1. Remember just a few short months ago when the undertaking was characterized as a massive overhaul that would greatly simplify the taxpaying process? Well, tax preparers and accountants need no longer hold their breath on this if they ever did. There will be plenty for them to do next April – about as much as there was last April and all the Aprils before. People won’t be filing their returns on a post card.
2. The idea that the tax cuts will “pay for themselves” – i.e. that the economic growth they spawn will generate enough new revenue to offset the revenue losses they create – is, as George H. W. Bush so aptly put it, voodoo economics. No one really believes it, including – in this opinion – the authors of this legislation. What’s really in play here is a ballooning deficit, which Republicans will point to with alarm (even though it’s their creation) and then call for massive spending cuts, with Social Security and Medicare squarely in their crosshairs. Attacking and neutralizing so-called entitlement programs is the GOP Holy Grail and it’s what this entire tax undertaking is really all about.
3. The idea that corporate tax cuts are a growth engine because they’ll encourage companies to expand and hire is nonsense, as any CEO will tell you. Companies expand their facilities and hire more workers when increased demand tells them they need to make more of whatever it is they make. If they perceive that demand, they will do what needs to be done regardless of their tax situation. If they don’t perceive it, they will not expand and hire – again, regardless of the taxes they pay. In either case but especially the latter, any tax savings will go directly into the bank accounts of the shareholders.
4. Donald Trump’s assertion that the tax “reform” bill will hurt him financially is simply a lie.
No comments:
Post a Comment