On December 2, the Senate passed a tax bill that is both callous and rash. But beyond that assessment, it’s also stupid, short-sighted and will have disastrous consequences for 90% of the population.

The bill is stupid because it cuts taxes for US corporations — which are enjoying record profits already without a corresponding rise in demand for their products, nor a rise in wages for their employees, nor a meaningful tax reduction for the middle class, (contrary to what the GOP and Trump are claiming as their main talking points). Yes, some people might see a modest reduction in their 2018 taxes, but beyond 2018 it will wreak havoc on the already stretched finances of the very people that put these clowns in charge.

It would have been so easy to write this bill so that it really did benefit lower and middle-income Americans while simultaneously stabilizing Social Security and Medicare. These two simple actions could have achieved so much:

It would have been so easy to write this bill so that it really did benefit lower and middle-income Americans while simultaneously stabilizing Social Security and Medicare. These two simple actions could have achieved so much:

    1. Lower the withholding tax for individuals making less than $150k a year.
    2. Remove the cap on wages and earnings subject to Social Security on employees (for 2018 any wages over $127,200 is exempt from FICA tax).

    Instead, by year three, (conveniently after the Presidential election in 2020) the GOP bill is raising taxes on the US middle class, who have borne the brunt of the diminution of the average American’s purchasing power. The totally Republican written and passed bill is particularly stupid because there is a broad consensus of bipartisan agencies and economists who agree the U.S. cannot increase growth by anywhere near enough to offset the revenue losses driven by the tax cuts, which will blow a hole in the debt and deficit of at least $1.5 trillion. The idea that tax cuts pay for themselves has been tested time and again (just recently Kansas, and Louisiana went bankrupt under the exact same conditions that the GOP bill is mirroring for the entire country). Germany and Spain tried it after the Bush crash of 2007. In every single case throughout history, we have found that growth-related revenue always falls far short of replacing lost tax revenues. Trickle down economics never has, nor never will work because the underlying principles are complete and total fiction.

    Trump’s first year budget deficit, (again, totally controlled by the majority Republican Congress and White House) is on track to exceed $1 trillion and the first year deficit under the Obama administration, (which was saddled with the fallout from the Bush Housing Crash, a crashing stock market, and millions of Americans losing their 401(k)s and pensions) while Trump inherited an Obama-era budget […]