November 29, 2017

TaxScam in a nutshell

Here's what I think we need to know about the highly partisan version of tax "reform" now being pushed through the senate:

1. George W. Bush passed massive tax cuts and what we got was....permanent prosperity? Oh, wait, it was the biggest crash since the Great Depression. I'm not saying the tax cuts were the sole cause, although they did contribute to the financial bubbles that led to it. But it's obvious that tax cuts don't guarantee growth or prosperity or economic stability.

2. This is a Trojan horse. The massive transfer of wealth to those who already have it will eventually crowd out funding for things like Medicare, Medicaid, student aid, food security, housing etc.

3. There are plenty of "starve the beast" Republicans who want that to happen. They hope a crisis will force cuts to domestic programs.

4. Then there's the whole thing about adding $1.5 trillion+ to the deficit for no good reason.

5. Whatever cuts some middle class people will get is a sugar high. Those cuts are temporary, while cuts to corporations and the wealthy are permanent.

6. Due to the tilt of the programs towards the wealthy, people in 19 states, including West Virginia, will eventually pay more in 2027 than they do under current law.

7. Then there's the consequences of repealing the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate, which will greatly increase the number of uninsured Americans and drive up costs for everyone else.

I mean, golly, what could possibly go wrong?

1 comment:

Hollowdweller said...

RE: Bush tax cuts and the financial collapse.

The Bush tax cuts favored the rich.

The rich invest where poor people consume.

This created more money looking for investment than there were actual opportunities.

So Mortgage backed securities were created to snag that extra money looking for a home.

Then credit default swaps were used to "insure" them and snag more of that money.

Deregulation lit the spark, but the extra money at the top was the gasoline that lit the fire of the financial crisis

This American Life had a great segment about the financial sector and how it worked to snage the "Giant Pool of Money" waiting out there for them.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/355/the-giant-pool-of-money