Jobs-Killing GOP Tax Cut Heist
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Trump’s trickle-down “middle class miracle” is all trickle-up – a jobs-killing measure, not creating them, as he falsely touted.
Workers being sacked understand best. According to ThinkProgress (TP), “(c)ompanies that announced big bonuses after GOP tax cut are now laying off their workers,” adding “(n)ice ‘trickle-down economics’ you’ve got there.”
Other companies may follow the lead of Comcast and AT&T. They announced employee bonuses after passage of the giant tax bonanza for corporate predators and the nation’s super-rich.
At the same time, they’re sacking thousands of workers, timed with the holiday season.
With likely more to follow, Comcast laid off 500 sales employees “right before Christmas,” no joy to the world for affected staff, none in the new year for others likely to be let go or have their low pay frozen and benefits cut.
According to the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union, representing AT&T workers, the company began laying off thousands of staff two weeks before Christmas – a CWA lawsuit calling it “an extraordinary act of corporate cruelty.”
It’s how corporate predators like Comcast, AT&T and countless others operate. Bottom line priorities override worker rights and common decency.
Before the pre-Christmas enactment of the GOP tax cut measure, both companies, among others, said the restructured tax code would let them treat workers more generously – the telecom giants announcing $1,000 year-end bonuses for their employees.
According to CWA Local 4900 vice president Larry Robbins, AT&T workers began getting layoff notices at around the time the GOP tax cut was enacted, saying:
“We believe the $1,000 bonus and the promise of 7,000 new jobs are all a publicity stunt” – subterfuge while long knives were targeting staff to be eliminated.
Trump and GOP lawmakers sold their scheme as a way to stimulate growth and create jobs – something tax cuts don’t achieve, unless they go primarily into workers’ pockets.
When people have money they spend it. Super-rich ones use tax windfalls for investments to get more super-rich.
Corporate predators use theirs for executive bonuses and stock buybacks, along with extra funds for mergers and acquisitions – not pay raises for workers.
Best to sack them for greater executive pay, the way the dirty system works.
Republican lawmakers know it. So does Trump. They lied about benefitting ordinary people they don’t give a hoot about.
The great GOP tax cut heist was largely intended all along for the nation’s privileged class, needing it least, enriching themselves at the expense of social justice.
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