Trump’s Tax Plan for the Rich
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Tax cuts for business and high-net-worth households don’t create jobs or stimulate growth, as Trump and others around him falsely claim.
Saying they’ll spur a hiring boom and boost the economy is baloney. Helicopter money for ordinary people makes sense. When they have money in their pockets, they spend it.
The ideal way is from higher incomes. Most Americans will see little more than crumbs from Trump’s tax scheme. He wants it for the nation’s privileged class, not them.
His plan will blow a far greater hole in the national debt than already, increasing it by trillions of dollars so corporate bosses and rich guys like himself can get richer.
Earlier, former Office of Management and Budget director David Stockman called Trump’s initial tax cut proposal “a wonderful fantasy…but there’s no way to pay for the $7.5 trillion cost of the main features.”
The plan is a “total fiscal calamity…dead on arrival.” Wall Street is “delusional” believing otherwise.
Last Friday, Stockman said Trump’s new tax plan will never come to fruition, saying “(t)here will not be a tax cut. There will not be reform. There will not be a bill” – bold predictions.
He supports a big tax cut for ordinary Americans – by slashing “payroll taxes for 160 million people…paying far more in (these) taxes than income” ones.
“(F)orget the income tax,” said Stockman. “Rich people have had a ride like there is no tomorrow for 30 years, the Fed…inflating their financial assets like there is no tomorrow.”
“There is no Republican majority, and if they don’t do it through reconciliation it will never get out of the Senate. You don’t have 60 votes (there) for anything,” Stockman explained.
On Wednesday, Americans for Tax Fairness executive director Frank Clemente said the following:
“The idea that (Trump’s) plan would help average Americans instead of the wealthy and big corporations has been a hoax all along.”
“This isn’t ‘tax reform.’ It’s just a big giveaway to millionaires and corporations, and it won’t ‘trickle down’ to the rest of us.”
“It won’t help small businesses, but it will help Wall Street hedge fund managers and real estate moguls like Donald Trump.”
“This plan will not lead to robust job creation or economic growth, but its eye-popping cost will lead to deep cuts in Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and public education that will leave working families in the cold.”
Trump’s plan, subject to heavy debate and changes, proposes three tax brackets for individuals instead of the current seven – 12, 25 and 35%. The current top rate is 39.6%, the lowest rate 10%.
The standard deduction would be doubled to $12,000 for individuals, $24,000 for married couples. The $1,000 credit per child would be raised to an unspecified amount, a new $500 tax credit for dependents other than children created.
The alternative minimum tax and estate tax would be eliminated. Most itemized deductions would be gone, including state, property, and other local taxes, others for mortgage interest and charitable contributions preserved.
A new tax rate for so-called pass-through business would be created – a flat 25% where profits from these enterprises go to owners.
The plan includes lots more details and much to be determined. Claiming it’ll only cut taxes by $1.5 trillion over the next decade is as implausible as Trump saying it’ll create millions of jobs and push economic growth to 4% – pure fantasy, not reality.
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