GOP Tax Myth & Junk Economics
By Thom Hartmann A...
If there's one thing all Republican politicians are really good at, it's straight-up lying through their teeth about how their tax cuts for the rich are actually tax cuts for the middle-class.
Reagan did it, George W. Bush did it, and now that he's officially unveiled his own so-called tax reform plan, Donald Trump is doing it, too.
"We're going to cut taxes for the middle class, make the tax code simpler and more fair for everyday Americans. And we are going to bring back the jobs and wealth that have left our country and most people thought left our country for good."
This just a flat-out not true.
Populist rhetoric aside, the people who are going to actually benefit from Donald Trump's tax plan are the same people who've benefitted from every single Republican tax-cut plan ever: people like Trump and his kids -- the oligarchs.
Is the Republican tax reform plan just an excuse for Donald Trump to give himself, his family, and the oligarch billionaires in his cabinet a tax break?
Comments
#2
Ever since Reagan. That's when the big gap began and has intensified over the years until now the middle class is much poorer than it was back in the '80s. Although now we know how it works, some people continue to get snookered and we all suffer. The rich eventually will pay a price but probably not in my lifetime.
#3
Same old message, different face. Year in. Year out. Yada yada USA. Pride, world class this, world class that, winning, America first, jobs, tax cuts, fake news, not my fault, China sucks. Blah blah blah.
#4
Here is a good one:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mnuchin-tax-cuts-rich_us_59e78e4fe4...
He is an expert, but I can show him how. So can most on this site (other than Diane).
#6
How come I never see a Democrat Tax reform plan?
#7
#8
Oh, listen. When DJT was on the campaign trail he made all of the champagne promises all the other (liars) are making these days. They promise us the Sun, Moon, and Stars if we only put them in office, and the minute they are sworn in, it's the same old same old.
I thought DJT *might* be different because he hadn't spent his whole career in DC getting pickled in white collar criminal conduct, but I guess we can say he's a fast learner because it only took him a couple of months to change his campaign tune and start shafting anyone who isn't a billionaire bubba. When the reports first started coming regarding his appointments, it didn't take much imagination to know the worm had turned.
Do I think DJT is sculpting the tax structure to suit his own personal wishes and wants??? Make no mistake about it. DJT is a charter member of "Gluttony R Us", and a poster child for self indulgence. (I'm just surprised he hasn't had the whole interior of the WH redecorated in 24k gold!!!)
Yup, DJT is feathering his nest for when he is no longer the POTUS so that he and his family can continue living in the style to which they have become accustomed, and the rest of us can eat cake.
#9
@7 them how come you aren't promoting the Democrat plan, instead of tearing down the Republicans plan. I don't hear any Republicans tearing down the Democrats plan, only promoting theirs. The surest way to get anyone interested in a competitors product, is to tear the competitors products down.....Marketing 101.
#10
"Bring back the jobs that have left our country"??? ... Says the guy that sends his own jobs overseas, hires non U.S. citizens to work at his resorts, belongs to the same party that has passed all of our free trade deals, the same party that has filibustered Democratic Party attempts to end tax breaks for companies relocating overseas. I suppose it takes ffnnn morons to believe a fnnn moron.
#11
Trump ran as a Democrat but governs as an insane selfish Fascist!
I hear the tax plan will add two trillion to the National debt...so much for Kochpublican fiscal restraint. Remember all that out of control spending talk and Tom Reed's debt clock??? ...LMAO
#12
As someone who has been "lobbying" for constructive tax reform for nearly four decades, the sad truth is that even those among our elected representatives who have their hearts in the right place do not understand the economics of taxation. As a result, the way government at all levels has always raised revenue has failed to make the most important distinction -- between "earned" and "unearned" income.
Our tax policies have generally taxed unearned income lightly or not at all, while imposing heavy burdens on income earned by producing goods and providing services. These taxes impose what economists refer to as "dead weight losses" on economic output.
The only potential sources of public revenue that impose no dead weight loss are "rents." What are rents? A primary source of rents are income flows (actual or imputed) generated by locational advantages. Every parcel or tract of land has some potential annual rental value. These rental values in rural areas are derived from natural advantages, such as soil fertility, rainfall, topography, and the potential to exploit natural resources. Rental values in town and cities are derived from advantages created by societal investment in infrastructure and other amenities. Then, there are rents associated with less tangible assets that have an inelastic supply. This includes the broadcast spectrum, the paths traveled around the earth by satellites and even take-off and landing slots at airports. Mason Gaffney (emeritus professor of economics at the University of California has identified a much longer list of such rent-generating "natural opportunities" in his writing over the years).
Real tax reform requires a dramatic shift from how revenue is raised today toward the taxation of rents from all sources.
One other example of how upside-down is our tax system is the preferential treatment given to so-called "capital gains" over income from wages and salaries. In the real world, there are no gains on the sale of actual capital goods. Capital goods depreciate over time. Gains on the sale of financial instruments are really gains from speculation and passive investment. If income is to be taxed at all, gains on the sale of financial instruments should be taxed much higher than ordinary income.
To summarize, the ideal tax system would collect rents from all sources. Taxes on earned income, on capital goods and on commerce would be eliminated or at least greatly reduced.
This proposal is neither conservative nor liberal. It is both economically efficient and just, rewarding productive activity while discouraging the hoarding of land and natural resources for speculative gain.
Edward J. Dodson, Director
School of Cooperative Individualism
#13
Gee Thom, I thought we covered this before. The Republicans have a surefire, two-pronged, guaranteed, one-size-fits-all, solution for all that ails the USA, and the world for that matter.
Number 1: Make the rich richer.
Number 2: Deport all non whites.
There, problem solved. "Better Things Through Chemistry" "I'm Lovin' It" "Where's The Beef?" "Don't Leave Home Without It" "Make America Great Again"….!!!!
#14
#9 Last I looked Republicans controlled the White House and Congress.
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/356157-sanders-cruz-spar-over-tax-refo...
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/10/politics/tax-reform-democratic-messaging/i...
#15
@#15 you finally have something right. The Republicans do control the white house and Congress....it's what the ruling class does...Rule. :)
#16
Hope that you enjoy making the 1% wealthier. You obviously like being ruled by a Fascist Party.
#17
My understanding is the payroll tax pays for social security and medicare. Income tax pays mostly for military. Since when does mom pop business need military. Only the rich do. Thus they should pay more income tax.
#18
@16 I enjoy making the 1% wealthier, I’m getting wealthier too. I rather be r”ruled’ by someone you call a Racist Facist, than washed up lefties any day.
#19
@#18
This is simple. The leftie/socialists spend their day fretting over other peoples money. They are negative and depressed and see no positive outcome unless "free stuff" starts happening. After it happens they will complain because of rising costs. Fortunately most of working America understands there is no such thing as "free Stuff".
#20
Nothing about free stuff in this link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States
#21
@20 Legend, it’s not my fault you’re poor. So what makes you think you have a right to my or anybody else’s money.
#22
I am not poor. I would be willing to bet that I am better off than you. A lot of Republicans think that they are wealthy but very few make the 1%. I am sure that you are nowhere near it. The Republican Party is beholden to the 1%. Do you remember the Bush W administration? Cutting taxes for the wealthy, raising defense spending, resulted in a depression that we still feel the affect from. What you are doing is giving your money to the wealthiest, not the poorest. Are you on the below list:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2016/10/04/forbes-400-the-full...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2016/06/16/one-percent-by-sta...
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+it+takes+to+be+in+the+1+percent&oq=...
#23
@#22
Mr. Mindless,baseless facts:
You have no idea as to the wealth or lack thereof of anybody that posts here. Until you and Ou812 actually decide to cohabit and reveal to each other your specific financial and personal details, you would look a lot smarter not assuming anything.
#24
@22 I doubt that you are better off than anybody. If you were, you wouldn't be concerned what everybody else has. Only those without worry that others have more than they do.
#25
@23 Diane, you make me laugh....cohabit:)) I don't do well with stupid people, especially stupid people who think they are smart.
#26
Bachmann commented... "Legend, it's not my fault you're poor" Sounds like something Feudal lords would say to their serfs, slave owners to their slaves, Crooked Donny to contractors he stiffed, Neo- fascists to immigrants....etc. Bachmann, I'm more than well off financially, and still care...where's your god damn soul?
#27
Great blog, SueN! Thanks for stepping in.
No matter what they say, Republican politicians everywhere, from the local level to the national, primarily work for millionaires and billionaires to fulfill the two main goals of their biggest donors and mentors, at the expense of their poorer constituencies: tax cuts for the wealthy; deregulation of their monopolistic empires -- so that their so-called "free" market can go about freely polluting and poisoning our environment, free of restraint and accountability, while freely cheating workers, taxpayers, and consumers out of their hard-earned money.
The lion's share of welfare (i.e., the taxpayers' teat) flows to the top of society -- not to the bottom -- in the form of huge subsidies to private industry, with a wink and a nod from well-greased politicians, on both sides, under an entrenched system of crony capitalism, which has enabled a massive redistribution of wealth from a struggling middle class to a pampered class ensconced in golden palaces dotting the kingdom.
Society's tiniest class, a ruling elite of the greediest, most ruthless sociopaths on the planet, are busily gobbling up every last morsel of prosperity left in our cobwebbed cupboards. To mix and paraphrase their favorite false metaphors, once the fat bastards have "trickled down" on us, and their "rising tide" has sunk our boats, we may lick the crumbs off their plates.
Anyone who believes the garbage economic theories of fascistic economic predators is a goddamn fool!
#28
More terrible news on the jobs front.
"Fewest Jobless Claims Since 1973 Show Firm U.S. Job Market"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-19/fewest-jobless-claims...
"Amazon, IBM, and 8 other big companies hiring for high-paying jobs like crazy right now"
http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-hiring-high-paying-jobs-2017-1
Ouch!!
#29
keywords: gop myth junk
see, she/he got his in life on the backs of others. those who fought for the good of the people, not against it. Probably as a teacher in a public school system. now that he has his, now it is penny pinching time and you can all go get yours. the less you have the more the little pittance that he has will seem to be worth to him. in a state of delusion he yearns to be recognized as being part of the wealth class. he gives himself credit for making the wealth class wealthier? i could go without everything and have more energy and self worth than he could with millions in the bank. Another example of how sad and pathetic some can people be.
#30
@#25: Then how do you live with yourself?
#31
2950-10K it seems that OU812 is worse than having no soul. "Bachmann" seems to think that no one else has a soul.
#32
The malcontent butthurt leftie/socialists are loose again.
Merry Christmas Ou812
#33
@#28: Is it your point that we are still enjoying the economic glow from a Democratic administration, which shepherded us out of the doldrums of the last Republican administration -- despite total obstruction, bordering on treason, from the Teapublican congress that arose after 2010 -- or is it that you, on behalf of your pussy grabber, is trying to take credit for a recovery that Republican leadership did everything to thwart?
Regardless of your point, it is beside the point. To cite the good times during an expanding bubble, while ignoring the fundamentals that will inevitably cause it to burst, is like trying to detect the whole movement of climate change by looking out the window in the morning to see if it's a sunny day.
#34
#28 Look at any chart of the Dow or Nasdaq and you do not see a big jump last January until now. It is a fairly straight line for the last 7 years. This is a continuation of the Obama boom. I say 7 years because of the Bush depression which you and OU812 like to ignor.
#35
@26-10k
I didn't realize that you care so much...The Mother Theresa of the Southern Tier...How many poor families do you care for?
#36
#23 OU812 assumed that I was poor and you said nothing. Right wing trolls seem to have a double standard.
#37
Virtually every thread lately has proven the futility of debating Foxmerized Trump trolls.
#38
If this was truly a tax for those on the bottom, those in need, those in dire straits; then why is no one talking about removing taxes on SSI? Are those who collect Social Security not deserving? Have they not paid enough that even their last line of defense needs to be taxed? Yet it is necessary to grant subsidies to banks in their time of need. It was to help those who lost their homes from the last recession correct? I think we all saw just how well "Trickle Down Economics" worked for everyone then. Money went to the banks so the banks could then help us with our mortgages. Politics get people, countries, and races into wars, crisis', and extinctions.
Governance, and Government are what it takes to thrive. Trump, and those who support said actions support "His" politics. Yet no one there is governing our country, our democracy, or our lives. Our government is America. To try and "De-Regulate, De-Construct, or Destroy" our government is an attack on our constitutionality. It is; in my opinion, treasonous. They used to call such actions a "Coo" back in history. Today they call it just "Politics."
#39
Bad tardy here but; I just figured it out.... (toungue in cheek ((well perhaps not......)) but; do give this some thought, most of these "Republicans" are bald....... Is that a sign of evil aliens?????
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