capital gains tax cut

oddly belated 819<div>amplifying feedback?  inequality polarization --> instability --> crisis
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</div><div>=</div><div><div></div><div>an 4 22</div><div>Whenever progressive Democrats talk about billionaires, it’s in the soft tones of fairness. Men like Warren Buffet and Elon Musk, we are told, should pay proportionally what normal non-billionaire people pay. The debate is steeped in the inoffensive language of “their fair share.”The debate is backwards.Instead of starting with “their fair share,” we should start with a question fundamental to every democracy that’s existed, to wit:Should billionaires exist?Should their influence be legal?Billionaires are not just very obscenely rich. With their wealth comes planetary power. Their decisions affect billions and billions of people, who in turn have no say on whether those decisions should be made.Why should a democratic republic such as America, which claims to hold power to account – which must hold power to account to survive as a democratic republic – tolerate the existence of billionaires.We should ask.We should also awaken to the truth.We are accountable to them.Billionaires tolerate the American people and their belief that they are the ultimate sovereigns. It serves their interests for the American people to believe they are more powerful than they actually are.Are we accountable to them?Yes.The American tax code has long been designed to ensure that unaccountable planetary power wins when it’s heads, wins when it’s tails. A democratic republic allowing the existence of such a powerful parasitic class is a democratic republic surviving rather than thriving.That’s why the debate is backwards.A debate among progressive Democrats over the question of whether the very obscenely rich should pay their fair share has been settled before it started. It’s a debate the very obscenely rich already win.We should instead recognize the very real danger billionaires pose to our republic. We should assess how much risk we’re willing to tolerate. How much should be legal, how much illegal? Only then should “their fair share” come into play. It’s fairness as a hedge against systemic risk.It’s fairness so the people may be free.To learn more about our tax code, and how upside down, backwards and prolapsed it is, I talked to Amy Hanauer. She’s the director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. She said that, “We do not have to accept a false message of scarcity. Billionaires and big corporations grew much more profitable even in a pandemic.“We can pay for a better country.”What is it that normal people should understand about the United States tax code that most normal people do not?
Taxes are essential to providing us with things we need, as families, as communities and as a planet. We can use the tax code to make sure everyone has good schools, to make sure working-class kids can afford college, to have resources to construct affordable housing.But we can also use the tax code to have the resources necessary for the transition to a clean energy economy, to address racial and economic inequity and to make sure public employees are well-paid.There are ways to raise revenue that raise resources from rich people and corporations. But unfortunately, the US does far too little to make sure that wealthy people and corporations pay their fair share.My colleagues at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy did a report last year. It found that 55 profitable Fortune 500 corporations paid absolutely nothing in federal corporate income tax in 2020.Zero.A whole bunch of other big profitable corporations paid more than zero but less than half the corporate rate (21 percent).The big economic legislation that passed the House last year, the Build Back Better Act, addressed this by putting in place a 15 percent minimum corporate tax for the very largest and most profitable corporations. Unfortunately, that bill is stalled in the Senate.Letting corporations or the very wealthy pay less than their fair share is a choice. It's not a choice that most people agree with. It's also not a choice that most other wealthy democracies make.In 2019, the most recent year for which data are available, the US collected revenue equal to 25 percent of its gross domestic product (25 percent of its total economic output). Most OECD countries collect more than 34 percent. Only a handful of OECD countries collect less revenue as a share of their economies than the United States. They are all small: Costa Rica, Turkey, Ireland, Chile, Columbia and Mexico.What can the Treasury do about tax avoidance on its own?First, to address the enormous problems with our tax code, we need legislation. Things the administration can do without Congress are not a substitute for passing tax reform, which Senator Manchin has said he wants to pass, which Senator Schumer wants to pass, which the House has passed, and which President Biden wants to pass. And not incidentally, which is incredibly popular with the American people.That said, there are things that the Biden administration will have to do whether the Congress passes something or not.The Trump administration expanded tax breaks for corporations far beyond what the 2017 law allowed. These regulatory excesses gave corporations and the rich even larger tax breaks than the law did.Many corporations have admitted they used the expansive interpretation from the Trump Treasury to get bigger breaks.A second big thing is that when corporations publish their financial disclosures, they are required to list tax breaks they think the IRS is likely to deny. But we found that big companies keep billions in breaks that they had admitted would not withstand scrutiny, simply since the clock runs out before the underfunded IRS has time to investigate.The IRS should direct more resources to dealing with that.Another important option is that we don't always know exactly how corporations are avoiding taxes. The IRS could require companies to disclose that. This would help us identify how to make the law better able to address tax avoidance.So much of the tax code burdens people who work. Shouldn't the tax code burden the people who own and collect rents?Yes.One of the big problems with our tax code is that we have a special, lower rate on income from capital gains (which you get when you sell an expensive asset, like stocks or a house, at a higher price than what you paid for it.)It doesn't make sense to tax earnings from wealth at a lower rate than earnings from work.But even worse is that the wealthiest people can accumulate wealth without selling their assets, and then can pass that wealth onto their heirs at the new value without anyone ever paying taxes on it.This is called "stepped-up basis.”The Biden administration included a fix to that in the BBB plan. But after a heavy lobbying effort led by moneyed interests, the provision was removed before the House committee sent the bill to the floor.The reforms that did pass the House would raise a lot of revenue and raise them from the wealthiest people and corporations. But long term, we should also go back and revisit these good ideas.Can you talk about the alleged link between low tax and high growth? That was a very potent argument in the past. Now?The United States had its strongest decades of economic growth at a time when our tax rates were much higher than today. And that's not surprising. Things that led to high growth required public spending.In the middle of the 20th century, we put a lot of national resources into helping people become much more educated.Rates of high school and college completion rose in part because of more spending on K-12 schools, of Pell grants that help regular people pay for college and of state funding to public universities.We also put resources into improving our national infrastructure, like the interstate. That helped companies get products out to market.Both of these investments made us much more productive.Today, we have different imperatives to make our economy more productive but we have nevertheless been underinvesting.We need to put resources into greening our economy, which would reduce the pace of climate change but also make us more resilient in the face of climate disasters, which are going to be with us.And we have let inequality – both economic and racial – skyrocket. The result is that many working-class people of all races are left behind.Addressing both of those things will take public resources but will make us much more economically competitive in the long term.Did all that growth cause inflation in the 1970s?Inflation is complicated.But a lot of rising costs as a result of current inflation could be managed by passing BBB, which would reduce the cost of childcare and health care, two of the biggest costs families face.Explain please.For most people, housing, childcare and healthcare are among their biggest costs. BBB has spending that would address all of those, making them more affordable. If we could hold down costs for those items, that would do a lot to keep inflation in check.We are a very wealthy country.We do not have to accept a false message of scarcity. Billionaires and big corporations grew much more profitable even in a pandemic.We can pay for a better country. We have the resources.We can afford to make college affordable. We can invest in our little kids so their parents can work. And we can and must invest to take on climate chaos. None of us will be protected from it if we don't.</div><div>=</div></div><div> <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/white-house-pushes-pure-giveaway-to-rich-investors-while-urging-cut-to-pandemic-unemployment-aid/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/white-house-pushes-pure-giveaway-to-rich-investors-while-urging-cut-to-pandemic-unemployment-aid/</a>no lnx twt
White House pushes ‘pure giveaway’ to rich investors — while urging cut to pandemic unemployment aid
Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams July 15, 2020The Trump White House is publicly advocating a massive tax cut for wealthy U.S. investors while simultaneously urging Congress to pare back the expanded unemployment benefits currently serving as a financial lifeline for more than 30 million—and counting—jobless Americans.In an interview on Fox Business Monday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said President Donald Trump wants included in the next Covid-19 stimulus package “a payroll tax holiday”—which critics warn is a stealth attack on Social Security—and a reduction in the capital gains tax.A levy on profits from the sale of assets, the capital gains tax disproportionately affects the wealthy and most of the benefits of any cut would largely be enjoyed by rich investors.Slashing the capital gains tax is a longtime goal of congressional Republicans and Trump, who last year considered but ultimately abandoned a legally dubious plan to lower the tax with an executive order.While stressing that formal talks with Congress on the next stimulus package have not yet begun, Kudlow said the administration is also pushing for “reforms” to the $600-per-week boost in unemployment insurance (UI) payments, which he characterized as excessively generous “disincentives” to work.
The benefits are set to expire at the end of the month without action from Congress.“So the White House position is that we have to cut the incomes of 30 million people who lost their jobs or who lost hours, while also giving a giant tax cut to the biggest corporations and the richest people in the world,” tweeted Michael Linden, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank.“Regarding the ‘capital gains holiday,’ remember this key stat: 82% of all capital gains tax is paid by the richest 1%,” Linden added. “A capital gains tax holiday is a pure giveaway to the rich.”The Washington Post reported Tuesday that after previously urging complete expiration of the enhanced unemployment benefits, “Trump administration officials have begun opening the door to accepting a narrower version of what Congress previously approved.”“One potential compromise discussed by Republican lawmakers would involve cutting the unemployment benefit from $600 per week to between $200 and $400 per week and making up at least part of the difference by sending another round of $1,200 stimulus payments,” the Post reported.Trump spokesman Judd Deere told the Post that the White House is open to approving a reduction in the current weekly UI payments but remains opposed to extending the full $600-per-week.“UI reform is a priority for this White House in any phase four package and we are in ongoing discussions with the Hill,” said Deere.Julia Wolfe, state economic analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, warned in a blog post last week that if Congress fails to extend the enhanced unemployment benefits through next year, “it could cost us more than five million jobs and $500 million in personal income.”“We should despair for the millions who have lost their jobs and for their families,” Wolfe wrote, “and our top priority as a country should be protecting the health and safety of workers and our broader communities by paying workers to stay home when possible, whether that means working from home some or all of the time, using paid leave, or claiming UI benefits.”White House pushes ‘pure giveaway’ to rich investors — while urging cut to pandemic unemployment aidWritten by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams July 15, 2020<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">----<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/about-75-of-trumps-proposed-coronavirus-capital-gains-tax-cut-would-go-to-the-top-1-of-earners/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/about-75-of-trumps-proposed-coronavirus-capital-gains-tax-cut-would-go-to-the-top-1-of-earners/</a><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">salon igor<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Roughly three-quarters of the benefits from the capital gains tax cut floated by President Donald Trump as part of the administration’s <a href="https://www.salon.com/topic/coronavirus" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">coronavirus</a> relief plan would go to the top 1% of earners, according to the <a href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/model-estimates/distribution-individual-income-tax-long-term-capital-gains-and-qualified-44" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Tax Policy Center</a>.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height">Trump has <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1257741326650470400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1257741326650470400%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F05%2F05%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Ftrump-tax-cuts-coronavirus-stimu" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">repeatedly</a> <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-doubles-down-capital-gains-202242904.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">floated</a> a cut to <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/07/16/3-of-the-most-outrageous-ways-the-richest-1-percent-avoids-paying-taxes_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">capital gains taxes</a>, which are taxes paid by investors on profits made when an asset, like stock or real estate, is sold. The capital gains tax rate is already <a href="https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/insight-the-mythematics-of-capital-gains-taxation-4-misconceptions" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">35% lower</a> than the top income tax rate, and only about 6% of households in the bottom 80% of earners claim any capital gains, meaning the overwhelming majority of benefits would flow to the wealthy.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett argued over Memorial Day weekend that the administration opposed <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/23/study-projects-homelessness-will-rise-45-in-just-one-year-due-to-coronavirus-unemployment/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">extending enhanced unemployment benefits</a> despite a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/business/unemployment-stock-market-coronavirus.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">quarter of the labor force losing their jobs</a> since the pandemic hit the United States. Hassett <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/05/24/wh_economic_adviser_coronavirus_bailout_requests_from_cities_and_states_are_kind_of_absurd.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">told CNN </a>the administration would “consider” another round of $1,200 direct payments to Americans but is more focused on stimulating the economy through tax cuts.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“Right now, it looks like the economy’s picking up at a very rapid rate, in which case we could potentially move on to other things that the president has mentioned, like the payroll tax cut and potentially even a capital gains holiday,” he said.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">the idea of a capital gains tax holiday was met with skepticism by economists.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“Capital gains tax cuts are poorly targeted benefits,” writes the nonpartisan <a href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/capital-gains-cuts-wont-cure-covid-19-economy" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Tax Policy Center</a>, which noted that 75% of tax filers who reported capital gains last year were in the top 1% of earners.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“About 6 percent of households in the bottom 80 percent reported any capital gains income at all, compared with 83 percent of those in the top 0.1 percent,” said Tax Policy Center co-founder Leonard Burman, who previously served at the Treasury Department and the Congressional Budget Office. “That elite group (incomes over $3.8 million) accounted for more than half of all long-term capital gains, reporting an average gain of $5.5 million.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height">The analysis suggests the tax cut would do little to ease the pain of the economic shock caused by coronavirus-related lockdowns to the vast majority of Americans. But Burman notes that it would also “do little to boost the economy since rich people spend only a fraction of any additional income” and because “capital gains income may be hard to come by in the next few years given asset price declines.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In other words, even the benefits to the wealthy would not fully kick in until well after the economic crisis has eased.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The cut would also do little to boost the stock market, which has been the president’s primary concern. Less than a third of corporate stock is subject to capital gains taxes, according to a <a href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/us-corporate-income-double-taxed" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Tax Policy Center</a> report, and even stock in taxable accounts is often untaxed because many assets are held until death or donated to charity. And new investors would defer the taxes for as long as they want since they don’t kick in until the investment is sold.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The economic conditions do not warrant such a tax cut, argued Karl Smith, the vice president for federal policy at the business-friendly Tax Foundation.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height">“There is no [investor] shortage to be eliminated. Even modern <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/02/19/fiscal-fraud-why-supply-side-economics-refuses-to-die/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">supply-side</a> models of the economy suggest that a capital gains tax cut would have a tiny effect on long-term GDP,” he wrote at <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-07/capital-gains-tax-cut-has-no-place-in-coronavirus-relief-package" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Bloomberg</a>, joking that “Republicans’ preferred solution to any problem, whether a recession or an alien invasion, is to cut the capital gains tax.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Steve Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), argued that “proponents of capital gains tax breaks have always offered a weak argument that they encourage investment” but Trump’s proposal is more dubious given that it is only a temporary cut.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height">A temporary cut “is supported by no argument at all,” <a href="https://itep.org/trump-administration-stops-pretending-to-care-about-the-economy-with-its-capital-gains-tax-proposal/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Wamhoff said</a>, since “it would only reward investments made in the past while doing nothing to encourage new investment.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height">In other words, a capital gains tax holiday would allow investors to sell off decades of past investments without paying any tax while doing nothing to boost new investment.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">House Speaker <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/13/nancy-pelosi-said-the-next-pandemic-relief-bill-would-go-big-surprise-it-didnt/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Nancy Pelosi</a>, D-Calif., slammed the administration’s proposal for ignoring the needs of average Americans.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“If you want to compare the need for us to change the capital gains tax, which, once again, once again, ignores the fact that there are people in our country that are hungry, and that there is some equivalence to that, I respectfully disagree,” she told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-07/pelosi-dismisses-trump-call-to-cut-payroll-capital-gains-taxes" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Bloomberg</a>. “There are certain things that are urgent.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The capital gains tax holiday is just one of several tax cuts the administration is considering as part of its coronavirus relief effort. While House Democrats <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/13/house-democrats-propose-a-new-3-trillion-stimulus-package/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">proposed a $3 trillion bill</a> that would provide aid to states and local governments, extend unemployment benefits, and issue a new round of $1,200 payments, Senate Republicans have said the proposal is <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/497433-mcconnell-senate-gop-declare-house-3t-coronavirus-bill-dead-on-arrival" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">“dead on arrival”</a> as they focus on more pro-corporate policies, like <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/28/mcconnell-wants-corporate-immunity-from-covid-19-suits-no-consequences-for-negligence-that-kills_partner/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">protecting companies from liability from coronavirus-related lawsuits</a>.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The Trump administration is pushing to include a payroll tax cut, which Trump <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/06/seniors-sour-on-trumps-plan-to-cut-social-security-in-exchange-for-covid-19-relief_partner/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">has called for repeatedly in lieu of direct payments to no avail for months</a>, in the upcoming legislation.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Like the capital gains tax cut, a payroll tax cut would overwhelmingly benefit the richest Americans while doing little to boost the economy in the short-term.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">A <a href="https://itep.org/checks-to-all-vs-trumps-payroll-tax-cut/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">study by ITEP</a> estimated that two-thirds of the benefits from the tax cut would go to the richest 20% of taxpayers. The payroll tax cut would also do nothing to help the 40-plus million Americans who have lost their jobs.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">By comparison, the poorest 20% of Americans would receive just 2% of the benefits and the next poorest 20% of Americans would receive just 6% of the benefits.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“A payroll tax cut would help those lucky enough to keep their job and would provide a bigger break to those with more earnings,” the ITEP analysis said. “Sending checks to every household would be a far more effective economic stimulus because it would immediately put money in the hands of everyone who would likely spend it right away, pumping it back into the economy.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The payroll tax is also used to fund Social Security and Medicare, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/06/seniors-sour-on-trumps-plan-to-cut-social-security-in-exchange-for-covid-19-relief_partner/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">which would inevitably see cuts if the revenues are slashed</a>.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height">“Make no mistake: by pushing to cut off the program’s funding stream, President Trump is taking the first step toward dismantling Social Security,” <a href="https://www.ncpssm.org/documents/news-releases/eliminating-payroll-tax-is-trumps-first-move-toward-dismantling-social-security/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">warned Max Richtman</a>, the head of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “The president’s campaign to eliminate payroll taxes is a violation of his patently false promises to seniors ‘not to touch’ Social Security… Choking off Social Security’s funding stream is an existential threat to seniors’ earned benefits.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/03/15/trumps-new-economic-adviser-larry-kudlow-doesnt-actually-have-a-clue-about-economics_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Larry Kudlow</a>, the director of the White House National Economic Council, also floated lowering the corporate tax rate for companies that “onshore” their supply chains <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/15/white-house-floats-large-corporate-tax-cut-firms-that-bring-jobs-back-overseas/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">from 21% to “about 10.5%”</a><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Economists <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/01/28/economist-paul-krugman-arguing-with-zombies-politics-interview/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">rejected</a> the idea that such a corporate tax cut would help amid the pandemic.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The proposal is “like trying to graft supply-side Reaganism onto conservative populism,” Samuel Hammond, a policy expert at the conservative Niskanen Center,told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/15/white-house-floats-large-corporate-tax-cut-firms-that-bring-jobs-back-overseas/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Washington Post</a>. “A lower corporate tax rate probably won’t suffice to build an entirely new factory within U.S. borders.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“It’s ridiculous. Companies moving their supply chains back from China is not the crisis to address when 30 million people are unemployed,” added Adam Ozimek, the chief economist at the freelancing marketplace Upwork. “This is a distraction at best and could be destructive at worst.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">House Democrats likewise rejected the plan.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“The current health crisis produced by multiple Administration failures, said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Tex., who sits on the Ways and Means Committee, “hardly justifies another windfall for those at the top.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The proposed tax cuts drew eye rolls from experts, who criticized Republicans for pushing tax cuts as a universal panacea.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“At this point it’s almost a pathology. Whatever the crisis, whatever the state of the economy, Republicans crave another tax cut for the rich,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/whatever-the-crisis-republicans-want-another-tax-cut-for-the-rich/2020/05/25/96d0c6ac-9eb8-11ea-81bb-c2f70f01034b_story.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">wrote Washington Post economic columnist Catherine Rampell</a>. “One possible explanation is self-interest: Some important Republican constituents live off their wealth rather than the sweat of their brows.”<div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"></div><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">----<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/rewarding-vulture-capitalists-trump-white-house-accused-of-smash-and-grab-economics-for-weighing-tax-cut-for-rich-investors-as-workers-struggle/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/rewarding-vulture-capitalists-trump-white-house-accused-of-smash-and-grab-economics-for-weighing-tax-cut-for-rich-investors-as-workers-struggle/</a><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">no lnx<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">‘Rewarding vulture capitalists’: White House accused of ‘smash-and-grab economics’ for weighing tax cut for rich investors as workers struggle<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">President Donald J. Trump participates in a roundtable on the economy and tax reform Monday, April 15, 2019, at Nuss Truck & Equipment in Burnsville, Minn. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams April 6, 2020<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">As desperate workers, the unemployed, and small businesses struggle to obtain benefits authorized under the multi-trillion-dollar coronavirus stimulus package President Donald Trump signed into law late last month, the White House is reportedly considering an additional slate of aid measures that critics say would disproportionately favor the wealthy while providing little relief for those most in need.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
The Washington Post, citing two anonymous officials familiar with White House discussions, reported late Sunday that the Trump administration is weighing “a payroll-tax cut, a capital-gains tax cut, creating 50-year Treasury bonds to lock in low interest rates, and a waiver that would clear businesses of liability from employees who contract the coronavirus on the job.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Trump is also considering an infrastructure package, according to the Post, but the idea faces internal opposition from top advisers.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
Slashing the capital gains tax, a move that would overwhelmingly reward rich investors, has long been an obsession of the Trump White House and congressional Republicans. Last year, as Common Dreams reported, Trump floated the idea of bypassing Congress to index capital gains to inflation, but never acted amid warnings that such a unilateral change would be illegal.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated in a 2018 analysis that 86% of the benefits of indexing capital gains to inflation would flow to the top 1%.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Capital gains tax cut. No detail. But (see above) they seem to like recycling bad ideas.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">So take their last bad cap gains tax idea as an e.g. of the shape of distribution you can expect from a tax cut geared to people with cap gains. I.e., regressive.https://t.co/VZfWf4t0Mv pic.twitter.com/hy6q9VVuEI<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">— Chye-Ching Huang (@dashching) April 5, 2020<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“A capital gains tax cut would be smash-and-grab economics with no value to the economic and medical calamity facing us,” tweeted HuffPost senior reporter Zach Carter.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Critics also took aim at the other proposals under consideration inside the Trump White House, including the waiver relieving businesses of liability for workers who get sick on the job.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“Won’t somebody please think of the employers who want to coerce their employees into accepting life-threatening workplace conditions without facing legal liability,” New York magazine’s Eric Levitz tweeted sardonically.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Freelance journalist Jon Walker called the Trump administration’s reported proposals “the worst possible set of ideas for dealing with a pandemic.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
“We are beyond parody at this point,” Walker wrote. “Making it easier for people to get sick at work. Rewarding people for going into work. Rewarding vulture capitalists profiting off a crisis.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">White House deliberations over a fresh coronavirus aid package comes as the mammoth legislation Trump signed late last month is failing to get much-needed relief into the hands of people and small businesses, vindicating progressives’ warnings that the package amounted to little more than a massive bailout for big corporations replete with goodies for the well-off.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">On Friday, the Trump administration launched the $350 billion small business relief program authorized under the $4.5 trillion stimulus package. But the rollout was disastrous as small businesses struggled to apply for loans and some of the biggest banks in the country sat out the process entirely as the Treasury Department failed to provide adequate guidance.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“The estimate is there are 30 million small businesses out there,” wrote David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect. “About 4.5% of all of them will have a chance to get relief. Half of small businesses haven’t paid rent in April, which if I’m doing the math correctly is more than 4.5%. And millions of them will have no federal help, no customers, and really no hope.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Workers and the unemployed, meanwhile, have yet to receive the one-time $1,200 cash payments and expanded unemployment benefits to which they are now entitled under law.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">As the Post reported late Sunday, “the law’s provision to boost unemployment benefits has become tangled in dated and overwhelmed state bureaucracies, as an unprecedented avalanche of jobless Americans seeks aid.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“Millions of workers are filing for unemployment and businesses around the country are struggling to stay afloat,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). “This crisis isn’t going away soon. The rise in jobless claims makes it clear Congress must continue working on the next relief bill to get Americans the help they need.”<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said Friday that Congress—which is officially on recess until April 20—must move urgently to enact the “boldest legislation in history” to combat the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic collapse.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“We are in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that could lead to the death of hundreds of thousands of Americans and infect millions of others, and we are entering an economic downturn that could be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s,” said Sanders.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The Vermont senator proposed a number of relief measures, including $2,000 in monthly payments to every person in the U.S. for the duration of the crisis and immediate suspension of all rent and mortgage payments.<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
<p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“In this unprecedented moment in modern American history,” said Sanders, “it is imperative that we respond in an unprecedented way.”<div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</div><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> =<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/the-plutocrats-most-effective-secret-weapon-is-the-u-s-tax-code/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/the-plutocrats-most-effective-secret-weapon-is-the-u-s-tax-code/</a>no lnxThe plutocrats’ most effective secret weapon is the U.S. tax code
Written by Jim Hightower / Creators Syndicate November 12, 2019I should start this homily on inequality by distinguishing income from wealth. Income is your annual wages or salary, as well as your earnings from a business, pension or government benefits such as Social Security, etc.As the average U.S. worker’s real wages have stagnated for more than a decade, income disparity has become enormous. The bottom 90% of us average $30,000 a year, while the top 0.01% and 0.001% (about 1,400 taxpayers) rake in average annual incomes of $35.1 million and $152 million, respectively.Meanwhile, even mediocre CEOs pocket many millions a year, and the greediest Wall Street hucksters annually amass more than $1 billion in booty. Until relatively recently, the ethical standard was for workers to gain a proportionate share of the income growth we generate. But in the last dozen years, the rich have been gobbling more and more of the total income pie, so the bottom half of Americans now get only 14%.As gross as income inequality is, though, it’s dwarfed by the lesser-known wealth disparity that has engulfed our land, mocking our egalitarian pretensions.Wealth is your net worth, the total financial value of every asset you own: your home(s), business, stocks, cash, real estate, cars, yachts, jewels, gold, art, toys and … well, everything, minus debts.Startling statistic: 1 in 5 Americans have zero net worth — or less. Many of us owe more than we own and, living paycheck to paycheck, can’t get ahead to build a nest egg.More startling statistic: U.S. wealth disparity is the greatest of any advanced economy in the world, with the richest 1% holding more of our nation’s wealth than the bottom 90% of us.Even more startling: Just three Americans — Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) — possess more personal wealth ($248 billion) than the entire bottom half. Yes, more than 165 million of us combined.The rapidly widening divide between the rich and the rest of us is neither natural nor accidental. During the past half-century, myriad corporate and governmental decisions — from labor law to campaign finance regulations — have methodically slanted America’s economic and political systems so that money and power flow from the many to the few. The plutocrats’ most effective and least reported-on tool is America’s tax structure.
For most of us — workers, professionals, farmers, small-business folks, etc. — income taxes are generally straightforward. The rich are different. Multimillionaires and billionaires don’t usually draw the bulk of their fabulous incomes from paychecks but from their enormous financial assets, i.e., their wealth. This inherited or accumulated wealth generates “capital income” — and further wealth — with little or no work by the asset holder.
As the Center for American Progress’ excellent report “Ending Special Tax Treatment for the Very Wealthy” details, the moral basis of U.S. tax policy has been perverted since the 1980s by legislative and regulatory twists that tax work but let these massive accretions of wealth skate by virtually untouched. Thus, the ultrarich, who benefit the most from our country’s economy and public infrastructure, pay the smallest proportion of their incomes to sustain it.
Today’s tax laws offer a carnival of loop-the-loops, whirligigs and other tax-free joyrides for those who’ve stockpiled capital income. For example, while you might pay the top tax rate of 37% on ordinary income, someone selling a capital asset like stock pays only 20% tax on income from that sale.
Nearly 70% of such capital gains are made by America’s richest 1%, who reap trillions of dollars a year in savings through such special tax treatments. This windfall allows them to amass and concentrate even more of America’s wealth in their sheltered accounts and buy the political clout to push through laws that the great majority oppose — such as 2017’s Trump-McConnell trillion-dollar tax giveaway to the rich. (Facing overwhelming public opposition, the GOP wrote the bill behind closed doors, allowed no public hearings and rammed it into law on a partisan vote.)
And round and round it goes … unless and until we stop it.Read the Center for American Progress’ report. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/EndingSpecialTaxTreatment" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Center for American Progress’ report</a>.Populist author, public speaker and radio commentator Jim Hightower writes “The Hightower Lowdown,” a monthly newsletter chronicling the ongoing fights by America’s ordinary people against rule by plutocratic elites. Sign up at HightowerLowdown.org. COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COM
=no lnxTrump’s cure for recession woes is more tax cuts for the rich. It won’t workWritten by Igor Derysh / Salon August 21, 2019The Trump administration has floated a new round of tax cuts for the rich and slashing the payroll tax used to fund Social Security and Medicare to ease worries of a recession, which the White House insists is not happening despite dire warnings from economists and the stock market.
Despite the stock market plummeting over concerns of a looming recession and a survey finding that 74 percent of economists expect a recession to hit in the next two years, President Trump and his aides have have flippantly dismissed concerns of an economic downturn. Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway called recession the “Sesame Street word of the day” and Trump himself has argued that the bad economic outlook is just a conspiracy by economists and the media to make him look bad. The Washington Post reported last week that Trump aides “acknowledge that they have not planned for a possible recession” but The New York Times now reports that the president’s team is scrambling to come up with ways to alleviate the hit the economy has taken from Trump’s trade wars.
Top White House advisers, including National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow, are pushing for a capital gains tax cut, which would allow investors to pay lower taxes on profits when they sell their shares, according to the Times. According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, 86 percent of the benefits of such a cut would go to the top 1 percent while costing the government more than $100 billion in revenues.
Trump’s team is also considering a payroll tax cut, The Washington Post reported. The Obama administration also used a two-year payroll tax cut to help recover from the 2008-9 recession, but it was not until years after the recession ended. Such a cut could boost consumer spending, which is actually the only economic indicator still doing well, but would drain the revenue sources of Social Security and Medicare. White House officials denied that a payroll tax cut is “under consideration” but said that more tax cuts “were on the table.”
One thing not on the table is changing course in Trump’s trade war, the Times reported. Trump’s tariffs on China and other countries have not helped reduce the U.S. trade deficit but have contributed to manufacturing falling to a decade low, farmers in the Midwest going bankrupt at record rates, and consumers being hit with huge cost increases.
Instead, Trump is expected to go forward with a new round of tariffs on Chinese goods next month. JPMorgan Chase said the existing tariffs are already costing the average American household $600 more per year and the next round would increase that cost to $1,000 per year.
The Trump administration is giving farmers hit by his trade war a taxpayer-funded bailout (which will cost more than the revenue raised by the tariffs), and Kudlow floated the idea of a bailout for taxpayers hit by the trade war in an appearance on Fox News Sunday.
“Tax cuts 2.0, we are looking at all that,” Kudlow said. “By the way, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, very smart guy, made an interesting idea — a proposal on another network last week. He said, ‘Look, why don’t we take the tariffs from the China trade and turn those back to the taxpayers in the form of tax cuts?’ That’s an idea.”
Kudlow also said capital gains tax cuts were “good ideas,” though he insisted that the economy was in “pretty good shape” and that there is “no recession in sight.”
Kudlow made a similar prediction right before the recession hit in 2008.
“There’s no recession coming. The pessimistas were wrong. It’s not going to happen,” Kudlow wrote in an op-ed in December 2007. “The Bush boom is alive and well. It’s finishing up its sixth consecutive year with more to come. Yes, it’s still the greatest story never told.”
After joining the Trump administration, Kudlow denied that that the deficit was growing as a result of Trump’s tax cuts and bizarrely claimed that the deficit was “coming down rapidly.” The deficit is already higher this fiscal year than it was through all of last year.
Kudlow offered another can’t-miss prediction in an interview with NBC News Sunday.
“I sure don’t see a recession,” he told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd. “The second half of the economy is going to be very good in 2019.”
“OK, you say that, but you actually said that in 2007 right before the second-worst downturn in American history,” Todd replied. “I admire your optimism, but the data is pointing in another direction.”<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/ted-cruz-leads-group-of-gop-senators-calling-on-trump-to-bypass-congress-and-give-rich-americans-yet-another-tax-cut">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/ted-cruz-leads-group-of-gop-senators-calling-on-trump-to-bypass-congress-and-give-rich-americans-yet-another-tax-cut</a>no lnx
Ted Cruz leads group of GOP senators calling on Trump to bypass Congress and give rich Americans yet another tax cut Fox NewsWritten by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams July 30, 2019“This is the GOP long con in a nutshell. Trump blazes away with raw and hideous racism. Meanwhile, he and his party look for ways to ship yachtloads of cash to the super wealthy.”A group of over 20 Republican senators on Monday urged President Donald Trump’s Treasury Department to bypass Congress to unilaterally hand the wealthiest Americans another massive tax cut.In a letter (pdf) led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the GOP senators called on Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to index capital gains to inflation, a move that would primarily reward rich investors.According to Bloomberg, the Trump White House is “developing a plan” to cut taxes for the rich by indexing capital gains to inflation.“Indexing capital gains would slash tax bills for investors when selling assets such as stock or real estate by adjusting the original purchase price so no tax is paid on appreciation tied to inflation,” Bloomberg reported last month.The Republican senators called on Mnuchin to use his “authority to eliminate inflationary gains from the Department of the Treasury’s calculation of capital gains tax liability.”benwikler This is the GOP long con in a nutshell. Trump blazes away with raw and hideous racism. Meanwhile, he and his party look for ways to ship yachtloads of cash to the super wealthy. Don’t let them get away w it.Ted Cruz Demands Emergency Tax Cut for the Rich https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/republicans-capital-gains-tax-cut …Critics have questioned whether the White House has the authority to take such an action. As the New York Times reported last July—when the Trump administration first considered going around Congress to index capital gains to inflation—former President George W. Bush’s Treasury Department determined the move “would be illegal.”Chye-Ching Huang, director of federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said Monday that 86 percent of the benefits of indexing capital gains to inflation would go to the top one percent. This would add ~$100-200 billion to deficits86% would go to the top 1%, with new loopholes for the wealthy.
And the Administration lacks legal authority to do it: https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/indexing-capital-gains-for-inflation-would-worsen-fiscal-challenges-give … https://twitter.com/arappeport/status/1155941104065232896 …Alan Rappeport@arappeportRepublican senators send letter to Sec. Mnuchin asking him to unilaterally cut taxes for the rich https://www.atr.org/sites/default/files/assets/Senate_Letter_to_Mnuchin_Re_Capital_Gains_Indexing.pdf …The GOP push for more tax cuts for the rich comes as the Trump administration is working to take food stamps from three million low-income Americans, Seth Hanlon, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, noted on Twitter.Seth Hanlon@SethHanlon It would truly be something if Trump cuts taxes for the rich by executive fiat right after cutting nutrition assistance for the poor by executive fiat.  (See: https://twitter.com/rebeccavallas/status/1153642781761527816?s=20 …) https://twitter.com/arappeport/status/1155941104065232896 …Alan Rappeport@arappeportRepublican senators send letter to Sec. Mnuchin asking him to unilaterally cut taxes for the rich https://www.atr.org/sites/default/files/assets/Senate_Letter_to_Mnuchin_Re_Capital_Gains_Indexing.pdf …The Republicans sent their letter as mounting data shows Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut legislation, which took effect last year, has done virtually nothing for workers while further enriching wealthy Americans and large corporations.Earlier this month, a group of Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) sent their own letter (pdf) pressing Mnuchin to “reject reported plans to use questionable authority to—yet again—lavish tax cuts upon our country’s wealthiest, while middle class families and working people continue to see costs rise and wages stagnate.”The letter was signed by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and a dozen other senators.“We remain concerned this administration’s relentless preoccupation with cutting taxes for our country’s wealthiest taxpayers while leaving behind middle class families and working people,” wrote the senators, “even to the extent that it would consider exceeding its legal authority to do so.”=</div></div>