Nov 21, 2017

The Art Of Economic Treason: The Mechanics Of The Current Tax Reform Con Trump, The GOP & Fox News Are Pulling

Background: 
1. Trump's "Alternative Facts" Are The Ultimate Result Of Fox News Talking Points
2. Yet More Proof Of Economic Treason By The GOP

Republicans are lying as usual to push fake economics. This post outlines all these easy to debunk lies by Trump, the GOP and Fox News (& their right wing conspiracy theorist base).

Republican tax bill would create American dynasties Republicans want to cut taxes for the super rich -- and raise them on working people. That might be bad for you, as Robert Reich explains, but it's great news for the children of billionaires. Duration: 6:47



Top earners would benefit most from Republican tax cut, charts...Under the Senate GOP tax plan, the country’s wealthiest would do better than the middle class and more than $2T of new debt would be added to the economy, according to Steve Rattner’s new charts. Duration: 14:51


Charts



Robert Reich Runs Circles Around Trump's Former Economic Adviser Stephen Moore The former secretary of labor dismantles the myth that tax cuts boost the economy.



“We did this in 2004; Steve Moore is acting like we didn’t have an experiment to test this theory. Under the George W. Bush administration, we did have a repatriation, a tax holiday and what did corporations do with all that extra money? Did they invest it? Create more jobs? No!” Reich explained. “They just brought back their shares of stock, pumped up share prices, provided more executive pay to the top executives—we’ve done it and we’ve seen that there are no results."

Moore was undeterred by the facts and carried on with his dubious economic position. “Explain to me why it’s good for America that we have a 40 percent tax rate way up here and the rest of the world is at 20 percent down here,” he responded with gesticulation outside the camera frame. "It just doesn't work for America."

Reich shut that argument down. “Well, it does because the effective tax rate—that is, what corporations are actually paying—is just about the same as other foreign corporations are paying."


CNN's Brianna Keilar explains how GOP tax plans are "propped up by, frankly, dishonest math"



BRIANNA KEILAR: Yes, but Republicans, Jake, want to get this done. They need and they want a win ahead of a crucial midterm election. But their tax plans are propped up by, frankly, dishonest math. They violate the very promise that the GOP has made time and time again, that they will not saddle future generations with more debt.
[BEGIN VIDEO]
[...]
KEILAR: Republicans are championing a plan that many deficit hawks say is anything but fiscally responsible. The tax plan's $1.5 trillion price tag is a low-ball figure. It's the price tag they need to come under in order to use special Senate rules requiring them to need only 51 votes. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscally conservative advocacy group, puts the real cost at $2.2 trillion.
MAYA MACGUINEAS: There are a lot of gimmicks they're slipping into the bill to make the costs look less than they actually are.
KEILAR: Here's one major gimmick: While the corporate tax cuts would be permanent, the tax cuts for American taxpayers would expire after ten years, on paper anyway, even though it's expected Congress would ultimately just make the cuts permanent. That fishy math allows Republicans to claim a smaller price tag.
MACGUINEAS: On one hand, they're saying, "Sure there is all of these expiring tax breaks, but don't worry, we fully intend to extend them, and you won't have to worry about your taxes going up." And on the other hand, they're saying, "Don't worry about the cost of the bill. Sure, we're borrowing $1.5 trillion," -- which, I would say, everybody should be worrying about -- "But we're not going beyond that limit," when really, they are.
Previously:


For Facts Sake: GOP Tax Myths Republicans tout "progressive" tax plans, in which people who make more pay more. Yet, an analysis of the initial Joint-Committee on Taxation score of Senate legislation says otherwise. MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle reports. Duration: 2:10



MSNBC hosts outline how GOP tax plan directly benefits Trump and the super rich Ali Velshi: Trump would "save millions" under GOP tax framework, while Trump heirs "stand to save over a billion dollars"


Salon: Why the Republican tax plan is more failed than trickle-down economicsDon’t fall for the supply-side, trickle-down nonsense. It won’t help


Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke. Just look at the evidence:
1. Clinton’s tax increase on the rich hardly stalled the economy. In 1993, Bill Clinton raised taxes on top earners from 31 percent to 39.6 percent. Conservatives predicted economic disaster. Instead, the economy created 23 million jobs and the economy grew for 8 straight years in what was then the longest expansion in history. The federal budget went into surplus.
2. George W. Bush’s big tax cuts for the rich didn’t grow the economy. In 2001and 2003, George W. Bush lowered the top tax rate to 35 percent while also cutting top rates on capital gains and dividends. Conservative supply-siders predicted an economic boom. Instead, the economy barely grew at all, and then in 2008 it collapsed. Meanwhile, the federal deficit ballooned.
3. Obama’s tax hike on the rich didn’t slow the economy. At the end of 2012, President Obama struck a deal to restore the 39.6 percent top tax rate and raise tax rates on capital gains and dividends. Once again, supply-side conservatives predicted doom. Instead, the economy grew steadily, and the expansion is still continuing.
4. The Reagan recovery of the early 1980s wasn’t driven by Reagan’s tax cut. Conservative supply-siders point to Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts. But the so-called Reagan recovery of the early 1980s was driven by low interest rates and big increase in government spending.
5. Kansas cut taxes on the rich and is a basket case. California raised them and is thriving. In 2012, Kansas slashed taxes on top earners and business owners, while California raised taxes on top earners to the highest state rate in the nation. Since then, California has had among the strongest economic growth of any state, while Kansas has fallen behind most other states.
So don’t fall for supply-side, trickle-down nonsense. Lower taxes on the rich don’t generate growth and jobs. They only make the rich even richer, at a time of raging inequality, and they cause bigger budget deficits.

Hannity pleads for Trump to cut taxes on the rich so they can buy boats and stimulate the economy (debunked above)



SEAN HANNITY (HOST): There are certain promises that presidents make and that politicians make that you just got to keep. And I guess sometimes it gets hard because they push, and they push, and they push, and they push. Democrats are also trying to set a trap on taxes. Now the president said yesterday, "Well, I think the wealthy -- their taxes are going to remain about the same. And if not they may go a little higher." He never said "a little higher" when he was running for office. Here is the problem with that. The president's plan to get the forgotten men and women to work here is basically contingent on a growing, thriving economy.   
[...]
Reagan slashed the top marginal rate in the course of his presidency from 70 to 28 percent. Revenues to the government doubled. Twenty million new jobs were created. And that was after the '82 recession -- I mean, he needed some time to get this thriving. And it worked. It's simple economics. Because those multinationals, those corporations, quote "rich people," what they're going to do is they're going to end up spending money and buying boats and as Geraldo said yesterday he bought a helicopter after the Reagan tax cuts, but that keeps people working. And then they'll build manufacturing centers and factories. And you know the top 1 percent already pay 39.5 percent of the federal income tax. The top 10 percent pays 70.9 percent. The bottom 50 percent pays nothing. And that's it. So the rich, quote, are already paying their fair share. The idea is to get them to spend their money and stimulate the economy and build the factories in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
Previously (more debunking):


Tax bill would save Trump $1 billion: Analysis Republicans want to give a massive tax cut to the super rich. But Donald Trump insists he doesn't benefit at all. Duration: 1:56


Donald Trump’s Budget Breaks These 7 Campaign Promises


Broken Promise #1: Trump vowed not to cut Medicaid
Trump’s budget would cut Medicaid by a lot, despite the president telling the Daily Signal days before launching his White House bid, “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.”
The administration proposes reducing spending on Medicaid programs by more than $600 billion over the next decade, a massive cut that appears to go on top of $839 billion in Medicaid cuts included in the House health care bill Trump is supporting.
Mulvaney insists that the proposed reduction in spending isn't a cut — it's simply growing less than the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office expects the needs of the program to be.
"There are no Medicaid cuts in terms of what normal human beings would call cuts, we are not spending less money than we did the year before," Mulvaney said.
Trump's budget proposes slashing the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), a $31.4 billion change to the program that pays monthly benefits to over 10 million disabled individuals under the retirement age.
Mulvaney argued that SSDI isn't “what most people would consider to be Social Security” and said he would "hope" less people receive the program once they remove individuals who "should not" be getting it. It's unclear how the administration determined there is that much fraud in the system.
The president promised to fully fund a border wall, with plans to make Mexico pay for it later, in his "Contract With the American Voter." The president’s budget would allocate $2.6 billion for planning, designing, and constructing the border wall and its surrounding securities, but Republican leaders estimate the wall could cost as much as $15 billion.
"While we did not get as much money as we wanted for 2017 omnibus we did get a lot," Mulvaney said. "We are going to continue to press on."
This is another contract promise. Trump’s administration has tried to restrict funding to so-called “sanctuary” cities — jurisdiction that don’t enforce federal immigration priorities and cooperate fully with federal authorities — but their efforts were halted by the courts.
This budget doesn't include any kind of limit on federal funding, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions narrowed the scope of Trump's executive order on the issue in a memo Monday.
Trump’s budget would increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, but the budget proposal doesn't appear to focus money on PTSD or mental health issues.
It would, however, slash $3.2 billion from the “individual unemployability” benefit, which the budget says will be "modernized." The program allows the VA to more fully compensate disabled veterans, including those with PTSD, whose disability renders them unemployable.
Trump promised resources for training in his voter contract, as well. This budget aims to increase funding for more border agents and immigration judges, increased immigrant detentions, and fighting the opioid crisis, but it does not earmark additional funds for training police.
Barring the kind of hyperbolic growth Trump has promised and economists have disputed, Trump's budget would do little to combat the national debt. Rather, it would potentially increase it.

Related articles:

You don’t cut taxes with two wars and 240,000 troops overseas Republicans shed others’ blood while looking out for their own

Republicans Are Selling Their Tax Plan on a Platform of Lies Too many taxpayers hoping for a better future are going to lose out.

Fox & Friends host covers up Trump tax plan’s giveaway to the super rich


Senate GOP pushes tax hike on families making less than $75,000


The argument might be more compelling if it in any way reflected reality. The GOP plan in the House increases taxes on millions of middle-class households, and as the Washington Post reported, the Senate GOP’s tax plan moves even more aggressively away from Trump’s purported “focus.”
The tax bill Senate Republicans are championing would give large tax cuts to the rich while raising taxes on American families earning $10,000 to $75,000 over the next decade, according to a report released Thursday by the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official nonpartisan analysts.
President Trump and Republican lawmakers have been heralding their bill as a win for hard-working Americans, but the JCT report casts doubt on that claim. Tax increases for households earning $10,000 to $30,000 would start in 2021 and grow sharply from there, JCT found. By 2027, most Americans earning $75,000 a year or less would be forced to pay more in taxes, while people earning more than $100,000 a year would continue to pay less.
It’s worth emphasizing that the Joint Committee on Taxation is basically the Congressional Budget Office for tax bills. This isn’t a think tank or an advocacy organization; this is the congressional office responsible for scrutinizing tax bills for federal lawmakers


GOP Economics


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