Surprise! Foreigners Will Reap 80 Percent Of Republican Tax "Reform" Benefits By 2028

The Congressional Budget Office has a new analysis on "The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018-2028," (PDF here) and it paints a devastating picture of the effects of the plutocrat wealthfare bill passed by Republicans last Fall.  One of the effects that Democrats warned about is being confirmed by the CBO analysis: that large corporations and foreign investors will stand to reap the highest gains at the expense of American workers:

The report found significant differences between projected GDP, which measures the level of production in the U.S., and gross national product, which measures the income earned by all Americans. If the economic impact from GDP is higher than GNP,  the difference between the two is income generated in the United States but going to foreigners. According to the CBO, on average 34 percent of income from the economic activity driven by the tax cuts is flowing out of the country, and in 2028, when the full effects of the tax cuts are in place, that number will increase to 80 percent. [snip] 

Nearly one-third of the U.S. stock market is owned by foreign investors, which means they’re benefiting from the $238 billion increase in stock buyback authorizations since the tax law passed. An analysis of Fortune 500 companies found that corporations have spent 37 times more on stock buybacks than on American workers’ bonuses and wages. [snip] 

At the same time, U.S. deficits are projected to balloon because of the decrease in revenue being collected under the tax cuts. The CBO projects that federal spending will exceed revenues by $804 billion in fiscal year 2018, up from $665 billion in 2017. The national debt is now on track to be 100 percent of GDP by 2028. That means the U.S. will have to borrow money to make up for its shortfalls, and much of that money will come from abroad. The small gains to GDP will be offset by increased interest payments abroad. 

“That’s the effect of the tax law, it provides some boost to GDP but that boost is financed by a lot of borrowing,” said Chad Stone, chief economist at the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Each year’s borrowing produces more income for foreigners and by the time you get to 2028 there’s a fair amount of income for foreigners being generated.” (our emphasis)

Let us gaze on the monumental hypocrisy of, say, unlamented plutocrat pal and departing Squeaker of the House Paul "Lyin'" Ryan and his merry Republican band of nihilist social Darwinists, who have labored to sell their wealthfare tax "reform" bill as a boon to the working and middle class. Rather than providing relief to those classes -- which President Obama's tax cuts provided to the tune of $321 billion -- the Republican "reforms" only provided $190 billion, doling the rest out to the 1 percent and corporations. And we all know about the odious but consistent hypocrisy of Republicans who balloon the deficit when they're in power and scream bloody murder when there's a Democrat in the White House.  It all comes down to who is benefitting, and for Republicans, it's all about their plutocrat benefactors. The only wealth they're creating is in the bank accounts of the well- to- do here and abroad.

Meanwhile, sniveling shyster Sen. Bob Corker (Poultry-TN), who vowed never to vote for a tax bill that added one cent to the deficit (and who's decided to bail now that he's got his extra millions from the wealthfare bill in the Corker kickback), is disingenuously whining that his vote to pass the deficit- busting, plutocrat- enriching bill "could be one of the worst votes I've made."  No shit, Sherlock -- but you knew that all along, didn't you?