Fruits of the Great 2017 GOP Tax Cut Scam
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
During the bipartisan 2008 too-big-to-fail Wall Street bailout, a popular main street slogan was banks got bailed out. We got sold out.
The Obama regime was guilty throughout its tenure. His “shared sacrifice” scheme was all about forcing workers to sacrifice so America’s super-rich and corporate predators could share.
During a 2011 town hall address, he offended the intelligence of every thinking person, saying “(i)f everybody took an attitude of shared sacrifice, we could solve our deficit and debt problem next week.”
In 2011, the national debt was under $15 trillion. In 2017, it was over $20 trillion. The National Debt Clock has it at over $21 trillion currently.
In 1981, when Ronald Reagan’s tenure began, the national debt was less than 32% of GDP. It’s currently around 105% of GDP.
David Stockman estimates the great GOP tax cut heist will increase the federal debt to around $35 trillion by 2028.
Most discretionary US spending goes for militarism, war-making, corporate welfare, and police state harshness.
According to Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), the fruits of last year’s great GOP tax cut heist were as follows:
4.3% of workers got wage hikes or bonuses - 6.7 million out of 155 million.
Only a handful of employers provided them so far - 407 out of 5.9 million.
Corporate predators are getting 11-fold as much in tax breaks as they’re giving workers in extra pay and bonuses - $77 billion v. $7 billion.
Corporate predators are spending 88 times the amount on stock buybacks as on worker wage hikes and bonuses - $7 billion v. $617 billion.
Trump’s highly touted “middle class miracle” was a colossal Big Lie. It’s been a bonanza for corporate predators, high net-worth households, and real estate tycoons like himself - a scam for ordinary Americans.
It’s ballooning the deficit, social benefits being slashed to help pay for it, a clearly transparent wealth transfer scheme.
Economists know tax cuts don’t create jobs and stimulate growth unless benefits help workers substantially.
When money is in the pockets of ordinary people, they spend it, best accomplished through higher wages, at least keeping pace with inflation.
Post-9/11, America has been thirdworldized to benefit corporate predators and high net-worth individuals at the expense of working households.
Ordinary Americans have been scammed to make privileged ones richer.
Separately, according to Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), healthcare insurers intend instituting huge premium increases in 2019.
They’ll range from around 12% to a whopping 91% requested by a Maryland insurer.
According to ATF, “insurance companies are specifically citing Trump-GOP policies, including continued efforts to repeal the ACA (Obamacare) in Congress, administrative efforts to undermine the ACA’s regulatory provisions, and changes to the individual mandate in the tax law as reasons for the proposed hikes in premiums.”
Health Care for America NOW co-executive director Margarida Jorge said “(t)he GOP-Trump tax cut law gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations while making health care coverage for millions of Americans more expensive.”
“Besides record premium increases, fewer people will be covered. What happened to President Trump’s promise of ‘better, cheaper’ health care coverage?”
It’s already unaffordable for millions of households. Steep increases next year will hit pre-Medicare eligible older adults hardest.
According to the AARP, an average 50-year-old could pay an additional $890 for coverage next year. For a 64-year-old, it could be an extra $1,490.
ATF executive director Frank Clemente said the cost of GOP tax cuts “is estimated to be nearly $2 trillion, driving up the national debt.”
“To reduce the debt, President Trump and Republicans in Congress have both proposed budgets this year that would slash Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and education. This is not the way to make America great.”
The Trump regime wants ACA eliminated, most Americans forced to pay increasingly unaffordable premiums for healthcare coverage or go uninsured.
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