Why Progressives Can’t Understand How the Corporate Tax Cut is Fueling Our Booming Economy
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
George Orwell was correct: “Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.” The corollary, that some ideas are so obviously correct that only intellectuals disbelieve them, is equally true.
Consider these simple facts.
First, more Americans in 2018 are working than last year. In fact, as of the latest jobs report , American unemployment remains at just 3.7%, which is a 49-year-low.
Second, that larger percentage of working Americans are generally earning more income and enjoying stronger benefits today, given that “wages were 3.1% higher in September than they were a year ago,” the report shows -- the highest wage growth since 2009. Additionally, larger private employers, “in this environment… are more apt to provide competitive wages and strong benefits” to entice and retain talent, writes Dominic Rushe of The Guardian.
Finally, consider that most Americans are also withholding much less in taxes upon their wages this year than last, leaving more money in their pockets to save, or to spend on everyday goods and services. Roughly 90% of Americans saw bigger paychecks in 2018 than they did in 2017, and even left-of-left Politifact, unable to meaningfully obfuscate or refute the claim, rates that claim as “Mostly True.”
That’s all good for American workers. And this economy, by any measure, is booming.
Contrast this to the hyper-regulated economy over which Barack Obama presided, which could rightfully be described as the worst economic recovery in modern times. Obama famously told Americans that 2% growth was “the best we could hope for” in the last years of his presidency, and GDP growth was actually decelerating in his final year in office, from “2.3% in Q2, to 1.9% in Q3 to 1.8% in Q4 of 2016,” relates an Investor’s Business Daily editorial.
That simple fact firmly contradicts Obama’s 2018 campaign speeches claiming credit for this booming economy -- under Trump’s presidency and a GOP Congress, growth has averaged at 2.9%, and was 4.2% in Q2, and 3.8% in Q3 of 2018.
In short, the economy was clearly in decline by Obama’s last year in office. It was only when Trump took over with a Republican Congress in 2017 that the economy began our current boom.
It’s hard to imagine a downside to any of the aforementioned outcomes for Americans today. But the loudest and most prominent leftists imagine circumstances very different than all of that positive economic data signifies. Due to a persistent logical fallacy, maintained by blind faith alone, leading figures among the left are screaming from the ramparts that the Republican-led Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 should be a reason for Americans’ outrage. As Paul Krugman argues in a recent article at the New York Times:
Republicans lie about their agenda, pretending that their policies would help the middle and working classes when they would, in fact, do the opposite….
What Republicans stand for is cutting taxes on the rich and slashing social programs. Sure enough, last year they succeeded in ramming through huge tax cuts aimed mainly at corporations and the wealthy.
Paul Krugman as seen by Donkey Hotey
No data are introduced to support that claim. The reader is meant to blindly presume that the phantom downside of Americans enjoying an unemployment rate lower than at any time since 1969, having more money in their pockets due to smaller liability in federal taxation, and reaping the benefits of a booming economy (none of which is mentioned in Krugman’s piece, obviously) is that greedy American businesses also benefit from the tax cuts by having more money on their balance sheets. Therefore, the corporate tax cuts which help greedy and wealthy American businesses must come at the expense of American individuals.
Never does it occur to most opponents of the GOP tax cut that American individuals are largely doing better today than a year ago because American businesses are also doing better.
And it likewise never occurs to them that business owners do not pay the corporate tax, which was reduced from 35% to 21% in the GOP tax legislation, but that businesses merely tend to pass the costs of corporate taxation onward.
As famed economist Walter E. Williams elucidates , a “fact of the matter, which even leftist economists understand but might not publicly admit,” is that:
If a tax is levied on a corporation, and if the corporation hopes to survive, it will have one of three responses to that tax or some combination thereof. It will raise the price of its product, lower dividends or lay off workers. In each case a flesh-and-blood person is made worse off. The important point is that a corporation is a legal fiction and as such does not pay taxes. As it turns out, corporations are merely tax collectors for the government . [Emphasis added]
It's possible that Krugman doesn’t understand this simple truth, but it’s likelier that he understands it, but won’t “publicly admit” it, as Williams says, because he views corporations as “tax collectors for the government” which exist only to finance the government’s redistributive social programs.
That is a leftist moral argument, not a substantive or realistic economic one.
But here’s another enormous, though less obvious, benefit of the GOP’s slashing of corporate tax rates that Krugman wouldn’t want to (and doesn’t, for obvious reasons) talk about -- the massive repatriation of American companies’ capital and operations that had been kept overseas to avoid our previously uncompetitive 35% corporate tax (then among the highest in the developed world).
To put this in perspective, consider that $38 billion repatriated to the U.S. in Q1 of 2017. While that’s certainly not chump change, it is miniscule by comparison to the $300 billion that was repatriated in Q1 of 2018, after the Republican tax cuts.
But we were warned by the smartest of criers in the media, incessantly, that this simply wouldn’t happen. Politifact told us to “Beware the Hype” about repatriation of overseas profits promised by architects of the GOP tax bill. The Associated Press offered a “FACT CHECK,” saying that the idea that overseas profits might return after a corporate tax cut was a “mirage.”
Why? Because those assumptions were based upon one report , focused on one recent event.
The Jobs Creation Act of 2004 provided companies a one-time tax hit on repatriated capital at a rate of 5.25% rather than the then-standard 35%. There was a spike in repatriation of capital, but it didn’t have the desired effect, and certainly not the effect Republicans promised in 2017. “Those companies tended to buy back shares of their own stock, not to hire, or expand operations,” the Associated Press writes . Just as the 2004 corporate tax cut’s impact to the economy was “minimal,” says Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics, the benefit to the economy with the 2017 GOP tax cuts would also be “minimal,” as “repatriated cash would go to more stock repurchases, dividend increases, and paying for mergers and acquisitions.”
And yet, new data tells a different story. Americans companies had an estimated $2.6 trillion in cash parked overseas as of 2017. And $300 billion, or roughly 12.6%, came “flooding back in, boosting growth, jobs, and the economy.”
And that is mostly predicated upon one, simple difference between 2004 and 2017. In 2004, lowering corporate rates was a gimmick to repatriate business capital. In 2017, it was firm national policy, including a much lower corporate income tax rate, which would be beneficial to repatriating American businesses in the long-term.
Despite the left’s propensity to think of American businesses as soulless, greedy revenue factories which exist only to finance the benevolent federal government’s social programs, as Paul Krugman clearly seems to, American businesses know the difference between such a gimmick and the suggestion of a firm, ongoing national policy. As such, American businesses have repatriated overseas capital at unprecedented levels, have hired tremendously, and have “expanded operations” domestically. Private companies are now offering more competitive employee benefits to American workers, employees’ wages are growing at the fastest rate since the Great Recession, and unemployment is now the lowest it has been since the Vietnam War.
None of that is coincidence.
And I’m not sure which would be more aggravating about all of this for me -- that the left thinks that the booming economy and the Republican tax cuts might just be coincidental happenstance, or that the left might actually believe that any of these observations are somehow a bad thing for Americans, and that Trump and the GOP must be destroyed at all costs for having created this splendid outcome.
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“Consider these simple facts.
First, more Americans in 2018 are working than last year. In fact, as of the latest jobs report, American unemployment remains at just 3.7%, which is a 49-year-low.
Second, that larger percentage of working Americans are generally earning more income and enjoying stronger benefits today, given that “wages were 3.1% higher in September than they were a year ago,” the report shows -- the highest wage growth since 2009. Additionally, larger private employers, “in this environment… are more apt to provide competitive wages and strong benefits” to entice and retain talent, writes Dominic Rushe of The Guardian.
Finally, consider that most Americans are also withholding much less in taxes upon their wages this year than last, leaving more money in their pockets to save, or to spend on everyday goods and services. Roughly 90% of Americans saw bigger paychecks in 2018 than they did in 2017, and even left-of-left Politifact, unable to meaningfully obfuscate or refute the claim, rates that claim as “Mostly True.”
That’s all good for American workers. And this economy, by any measure, is booming.
Contrast this to the hyper-regulated economy over which Barack Obama presided, which could rightfully be described as the worst economic recovery in modern times. Obama famously told Americans that 2% growth was “the best we could hope for” in the last years of his presidency, and GDP growth was actually decelerating in his final year in office, from “2.3% in Q2, to 1.9% in Q3 to 1.8% in Q4 of 2016,” relatesan Investor’s Business Daily editorial.
That simple fact firmly contradicts Obama’s 2018 campaign speeches claiming credit for this booming economy -- under Trump’s presidency and a GOP Congress, growth has averaged at 2.9%, and was4.2% in Q2, and 3.8% in Q3 of 2018.
In short, the economy was clearly in decline by Obama’s last year in office. It was only when Trump took over with a Republican Congress in 2017 that the economy began our current boom.”
You really have to stretch facts to make them fit this ridiculous narrative.
" That simple fact firmly contradicts Obama’s 2018 campaign speeches claiming credit for this booming economy -- under Trump’s presidency and a GOP Congress, growth has averaged at 2.9%, and was 4.2% in Q2, and 3.8% in Q3 of 2018.
In short, the economy was clearly in decline by Obama’s last year in office. It was only when Trump took over with a Republican Congress in 2017 that the economy began our current boom."
But what are the facts?
"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , the U.S. economy added 2,188,000 jobs in 2017 — Trump’s first year in office. So far, it has added 1,306,000 jobs in 2018. But the economy added more jobs in every year of Obama’s second term than it did in Trump’s first year . This holds true when examining the average number of jobs added per month ."
The unemployment rate is the best it has been in a decade, holding steady at 3.9 percent in August. Shortly after Trump took office in February 2017, the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent. It has declined at a faster pace than the Congressional Budget Office predicted at the beginning of Trump’s term, but the unemployment rate had already stabilized. It was ranging between 4.6 and 5 percent starting in August 2015.
Growth was already positive when Trump took office, jumping from 1.6 percent in 2016 to 2.2 percent in 2017. Trump might point us to quarterly GDP growth . The economy is estimated to have gained 4.2 percent in the second quarter of 2018, but that still pales in comparison with the 5.1 percent and 4.9 percent growth in the second and third quarters of 2014 under Obama .
Wage growth is one of those instances where just because Trump repeats a statistic a lot doesn’t make it accurate. Regular readers may remember Trump earning Four Pinocchios for his claim that “wages are now, for the first time in many years, rising.”
Seven months after that fact check, our conclusion is largely the same. Real median wages for all workers have been steadily increasing since 2014. In the last quarter of 2017, they plunged below their rate when Trump took office but have since recovered to about the same level. In other words, after an initial bump, wages are basically where Obama left them .
Many of the eight factors we examined tell a common story — the start of Trump’s economy follows the trend set by the last years of Obama’s economy . We’ll keep an eye out as the president’s policy changes — from tariffs to taxes — settle into the U.S. and global markets, but as of now, Trump is still working off the base Obama built.
We’ve said before that anyone who gives sole credit to a president for economic gains receives an automatic Two Pinocchios — and Trump’s claim of a historic turnaround is worthy of more ."
Amazon’s Washington Post? Talk about a biased fake news source. Any more jokes for us? We will take the TRUMP economy and thank him for it.
A LOT more reputable than the reich wing fake news site you got this article from.
Duuuude. Just stop. The BLS is not biased or "fake news".
You don't need to resort to that to defend your points.
The corporate tax cut was necessary because US corporations were becoming Irish or Dutch corporations with alarming alacrity. Paul Krugman would rather devour his own liver than admit that, but there it is.
That $300billion that was repatriated can now be re-invested in the US, instead of having to remain offshore benefiting somebody else's economy.
Unemployment is ridiculously low. But it's likely that job growth will continue to slow because we don't have enough qualified workers. A massive expansion of legal immigration would help that, as well as bringing tacos up to Texas quality in many more parts of the United States. (You ever had a taco in Tennessee? It's not pretty.)
That's easy...
Oh man does that take me back to my youth oh so many years ago. Growing up in central Wisconsin back in the 60's, we thought that Taco Bell and those Ortega taco seasoning packets were real Mexican... I'm so very glad that I've grown up and moved to places for real food...
You're making me cry right now.
I still like Taco Bell.
Dude you got this article from "The American Thinker"!
Do you really wanna play the credibility game regarding sources?!
Ok....same questions, but instead with Trump! Name ONE policy or program that he has impose that can be verified as helping the economy or has given it a significant boost to outpace Obama's economy
How did New York get half of Amazon's new HQ (note the other half went to Crystal City, Va)? Through promised tax breaks, which is a fancy term for tax cuts. If you want business to boom and jobs to open up, you reduce the cost of doing business in your city, state, or country. The problem is that the Left thinks just the opposite works. They think that because Clinton had the Dot Com bubble after raising taxes that it is tax increases that cause a booming economy despite all the evidence against it that has been shown throughout history.
It was the GOP spending cuts/ budget balancing and cutting cap gains and dividends tax rates that caused the late 1990’s economic boom, not Clinton the tax increases in 1993.
The Corporate Tax Cut is not fueling the economy.
And the Economy is not 'booming' for the vast majority of Americans.
The wealth is continuing to concentrate into fewer hands while the Americans citizens are paying more while receiving less from their increased contributions in local and state taxes.
OIC HA, another op-ed without need of disclaimer.
Did I or did I not seed this article as an op-ed piece. Yes I did. What more did you want?
All Trumpenomics is really fueling is the doubling of our federal deficts...
Deficits don't matter - unless a Democrat is President.
More smoke and mirrors, the tax cut didn't do shit except for the wealthy.
Really? I’m anything but wealthy, likely among the least wealthy here and yet I got a bonus from my employer as well as a pay increase and I will pay $1500 less in income taxes than last year.
And now, Nancy ad the rest of the Democrats want to increase your and my taxes.
correct everyone gets more this year, but what about next year and the year after. The tax cuts are set to expire for the low and middle class while they remain permanent for the upper and wealthy. $100 a month for a year or two is not going to change anyones lives or allow them to pay for additional vocational training or college to better themselves, its a empty gesture. The damage being done to the deficit and U.S. Debt is far more harmful than any small token of a tax cut could ever help.
Obama had the deficit under control and in a steep decline when he left office, Trump is blowing it all up again, reminds me of Bush when Clinton handed him a decreasing deficit and a roadmap to actually start paying off the Debt on a silver platter, then he turned it to lead.
History has shown Republicans are not very smart when it comes to long term economic stability.
All tax cuts expire in 8 years except the corporate income and small business rates. Those and the national caps on mortgage interest and state and local taxes deductions are permanent.
They might want to but the Senate won’t do it. They need to be made permanent by reconciliation along with funding for the wall before the end of the year.
Perhaps we are both right and just see it from different angles, i like to get into the fine print.
"By 2027 a large majority of people making less than $200,000 will either see little change in their tax bill or a tax increase relative to what they pay today, the JCT estimates."
All tax payers face an increase in their personal income tax rate in 2027 compared to 2018 because all individual income tax rates go back up to 2017 levels unless they are made permanent before then. The 21% corporate tax rate is permanent.
She does want her crumbs back and we are not going to give them to her.