov 2017
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/358201-trump-suggests-repealing-obamacare-m...
10jjwilson61
That doesn't even make sense. What savings would repealing the individual mandate create?
11margd
ACA partly funded by
3.8% New Tax on investment income. Includes: gross income from interest, dividends, royalties, rents, and net capital gains. Investment income does not include interest on tax-exempt bonds, veterans’ benefits, excluded gain from the sale of a principle residence, distributions from retirement plans, or amounts subject to self-employment taxes. (The lesser of net investment income or the excess of modified Adjusted Gross Income over a the dollar amount at which the highest income tax bracket, typically $250,000 for married filing jointly and $200,000 filing as an individual).
http://alignamerica.com/node/62
I think it was to free up that money that Republicans attempted to repeal ACA before attempting tax cuts?
3.8% New Tax on investment income. Includes: gross income from interest, dividends, royalties, rents, and net capital gains. Investment income does not include interest on tax-exempt bonds, veterans’ benefits, excluded gain from the sale of a principle residence, distributions from retirement plans, or amounts subject to self-employment taxes. (The lesser of net investment income or the excess of modified Adjusted Gross Income over a the dollar amount at which the highest income tax bracket, typically $250,000 for married filing jointly and $200,000 filing as an individual).
http://alignamerica.com/node/62
I think it was to free up that money that Republicans attempted to repeal ACA before attempting tax cuts?
12jjwilson61
Sure, but repealing just the individual mandate wouldn't affect that tax.
13margd
"Clear evidence that @realDonaldTrump doesn't understand health insurance, the individual mandate or how taxes even work."
@altNOAA 1h1 hour ago
(Me neither, I guess!)
@altNOAA 1h1 hour ago
(Me neither, I guess!)
14margd
Here’s a breakdown of how the new House tax bill impacts your taxes
SteveGoldstein | Nov 2, 2017
..
• There will be four tax rates: 12%, 25%, 35% and 39.6%. For single people, the brackets will be up to $45,000, up to $200,000, up to $500,000 and over $500,000, and for married people, those brackets will be up to $90,000, up to $260,000, up to $1 million and over $1 million.
The standard deduction would be hiked from $6,350 to $12,000 for individuals and $12,700 to $24,000 for married couples. But there will be no personal exemptions.
• The child tax credit will be hiked to $1,600 from $1,000 per child, and there will be a credit of $300 for each parent to help with expenses.
• The mortgage interest deduction will be preserved for existing mortgages but capped at $500,000 for newly purchased homes.
• State and local income taxes will not be able to be deducted, but state and local property taxes will be, up to $10,000.
• Despite intense debate, there doesn’t appear to be any change to 401(k) and Individual Retirement Accounts.
• The alternative minimum tax is repealed.
• The estate tax exemption will be doubled, and in six years, will be repealed.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-a-breakdown-of-how-the-new-house-tax-bil...
SteveGoldstein | Nov 2, 2017
..
• There will be four tax rates: 12%, 25%, 35% and 39.6%. For single people, the brackets will be up to $45,000, up to $200,000, up to $500,000 and over $500,000, and for married people, those brackets will be up to $90,000, up to $260,000, up to $1 million and over $1 million.
The standard deduction would be hiked from $6,350 to $12,000 for individuals and $12,700 to $24,000 for married couples. But there will be no personal exemptions.
• The child tax credit will be hiked to $1,600 from $1,000 per child, and there will be a credit of $300 for each parent to help with expenses.
• The mortgage interest deduction will be preserved for existing mortgages but capped at $500,000 for newly purchased homes.
• State and local income taxes will not be able to be deducted, but state and local property taxes will be, up to $10,000.
• Despite intense debate, there doesn’t appear to be any change to 401(k) and Individual Retirement Accounts.
• The alternative minimum tax is repealed.
• The estate tax exemption will be doubled, and in six years, will be repealed.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-a-breakdown-of-how-the-new-house-tax-bil...
15margd
"Corporate profits are at all time highs & yet workers see no gains in salary. Increasing profits even more will magically raise salaries?"
@altNOAA 11h11 hours ago
@altNOAA 11h11 hours ago
16rastaphrog
>15 margd: That's about the same as all the talk about how cutting taxes on "investment" income will encourage the people with money to invest even more, completely ignoring the fact that unless that investing is part of the INITIAL round, none of that money is actually going to a business.
This article is probably a decent starting point for reading up and the proposed changes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2017/11/02/how-do-the-proposed-tax...
This article is probably a decent starting point for reading up and the proposed changes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2017/11/02/how-do-the-proposed-tax...
17margd
Also Wilbur Ross, Jared Kushner business partner (per Paradise papers). Trump, too, no doubt...
ETA: as President Barack Obama said after the Panama Papers’ release in 2016, “The problem is that a lot of this stuff is legal, not illegal.”
The wealthy men in Trump's inner circle with links to tax havens
Jon Swaine and Ed Pilkington | 5 November 2017
...Trump is surrounded by wealthy individuals who have legally either sheltered their own investments or presided over policies to keep company profits or clients’ funds out of reach in tax havens.
Gary Cohn
Rex Tillerson
Steven Mnuchin
Randal Quarles
Jon Huntsman
Kenneth Juster
Carl Icahn
Jay Clayton
Ben Carson
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/wealthy-men-donald-trump-inner-circ...
ETA_________________________________________________________
Foxes in the henhouse...
Explore The Influencers: Donald Trump’s allies in the Paradise Papers (Interactive)
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(12 admin, advisors, & donors)
https://www.icij.org/article/us-president-donald-trumps-influencers/
.
.
.
to be contd...
ETA: as President Barack Obama said after the Panama Papers’ release in 2016, “The problem is that a lot of this stuff is legal, not illegal.”
The wealthy men in Trump's inner circle with links to tax havens
Jon Swaine and Ed Pilkington | 5 November 2017
...Trump is surrounded by wealthy individuals who have legally either sheltered their own investments or presided over policies to keep company profits or clients’ funds out of reach in tax havens.
Gary Cohn
Rex Tillerson
Steven Mnuchin
Randal Quarles
Jon Huntsman
Kenneth Juster
Carl Icahn
Jay Clayton
Ben Carson
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/wealthy-men-donald-trump-inner-circ...
ETA_________________________________________________________
Foxes in the henhouse...
Explore The Influencers: Donald Trump’s allies in the Paradise Papers (Interactive)
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(12 admin, advisors, & donors)
https://www.icij.org/article/us-president-donald-trumps-influencers/
.
.
.
to be contd...
18margd
The GOP tax plan is filled with petty cruelties aimed at the vulnerable and the middle class. Here's a list
Michael Hiltzik | Nov 03, 2017
Education assistance slashed
Teachers lose their deduction for classroom supplies
No more deduction for medical expenses
Adoption and parenting
Property and casualty losses
Electric cars and renewable energy
A host of petty nuisance cruelties (moving expensesalimony, tax prep,
...While the average American loses deductions for moving expenses, tuition, hurricane losses and adoption, owners of estates worth up to $22 million would be able to pass them on to their children tax-free. The kids get to keep an additional tax break on any capital assets, such as stocks and bonds, passed down by their parents...
http://beta.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-cruelties-gop-20171103-st...
Michael Hiltzik | Nov 03, 2017
Education assistance slashed
Teachers lose their deduction for classroom supplies
No more deduction for medical expenses
Adoption and parenting
Property and casualty losses
Electric cars and renewable energy
A host of petty nuisance cruelties (moving expensesalimony, tax prep,
...While the average American loses deductions for moving expenses, tuition, hurricane losses and adoption, owners of estates worth up to $22 million would be able to pass them on to their children tax-free. The kids get to keep an additional tax break on any capital assets, such as stocks and bonds, passed down by their parents...
http://beta.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-cruelties-gop-20171103-st...
19margd
McConnell 'misspoke' on claim that no one in middle class would get tax increase
Jordain Carney | 11/10/17
...a preliminary New York Times analysis of the Senate legislation found that...a quarter of middle-class families would get a tax increase in 2018, on average by $1,000. By 2026, roughly one-third would see their taxes go up, by an average of $1,600...
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/359845-mcconnell-misspoke-on-claim-...
Jordain Carney | 11/10/17
...a preliminary New York Times analysis of the Senate legislation found that...a quarter of middle-class families would get a tax increase in 2018, on average by $1,000. By 2026, roughly one-third would see their taxes go up, by an average of $1,600...
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/359845-mcconnell-misspoke-on-claim-...
20lriley
Trickle down economic theory has already been tested and does not work. Giving corporations a big tax break does not mean they will not continue to cut and/or outsource jobs. They are as unlikely as hell to share any extra profit with their workforce and especially if it's unionized. It's not what happens. It doesn't spur job growth. You give rich people more wealth and they sit on it. Really wealthy people hardly ever invest their own money anyway--look what happens when a baseball stadium or an arena goes up--the city's taxpayers pay for it and a corporation puts its brand name on it--really wealthy people are used to using other people's money not their own.
22margd
Sounds like upper middle class retirees (many Republicans and/or Trump voters?) could be hurt by proposed tax reform. Heck, a few of these could affect middle class retirees as well?
How GOP Tax Bill Can Hurt Your Retirement Investments
Robert Powell | Nov 7, 2017
The proposed $1.51 trillion Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) could mean big changes for retirees and people investing for retirement, including the repeal of many deductions and tax credits...
https://www.thestreet.com/story/14374030/1/how-gop-tax-bill-can-hurt-your-retire...
How GOP Tax Bill Can Hurt Your Retirement Investments
Robert Powell | Nov 7, 2017
The proposed $1.51 trillion Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) could mean big changes for retirees and people investing for retirement, including the repeal of many deductions and tax credits...
https://www.thestreet.com/story/14374030/1/how-gop-tax-bill-can-hurt-your-retire...
23margd
Heartless ... AND gutless not to be open about cuts, deficits...
GOP tax bill could spur $25 billion in Medicare cuts: CBO
Niv Elis | 11/14/17
The GOP tax bill could trigger automatic cuts worth $136 billion from mandatory spending in 2018, including $25 billion in Medicare cuts, if Congress doesn’t find another way to offset its deficit increases, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The tax bill would add an estimated $1.5 trillion to the deficit over a decade. Congressional “pay-as-you-go” rules, called pay-go, require that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) automatically cut mandatory spending if legislation increases the deficit beyond a certain point.
“Without enacting subsequent legislation to either offset that deficit increase, waive the recordation of the bill’s impact on the scorecard, or otherwise mitigate or eliminate the requirements of the pay-go law, OMB would be required to issue a sequestration order within 15 days of the end of the session of Congress to reduce spending in fiscal year 2018 by the resultant total of $136 billion,” CBO wrote on Tuesday.
Medicare can only be cut by a maximum of 4 percent through the pay-go rules, however, which amounts to $25 billion in cuts...
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/budget/360300-tax-bill-could-spur-25-billion-i...
GOP tax bill could spur $25 billion in Medicare cuts: CBO
Niv Elis | 11/14/17
The GOP tax bill could trigger automatic cuts worth $136 billion from mandatory spending in 2018, including $25 billion in Medicare cuts, if Congress doesn’t find another way to offset its deficit increases, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The tax bill would add an estimated $1.5 trillion to the deficit over a decade. Congressional “pay-as-you-go” rules, called pay-go, require that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) automatically cut mandatory spending if legislation increases the deficit beyond a certain point.
“Without enacting subsequent legislation to either offset that deficit increase, waive the recordation of the bill’s impact on the scorecard, or otherwise mitigate or eliminate the requirements of the pay-go law, OMB would be required to issue a sequestration order within 15 days of the end of the session of Congress to reduce spending in fiscal year 2018 by the resultant total of $136 billion,” CBO wrote on Tuesday.
Medicare can only be cut by a maximum of 4 percent through the pay-go rules, however, which amounts to $25 billion in cuts...
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/budget/360300-tax-bill-could-spur-25-billion-i...
24margd
The Prez owning multiple golf courses, any coincidence that tax reform retains loophole benefiting golf course owners?
https://www.snopes.com/does-the-republican-tax-bill-include-a-loophole-benefitti...
What other benefits accrue to Trump and his business returns, I wonder?
SHOW US YOUR TAX RETURNS, SIR!!!
HOLD HEARINGS BEFORE VOTING ON SUCH A MAJOR BILL!
https://www.snopes.com/does-the-republican-tax-bill-include-a-loophole-benefitti...
What other benefits accrue to Trump and his business returns, I wonder?
SHOW US YOUR TAX RETURNS, SIR!!!
HOLD HEARINGS BEFORE VOTING ON SUCH A MAJOR BILL!
25lriley
Well at least one republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin says he won't vote for it and it doesn't look like Susan Collins of Maine will either. One or two more republicans and it will be back to the drawing board. If Jones wins the Alabama Senate seat that will be another setback for Trump--so there is some hope that it won't pass and that the upcoming year will be full of more stalemate. Sometimes it's better when nothing is getting accomplished.
26margd
Interesting take on R election strategy behind tax reform.
I guess other side is Dem passage of social programs such as ACA that Rs, once in power, can pick at but not repeal?
Republican tax cuts will hurt Americans. And Democrats will pay the price
Bruce Bartlett | Nov 20, 2017
The consequences of the tax program will shelve support for the Republicans, but once in power the Democrats’ hands will be financially bound for years
...Republicans are pushing the tax cut at breakneck speed precisely because they know they are probably going to lose next year and in 2020 as well. The tax cut, once enacted, however, will bind the hands of Democrats for years to come, forcing them to essentially follow a Republican agenda of deficit reduction and prevent any action on a positive Democratic program. The result will be a steady erosion of support for Democrats that will put Republicans back in power within a few election cycles.
The theory was laid out almost 30 years ago by two Swedish economists, Torsten Persson and Lars EO Svensson. In a densely written article for the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 1989, they explained why a stubborn conservative legislator would intentionally run a big budget deficit...
Should Democrats get control of the House and/or Senate next year, Trump and his party will insist that deficit reduction be the only order of business. Automatic spending cuts resulting directly from the tax cut will start to bite, hurting the poor and middle class primarily, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and making them forget that they resulted from a huge tax give-away to the wealthy that increased the deficit by $1.5tn. Democrats will get much of the blame due to time-inconsistency.
...It’s possible that Trump’s appointees to the Federal Reserve may be so alarmed by the inflationary potential of the growing deficits that they will raise interest rates in response. This could trigger a recession that will be blamed on a Democratic president taking office in 2021
Keep in mind that no matter how big the deficit gets from the tax cut Republicans are rushing to enact, none of them will ever vote to undo those cuts or raise taxes except, perhaps, in ways that further burden the poor, such as raising the gasoline tax. That is because they all signed a tax pledge promising never to raise taxes. Therefore, any deficit reduction will either consist solely of spending cuts or pass with only Democratic votes, as was the case in 1993.
...Once the deficit is programmed to increase by another $1.5tn the Republican trap will be set and Democrats will again be on the path to cleaning up their fiscal mess...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/20/republican-tax-cuts-democr...
I guess other side is Dem passage of social programs such as ACA that Rs, once in power, can pick at but not repeal?
Republican tax cuts will hurt Americans. And Democrats will pay the price
Bruce Bartlett | Nov 20, 2017
The consequences of the tax program will shelve support for the Republicans, but once in power the Democrats’ hands will be financially bound for years
...Republicans are pushing the tax cut at breakneck speed precisely because they know they are probably going to lose next year and in 2020 as well. The tax cut, once enacted, however, will bind the hands of Democrats for years to come, forcing them to essentially follow a Republican agenda of deficit reduction and prevent any action on a positive Democratic program. The result will be a steady erosion of support for Democrats that will put Republicans back in power within a few election cycles.
The theory was laid out almost 30 years ago by two Swedish economists, Torsten Persson and Lars EO Svensson. In a densely written article for the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 1989, they explained why a stubborn conservative legislator would intentionally run a big budget deficit...
Should Democrats get control of the House and/or Senate next year, Trump and his party will insist that deficit reduction be the only order of business. Automatic spending cuts resulting directly from the tax cut will start to bite, hurting the poor and middle class primarily, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and making them forget that they resulted from a huge tax give-away to the wealthy that increased the deficit by $1.5tn. Democrats will get much of the blame due to time-inconsistency.
...It’s possible that Trump’s appointees to the Federal Reserve may be so alarmed by the inflationary potential of the growing deficits that they will raise interest rates in response. This could trigger a recession that will be blamed on a Democratic president taking office in 2021
Keep in mind that no matter how big the deficit gets from the tax cut Republicans are rushing to enact, none of them will ever vote to undo those cuts or raise taxes except, perhaps, in ways that further burden the poor, such as raising the gasoline tax. That is because they all signed a tax pledge promising never to raise taxes. Therefore, any deficit reduction will either consist solely of spending cuts or pass with only Democratic votes, as was the case in 1993.
...Once the deficit is programmed to increase by another $1.5tn the Republican trap will be set and Democrats will again be on the path to cleaning up their fiscal mess...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/20/republican-tax-cuts-democr...
27alco261
>26 margd: I appreciate your taking the time to track these things down. I haven't looked at the entire article but if the Democrats do get the majority etc. what would keep them from reversing the current push for robbing everyone to give to the rich - reverse the limits on estate tax, income tax levels, etc. and telling the Republican robbers to shove it?
28margd
What did Dems do with Reagan tax cuts?
I bet this time they'd revise the estate tax, but leave the corporate tax alone? I suspect they'd do something with healthcare, so ACA, CHIPS, Medicaid damage would be ameliorated somewhat--and more protected in future?
They would need to be a lot more resistant to R jabs to cut defense to accommodate healthcare
I bet this time they'd revise the estate tax, but leave the corporate tax alone? I suspect they'd do something with healthcare, so ACA, CHIPS, Medicaid damage would be ameliorated somewhat--and more protected in future?
They would need to be a lot more resistant to R jabs to cut defense to accommodate healthcare
292wonderY
Capitol Police arrest wheelchair-bound protesters at Senate tax bill hearing
U.S. Capitol Police arrested 36 protesters who disrupted a Senate Budget Committee hearing on the GOP tax overhaul plan that would impact the Affordable Care Act.
...
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., addressed the protests later in the hearing.
“I hate to see hearings disrupted by citizens. I hate that. I cringe when it happens. But what choice do they have? What choice do they have, when a finance committee refuses to allow a single hearing to hear from people about the rewriting of the American tax code for the first time in 32 years,” he said. “What choice do people have when the door is shut in their face. The stakes could not be higher. This is about every American family. This is about every American business. This is about the strength of the American economy.”
The Senate committee passed the legislation by a 12-11 margin on party lines.
U.S. Capitol Police arrested 36 protesters who disrupted a Senate Budget Committee hearing on the GOP tax overhaul plan that would impact the Affordable Care Act.
...
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., addressed the protests later in the hearing.
“I hate to see hearings disrupted by citizens. I hate that. I cringe when it happens. But what choice do they have? What choice do they have, when a finance committee refuses to allow a single hearing to hear from people about the rewriting of the American tax code for the first time in 32 years,” he said. “What choice do people have when the door is shut in their face. The stakes could not be higher. This is about every American family. This is about every American business. This is about the strength of the American economy.”
The Senate committee passed the legislation by a 12-11 margin on party lines.
30margd
7 Ways the Republican Tax Plan Is Horrible for Young People
Robin Marty | Nov 29, 2017
1. You will probably pay more in taxes – if not now, eventually.
2. Getting a degree will be even more expensive.
3. Your (health) insurance costs will go up.
4. Your child tax credit increase may not be the boon you think it is.
5. Your home value could plummet.
6. You may need to start funding a private school education.
7. You’ll find out that social safety net is now completely full of holes.
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a13969677/republican-tax-plan-hurts-young-p...
Robin Marty | Nov 29, 2017
1. You will probably pay more in taxes – if not now, eventually.
2. Getting a degree will be even more expensive.
3. Your (health) insurance costs will go up.
4. Your child tax credit increase may not be the boon you think it is.
5. Your home value could plummet.
6. You may need to start funding a private school education.
7. You’ll find out that social safety net is now completely full of holes.
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a13969677/republican-tax-plan-hurts-young-p...
32margd
Senate passes tax overhaul, securing major GOP victory
Jordain Carney and Naomi Jagoda - 12/02/17
...impact on the deficit
...vote closed after midnight
...lower tax rates for individuals through 2025 and permanently cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent
...repeal ObamaCare’s individual mandate
...open up a section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for drilling
...deduction for small-and-mid-sized businesses known as “pass throughs.”...increased from 17.4 to 23 percent
...rid of a “budget gimmick” relating to the full expensing of capital investments
...a commitment on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program (not in bill)
...restoration of a $10,000 deduction for property taxes
...lower threshold for deducting medical expenses (than that originally proposed)
...To pay for the last-minute changes, Republicans made changes including restoring the alternative minimum tax in the bill, but raising the exemption amounts, and increasing rates for the repatriation of foreign earnings currently held overseas.
...the Joint Committee on Taxation said the version of the bill that passed the Finance Committee last month would cost about $1 trillion in its first decade after accounting for economic growth.
...an amendment from Cruz to allow taxpayers to use funds from 529 plans for K-12 education, including home schooling
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/362891-senate-passes-tax-overhaul-securing-ma...
_______________________________________
GOP eyes post-tax-cut changes to welfare, Medicare and Social Security
Jeff Stein | December 1, 2017
...“What’s coming next is all too predictable: The deficit hawks will come flying back after this bill becomes law,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the ranking Democrat on the finance committee. “Republicans are already saying 'entitlement reform' and 'welfare reform' are next up on the docket. But nobody should be fooled — that’s just code for attacks on Medicaid, on Medicare, on Social Security, on anti-hunger programs.”
...members of both parties have long been reticent to cut benefits, especially for seniors, due in part to the potential political cost of doing so. And in discussing changes, Republicans, including Rubio, have largely confined their ideas to plans that would affect new beneficiaries, rather than current ones.
Still, it may be particularly difficult for Republicans to push those measures ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, in which many in swing states and districts face well-funded Democratic challengers hoping to ride an anti-Trump wave into office.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/01/gop-eyes-post-tax-cut-cha...
ETA______________________________________
Will GOP Cut Social Security And Medicare Before Or After The 2018 Election?
Stan Collender | Dec 3, 2017
...There's one more alternative: lame duck session after the November 2018 election but before the next Congress is sworn in in January 2019. A Democratic wave in the 2018 election would push the soon-to-be-replaced Republican majorities to try to enact the Social Security and Medicare cuts before they lose the ability to determine the legislative agenda. It would also allow the departing GOP representatives and senators to vote on the reductions without having to worry about direct political retributions from their voters.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stancollender/2017/12/03/will-gop-cut-social-securi...
Jordain Carney and Naomi Jagoda - 12/02/17
...impact on the deficit
...vote closed after midnight
...lower tax rates for individuals through 2025 and permanently cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent
...repeal ObamaCare’s individual mandate
...open up a section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for drilling
...deduction for small-and-mid-sized businesses known as “pass throughs.”...increased from 17.4 to 23 percent
...rid of a “budget gimmick” relating to the full expensing of capital investments
...a commitment on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program (not in bill)
...restoration of a $10,000 deduction for property taxes
...lower threshold for deducting medical expenses (than that originally proposed)
...To pay for the last-minute changes, Republicans made changes including restoring the alternative minimum tax in the bill, but raising the exemption amounts, and increasing rates for the repatriation of foreign earnings currently held overseas.
...the Joint Committee on Taxation said the version of the bill that passed the Finance Committee last month would cost about $1 trillion in its first decade after accounting for economic growth.
...an amendment from Cruz to allow taxpayers to use funds from 529 plans for K-12 education, including home schooling
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/362891-senate-passes-tax-overhaul-securing-ma...
_______________________________________
GOP eyes post-tax-cut changes to welfare, Medicare and Social Security
Jeff Stein | December 1, 2017
...“What’s coming next is all too predictable: The deficit hawks will come flying back after this bill becomes law,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the ranking Democrat on the finance committee. “Republicans are already saying 'entitlement reform' and 'welfare reform' are next up on the docket. But nobody should be fooled — that’s just code for attacks on Medicaid, on Medicare, on Social Security, on anti-hunger programs.”
...members of both parties have long been reticent to cut benefits, especially for seniors, due in part to the potential political cost of doing so. And in discussing changes, Republicans, including Rubio, have largely confined their ideas to plans that would affect new beneficiaries, rather than current ones.
Still, it may be particularly difficult for Republicans to push those measures ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, in which many in swing states and districts face well-funded Democratic challengers hoping to ride an anti-Trump wave into office.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/01/gop-eyes-post-tax-cut-cha...
ETA______________________________________
Will GOP Cut Social Security And Medicare Before Or After The 2018 Election?
Stan Collender | Dec 3, 2017
...There's one more alternative: lame duck session after the November 2018 election but before the next Congress is sworn in in January 2019. A Democratic wave in the 2018 election would push the soon-to-be-replaced Republican majorities to try to enact the Social Security and Medicare cuts before they lose the ability to determine the legislative agenda. It would also allow the departing GOP representatives and senators to vote on the reductions without having to worry about direct political retributions from their voters.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stancollender/2017/12/03/will-gop-cut-social-securi...
33margd
Bernie Sanders: Maybe I missed it, but I don't remember the need to provide tax breaks to wealthy hedge fund managers in the Virgin Islands being one of our nation's pressing crises. Yet that's exactly what Section 14504 of the GOP bill does. (= $600 million in lost revenue)
https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/videos/10156545332157908/
https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/videos/10156545332157908/
34margd
Senators weren't given enough time to read the ~500p bill before vote. What did they agree to?? (See #33, for one.) Drain the swamp, indeed...
Analysis: More than 6,000 lobbyists have worked on taxes in 2017
Megan R. Wilson | 12/01/17
...There are just under 11,000 active lobbyists in the nation's capital, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), and more than half of them — 6,243 — have reported working on taxes this year, according to the (Public Citizen, a government watchdog group) report, which relies on CRP data.
Spread out over Capitol Hill, that means there are more than 11 lobbyists working on taxes for every member of Congress...
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/362796-analysis-more-...
Analysis: More than 6,000 lobbyists have worked on taxes in 2017
Megan R. Wilson | 12/01/17
...There are just under 11,000 active lobbyists in the nation's capital, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), and more than half of them — 6,243 — have reported working on taxes this year, according to the (Public Citizen, a government watchdog group) report, which relies on CRP data.
Spread out over Capitol Hill, that means there are more than 11 lobbyists working on taxes for every member of Congress...
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/362796-analysis-more-...
35margd
End of principal financing mechanism that has fostered growth of the renewable energy sector since the 1990s...
Senate Tax Bill Passes With BEAT Provision
Emma Foehringer Merchant | December 01, 2017
Language in the bill is expected to result in broad instability and uncertainty for renewable energy businesses and investors...
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/beat-provision-tax-bill-vote#gs.v_1...
______________________________
The Obscure ‘Poison Pill’ Senate Tax Provision Threatening Renewables
Emma Foehringer Merchant | November 29, 2017
“We’re looking at the end of the principal financing mechanism that has fostered growth of the renewable energy sector since the 1990s.”
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-poison-pill-senate-tax-provisio...
_______________________________
Senate tax measure helps President Trump pivot away from clean energy and back to fossil fuels
Keith Schneider | Dec 2, 2017
The tax measure they approved proposes to open the Arctic to oil and gas development, weaken investment incentives for solar and wind production, and end a big tax credit for new electric vehicles...
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-tax-solar-wind-20171202-story.html
Senate Tax Bill Passes With BEAT Provision
Emma Foehringer Merchant | December 01, 2017
Language in the bill is expected to result in broad instability and uncertainty for renewable energy businesses and investors...
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/beat-provision-tax-bill-vote#gs.v_1...
______________________________
The Obscure ‘Poison Pill’ Senate Tax Provision Threatening Renewables
Emma Foehringer Merchant | November 29, 2017
“We’re looking at the end of the principal financing mechanism that has fostered growth of the renewable energy sector since the 1990s.”
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-poison-pill-senate-tax-provisio...
_______________________________
Senate tax measure helps President Trump pivot away from clean energy and back to fossil fuels
Keith Schneider | Dec 2, 2017
The tax measure they approved proposes to open the Arctic to oil and gas development, weaken investment incentives for solar and wind production, and end a big tax credit for new electric vehicles...
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-tax-solar-wind-20171202-story.html
36margd
Tax Bill Offers Last-Minute Breaks for Developers, Banks and Oil Industry
JESSE DRUCKER and PATRICIA COHEN | DEC. 2, 2017
...pass-through entities like partnerships, popular with real estate developers — got even more generous. The richest taxpayers will be taxed at a rate of about 29.6 percent on such income, a big cut from the current top federal income tax rate of 39.6.
...Mr. Trump’s...more than 500 pass-through entities
...certain income from gas and oil operators could also qualify for the new, lower rate.
...multinational companies...would...bring (tax haven) earnings home at rates of 7.5 to 14.5 percent — well below the existing corporate income tax rate of 35 percent and also lower than the new corporate income tax rate, which the bill would cut nearly in half to 20 percent...save the companies roughly half a trillion dollars
...Banks and other financial institutions will still be able to avoid taxes by making payments to offshore subsidiaries.
...the bill...excludes from (limits on how much interest companies can deduct from their taxes)...car dealerships.
...extends so-called bonus depreciation — the ability to take big deductions related to (business research and experimentation)
...employee credit for paid family and medical leave (except) in states where such paid leave is either required — or will soon be required — by state law, as in New York, California, New Jersey and Rhode Island...doesn’t apply to employees making more than $72,000 and will last only until the end of 2019.
...prohibits employers from rewarding employees with gift cards...$25 or $50...
...(rejected) fund(ing) the I.R.S. so that it could offer advice to low-income filers
...expands the child tax credit by a year to 17-year-olds, that change ends at the end of 2024, a year before other individual tax cuts are scheduled to expire
...Vice President Mike Pence cast a tiebreaking vote to pass an amendment to allow people to use up to $10,000 a year from tax-advantaged 529 savings accounts for private and religious schools and some home schooling. Under current law, 529 accounts can be used only for higher education.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/business/tax-bill-offers-last-minute-breaks-f...
JESSE DRUCKER and PATRICIA COHEN | DEC. 2, 2017
...pass-through entities like partnerships, popular with real estate developers — got even more generous. The richest taxpayers will be taxed at a rate of about 29.6 percent on such income, a big cut from the current top federal income tax rate of 39.6.
...Mr. Trump’s...more than 500 pass-through entities
...certain income from gas and oil operators could also qualify for the new, lower rate.
...multinational companies...would...bring (tax haven) earnings home at rates of 7.5 to 14.5 percent — well below the existing corporate income tax rate of 35 percent and also lower than the new corporate income tax rate, which the bill would cut nearly in half to 20 percent...save the companies roughly half a trillion dollars
...Banks and other financial institutions will still be able to avoid taxes by making payments to offshore subsidiaries.
...the bill...excludes from (limits on how much interest companies can deduct from their taxes)...car dealerships.
...extends so-called bonus depreciation — the ability to take big deductions related to (business research and experimentation)
...employee credit for paid family and medical leave (except) in states where such paid leave is either required — or will soon be required — by state law, as in New York, California, New Jersey and Rhode Island...doesn’t apply to employees making more than $72,000 and will last only until the end of 2019.
...prohibits employers from rewarding employees with gift cards...$25 or $50...
...(rejected) fund(ing) the I.R.S. so that it could offer advice to low-income filers
...expands the child tax credit by a year to 17-year-olds, that change ends at the end of 2024, a year before other individual tax cuts are scheduled to expire
...Vice President Mike Pence cast a tiebreaking vote to pass an amendment to allow people to use up to $10,000 a year from tax-advantaged 529 savings accounts for private and religious schools and some home schooling. Under current law, 529 accounts can be used only for higher education.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/business/tax-bill-offers-last-minute-breaks-f...
37margd
More swamp business:
Claire McCaskillVerified account @clairecmc
11:29 AM - 1 Dec 2017
This is so bad. We have just gotten list of amendments to be included in bill NOT from our R colleagues, but from lobbyists downtown. None of us have seen this list, but lobbyists have it. Need I say more? Disgusting. And we probably will not even be given time to read them.
See list at https://twitter.com/clairecmc/status/936678750577623041
__________________________________________
Another delicate challenge for Republicans: Reconciling House and Senate tax bills
Erica Werner, Damian Paletta and Mike DeBonis | December 3
...Lawmakers are expecting an intense period of work starting Monday as lobbyists descend on the conference committee that will negotiate differences between the two pieces of legislation...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/another-delicate-challenge-for-r...
4943f854-d873-11e7-a841-2066faf731ef_story.html
Claire McCaskillVerified account @clairecmc
11:29 AM - 1 Dec 2017
This is so bad. We have just gotten list of amendments to be included in bill NOT from our R colleagues, but from lobbyists downtown. None of us have seen this list, but lobbyists have it. Need I say more? Disgusting. And we probably will not even be given time to read them.
See list at https://twitter.com/clairecmc/status/936678750577623041
__________________________________________
Another delicate challenge for Republicans: Reconciling House and Senate tax bills
Erica Werner, Damian Paletta and Mike DeBonis | December 3
...Lawmakers are expecting an intense period of work starting Monday as lobbyists descend on the conference committee that will negotiate differences between the two pieces of legislation...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/another-delicate-challenge-for-r...
4943f854-d873-11e7-a841-2066faf731ef_story.html
38margd
(Also posted in Trump's base thread.)
The tax bill is the start of Obamacare collapse
Sarah Kliff | Dec 2, 2017
It will hit red states (Trump states) especially hard...
...skinny repeal is essentially what Republicans have attached to their tax bill.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/2/16720032/senate-tax-bill-obama...
The tax bill is the start of Obamacare collapse
Sarah Kliff | Dec 2, 2017
It will hit red states (Trump states) especially hard...
...skinny repeal is essentially what Republicans have attached to their tax bill.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/2/16720032/senate-tax-bill-obama...
40sturlington
“Some of the biggest losers under the Republican tax overhaul include upper-middle class families in high-tax areas like New York City, graduate students, government workers and public school teachers. The one thing they have in common? They’re mostly Democrats.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-05/-death-to-democrats-how-the-g...
Basically, it's warfare. We're no longer one nation. The Democrats have been declared the enemy and no holds are barred.
Also, in their haste to throw the bill together, Republicans ended up killing some of their donors’ favorite tax breaks. Ruh-roh.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/senate-gop-accidentally-killed-all-...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-05/-death-to-democrats-how-the-g...
Basically, it's warfare. We're no longer one nation. The Democrats have been declared the enemy and no holds are barred.
Also, in their haste to throw the bill together, Republicans ended up killing some of their donors’ favorite tax breaks. Ruh-roh.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/senate-gop-accidentally-killed-all-...
422wonderY
Tax plan crowns a big winner: Trump’s industry
But REITs are favored in other ways. Individuals who borrow money to invest in a REIT will be able to deduct the interest they pay on the loan at the top individual rate. When it comes to paying taxes on the interest income they earn from that REIT investment, however, the new, lower pass-through rate would apply.
"That's a great deal, and it's going to create giant new tax shelters," said Steven M. Rosenthal, a tax expert at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The tax code generally tries to prohibit this kind of tax rate arbitrage, he added.
The REIT advantage is one example of a broader issue: different tax treatment for similar activities.
Writers of the congressional bills promised that their overhaul would simplify the tax code, but the intricacies of the changes create countless opportunities for gamesmanship.
"Suddenly, there are a dozen different tax rates that apply to different businesses, in different industries, and to different investments," said Adam Looney, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former Treasury Department official. That means opportunities to come out ahead by making deals between these different groups or structuring businesses to take advantage of various provisions.
That could lead to a flurry of restructuring and asset shifting that has no purpose other than lowering the tax rate. One business might borrow money to invest in another, or buy equipment and treat it as an expense and then lease it to another company.
Ideally, the tax code is meant to encourage businesses to make sound economic decisions, and forgo activities whose sole purpose is to avoid taxes. But the proliferation of different business rates rewards loophole hunting and earnings shifting.
43sturlington
From the indy newsletter I get today:
This is as predictable as sunrise. Congressional Republicans, who throughout the Obama presidency held themselves up as deficit hawks outraged by growing government debt, are in the process now of passing a tax cut for the wealthy that will blow a $1.45 trillion hole in the budget, according to an analysis of the plan by the Joint Committee on Taxation, which Republicans simply refuse to believe. And when that’s done, they’re going to look you in the eye and tell you with a straight face that the country is broke so we have to cut Social Security and Medicare. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said as much.
“House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday said House Republicans will aim to cut spending on Medicare, Medicaid and welfare programs next year as a way to trim the federal deficit. ‘We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,’ Ryan said during an interview on Ross Kaminsky's talk radio show.”
“Ryan said he’s been speaking privately with President Trump, who is beginning to warm to the idea of slowing the spending growth in entitlements. During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised not to cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.”
Republicans are also planning to take a swing at welfare reform: “Some House Republicans believe that Congress should cut Americans off government anti-poverty programs in part to help grow the national economy. … Other House Republicans similarly argued that there would be “no excuses” for poor Americans to need welfare once economic growth took hold. ‘Once we light this economy up, my brother, there’s going to be jobs for everybody. So there will be no excuses for anyone who can work to sit at home and not work,’ Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) said. ‘If we pass tax reform, we have to have welfare reform. When you have a vibrant economy, there’s no reason for Americans to suffer on welfare.’”
This is as predictable as sunrise. Congressional Republicans, who throughout the Obama presidency held themselves up as deficit hawks outraged by growing government debt, are in the process now of passing a tax cut for the wealthy that will blow a $1.45 trillion hole in the budget, according to an analysis of the plan by the Joint Committee on Taxation, which Republicans simply refuse to believe. And when that’s done, they’re going to look you in the eye and tell you with a straight face that the country is broke so we have to cut Social Security and Medicare. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said as much.
“House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday said House Republicans will aim to cut spending on Medicare, Medicaid and welfare programs next year as a way to trim the federal deficit. ‘We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,’ Ryan said during an interview on Ross Kaminsky's talk radio show.”
“Ryan said he’s been speaking privately with President Trump, who is beginning to warm to the idea of slowing the spending growth in entitlements. During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised not to cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.”
Republicans are also planning to take a swing at welfare reform: “Some House Republicans believe that Congress should cut Americans off government anti-poverty programs in part to help grow the national economy. … Other House Republicans similarly argued that there would be “no excuses” for poor Americans to need welfare once economic growth took hold. ‘Once we light this economy up, my brother, there’s going to be jobs for everybody. So there will be no excuses for anyone who can work to sit at home and not work,’ Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) said. ‘If we pass tax reform, we have to have welfare reform. When you have a vibrant economy, there’s no reason for Americans to suffer on welfare.’”
44margd
Sen. Corker was BOUGHT!! Corker, 13 GOP lawmakers, Trumps, Kushners all stand to benefit from last minute change to allow LLCs (limited liability companies) to deduct a % of pass through income. (Will we see Trump's tax returns now? Before and after tax changes?)
Donald Trump And GOP Leaders Could Be Enriched By Last Minute Tax Break Inserted Into Final Bill
David Sirota @davidsirota AND Josh Keefe | 12/15/17
The legislative language was not part of previous versions of the bill and was added...
The Trump organization and the Kushners...have overseen vast real estate empires, and top GOP lawmakers writing the tax bill collectively have tens of millions of dollars of ownership stakes in real-estate-related LLCs. The new tax provision would specifically allow owners of large real estate holdings through LLCs to deduct a percentage of their “pass through” income from their taxes, according to experts. Although Trump, who became famous for his real estate holdings, has transitioned into branding in recent years, federal records show Trump has ownership stakes in myriad LLCs.
... 13 GOP lawmakers directly sculpting the bill —including U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan — have between $36 million and $163 million worth of ownership stakes in real estate-related LLCs. Those entities generated between $2.6 million and $16 million in “pass through” income and could benefit from the new provision.
...Sen. Bob Corker, who was considered a potential “no” vote on the bill, abruptly switched his position upon the release of the final legislation. Federal records reviewed by IBT show that Corker has millions of dollars of ownership stakes in real-estate related LLCs that could also benefit...
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/donald-trump-gop-leaders-could-be-enric...
Donald Trump And GOP Leaders Could Be Enriched By Last Minute Tax Break Inserted Into Final Bill
David Sirota @davidsirota AND Josh Keefe | 12/15/17
The legislative language was not part of previous versions of the bill and was added...
The Trump organization and the Kushners...have overseen vast real estate empires, and top GOP lawmakers writing the tax bill collectively have tens of millions of dollars of ownership stakes in real-estate-related LLCs. The new tax provision would specifically allow owners of large real estate holdings through LLCs to deduct a percentage of their “pass through” income from their taxes, according to experts. Although Trump, who became famous for his real estate holdings, has transitioned into branding in recent years, federal records show Trump has ownership stakes in myriad LLCs.
... 13 GOP lawmakers directly sculpting the bill —including U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan — have between $36 million and $163 million worth of ownership stakes in real estate-related LLCs. Those entities generated between $2.6 million and $16 million in “pass through” income and could benefit from the new provision.
...Sen. Bob Corker, who was considered a potential “no” vote on the bill, abruptly switched his position upon the release of the final legislation. Federal records reviewed by IBT show that Corker has millions of dollars of ownership stakes in real-estate related LLCs that could also benefit...
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/donald-trump-gop-leaders-could-be-enric...
45rastaphrog
>44 margd: Corker denies he knew about the change, or that he's even read the bill for that matter.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/bob-corker-says-he-hasnt-read-tax-bill-and-deni...
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/bob-corker-says-he-hasnt-read-tax-bill-and-deni...
46margd
>45 rastaphrog: I hope so, but doubt it. I wondered why $ trillion + deficit became acceptable all of a sudden. And here I thought he was a principled conservative...
47sturlington
Tax Bill: John Cornyn Says Tax Cut Potentially Benefiting Bob Corker Was Part Of Effort To Secure Votes For Passage
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/tax-bill-john-cornyn-says-tax-cut-poten...
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the majority whip, on Sunday said a tax provision, which could personally enrich key Republican lawmakers, was added to the final tax bill as part of an effort to “cobble together the votes we needed to get this bill passed.” Cornyn was pressed about the provision on ABC’s "This Week," after an International Business Times investigation showed that Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee suddenly switched his vote to “yes” after GOP leaders added the provision, which could boost Corker’s real estate income. A top Democratic senator, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, responded to Cornyn’s explanation by saying the language put into the bill also “would be a windfall to Donald Trump.”
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/tax-bill-john-cornyn-says-tax-cut-poten...
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the majority whip, on Sunday said a tax provision, which could personally enrich key Republican lawmakers, was added to the final tax bill as part of an effort to “cobble together the votes we needed to get this bill passed.” Cornyn was pressed about the provision on ABC’s "This Week," after an International Business Times investigation showed that Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee suddenly switched his vote to “yes” after GOP leaders added the provision, which could boost Corker’s real estate income. A top Democratic senator, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, responded to Cornyn’s explanation by saying the language put into the bill also “would be a windfall to Donald Trump.”
48margd
In old days pork-barrel spending to buy votes went to the wooed pol's constituents or to otherwise ingratiate pols with voters. Conservatives abhorred the practice: http://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/report/how-congressional-earmarks-an...
In ToT (Time of Trump), benefits flow directly to lawmakers?
ETA______________________________________
@danpfeiffer Dan Pfeiffer:
There was a time when legislators traded their votes for benefits for their constituents, now they just take bribes to fatten their pockets
9:59 AM - 17 Dec 2017
In ToT (Time of Trump), benefits flow directly to lawmakers?
ETA______________________________________
@danpfeiffer Dan Pfeiffer:
There was a time when legislators traded their votes for benefits for their constituents, now they just take bribes to fatten their pockets
9:59 AM - 17 Dec 2017
49margd
GOP includes BEAT fix, drops nuclear credits in final tax bill
Gavin Bade | Dec. 15, 2017
Congressional Republicans on Friday released the text of a tax proposal that includes incentives for electric vehicles and wind power, as well as a fix to the so-called BEAT provision critical to renewable energy. Nuclear tax credits, however, were excluded from the bill.
The Senate’s version of the tax bill included a Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) provision that wind and solar companies said could prevent them from monetizing tax credits. Energy companies will now be able to offset 80% of that tax, and lawmakers also eliminated a corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT) energy interests said could stifle research and development spending.
...GOP leaders have indicated other energy incentives could be included in a separate tax extenders package early next year...
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/updated-gop-includes-beat-fix-drops-nuclear-cre...
ETA____________________________________
Who Saved US Electric Vehicle, Solar Energy, & Wind Energy Tax Credits?
Zachary Shahan | December 15th, 2017
...many members of Congress know there are wind, solar, and EV companies in their jurisdictions creating jobs that would be slammed by a sudden policy change and would threaten these politicians’ own job security as a result.
... (see maps) A couple of Republican senators unwilling to crush cleantech jobs in their states is all that was really needed to protect the tax credits — pollution industries couldn’t block a couple of senators outside of their power orbit from drawing a hard line on clean energy and EV tax credits.
...Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley...
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/12/15/saved-electric-vehicle-solar-energy-wind-en...
Gavin Bade | Dec. 15, 2017
Congressional Republicans on Friday released the text of a tax proposal that includes incentives for electric vehicles and wind power, as well as a fix to the so-called BEAT provision critical to renewable energy. Nuclear tax credits, however, were excluded from the bill.
The Senate’s version of the tax bill included a Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) provision that wind and solar companies said could prevent them from monetizing tax credits. Energy companies will now be able to offset 80% of that tax, and lawmakers also eliminated a corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT) energy interests said could stifle research and development spending.
...GOP leaders have indicated other energy incentives could be included in a separate tax extenders package early next year...
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/updated-gop-includes-beat-fix-drops-nuclear-cre...
ETA____________________________________
Who Saved US Electric Vehicle, Solar Energy, & Wind Energy Tax Credits?
Zachary Shahan | December 15th, 2017
...many members of Congress know there are wind, solar, and EV companies in their jurisdictions creating jobs that would be slammed by a sudden policy change and would threaten these politicians’ own job security as a result.
... (see maps) A couple of Republican senators unwilling to crush cleantech jobs in their states is all that was really needed to protect the tax credits — pollution industries couldn’t block a couple of senators outside of their power orbit from drawing a hard line on clean energy and EV tax credits.
...Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley...
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/12/15/saved-electric-vehicle-solar-energy-wind-en...
50Limelite
Richest 1% get 82% of the benefits of Republican tax bill as presented. American companies are choking on profits, are awash in cash, and prospering like it's 2008. The segment of our society that does not need stimulus is getting stimulated. As one Wall Street CEO put it, "That's like giving CPR to LeBron James."
Trump who swore on the campaign trail that his tax reform plan would punish him lied again. "This is going to cost me a fortune, this thing, believe me. This is not good for me," Au contraire! He benefits BIGLY from his party's tax bill.
Here's how Trump is enriched by the "reform."
Trump who swore on the campaign trail that his tax reform plan would punish him lied again. "This is going to cost me a fortune, this thing, believe me. This is not good for me," Au contraire! He benefits BIGLY from his party's tax bill.
Here's how Trump is enriched by the "reform."
51margd
And that's how it's done, boys and girls...
Top Corker Aide Could Reap Windfall From Controversial Real Estate Provision In Tax Bill
Andrew Perez, David Sirota, Josh Keefe | December 18, 2017
The top aide to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., has major investments in a real estate business that could benefit from a key provision slipped into the Republican tax bill that his boss will be voting on, according to federal documents reviewed by International Business Times and MapLight.
The records show Corker’s longtime chief of staff, Todd Womack, has increased his real estate investments in recent years while working as the senator’s top adviser. Womack’s limited liability corporation (LLC) generated at least $157,000 (as much as $480,200) in income in 2016, according to financial disclosure forms filed in May...
Corker...tax provision could save him as much as $1.2 million
Corker and Womack are not the only public officials who stand to benefit from the provision. President Trump...Republican congressional leaders and GOP lawmakers sitting on the committees overseeing the tax legislation...
The provision in the final bill was part of a larger 20 percent deduction for “pass-through” entities -- businesses that aren’t obligated to pay corporate taxes, but instead pass income onto partners, who are taxed at the personal level. While the Senate limited the deduction to pass-through businesses that paid out wages, the final version of the bill contained a controversial new provision that allows pass-throughs with large property holdings and no employees to get the deduction.
https://maplight.org/story/top-corker-aide-could-reap-windfall-from-controversia...
Top Corker Aide Could Reap Windfall From Controversial Real Estate Provision In Tax Bill
Andrew Perez, David Sirota, Josh Keefe | December 18, 2017
The top aide to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., has major investments in a real estate business that could benefit from a key provision slipped into the Republican tax bill that his boss will be voting on, according to federal documents reviewed by International Business Times and MapLight.
The records show Corker’s longtime chief of staff, Todd Womack, has increased his real estate investments in recent years while working as the senator’s top adviser. Womack’s limited liability corporation (LLC) generated at least $157,000 (as much as $480,200) in income in 2016, according to financial disclosure forms filed in May...
Corker...tax provision could save him as much as $1.2 million
Corker and Womack are not the only public officials who stand to benefit from the provision. President Trump...Republican congressional leaders and GOP lawmakers sitting on the committees overseeing the tax legislation...
The provision in the final bill was part of a larger 20 percent deduction for “pass-through” entities -- businesses that aren’t obligated to pay corporate taxes, but instead pass income onto partners, who are taxed at the personal level. While the Senate limited the deduction to pass-through businesses that paid out wages, the final version of the bill contained a controversial new provision that allows pass-throughs with large property holdings and no employees to get the deduction.
https://maplight.org/story/top-corker-aide-could-reap-windfall-from-controversia...
52margd
In addition to enriching certain pols, "it's a safe bet that tax lawyers will be arguing with IRS officials over how to interpret the complicated (pass-through) provision well into the future should the bill become law".
Orrin Hatch fesses up to special break in GOP tax bill that set off alarms
Benjy Sarlin | Dec 19, 2017
...A group of 13 tax experts, including (David Kamin, a professor at New York University School of Law), released a report warning that the large disparities between which businesses benefit from the final bill are likely to spark a new wave of tax avoidance strategies. Industries left out in the cold might try to spin off parts of their company to qualify or look to attach themselves to another company that meets the requirements...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/orrin-hatch-fesses-special-break-gop-t...
Orrin Hatch fesses up to special break in GOP tax bill that set off alarms
Benjy Sarlin | Dec 19, 2017
...A group of 13 tax experts, including (David Kamin, a professor at New York University School of Law), released a report warning that the large disparities between which businesses benefit from the final bill are likely to spark a new wave of tax avoidance strategies. Industries left out in the cold might try to spin off parts of their company to qualify or look to attach themselves to another company that meets the requirements...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/orrin-hatch-fesses-special-break-gop-t...
53margd
Repealing the Individual Health Insurance Mandate: An Updated Estimate
CBO Report | November 8, 2017
CBO and the JCT estimate that, by itself, repealing the mandate would reduce federal deficits by about $338 billion over the 2018–2027 period and increase the number of uninsured people by 4 million in 2019 and 13 million in 2027...
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53300
CBO Report | November 8, 2017
CBO and the JCT estimate that, by itself, repealing the mandate would reduce federal deficits by about $338 billion over the 2018–2027 period and increase the number of uninsured people by 4 million in 2019 and 13 million in 2027...
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53300
542wonderY
BBC News has some cautions
Will Trump's plans trigger a tax war?
The US may be about to set off an international tax war, as it moves to slash the corporate rate and overhaul the treatment of multinational firms.
and
But some of the new items - including a perk for exporters - may breach international rules and treaties.
and
Analysts said the provision might encourage firms to move important "tangible" investments, such as factories, abroad, since the bill exempts some of the profits gained from these from tax.
Will Trump's plans trigger a tax war?
The US may be about to set off an international tax war, as it moves to slash the corporate rate and overhaul the treatment of multinational firms.
and
But some of the new items - including a perk for exporters - may breach international rules and treaties.
and
Analysts said the provision might encourage firms to move important "tangible" investments, such as factories, abroad, since the bill exempts some of the profits gained from these from tax.
55margd
(14) Republican Senators Will Save Millions With Special Real-Estate Tax Break
Alex Kotch AND David Sirota AND Josh Keefe | 12/18/17
Bob Corker—TN
Steve Daines—MT
Lamar Alexander—TN
Ron Johnson—WI
Rob Portman—OH
James Risch—ID
Jim Inhofe—OK
John Kennedy—LA
Johnny Isakson—GA
John Barrasso—WY
Luther Strange—AL
Rand Paul—KY
Orrin Hatch—UT
John Hoeven—ND
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/republican-senators-will-save-millions-...
Alex Kotch AND David Sirota AND Josh Keefe | 12/18/17
Bob Corker—TN
Steve Daines—MT
Lamar Alexander—TN
Ron Johnson—WI
Rob Portman—OH
James Risch—ID
Jim Inhofe—OK
John Kennedy—LA
Johnny Isakson—GA
John Barrasso—WY
Luther Strange—AL
Rand Paul—KY
Orrin Hatch—UT
John Hoeven—ND
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/republican-senators-will-save-millions-...
56margd
The Republican tax bill got worse: now the top 1% gets 83% of the gains
In its last year, the bill raises taxes on more than 53 percent of Americans.
By Dylan Matthews | Dec 18, 2017, 4:01pm EST
By 2027, more than half of all Americans — 53 percent — would pay more in taxes under the tax bill agreed to by House and Senate Republicans, a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center finds. That year, 82.8 percent of the bill’s benefit would go to the top 1 percent, up from 62.1 under the Senate bill.
And even in the first years of the bill's implementation, when it’s an across-the-board tax cut, the benefits of the law would be heavily concentrated among the upper-middle and upper-class Americans, with nearly two-thirds of the benefit going to the richest fifth of Americans in 2018.
See Figure 1 at:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/18/16791174/republican-tax-bill-...
In its last year, the bill raises taxes on more than 53 percent of Americans.
By Dylan Matthews | Dec 18, 2017, 4:01pm EST
By 2027, more than half of all Americans — 53 percent — would pay more in taxes under the tax bill agreed to by House and Senate Republicans, a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center finds. That year, 82.8 percent of the bill’s benefit would go to the top 1 percent, up from 62.1 under the Senate bill.
And even in the first years of the bill's implementation, when it’s an across-the-board tax cut, the benefits of the law would be heavily concentrated among the upper-middle and upper-class Americans, with nearly two-thirds of the benefit going to the richest fifth of Americans in 2018.
See Figure 1 at:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/18/16791174/republican-tax-bill-...
57Limelite
Right wing euphemisms win again. This is a personal enrichment (Murkowski of AK indirectly enriched as her state will give more cash payouts to its citizens since the bill opens ANWR to drilling, "a dream decades in the making.")
Don't call it "Tax Reform," when it isn't. Call it "Tax Break Bribery," which it is.
Don't call it "Tax Reform," when it isn't. Call it "Tax Break Bribery," which it is.
58margd
Accountants and tax lawyers, rejoice!
Why You’ll Want to Turn Yourself Into an LLC Under the Republican Tax Plan
Jordan Weissmann | Dec. 14, 2017,
...under the Republican tax plan, highly paid professionals will want to turn themselves into LLCs in order to take advantage of special cuts for business owners.
...sets the stage for an enormous amount of tax chicanery, since someone who successfully sets themselves up as a “business owner” on paper will pay less in taxes than someone who doesn’t, even if they’re doing the exact same job for the exact same pay.
...we should expect well-paid professionals to play whatever tax games are necessary in order to qualify for the lower rate, whether it simply means making a personal LLC or trying a more complicated maneuver, like splitting a law firm into multiple pieces so that associates can be the “owners” of a separate partnership...Republicans have come up with a number of “guard rails” intended to stop these sorts of shenanigans...If they don’t (hold up), and a wide swath of wealthy Americans start slashing their IRS bills by posing as business owners, this legislation could end up an even more expensive drain on the treasury than any of the official scores have predicted.
https://slate.com/business/2017/12/why-youll-want-to-turn-yourself-into-a-busine...
_____________________________________________________________
IF highly paid pros convert to LLCs?? Whether and how-to already being discussed in business papers!
Why You’ll Want to Turn Yourself Into an LLC Under the Republican Tax Plan
Jordan Weissmann | Dec. 14, 2017,
...under the Republican tax plan, highly paid professionals will want to turn themselves into LLCs in order to take advantage of special cuts for business owners.
...sets the stage for an enormous amount of tax chicanery, since someone who successfully sets themselves up as a “business owner” on paper will pay less in taxes than someone who doesn’t, even if they’re doing the exact same job for the exact same pay.
...we should expect well-paid professionals to play whatever tax games are necessary in order to qualify for the lower rate, whether it simply means making a personal LLC or trying a more complicated maneuver, like splitting a law firm into multiple pieces so that associates can be the “owners” of a separate partnership...Republicans have come up with a number of “guard rails” intended to stop these sorts of shenanigans...If they don’t (hold up), and a wide swath of wealthy Americans start slashing their IRS bills by posing as business owners, this legislation could end up an even more expensive drain on the treasury than any of the official scores have predicted.
https://slate.com/business/2017/12/why-youll-want-to-turn-yourself-into-a-busine...
_____________________________________________________________
IF highly paid pros convert to LLCs?? Whether and how-to already being discussed in business papers!
59margd
Here we Carrier again!
The tortured truth behind Wells Fargo's 'Trump tax cut' minimum wage raise
Eric Rosenbaum | Dec 23, 2017
...Wells Fargo was among the corporations out this week to say it was raising its minimum wage to $15 due to the tax cuts.
...(Dec 8) Reuters report headlined "Wells Fargo sanctions are on ice under Trump"...alleged that Mulvaney might go easy on the bank rather than force it to pay tens of millions of dollars in fines for questionable mortgage fees...
...I ran some of my own questions about the bank's motivations by employment experts and a bank CEO. Here's what they told me.
1. If the tax cuts were the reason that Wells Fargo raised its minimum wage, that means the bank's management was able to read and absorb a 1,500-page document that only became available in the past few days and has multiple issues that can help or hurt banks within it, and reach a definitive conclusion to quickly raise wages across the country....
2. In fact, the plans were not only in the works but previously announced plans by Wells Fargo meant some minimum-wage workers were already receiving more than $15...
3. The overall environment for banks is a good one, with interest rates likely to continue to rise, and that would have been a boon to bank profits regardless of tax cuts....
4. Many of the worker complaints related to the predatory sales and fake account allegations that still surround Wells Fargo attribute the pressures workers faced to wages that were so low it compelled them to take questionable steps to open more accounts...
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/23/wells-fargos-minimum-wage-raise-on-tax-cut-has-t...
____________________________________________________________________________________
AT&T, Comcast giving $1,000 bonuses to hundreds of thousands of workers after tax bill
Anita Balakrishnan | Ari Levy | Updated 12:21 PM ET Thu, 21 Dec 2017
AT&T is paying bonuses of $1,000 to more than 200,000 U.S. (union) employees.
AT&T's CEO said it was in response to tax reform...
...Many AT&T workers already expected to receive 10 percent raises and $1,000 lump-sum back wages as a result of an agreement announced last week.
AT&T told CNBC the bonuses announced on Wednesday are above and beyond any existing agreements, which means some workers would get two $1,000 allocations: One with a new contract, and one when the tax reform bill is signed.
...AT&T had previously said that it would invest $1 billion in the U.S. if "competitive" tax reform legislation was passed
...T&T's tax reform announcement comes a month after the Justice Department challenged AT&T's pending merger with Time Warner. Trump has said the deal is "not good for the country" because it might make prices increase.
On the other hand, AT&T stands to be a potential beneficiary of another recent move by the Trump administration: the FCC's repeal of net neutrality regulation...
Later in the day, cable and media company Comcast made a similar move: it announced it would give special $1,000 bonuses "based on the passage of tax reform and the FCC's action on broadband." Those bonuses would apply to more than 100,000 employees that are eligible and not in executive roles....
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/20/tax-reform-reaction-att-is-giving-bonuses-to-200...
_________________________________________________________________________________
HohoNOT!
Hundreds of AT&T workers reportedly laid off
Dec. 22, 2017
...Dallas-based AT&T is laying off hundreds of workers, according to news reports. Citing anonymous sources, the Chicago Tribune said about 600 workers from retail sales clerks to satellite technicians were notified of the layoffs last week.
Advertisement
Marty Richter of AT&T said the company is adding employees where there's high customer demand and adjusting its workforce under services in decline. The company refused to identify numbers and locations.
"Many of the affected employees have a job offer guarantee that ensures they'll be offered another job with the company," Richter said in a statement...
http://www.kcra.com/article/hundreds-of-atandt-workers-reportedly-laid-off/14489...
The tortured truth behind Wells Fargo's 'Trump tax cut' minimum wage raise
Eric Rosenbaum | Dec 23, 2017
...Wells Fargo was among the corporations out this week to say it was raising its minimum wage to $15 due to the tax cuts.
...(Dec 8) Reuters report headlined "Wells Fargo sanctions are on ice under Trump"...alleged that Mulvaney might go easy on the bank rather than force it to pay tens of millions of dollars in fines for questionable mortgage fees...
...I ran some of my own questions about the bank's motivations by employment experts and a bank CEO. Here's what they told me.
1. If the tax cuts were the reason that Wells Fargo raised its minimum wage, that means the bank's management was able to read and absorb a 1,500-page document that only became available in the past few days and has multiple issues that can help or hurt banks within it, and reach a definitive conclusion to quickly raise wages across the country....
2. In fact, the plans were not only in the works but previously announced plans by Wells Fargo meant some minimum-wage workers were already receiving more than $15...
3. The overall environment for banks is a good one, with interest rates likely to continue to rise, and that would have been a boon to bank profits regardless of tax cuts....
4. Many of the worker complaints related to the predatory sales and fake account allegations that still surround Wells Fargo attribute the pressures workers faced to wages that were so low it compelled them to take questionable steps to open more accounts...
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/23/wells-fargos-minimum-wage-raise-on-tax-cut-has-t...
____________________________________________________________________________________
AT&T, Comcast giving $1,000 bonuses to hundreds of thousands of workers after tax bill
Anita Balakrishnan | Ari Levy | Updated 12:21 PM ET Thu, 21 Dec 2017
AT&T is paying bonuses of $1,000 to more than 200,000 U.S. (union) employees.
AT&T's CEO said it was in response to tax reform...
...Many AT&T workers already expected to receive 10 percent raises and $1,000 lump-sum back wages as a result of an agreement announced last week.
AT&T told CNBC the bonuses announced on Wednesday are above and beyond any existing agreements, which means some workers would get two $1,000 allocations: One with a new contract, and one when the tax reform bill is signed.
...AT&T had previously said that it would invest $1 billion in the U.S. if "competitive" tax reform legislation was passed
...T&T's tax reform announcement comes a month after the Justice Department challenged AT&T's pending merger with Time Warner. Trump has said the deal is "not good for the country" because it might make prices increase.
On the other hand, AT&T stands to be a potential beneficiary of another recent move by the Trump administration: the FCC's repeal of net neutrality regulation...
Later in the day, cable and media company Comcast made a similar move: it announced it would give special $1,000 bonuses "based on the passage of tax reform and the FCC's action on broadband." Those bonuses would apply to more than 100,000 employees that are eligible and not in executive roles....
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/20/tax-reform-reaction-att-is-giving-bonuses-to-200...
_________________________________________________________________________________
HohoNOT!
Hundreds of AT&T workers reportedly laid off
Dec. 22, 2017
...Dallas-based AT&T is laying off hundreds of workers, according to news reports. Citing anonymous sources, the Chicago Tribune said about 600 workers from retail sales clerks to satellite technicians were notified of the layoffs last week.
Advertisement
Marty Richter of AT&T said the company is adding employees where there's high customer demand and adjusting its workforce under services in decline. The company refused to identify numbers and locations.
"Many of the affected employees have a job offer guarantee that ensures they'll be offered another job with the company," Richter said in a statement...
http://www.kcra.com/article/hundreds-of-atandt-workers-reportedly-laid-off/14489...
60margd
Charitable giving could drop by $21 billion a year because of the tax changes
Patrick Rooney | Dec 23, 2017 7:10 a.m. ET
...Individuals and families during their lifetimes Decline of at least $13.1 billion
Estates of the deceased Decline of at least $7 billion
Corporations Decline of at least $1.3 billion...
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/charitable-giving-could-drop-by-21-billion-a-y...
__________________________________________________________
Patrick Rooney | Dec 23, 2017 7:10 a.m. ET
...Individuals and families during their lifetimes Decline of at least $13.1 billion
Estates of the deceased Decline of at least $7 billion
Corporations Decline of at least $1.3 billion...
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/charitable-giving-could-drop-by-21-billion-a-y...
__________________________________________________________
612wonderY
**news flash**
Trump tells the absolute truth:
Trump told friends at Mar A Lago: "You just got a lot richer."
Trump tells the absolute truth:
Trump told friends at Mar A Lago: "You just got a lot richer."
62margd
Trump’s Tax Cut Was Supposed to Change Corporate Behavior. Here’s What Happened.
Jim Tankersley and Matt Phillips | Nov. 12, 2018
Nearly a year after the tax cut, economic growth has accelerated. Wage growth has not. Companies are buying back stock and business investment is a mixed bag.
...Ten months after the law took effect, that promised “supply-side” bump is harder to find than the sugar-high stimulus. It’s still early, but here’s what the numbers tell us so far:
The Investment Bump
The Buyback Binge
Debts and Deficits
Bonus Announcements
The Wage Story
Nearly a year after the cuts were signed into law, wage growth has yet to pick up when accounting for inflation. In September, the Labor Department reported that inflation-adjusted wages had risen 0.5 percent from the year before. That’s a slower rate of growth than the economy itself experienced in September 2017, when it was 0.6 percent...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/business/economy/trumps-tax-cut-was-supposed-...
Jim Tankersley and Matt Phillips | Nov. 12, 2018
Nearly a year after the tax cut, economic growth has accelerated. Wage growth has not. Companies are buying back stock and business investment is a mixed bag.
...Ten months after the law took effect, that promised “supply-side” bump is harder to find than the sugar-high stimulus. It’s still early, but here’s what the numbers tell us so far:
The Investment Bump
The Buyback Binge
Debts and Deficits
Bonus Announcements
The Wage Story
Nearly a year after the cuts were signed into law, wage growth has yet to pick up when accounting for inflation. In September, the Labor Department reported that inflation-adjusted wages had risen 0.5 percent from the year before. That’s a slower rate of growth than the economy itself experienced in September 2017, when it was 0.6 percent...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/business/economy/trumps-tax-cut-was-supposed-...
63lriley
Funny how GM has taken its tax cuts and turned around and cut several plants and about 15,000 jobs. When Gary Cohn his then treasury secretary held his seminar on the Trump tax plan and asked all the corporate big wigs gathered round whether they'd reinvest those cuts into expanding their labor force almost none of them said they would and as was predictable from that--that has come to pass. They put those cuts in their own and their investor's pockets. Basically GM played Trump for an idiot and now the president is talking about fictional steel plants that have re-opened and a BMW engine assembly plant like it's for real instead of in an investigatory stage which has been off and on for about 5 years.
The businessman does not know how to run an economy. He needs help and is too proud of his intellectual capacity to ask for it. The next two years don't look to me like they're going to be anything like the first two years as far as our economy growing---not that it was that great the first two years. Not just Trump but a few of his predecessors before him were masters at creating low wage jobs and exaggerating them out of proportion which is why we've got a growing living wage movement. These GM jobs though were very good ones and are fundamentally important to many more jobs dependent on those auto plants that are likely to go away too. 15,000 jobs could easily turn into 70,000. As well this is Ohio and Michigan two states that Trump will need very badly in 2020. But to go further his tariffs also look they are going to create a lot more bad than good. If the economy hits the skids he's got nothing to hang his hat on.
Here's Sherrod Brown today--Ohio's democratic Senator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11yPyrqNcMQ
The businessman does not know how to run an economy. He needs help and is too proud of his intellectual capacity to ask for it. The next two years don't look to me like they're going to be anything like the first two years as far as our economy growing---not that it was that great the first two years. Not just Trump but a few of his predecessors before him were masters at creating low wage jobs and exaggerating them out of proportion which is why we've got a growing living wage movement. These GM jobs though were very good ones and are fundamentally important to many more jobs dependent on those auto plants that are likely to go away too. 15,000 jobs could easily turn into 70,000. As well this is Ohio and Michigan two states that Trump will need very badly in 2020. But to go further his tariffs also look they are going to create a lot more bad than good. If the economy hits the skids he's got nothing to hang his hat on.
Here's Sherrod Brown today--Ohio's democratic Senator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11yPyrqNcMQ
64margd
Bob Cesca @bobcesca_go (Salon etc.)| 10:28 AM - 12 Jul 2019:
Barack Obama presided over a nearly $1 trillion reduction in the budget deficit, from $1.4 trillion to $585 billion.
By the end of his first term, Donald Trump, who bankrupted 5 casinos,
will have almost entirely reversed that with a deficit of $1.1 trillion by the end of 2020.
Barack Obama presided over a nearly $1 trillion reduction in the budget deficit, from $1.4 trillion to $585 billion.
By the end of his first term, Donald Trump, who bankrupted 5 casinos,
will have almost entirely reversed that with a deficit of $1.1 trillion by the end of 2020.
65Limelite
Trump "populism" means pandering to the plutocrats.
The common man thinks he got a real tax break because he paid less when he filed his 1040 on a tax day in April. He forgets that he paid more in withholding every pay period throughout the year.
However, the delicious irony may be that Trump, the orange complected, may find himself in a clashing jumpsuit during the 2020s over his suspected tax evasion/fraud, being pursued by the SDNY and now the House investigations into his tax returns.
The common man thinks he got a real tax break because he paid less when he filed his 1040 on a tax day in April. He forgets that he paid more in withholding every pay period throughout the year.
However, the delicious irony may be that Trump, the orange complected, may find himself in a clashing jumpsuit during the 2020s over his suspected tax evasion/fraud, being pursued by the SDNY and now the House investigations into his tax returns.
66margd
Joe Scarborough @JoeNBC | 5:03 PM · Oct 25, 2019
The most reckless fiscal spree in US history during a period of growth! Trump’s GOP spends your money like drunken socialists. #BigGovernmentRepublicans
Federal Budget Deficit Swelled to Nearly $1 Trillion in 2019
Alan Rappeport | Oct. 25, 2019
WASHINGTON — The United States federal budget deficit jumped 26 percent in the 2019 fiscal year to $984 billion, reaching its highest level in seven years as the government was forced to borrow more money to pay for President Trump’s tax and spending policies, official figures showed on Friday...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/us/politics/us-federal-budget-deficit.html
The most reckless fiscal spree in US history during a period of growth! Trump’s GOP spends your money like drunken socialists. #BigGovernmentRepublicans
Federal Budget Deficit Swelled to Nearly $1 Trillion in 2019
Alan Rappeport | Oct. 25, 2019
WASHINGTON — The United States federal budget deficit jumped 26 percent in the 2019 fiscal year to $984 billion, reaching its highest level in seven years as the government was forced to borrow more money to pay for President Trump’s tax and spending policies, official figures showed on Friday...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/us/politics/us-federal-budget-deficit.html
67LolaWalser
spends your money like drunken socialists.
I'd rather have socialists spending my money on drunken socialist madness like health, education, infrastructure, culture then Scarborough's trumpoidal pals siphoning it directly into their well-fattened wallets. Disingenuous bastard. He thinks he'll needle these robbers by calling them "socialists". A rotisserie spit wouldn't get through those hides.
I'd rather have socialists spending my money on drunken socialist madness like health, education, infrastructure, culture then Scarborough's trumpoidal pals siphoning it directly into their well-fattened wallets. Disingenuous bastard. He thinks he'll needle these robbers by calling them "socialists". A rotisserie spit wouldn't get through those hides.
68margd
Richard Hine @richardhine | 3:13 PM · Jan 28, 2020:
BREAKING: United States of America now on track to become 7th bankruptcy of Trump’s career
US budget deficit to break $1 trillion in fiscal 2020, CBO says
Jeff Cox | Jan 28 2020
The U.S. budget deficit is on track to break $1 trillion in 2020, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.
That estimate is a slight increase from the August 2019 projection and comes with a GDP growth estimate of 2.2%...
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/28/us-budget-deficit-to-break-1-trillion-in-fiscal-...
BREAKING: United States of America now on track to become 7th bankruptcy of Trump’s career
US budget deficit to break $1 trillion in fiscal 2020, CBO says
Jeff Cox | Jan 28 2020
The U.S. budget deficit is on track to break $1 trillion in 2020, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.
That estimate is a slight increase from the August 2019 projection and comes with a GDP growth estimate of 2.2%...
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/28/us-budget-deficit-to-break-1-trillion-in-fiscal-...
69margd
Trump slashes foreign aid, cuts safety net programs in new budget proposal
Jeff Mason | February 9, 2020
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will propose on Monday a 21% cut in foreign aid and slashes to social safety-net programs in his $4.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2021, according to senior administration officials.
The budget would spend money to fund infrastructure projects and defense, but would also raise funds by targeting $2 trillion in savings from mandatory spending programs in the United States. It assumes revenues around $3.7 trillion.
...Trump...will seek $2 billion in funding for further construction on that project, substantially less than the $8.6 billion he requested a year ago.
The budget seeks money to fund a U.S. infrastructure overhaul that both Democrats and Republicans have said is a priority. The two sides are unlikely to agree on any major legislation this year, though, as they fight for control of the White House and Congress in the November elections.
...Trump’s foreign aid proposal seeks $44.1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, compared with $55.7 billion enacted in fiscal 2020, an administration official said.
The White House proposes to slash spending by $4.4 trillion over 10 years.
In the fiscal-year 2021 budget, that would include $130 billion from changes to prescription-drug pricing for the Medicare program for older Americans, $292 billion from cuts in safety-net programs - such as work requirements for the Medicaid program for the poor, and food stamps - and $70 billion from clamping down on eligibility rules for federal disability benefits....
The U.S. government ended fiscal 2019 with the largest budget deficit in seven years as gains in tax receipts were offset by higher spending and growing debt-service payments
Aid to Ukraine would remain at its 2020 levels...
...Trump would request an increase in funding for the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to $700 million from $150 million the previous year, an effort to counter developing economic threats from China and Russia.
The budget also proposes $1.1 billion for cybersecurity efforts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-budget-idUSKBN2030PV
Jeff Mason | February 9, 2020
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will propose on Monday a 21% cut in foreign aid and slashes to social safety-net programs in his $4.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2021, according to senior administration officials.
The budget would spend money to fund infrastructure projects and defense, but would also raise funds by targeting $2 trillion in savings from mandatory spending programs in the United States. It assumes revenues around $3.7 trillion.
...Trump...will seek $2 billion in funding for further construction on that project, substantially less than the $8.6 billion he requested a year ago.
The budget seeks money to fund a U.S. infrastructure overhaul that both Democrats and Republicans have said is a priority. The two sides are unlikely to agree on any major legislation this year, though, as they fight for control of the White House and Congress in the November elections.
...Trump’s foreign aid proposal seeks $44.1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, compared with $55.7 billion enacted in fiscal 2020, an administration official said.
The White House proposes to slash spending by $4.4 trillion over 10 years.
In the fiscal-year 2021 budget, that would include $130 billion from changes to prescription-drug pricing for the Medicare program for older Americans, $292 billion from cuts in safety-net programs - such as work requirements for the Medicaid program for the poor, and food stamps - and $70 billion from clamping down on eligibility rules for federal disability benefits....
The U.S. government ended fiscal 2019 with the largest budget deficit in seven years as gains in tax receipts were offset by higher spending and growing debt-service payments
Aid to Ukraine would remain at its 2020 levels...
...Trump would request an increase in funding for the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to $700 million from $150 million the previous year, an effort to counter developing economic threats from China and Russia.
The budget also proposes $1.1 billion for cybersecurity efforts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-budget-idUSKBN2030PV
70margd
Trump to Spend $5.4 Trillion in 2021
Chris Edwards | February 10, 2020 2:18PM
President Trump’s new budget projects that federal spending will rise to $4.83 trillion in fiscal year 2021. When Trump came into office in 2017, spending was $3.98 trillion. In just four years under this president, spending will be up $850 billion, or 21 percent.
In reality, however, federal spending in 2021 will be more than $4.83 trillion. That figure is “net” outlays, but “gross” outlays will be $5.41 trillion, as shown in the chart. Reporters and budget wonks usually use the net figure, but the gross figure is the government’s actual total spending.
The difference is “offsetting collections” and “offsetting receipts” from the public. These revenues are netted against spending at either the program level, agency level, or government‐wide level. Some examples are national park fees, postal service revenues, and Medicare premiums. There are hundreds of such cash inflows to the government that are deducted from spending before reaching the widely reported net. ..
(See chart at) https://www.cato.org/blog/trump-spend-54-trillion-2021
Chris Edwards | February 10, 2020 2:18PM
President Trump’s new budget projects that federal spending will rise to $4.83 trillion in fiscal year 2021. When Trump came into office in 2017, spending was $3.98 trillion. In just four years under this president, spending will be up $850 billion, or 21 percent.
In reality, however, federal spending in 2021 will be more than $4.83 trillion. That figure is “net” outlays, but “gross” outlays will be $5.41 trillion, as shown in the chart. Reporters and budget wonks usually use the net figure, but the gross figure is the government’s actual total spending.
The difference is “offsetting collections” and “offsetting receipts” from the public. These revenues are netted against spending at either the program level, agency level, or government‐wide level. Some examples are national park fees, postal service revenues, and Medicare premiums. There are hundreds of such cash inflows to the government that are deducted from spending before reaching the widely reported net. ..
(See chart at) https://www.cato.org/blog/trump-spend-54-trillion-2021
71margd
David Frum @davidfrum | 10:40 AM · Feb 18, 2020:
To put it another way, relative to the size of the US economy,
Trump's deficits will require more borrowing than fighting and winning the Second World War - all per CBO.
Image ( https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1229792690612645888/photo/1 )
To put it another way, relative to the size of the US economy,
Trump's deficits will require more borrowing than fighting and winning the Second World War - all per CBO.
Image ( https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1229792690612645888/photo/1 )
