Take The Money And Ride

Iconic American motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson was a beneficiary of the massive tax giveaway to corporations and the wealthiest individuals, thanks to con-man and greed head Donald "Rump" Trump and his Rethuglican Congress. They reaped the benefits of a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. So did the company announce pay increases for its workers? Price reductions for its customers? No, it announced a net layoff of 350 jobs from the closure of its Kansas City, MO plant, deciding instead to plow the tax savings into stock buybacks ($696 million worth) and increased stockholder dividends. To add insult to job loss, Harley-Davidson is opening a production facility in Thailand this year.

Harley workers should remember Rump's statement regarding Harley-Davidson in February 2017 at a White (Supremacist) House photo op:

“I think you’re going to even expand — I know your business is now doing very well, and there’s a lot of spirit right now in the country that you weren’t having so much in the last number of months that you have right now.”

The irony of Rump's statement that Harley-Davidson was going to expand -- yes, but in Thailand -- should be a clear warning to those workers that put their faith in him bringing back U.S. industry and jobs. Stockholders and corporate executives are "now doing very well," industrial workers not so much. The Kansas City plant closing was handled harshly by Harley executives:

"Just over a month after Trump signed the tax cuts into law, the Kansas City closure was announced. Workers found out when they arrived at the plant that morning: They were kept in the hallway, informed that the factory would be shut, and sent home for the rest of the day without pay. The union had no advance warning, said Greg Tate, a staff representative for the United Steelworkers District 11, which represents about 30 percent of the Harley-Davidson plant’s workers."

As the workers in Kansas City watch equipment from their plant being disassembled and crated, likely bound for Thailand, Tate noted:

“They have the capital now to move Kansas City, to shut it down,” he said. “All of that money really came from the tax cut plan, so it kind of had the opposite effect of what it was supposed to do.”

Actually no, Mr. Tate. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. The con worked.

Trump Adviser Surprised When CEOs Don't Follow The Trickle Down Script

As Senate Republicans prepare to introduce their "wealthfare" tax bill, which proposes to end the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate just to shovel $300 billion more in tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy, it appears not all corporate CEOs are on board with the Republican trickle- down script that tax cuts will magically boost the economy and job growth.

Here's how one smarmy Trumper got the message:

President Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, looked out from the stage at a sea of CEOs and top executives in the audience Tuesday for the Wall Street Journal's CEO Council meeting. As Cohn sat comfortably onstage, a Journal editor asked the crowd to raise their hands if their company plans to invest more if the tax reform bill passes. 

Very few hands went up. 

Cohn looked surprised. “Why aren't the other hands up?” he said.

This is the former Goldman Sachs head who weaseled around when his boss said Charlottesville neo- Nazis are "good people" and both sides were responsible for violence, but who stuck with the regime in order to get tax breaks for himself and his billionaire donor class. Yet, as the "top economic adviser," he doesn't have a clue what the reality is, even in his own insulated world. Somehow that fits the pattern.

Make no mistake. Both the Senate and House Republican tax packages are the opening wedge to gut the social safety net while benefitting the Kochs and Mercers of the world, and their agenda.  It's a fight we can't afford to let them win.

Trump's 100 Day Failures = Win For America

As the official end of the first 100 days of the regime of bumbling ignoramus Donald "Rump" Trump approaches, the media is bursting with assessments of the "chaos and failure."  As one observer sagely notes, Rump's failures are a win for America.

Two of the most recent examples of this are the imploding Republican effort to revive TrumpCare and Rump's trickle down tax "reform" plan- on- a- napkin. The former effort, shepherded by the sociopathic Sneaker of the House Paul "Lyin'" Ryan (R- Galt's Gulch), was a hasty effort to get a 100 day "win" for Rump on Obamacare repeal by acceding to an even more cruel proposal than TrumpCare 1.0.  How's that workin' out for ya?

Despite pressure from the White House, Republicans determined late Thursday that they did not have the votes to pass a health-care revision and would not seek to put the proposal on the floor on Friday.

A Win for America!

The expectation of many is that, once the magical 100 days window closes, this awful piece of legislating will fade quickly since getting the Republican House caucus to agree on something that both satisfies the mouth- breathers in the "Freedom Caucus" and the vulnerable Republicans in swing districts is, well, impossible. Should they thread this impossible needle, though, the Senate would be the graveyard for any proposal that gutted the main features of the ever more popular Obamacare.

The second example of a Rump failure that's a Win for America is his stillborn trickle down tax "reform." The one- page, 16- bullet "plan" unveiled this week is getting panned from left and right (and far right). In fact, some Republicans are seeing the Rump "plan" as upstaging a year of effort on the part of Ryan to pass his Ayn Randian tax "reforms."  But while it's going nowhere, Rump's "plan" serves as another clear example of the shallow, self- serving ignorance that is a hallmark of this regime.

Catherine Rampell summarizes:

Credit where credit is due: President Trump’s tax plan is only one page long and yet contains volumes’ worth of dumb ideas. And there’s fierce competition for which part is dumbest.

(Spoiler alert: she thinks the tax rate on "pass- through" income, which would -- surprise! -- benefit plutocrats like Rump while gutting Medicare and Social Security. In other words, a Rump twofer.)

Eugene Robinson focuses on what used to be near and dear to Republican hearts (when a Democrat is in the White House anyway):

In his desperate quest to do something yooge, Trump proposes massive tax cuts for businesses and individuals, especially the wealthy. The impact, according to experts, would be to make federal budget deficits soar, adding as much as $4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. I’ve never thought of myself as a deficit hawk, but this kind of profligacy is ridiculous. [snip] 

I don’t know whether this is the most cynical tax plan I’ve ever heard or the most ignorant. I guess those distinctions are not mutually exclusive. Anyone who supports this mess automatically forfeits the right to be a deficit scold ever again.

But, we'll leave it to another Post-er, Tom Toles, to make it simple:


(Tom Toles, Washington Post)

Today's Sociopathy And Treason Round Up

The regime of neo- fascist dolt Donald "Rump" Trump and the craven enablers and sociopaths of the Republican Party are moving quickly to fulfill the dream of plutocrats everywhere: to afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable.  At the same time, the clock is running out on former Rump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and his dealings with Russia and Turkey. Here's a brief recap.

Obamacare Repeal and "Replace"

Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) on Tuesday formally unveiled an amendment to the American Health Care Act, the bill to repeal Obamacare that Republicans tried to get through the House last month. The amendment, which HuffPost’s Matt Fuller first reported last week, is the product of negotiations among key Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence. [snip]

... If enacted, it would allow states to re-create the conditions that existed before the Affordable Care Act took effect ― a time when insurance premiums were cheaper, chiefly because insurers didn’t have to pay the big medical bills of people with serious conditions. 

At the same time, the new proposal leaves intact most of the initial bill’s big financial changes. Those include shifting the law’s health insurance subsidies, which would offer less help to poor people, and dramatically cutting funds for Medicaid, which would free up money for tax cuts for the wealthy. (our emphasis)

Of course, these Republican slugs would exempt themselves and their families from the bill's most vicious features that they would happily impose on everyone else.

Trickle Down Tax "Reform"

President Trump plans to unveil a tax cut blueprint on Wednesday that would apply a vastly reduced, 15 percent business tax rate not only to corporations but also to companies that now pay taxes through the personal income tax code — from mom-and-pop businesses to his own real estate empire, according to several people briefed on the proposal. (our emphasis)

Will the plan close the myriad of loopholes corporations use to routinely pay less than the current 35% rate?

... His plan would put off the difficult part of a tax overhaul: closing loopholes and increasing other taxes to limit the impact of tax cuts on the budget deficit. 

What about the effect on the budget deficit, that hobgoblin that's only a concern when a Democrat is in the White House?

... Most analysts say the notion that Mr. Trump’s tax cuts will pay for themselves is unrealistic. A Tax Foundation analysis concluded this week that, on its own, a 15 percent corporate tax rate would reduce federal revenue by about $2 trillion over a decade. To make up for those losses without raising taxes elsewhere, the economy would have to become 5 percent larger. 

Even the chief tax counsel for Sneaker of the House Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan (R- Galt's Gulch) sees it as a magic unicorn endeavor.

Incompetent hypocrites in the pocket of big corporations and Wall Street.  "Drain the swamp!" my ass.

The Noose Closes Around Flynn's Neck

President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, appeared to violate federal law when he failed to seek permission or inform the U.S. government about accepting tens of thousands of dollars from Russian organizations after a trip there in 2015, leaders of a House oversight committee say. 

The congressmen also raised new questions about fees Flynn received as part of $530,000 in consulting work his company performed for a businessman tied to Turkey’s government. 

The bipartisan accusations that Flynn may have broken the law come as his foreign contacts are being examined by other congressional committees as part of investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential ties between Trump associates and the Kremlin.

Flynn, who finally registered as a foreign agent in early March but whose activities on behalf of Turks friendly with Russia were known to Rump's team during the transition, has already sought immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony (a request that was refused). What is important, beyond the immediate question of Flynn's potentially treasonous but certainly illegal actions, is how he connects with the nexus of Russian oligarchs and agents that have been actively cultivating Rump and many of his associates for years, if not decades. That, we believe, will eventually lead to the answer to the question "what do the Russians have on Trump?"

BONUS:  A hopeful and serious sign -- April Doss, former NSA chief of intelligence law, is joining the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation into the Trump- Russia connection.