Trump Wants To Give Wealthy Another Multi-Billion Dollar Tax Cut

As we noted yesterday, the Republican wealthfare tax cuts from last year are succeeding in making the wealthy wealthier while having a negative effect on workers' wages.  Well, it seems that wasn't enough sociopathic wealth redistribution for the plutocratic regime of Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump.  Now they're considering another $20 billion giveaway:

The Treasury Department is considering a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans through a change that would not need approval from Congress, officials said, a move that would follow a package of tax cuts last year that also benefited the super-rich. 

The agency is studying whether to allow investment income, known as capital gains, to be adjusted for inflation in a way that shields more of it from taxation. Most capital gains are paid by wealthier Americans, who disproportionately hold large portfolios of investments. [snip] 

Leonard Burman, an institute fellow at the [Tax Policy] center, found that such a change, depending on how it was designed, could cut taxes by up to $20 billion for the wealthiest Americans and make it easier for sophisticated investors to create tax shelters.

Some of our favorite loathsome reptiles would be cheering this along:

Several congressional Republicans have introduced plans that would legislatively index capital gains to inflation, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Devin Nunes of California. The idea has also been promoted widely by Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform and a leading conservative voice on tax cuts.*

We have proof of what economists told us would be the outcome of the 2017 wealthfare corporate tax cut:  corporation buybacks of stock to increase the wealth of stock- holding CEOs, with cosmetic one-time "bonuses" for workers that Rump could trumpet.  This is just more of the same, a looting of the Federal treasury that will only profit the wealthy/ "sophisticated investors."

As with the Trump- Russia scandal, these jamokes are out there not even bothering to wear masks while they assault and rob us.

BONUS:  Philip Bump has a good read about Rump's two- track strategy-- "The rich get richer, and the poor get distracted."
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* This "leading conservative voice on tax cuts" once infamously said, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."  This, on top of last year's trillion dollar wealthfare tax cut, certainly moves us in that direction.

Trumpist Tax Giveaway A "Race To The Bottom"

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde is warning that the Rethuglican / Trumpist tax boondoggle for corporations and wealthy Americans could not only stoke inflation, but could trigger a global "race to the bottom," as countries scramble to give multi-national corporations the sweetest tax deals possible at the expense of their workers rights and wages. That "race to the bottom" could deprive governments of tax revenue to support education, health and even military preparedness, according to Lagarde. It could also achieve the perverse effect of limiting innovation and workforce preparedness for coming decades.

Lagarde's warning comes on the heels of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein's statement a few days ago that the Rethuglican / Trumpist tax boondoggle was like throwing "more lighter fluid on a fire that was already going." Blankfein's fellow greedheads will, of course, profit from any juiced-up market, and will take those profits in advance of any sell-off or crash. That's the way they roll. Even slickster investor and Trump "advisor" Carl Icahn worries that the greedhead predators on Wall Street are dangerously dabbling once again in highly questionable derivatives and other "exotic" leveraged products, something that brought the economy down in late 2008. Be assured that the Trumpists will do nothing to protect the consumers from this slow-moving trainwreck, and are actively dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was established in the aftermath of the 2008 financial debacle, and is the nemesis of Wall Street. Again, that's the way they roll....right over the American people.

Morning Reading

Here are some good reads to start off your Friday (as always, please take the link to the full article):

Dave Roberts at Vox has a deep dive into the right wing's "tribal epistemology" -- seeing only what is good for the "tribe" as true:

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy having to do with how we know things and what it means for something to be true or false, accurate or inaccurate. (Episteme, or ἐπιστήμη, is ancient Greek for knowledge/science/understanding.) 

The US is experiencing a deep epistemic breach, a split not just in what we value or want, but in who we trust, how we come to know things, and what we believe we know — what we believe exists, is true, has happened and is happening. 

The primary source of this breach, to make a long story short, is the US conservative movement’s rejection of the mainstream institutions devoted to gathering and disseminating knowledge (journalism, science, the academy) — the ones society has appointed as referees in matters of factual dispute. 

In their place, the right has created its own parallel set of institutions, most notably its own media ecosystem.  (our emphasis)

Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog nails what Democrats should be talking about to voters:

I keep hearing that Democrats should either talk about economic issues or pitch their message to the emerging, more-diverse electorate -- but I don't understand why this has to be an either/or choice. Democrats who can't figure out how to do both should get the hell out of big-league politics, in favor of people who can walk and chew gum at the same time. Note that the voters surveyed were young and diverse -- and they responded well to an economic message. Enough Midwestern whites responded well to a message about a diverse America in 2008 and 2012 to elect Barack Obama twice. So find a way to get both messages out. 

But please, please, please: Make the point that the Republican Party is the problem. The Republican Party has contempt for you if you're non-white or LGBT or if you're unemployed or need health care for a child with chronic illness or live downstream from a chemical plant. The key to changing America is not electing Republicans. [snip] 

Democrats: Be proud of who you are, speak up for yourselves, and talk about what Republicans have done over the past few decades and how their extremism hurts ordinary people. The problem is the Republican Party, stupid.  (our emphasis)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) outlines two big lies Republicans are using to sell their tax cuts for corporations and the rich:

It’s hard to sell a plan that imposes new taxes on millions of working families while shoveling money to big banks, multinational corporations and wealthy foreign investors. That’s why Republicans are pushing two big lies about their plan instead. 

The first big lie is that the plan will “supercharge” economic growth, creating a rising tide that would lift all boats. Despite Republicans’ wild claims, independent analysts agree: The corporate tax cut at the center of the Republican plan will have a negligible or even a negative impact on economic growth.    

The second big lie is that corporations will pass along their tax giveaways to workers in the form of higher wages. When multinational companies got a huge tax break under President George W. Bush, corporate profits shot up and shareholders grabbed nearly all the gains. When the United Kingdom cut its corporate tax rate by 11 percent, wages went down. Republicans know the facts aren’t with them, which is why Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to bury Treasury’s own report showing that wealthy shareholders would be the overwhelming beneficiaries of a massive corporate tax giveaway. 

The corporate tax cuts will go directly into the pockets of shareholders, not workers;  and, down the road a bit, the Republicans will try to pay for the tax giveaway through cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  But they can be stopped (see Steve M., above).

Republicans Selling Their Tax Cuts For The Rich: "Lies, Lies, Lies..."

As we continue to be distracted by the puerile antics of the moron Man- Baby and his Republican Party enablers, those same "comforters of the comfortable" are in a race with the legislative clock to pass their upward wealth- transferring tax plan. Of course, as Republicans do, they're lying about it.

As a reference, Paul Krugman has 10 of the most obvious lies Republicans tell about their latest attempt to line the pockets of corporations and the one percent at the expense of the rest of us. Please go to his article for the fill- in details; these are just the enumerated lies:

Lie #1: America is the most highly-taxed country in the world
Lie #2: The estate tax is destroying farmers and truckers
Lie #3: Taxation of pass-through entities is a burden on small business
Lie #4: Cutting profits taxes really benefits workers
Lie #5: Repatriating overseas profits will create jobs
Lie #6: This is not a tax cut for the rich
Lie #7: It’s a big tax cut for the middle class
Lie #8: It won’t increase the deficit
Lie #9: Cutting taxes will jump-start rapid growth
Lie #10: Tax cuts will pay for themselves

Senate Republicans are expected to vote later this week on the 2018 budget. If they pass the proposal (not 100% certain due to solid Democratic opposition and a few ostensible Republican deficit hawks), they'll then be working to resolve differences with their fellow stooges in the House.  If and when that's happened, they can pass Man- Baby's tax proposal with a simple majority in the Senate, though the bill is still being drafted and there are a welter of pending issues piling up waiting for resolution (appropriation bills, DACA, Iran nuclear agreement, salvaging Trumpcare (yes) cost- sharing reduction payments, etc.).

A main motivator for these plutocrat lickspittles is the threat from their donor base that not passing their wealth- transferring tax plan will result in the money spigot being turned off, or be re-directed to primary opponents under Bannon banner in 2018. All the more reason to want this piece of sociopathic mischief to fail.