Hey, you’re all going to be rich if you just support Republicans passing tax cuts for the rich and for corporations!
Oh, you’ve heard that one before, like maybe when the Trump Treasury Department took down a 2012 economic analysis that showed workers pay 18% of the corporate tax while owners of capital pay 82%. Huh.
Too soon? No, it’s never too soon for more trickle down con.
Here you go. Monday, PoliticusUSA received an email from the White House with a link to their “evidence” that the Trump tax cuts will be so great for the middle class.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
“Wage growth in America has stagnated. Over the past eight years, the real median wage in the U.S. rose by an average of six-tenths of a percent per year,” they begin.
Sounds great! But wait. Their proof comes from a theory put forth by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, whose basic claim is that lower corporate taxes incentivize companies to (magically) invest in new machines that would require more skilled workers and those people would (magically) then be paid higher wages.
Aren’t companies sitting on a lot of money right now? Why, yes, Virginia, they are. Yet wages are not magically rising.
The stock market is doing remarkably well, yet wages are not magically rising. You can see where this is going.
How about some evidence that it is largely shareholders who benefit from tax cuts, not workers. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds that the benefits of corporate tax rate cuts go mostly to those at the top, “The evidence indicates that most of the benefits from a corporate rate cut would go to those at the top, with only a small share flowing to low- and moderate-income families… Corporate rate cuts could even hurt most Americans since they must eventually be paid for with other tax increases or spending cuts.â€
Yeah, it’s actually another gift. For the rich. Only don’t think this is just a gift for the top 1%, because the middle class and poor will pay for it one way or another.
Okay, but don’t workers share the corporate tax burden? They would benefit surely.
Well, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found corporate taxes mostly affect shareholders. It “allocates 75 percent of the federal corporate income tax to capital income and 25 percent to labor income.â€
Professor Kimberly Clausing of Reed College told Factcheck, “Research shows that corporate tax cuts are far more likely to end up in the hands of those at the top of the income distribution.â€
Each time there’s a “policy debate” over “entitlements” (that is what Republicans call the idea that American citizens should be able to eat and have basic shelter and health care when they are older or disabled) like say Medicare, these tax cuts will be an issue.
The lack of money (money used to fund these tax cuts, money drained out of our system by these “patriots”) will be used as a reason to cut even more children off of aid. So it’s not just a discussion about whether or not the rich should get yet another tax cut or yeah, the trickle down con is a joke that doesn’t materialize but who does it hurt.
It hurts everyone who is not rich. Trickle down is an economic theory used to justify giving entitlements to the top, that has been tested and failed.
Remember, these tax cuts are allegedly the reason Republicans are allowing Donald Trump to continue on in the White House in spite of his relentless push to prove he is unfit for the job. These tax cuts for the rich are the entire raison d’être for the Republican Party. They live to serve the wealthiest 1%, however they can, no matter who it hurts – even when it hurts children, the elderly, our troops, our veterans, and now, our country.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
