A Tax-Cut Bill to Make Scrooge McDuck Proud
The Republican tax proposals were bad from the get-go. But they have become steadily worse as they have been turned into bills, which seem so cartoonishly evil they could have been dreamed up by Mr. Burns from “The Simpsons.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, his wife, Louise Linton, and a few of their favorite things.
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Consider the latest changes to the Senate tax-cut bill being championed by the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and his merry band. It lavishes generous permanent tax breaks on corporations, while modest tax cuts for the middle class would vanish into thin air after 2025. Millionaires would enjoy average tax cuts of $5,580 in 2027, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, at which point families earning less than $75,000 a year would pay more taxes.
Let that sink in. This tax bill would take money from working families and give it to the world’s wealthiest people.
The hardest hit would be in high-cost states like California, New Jersey and New York because the bill gets rid of important deductions and the credit for state and local taxes.
Further, it calls for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for most people to have health insurance. This would leave 13 million people without insurance and drive up premiums for many others who are already struggling to afford coverage, all in the interest of reducing spending by $338 billion so Republican lawmakers can cut taxes for big businesses, despite Democratic opposition.
And if that weren’t bad enough, this bill, along with a similar measure that the House passed on Thursday with lightning speed, would, because of a 2010 budget law, trigger automatic cuts to Medicare and other important programs that low-income and middle-class Americans depend on. All told, the bills would add more than a trillion dollars to the federal debt for future generations to pay off.
What is this in service of? Republicans claim their big corporate tax cut will turbocharge the economy by encouraging businesses to invest, create jobs and give raises. Not even business chieftains believe this trickle-down argument. When an editor at The Wall Street Journal asked a gathering of chief executives this week if they would invest more if Congress enacted the Republican tax cut, few hands went up. Gary Cohn, President Trump’s top economic adviser, who was a featured guest on stage at the time, seemed befuddled. “Why aren’t the other hands up?” he said.
Republicans are pushing ahead to show their donors they can accomplish something, particularly letting them keep more of their money. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina captured this spirit when he said “the financial contributions will stop” if Congress fails to pass a tax cut. The party has made clear where its values lie. Well-heeled campaign funders matter. Middle-class families don’t.
The opposition of Mr. Johnson, Ms. Collins and others has raised hopes that a handful of Republican senators can be persuaded to torpedo this tax-cut bill in the same way that three of them sent the effort to repeal the A.C.A. down to defeat a few months ago.
It still boggles the mind that any lawmaker could support a proposal that would do so much damage to working people and the fiscal health of the government.
The administration’s cluelessness about how working people might see this cynical play for the rich was confirmed a day later when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, were photographed with a sheet of freshly printed one-dollar bills with his signature, smirking like a couple of Disney villains.
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The Trump FaithfulTM are amazing.
They want to raise their own taxes so the already-rich can be even richer... They want to get rid of their health-care so that the already-rich can be even richer.
Amazing!
Sure, Trump's family will benefit to the tune of billions and the top 2% will get an average of $38,000 in annual giveaways in this tax bill, but the bottom 60% will save $1200 a year! Woo hoo! Sounds like a winner! Oh, and don't forget the biggest winners, corporations! I mean, they're people too and stand to lower their effective tax rate of 18.2% down to 10% or even lower because virtually none of the loopholes like carried interest are being closed! Now more corporations than ever will actually pay an effective tax rate of 0% putting the entire burden of our military and infrastructure on the middle class! Doesn't that sound awesome?! /s
It's why Trump and Republicans have been courting the poorly educated. Only a half wit who dropped out of high school would ever believe this tax cut would be a good thing for the middle class. The top 2% are well educated and KNOW it won't be a good thing for the middle class but they couldn't care less because of all the presents they get in the bill.
This is why the Cut Cut Cut Bill (as Krugman calls it) is apparently very unpopular with the upper middle class. They are well-enough informed to understand that they are going to get screwed.
Screwing the middle- and upper-middle classes is necessary if the GOP want to avoid a catastrophic budget deficit. There simply isn't enough money available among the lower- and lower-middle classes to balance the astronomical sums the Republicans want to funnel to their masters. They have no choice but to screw the upper-middle class... who are understandably unhappy...