Trump's Big Lie on Corporate Taxes

The Republicans' tax cuts are all going to the wealthy and corporations, but Trump is trying to sell this as a good thing:

President Trump’s top economist said on Monday that a corporate tax cut being pushed by Republicans would increase a typical household’s income by $3,000 to $7,000 a year, highlighting a primary argument the administration will make in drafting and selling its tax plan.

The idea is that corporations getting a tax cut will turn around and, out of the goodness of their hearts, give that money to their workers.

This is nonsense, of course. Every time corporations get a windfall they give the money to CEOs and shareholders. Because, as Republicans always tell us, the only duty a corporation has is to its shareholders. When American Airlines raised flight crew wages earlier this year, Wall Street analysts were outraged and American's stock got hammered.

Republicans are also planning to change tax law so that corporations will be able to repatriate overseas profits without a tax penalty, which will somehow benefit regular working stiffs. But this too is a lie.

Apple has been hoarding its profits overseas for years. In 2013 Apple borrowed $17 billion to help finance a $100 billion payout to their shareholders, who are all extremely wealthy (who else can afford Apple stock?). In 2017 Apple did it again:

So far in 2017, the Cupertino tech giant has issued unsecured notes three times: on May 5 for $7 billion; on Feb. 15 for $1 billion; and on Feb. 3 for $10 billion, according to company filings with the SEC, for a total of $18 billion.

The money, in all three cases, would be used for “general corporate purposes, including repurchases of our common stock and payment of dividends under our program to return capital to shareholders, funding for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and repayment of debt,” Apple said in its filings.

Apple is buying back stock to drive its stock price to even greater heights, providing a huge windfall to the wealthy.

Wall Street is salivating at the prospect of corporate tax cuts and the repatriation holiday. The Dow topped 23,000 yesterday, not because the social, political and business climate is great.

Every other week there's another mass shooting or race riot stoked by neo Nazis. Hundreds of Americans are dying every day from a prescription drug-fueled opioid epidemic that Trump has done nothing about for months. According to the former NATO chief, Adm. James Stavridis, there's a 10% of nuclear war with North Korea, and a 20-30% chance of conventional war. Donald Trump is actively stoking racial divisions with his attacks on NFL players and his not-so-tacit support for white nationalists. The prospect of Trump destroying the NAFTA treaty has American farmers seriously worried.

No, the prospect of corporate tax cuts, with all the proceeds going to wealthy investors, is the main reason for the Wall Street bubble. Other factors include low inflation and low interest rates, which are mostly due to stagnant wages in the lower and middle classes.

But, incredibly, some upper middle class earners will actually see their taxes go up with Trump's plan. Those are the very people who provided Trump with his tiny electoral college win over Clinton.

Essentially all the tax cuts will go to wealthy elites (including Trump himself), especially in the long term. And yet, somehow the suckers who Trump conned last November still suffer from the delusion that he's sticking it to the wealthy elites.