Trump's Big CON: The Same Old Trickle-Down Economics

UPDATE II:  "Having failed in their attempt to strip millions of health insurance by repealing Obamacare, President Trump and the Republican Congress are moving to their biggest priority: tax cuts for corporations and the rich. The plan is still being written, but Trump has already begun his push for it. And every part of the administration’s tax pitch is divorced from reality (a gentle way of saying it is a lie and a fraud). . .

There are sensible tax reforms that could be passed. Raise rates on the rich and use the money to fund a massive rebuilding of America’s infrastructure, starting with accelerating the move to renewable energy. That would create jobs, reduce inequality, invest in research and new technology, help capture a lead in growing global markets and begin to address climate change. Tax income from investments at the same rate as income from work. Require global corporations to pay taxes at the same rates as domestic companies by ending deferral. Tax financial speculation to raise revenue and at least slow the destabilizing financial casino.

These and other common-sense ideas would raise revenue and support badly needed public investments that would create real jobs and growth while not fueling greater inequality. It won’t surprise you that none of them are on the table in the back room where Republicans are struggling to come up with a tax plan.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, there may be no words in the English language more scary than 'a Republican president and Congress announce it is time for tax reform.'"

Read the Washington Post, Trump’s tax-reform pitch is entirely divorced from reality.

UPDATE:  "Republicans have one idea and one idea only: That we should cut taxes for the rich. The only thing that changes is the sales pitch.

And the latest pitch, offered by President Trump on Wednesday, is a bit of a doozy."

Read the Washington Post, Republicans have only one idea. And Trump’s pitch for it is a doozy.

Trump yet unreleased tax reform plan will be sold as a 'made in America tax to 'un-rig the economy' by ending special interest loopholes and benefit workers, leveling the playing field with the rest of the world.

It will include few details, but "we already know that the most recent version of his plan would shower most of their benefits on the wealthy and corporations. . .

[And] it is expected to slash the top rate and corporate rate and repeal the estate tax. . .

But the broad strokes of that formulation, despite its packaging in the rhetoric of economic nationalism, actually constitute trickle-down economics. . .

The Tax Policy Center analyzed his final plan during the campaign, by estimating the combined distributive impacts of both the individual and business tax cuts on households. The results were summed up by TPC’s Howard Gleckman in an email to me:

'The Tax Policy Center estimates that half the benefit of Trump’s final campaign tax plan, including both the business and individual tax cuts, would go to the top 1 percent, who make $700,000 or more. Middle-income households would get about 6 percent of the benefits. To put it another way, the average tax cut for the top 1 percent would be $214,000 or 13 percent of their after-tax income while the average tax cut for a middle-income household would be about $1,000 or 2 percent of their after-tax income.'

An analysis of the most recent White House plan yielded similar findings. . .

Now, if Trump wants to make the case that huge high-end tax cuts will actually help workers, fine — let’s have that debate. But the point is that Trump is revealing once again that his populist economic nationalism — as he himself defined it — was largely a scam all along."

Read the Washington Post, Today you will hear the death rattle of Trump’s economic populism.

Happy Labor Day Suckers!