Americans havent been bamboozled by bonuses: The GOP tax law is a flop

[Hermit-The-Prog]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by DonViejo (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Salon

Republicans have failed to sell their tax cuts

Sophia Tesfaye 03.02.2018 3:59 AM

Republicans’ corporate tax cuts aren’t getting more popular as planned — and that’s a big problem for the party.

It’s been a little over two months since President Donald Trump signed the bill into law, but it’s becoming clearer each day that the GOP’s signature legislative accomplishment during their first turn at dominating the federal government in a dozen years has turned into a complete dud.

For a minute there — as Republicans rushed to publicize every temporary bonus announced by a company and attributed to the GOP tax bill, even though several had been announced months earlier — it looked like the law was a winning issue for Trump’s party.

[...]

Luckily for Democrats, the Republican tax law is unraveling before it really picked up steam.

The Koch brothers’ political network has already spent millions of dollars on TV ads and grassroots events to help improve the plan’s popularity. Americans for Prosperity, a political group associated with the billionaire brothers, launched an ad campaign earlier this month attacking Democratic senators who voted against the law. Yet attitudes about the law haven’t shifted to favor Republicans much.

[...]

Every Democrat up for re-election — blue, purple, or red state — can run against the ultimate cost of the law — Republicans’ threats to cuts to Medicaid, Social Security and the rest of the social safety net. As Ron Brownstein notes, this was a winning strategy for Bill Clinton, who “won his epic budget showdown with a Republican-controlled Congress in 1995 and 1996 by linking the GOP’s tax cuts with its simultaneous proposals to cut Medicare and Medicaid.”


Read more: https://www.salon.com/2018/03/02/americans-arent-being-bamboozled-by-bonuses-the-gop-tax-law-is-a-flop/

[Vinca]

1. I'm totally pissed off about it. We're self-employed and I got our taxes back from the CPA

along with next year's estimated tax forms which are based on this year's income. Our quarterly payments went up! UP! We'll be on the hook for higher taxes because fewer things are deductible. Fuck. You can never get ahead if you're in the peon class.

[Rorey]

4. I'm sure that's going to be the case with us too

I haven't taken our paperwork in to our accountant yet because I'm a procrastinator, but I've been warning my husband (who is STILL a supporter of 45) that it's not going to be good because we're losing deductions.

Nothing else is getting through to him, but maybe losing some $$$$$ will.

[duforsure]

2. Only way to change it back

Vote all Democrats into office, and all Republicans out. The tax scam is a present trump claimed for the American people, and now we need to return the favor voting all of the GOP out of office for going along with him on this. It also dropped millions off their ACA health care plan. What a present.

[joshdawg]

3. I know of no one who was surprised by this news.

Every sane person knew this was a scam perpetrated on the American public by the traitorous republicans and the worst traitor of all, trump aka orangeshitgibbon.

republicanism is a mortal disease and needs to be eradicated.

[pangaia]

15. Every SANE person yes.......

That's the problem.

[Freddie]

5. It's a huge scam

[link:https://www.irs.gov/individuals/irs-withholding-calculator

If I had left my "new improved" paycheck in place I would OWE next year. And we're far from rich but we went over the $10000 SALT limit in 2017, it's not hard to do.

[MGKrebs]

6. As much as I would like to believe it, Salon is pretty unreliable.

There is nothing in that story that backs up the claim in the headline. The one thing that comes close; "Even now, however, only one-third of Americans think they will see an income tax cut", links to a NYT article titled "Tax Overhaul Gains Public Support, Buoying Republicans".

Salon is not really much of a "news" source. It's propaganda from the left, which is OK, just take it with a grain of salt.
Having said that, it is good to see Dem candidates telling the truth about the tax cuts, particularly how it gets paid for.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

9. verify the links which verify the article

The article links to much more than the NYT.

It includes links that back up each claim made in the article -- from the Koch brothers ad campaign promoting the "tax reform", to articles in Bloomberg, Washington Post, NYT, The Atlantic, itself (naturally), and to the Quinnipiac Poll and the HuffPost/YouGov poll that directly supports the headline.

The latter shows that the only support for the tax scam is among Republicans and even that is luke-warm. It's the same demographic we've seen over and over -- white, male, 65+.

[MGKrebs]

14. 37% to 35% unfavorable/favorable result.

I guess that can count as a 'flop'.

I concede the point.

[beachbum bob]

7. any actuall evidence that the taxcut is viewed as a fraud for average americans, I hate opinions

when data should exist.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. poll dated Feb 22-24

There is a 10 page poll linked in the article.

[SWBTATTReg]

8. Amen! The GOP-tax scam of 2018 will go down as ...

one of the biggest scams pulled on the American people by the GOP, who claimed that it was for the good of the country. What a joke. Later, they did admit that they were doing the 2018 tax law for their donors. It's estimated via numerous press accounts that 83% of all benefits will go to these group (1%ers or so).

Already, massive stock buybacks have been announced. Stock only. No massive investments into the infrastructure of businesses, no hiring of needed workers, no building of new factories, nothing but maybe 5% of Americans getting benefits (bonuses or higher wages) and the rest of this tax savings is going into buying back stock. Stock representing ownership of these companies already held by the 1%ers in significant percentages. What a productive way to manage these new investment dollars. Wow. Big help to us. Big help to the Koch brothers. Economic policy solely for the wealthy by the GOP. Remember this slogan. It's the doom of this country. Fair wages is what drives this economy. Remember the last recession? Obama and the likes were begging Americans to spend, spend, spend! Because it was our dollars paying for everything!! When we quit spending, everything else followed.

So, with the Koch brothers and the like owning so much of the country's wealth, the demand on returns on their investment will continue to artificially inflated by their financial consultants, who will still cut jobs, cut pay, cut benefits, etc., despite this massive tax give away. Fewer risks will be taken by these 1%ers, since they are so averse to paying taxes, to paying fair wages, to anything, that the velocity of money will slow down (times that a dollar bill is spent in the economy, the higher the velocity, the higher the economic activity).

So, the wealthy are still going to complain about paying what little they pay now in taxes. With the concentration of the wealth of this country so much in the hands of so few, problems associated w/ this concentration is going to start impacting economic growth in this country. Investments, meeting the standards put forth by the 1%ers are to be fewer and fewer, and deficits will balloon. The rest of us, will continue to get substandard interest rates on our bank balances, increased taxes in all shapes and sizes (local, state, lower value of the dollar vs. overseas currencies) will continue, and if anything, will increase more!

My solution? Stop spending. Stop driving this obviously so skewed to the super wealthy economy. Why spend money like you're part of the 1%? It's time to take back our economy and country. I'm tired of the GOP telling us constantly what's wrong w/ this country. The fact is, sure there are things in every household that can be improved or fixed better, but overall, our health is better, our economy is vast compared to all, a big % of us have cars, homes, some savings, etc.

All created under pre-2018 tax laws already (in short, we didn't need the 2018 tax law). Why did the GOP waste it's valuable time chasing after something that wasn't needed? Why didn't they address other critical areas that needed action?

Why?

[NewJeffCT]

10. Yes - Democrats need to run on repealing the Trump/Ryan tax scam

blows up the deficits, the debt, medicare and social security while generating huge windfalls for the richest 1% and big corporations.

[BigmanPigman]

11. Yes, that and healthcare.

The majority of Americans knew the tax scam was just that. That is why the vote to pass it was so high-stakes and close. Americans knew it would not benefit them in the long run. I was pleasantly surprised that so many people in both parties understood this at the time. If we run hard on those issues we will win.

[GETPLANING]

12. The tax cuts are triggering a bear market

The invisible hand doesn't care about politics.

[DonViejo]

16. Locking....

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