Version one of the GOP’s deeply unpopular tax scam produced results nearly everyone — including, in his rare moments of honesty, President Donald Trump himself — predicted: Record-shattering profits for Wall Street, massive pay-outs for the wealthiest Americans, and little to nothing for the working class, whose wages are either stagnant or falling.
But the most important class of Americans in the eyes of Trump and congressional Republicans — the donor class — loved the tax cuts, so the GOP is barreling ahead with Tax Scam 2.0 just in time for the upcoming midterm elections.
As The Hill reported on Thursday, House Republicans are expected to unveil the full text of their latest round of proposed tax breaks for the wealthy as early as next week, and a floor vote on the legislation could come as soon as the end of the month.
While the full details of the plan are not yet known, The Hill notes that the bill is expected to consist primarily of “a permanent extension of tax changes for individuals that Republicans passed last year.”
According to a Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) analysis released on Wednesday, such a move would result in another $627 billion in tax cuts, with the vast majority of benefits going to the wealthy.
We just got JCT estimates for extending the individual side of the Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, or TBFKA TCJA.
Another $627 billion in tax cuts for the rich.https://t.co/bdsdgppMtY
— Bobby Kogan (@BBKogan) September 5, 2018
The House plans to vote on #GOPTaxScam Round 2 this month. It’s a repeat of the original, in that most of the benefits go to the rich, and it will cost ANOTHER $627 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Absurdity. https://t.co/ouEk089IZH
— Chad Bolt (@chadderr) September 5, 2018
The House is expected to vote later this month on its “2.0” #tax plan, a tax-cut bill that would double down on the 2017 tax law’s flaws by once again delivering substantially more $$ to the wealthiest Americans.
Yes, we have charts: https://t.co/1GvBDDe8zg pic.twitter.com/BTgPOtbvVK
— Center on Budget (@CenterOnBudget) September 5, 2018
While the GOP has not explained how they plan to pay for this massive giveaway to the rich, some Republicans have been quite explicit about their desire to slash life-saving social programs like Medicare and Medicaid to offset the deficit-exploding effects of their tax cuts.
“I do think we need to deal with some of our spending,” Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) declared last month, echoing a sentiment expressed by many Republicans following the passage of their $1.5 trillion tax bill last December. “We’ve got try to figure out how to spend less.”
And of course, while the deficit issue is massively overblown, remember this is the ambrosia and nectar for Republicans. They love tax cuts for the rich more than anything else. But that’s always step one. Step two is to try to cut benefits for everyone.https://t.co/jQGhPNEeWN
— Bobby Kogan (@BBKogan) September 5, 2018
Republican efforts to double-down on their tax cuts for the rich come as polls continue to show that their first round of tax cuts are widely disliked, making them a tough sell for the GOP on the campaign trail as midterms approach.
Though House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) insists that “results are there” for workers under the GOP’s tax law, surveys show that most Americans have not seen a boost in pay from the tax cuts.
As Campaign for America’s Future co-founder Robert Borosage noted in The Nation on Sunday, the “$4,000 raise promised to workers out of the tax bill is nowhere to be seen.”
“Don’t fall for the con. Real wages have fallen over the last year, despite an economy nearing full employment. Good jobs are still being shipped abroad,” Borosage added. “As Americans for Tax Fairness has documented, only four percent of workers received any increase from the tax cuts, while, as predicted, corporate CEOs used the cut for a record-breaking $700 billion in stock buybacks, lining their pockets and those of investors.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy