Category: Taxation

It’s Infrastructure Stupid

Think back to the campaign of 2016….one of the big promises from Trump was to resurrect our dying infrastructure…..and so far we got nothing of the sorts.

But today the party leaders and Trump will meet on how to go about getting the $2 trillion for the plan that has been set forth.

This plan will go NOWHERE….why? The only way to pay for this plan is a rise in taxes on corporations and the wealthy……

With President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders set to meet Wednesday to discuss a possible $2 trillion infrastructure package, a progressive advocacy group on Monday warned that any proposal that doesn’t include significant tax hikes on the rich and corporations “will be meaningless and doomed to failure.”

“If major tax increases are off the table, there is no way to pay for a $2 trillion infrastructure plan, it’s that simple,” Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), said in a statement. “Other options, such as raising the gas tax, might be part of the package, but by themselves won’t come close to reaching the $2 trillion that’s needed.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/20/without-tax-hikes-corporations-and-rich-critics-warn-2-trillion-infrastructure-plan

Every body agrees that our infrastructure is in trouble…….ever body agrees that it needs to be updated….the problem is NOBODY wants to pay for it.

I have an idea!

Since we have spent about $6 trillion on wars in the last decade or so…cancelling those abortions would easily pay for the infrastructure they all say they want.

The price tag of the ongoing “war on terror” in the Middle East will likely top $6 trillion next year, and will reach $7 trillion if the conflicts continue into the early 2020s, according to a new report out Wednesday.

The annual Costs of War project report, from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, puts the full taxpayer burden of fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria over the last 17 years at several times higher than official Defense Department estimates, because it includes increases in Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs spending, as well as new military equipment and personnel.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/11/14/price-tag-of-the-war-on-terror-will-top-6-trillion-soon/

The Fiscal Times look at out spending on wars as well….

“It’s important for the American people to understand the true costs of war, both the moral and monetary costs,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) said in a statement last week, according to The Hill. “Our nation continues to finance wars and military operations through borrowing, rather than asking people to contribute to the national defense directly, and the result is a serious fiscal drag that we’re not really accounting for or factoring into deliberations about fiscal policy or military policy.”

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2018/11/19/Problem-Our-6-Trillion-War-Tab

I think the easy answer would be the best answer.

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Closing Thought–10May19

Keeping with the economic trend I started a couple of posts ago……

Have you filed your taxes yet?  Did you get a refund?

I have filed and I had to pay.

What about the rest of America?

I mean us real people not those stiff criminals that we call the top 1%.

Did those lovely tax cuts that Trump gave the country benefit the rest of us or were the benefits for his rich buddies?

A new six-month analysis of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts details how workers received little benefit from the plan, despite the savings many of their powerful corporate employers received.

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) interviewed independent tax analysts and officials who were involved in the Republican Party’s effort to sell the so-called American Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to the public—and within their own party ranks. Progressive critics have consistently called the law nothing nothing more than a “tax scam.”

The GOP’s insistence on a tax law which included the largest corporate tax cut in U.S. history—from 35 to 21 percent—resulted in companies saving about $150 billion in the first year after the passage in December 2017.

Trump and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan had spent months telling Americans they stood to save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in taxes, with Trump telling one crowd that the average family would see a pay raise of about $4,000, a benefit that would “trickle down” from employers’ corporate tax cuts.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/30/while-corporate-profits-and-tax-dodging-soared-analysis-shows-just-6-gop-tax-scam
 
This tax policy has done nothing to end the inequality that this country has been plaguing the country for decades……in reality everything we were told about the benefits of the Trump tax cuts was a LIE!
 
If the “economy” is doing so well then why are there no movements in the Middle Class?  As a matter of fact the Middle Class is diminishing every year sinc e the 1990s.
 
And this economy is so good it is making most American miserable……
 
After running a campaign on the idea that America was an impoverished wasteland, Donald Trump has spent his presidency bragging about the economic expansion that began under Barack Obama but continued under him. Though he might be a glutton for credit, Trump isn’t wrong, exactly, when he celebrates the “record economy” in his tweets: Unemployment in the United States is at a 50-year low, the stock market is soaring, and GDP is growing at a brisk clip. Polls have found that people are confident in the state of the economy.
 
 
And yet Americans buy the crap and the lies EVERY TIME!
 
WHY?
 
Lear Stuff!
 
Then VOTE!
 
I want to start my weekend….the ‘honey dos’ are considerable….but with luck it will rain and they will have to wait….(he said with crossed fingers)…….

As Tariffs Come And Go

Is that the sound of brakes being applied to this “surging economy”?

Trump once called himself , well he has called himself many things none of which are accurate but this time he was close, “Tariff Man”…..as of midnight a 25% tariff was placed on some Chinese imports.

The trade war is heating up: China said Friday it “deeply regrets that it will have to take necessary countermeasures” after the tariff hikes threatened by President Trump kicked in at 12:01am. American and Chinese negotiators met in Washington, DC, Thursday but were unable to reach a deal to prevent tariffs increasing from 10% to 25% on more than $200 billion in products China exports to the US, the Washington Post reports. The White House said that after a “working dinner,” chief US negotiator Robert Lighthizer and China’s Vice Premier Liu He “agreed to continue discussions.” The tariff hike only applies to products that left China after the deadline, which gives negotiators more time to work out a deal.

Trump said Thursday that he had received a “beautiful letter” from China’s President Xi Jinping and while a deal is still possible, he is pleased that tariffs are bringing in “billions” of dollars for the government, the New York Times reports. The tariffs, however, are paid by American importers, who pass the costs on to the consumer. “It’s going to be a big shock to the economy,” Deborah Elms, executive director at the Asian Trade Center, tells the BBC. “Those are all US companies who are suddenly facing a 25% increase in cost, and then you have to remember that the Chinese are going to retaliate.” Despite the escalating trade dispute, world markets rose on Friday, with analysts predicting that a deal will be reached.

A Tariff?

How many Americans can define this economic tact?

No need for Google (but if you want to check my assertions then head to that magic button) the old professor will be glad to help with your refresher course.

What is a TARIFF?

The simple definition….. A tariff is a tax imposed by one country on the goods and services imported from another country.

How do Tariffs work?

Governments may impose tariffs to raise revenue or to protect domestic industries—especially nascent ones—from foreign competition. By making foreign-produced goods more expensive, tariffs can make domestically produced alternatives seem more attractive. Governments that use tariffs to benefit particular industries often do so to protect companies and jobs. Tariffs can also be used as an extension of foreign policy: Imposing tariffs on a trading partner’s main exports is a way to exert economic leverage.

Tariffs can turn into what some called a trade war…….

Tariffs can have unintended side effects, however. They can make domestic industries less efficient and innovative by reducing competition. They can hurt domestic consumers, since a lack of competition tends to push up prices. They can generate tensions by favoring certain industries, or geographic regions, over others. For example, tariffs designed to help manufacturers in cities may hurt consumers in rural areas who do not benefit from the policy and are likely to pay more for manufactured goods. Finally, an attempt to pressure a rival country by using tariffs can devolve into an unproductive cycle of retaliation,

But to help your education I have included a couple of short videos…..

https://youtu.be/zym1na6NhJw
https://youtu.be/JFCssAXaAAQ

One side effect that could come back to bite Trump in his massive ass is a bad jobs number and tariffs will produce that in most cases……

The tariffs will “drive down exports, and suppress job gains for the industry by as much as 400,000 over 10 years. It will also invite China to hit back at American businesses, farmers, communities, and families,” said Kip Eideberg, vice president of government affairs for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, which represents more than 1,000 U.S. makers of farm, construction and mining machinery.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-10/u-s-equipment-makers-see-trump-tariff-hike-costing-400-000-jobs

This is a TAX….do you get that? It is a TAX on the rest of us mere mortals…..then why is the entire GOP down with this attack on tax policies?

This is just a game to this president….he is trying to do something he promised so he has more to run on than his shaky positions elsewhere.

Hopefully his supporters are reading…..these tariffs are a TAX on you and your family.

Got IT!

Learn Stuff!

Then GO VOTE!

Tax Day=Pay Day

Today is when most Americans learn if they owe or get a trefund from the IRS…..the tax reforms of 2017 screwed many Americans out of their deductions…..but as usual corporations get a pay day…..

M-IC will be the big winners on Tax Day……

In tax season, most of us think more about getting our forms in on time—and getting our refunds—than about where our tax dollars actually go.

It’s probably no surprise that a significant portion—24 cents out of every dollar—of your taxes go to the military. But where those dollars go from there should be a national scandal.

Out of those 24 cents, just 5 cents go to our troops. But 12 cents go to corporate military contractors.

For a country that claims to celebrate our troops, with holidays and yellow ribbons and patriotic displays of the flag, we sure don’t put our money where our mouth is. Every year for tax day, my organization looks at where our tax dollars go. And every year, far more money goes to Pentagon contractors than to our troops.

All told, the average taxpayer handed over $1,704 to Pentagon contractors last year, compared to $683 for military pay, housing, and other benefits (except military health care, which has its own agency). Still, the taxes we pay for military contractors are more than twice as much as the average contribution for veterans’ health and benefits ($833).

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/09/military-contractors-tax-day-pay-day
 
Me?  I broke even this year….I was lucky…..most Americans will not be that fortunate.
 
Little do we know…..nothing good has come out of these tax cuts…….especially for the revenue of the nation…..
 
The_Score-IRS_img
 
 
And believe it or not……the Trump tax cuts are popular only with the uber rich….go figure……

Multiple polls show a majority of Americans don’t think they got a tax cut at all — even though independent analyses show they did. And only around a third of the country approves of the legislation itself, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed by Congress at the end of 2017.

So as Trump moves closer to full-time reelection mode later this year, he will have to battle a stark reality: While his personal rating on the economy remains high, his signature legislative achievement is widely viewed as a political dud, one that has drawn special anger in places with high state and local taxes and pricey housing markets where deductions were limited to reduce the overall cost of the tax plan.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/15/donald-trump-tax-cuts-unpopular-1273469

Not to worry……this all comes around again next year.

 

Taxing The Rich!

It is TAX DAY!

OMG! That is almost blasphemous these days.

The lie spread is that the less tax the wealthy pay to more economic activity they produce and in turn the better the Middle Class and workers will do.

Pause here for the inevitable dash to the Google machine……..

Just about every viable candidate for the Dems has some plan or other to tax the rich so at least we get something from these people….Warren, AOC, Bernie, Yang et al…..it is a popular meme for Dems this cycle.

The 1990s Democratic Party made friends with the rich. The 2008 Democratic Party was eager to bail them out. The 2019 Democratic Party seems ready to declare war.

In just the past few months, at least three major Democratic Party figures, two of whom are presidential contenders, have proposed large tax increases targeted at the richest Americans:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) floated a big increase in top marginal income tax rates in an interview on 60 Minutes. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) proposed an annual wealth tax. Sen. Bernie Sanders. (I-VT) proposed a drastic hike in the estate tax.

There is a way and there is a desire by the people to see the rich to start paying their share of the American Dream……

https://www.vox.com/2019/3/19/18240377/estate-tax-wealth-tax-70-percent-warren-sanders-aoc

How successful will these people be in this endeavor?

If you listen close enough you can hear the big guns of corproate America being prepared for war.

2020 is the voters chance to change the course of the crumbling America……but do they have the guts to step up for change or will they roll over like they have been doing since the 1990s?

Modern Monetary Policy

Yep I am about to bore the crap out of my reader…..when it comes to economics the average person glazes over and goes to that “happy place” in the mind until the talk is finished.

But I feel I need to drop some info on my readers……there has been much in the MSM about the Green New Deal and the proposals by a couple of candidates about taxing the rich……

I want to give my reader a look into the policies and the economics of them…..

First the call to “Tax The Rich”……

I don’t consider myself an MMTer, but there is a basic Keynesian concept which has been associated with MMT, which is both true and important. For the federal government, taxes are not about raising revenue, taxes are about reducing consumption to prevent inflation.

The point is that the federal government does not need taxes for revenue, since it can just print money. It instead taxes to create the room in the economy for government spending. This view is sometimes wrongly taken as a “get of jail free” card, where the government can spend whatever it wants without worrying about raising revenue.

That could be true in a deep downturn. However, if the economy is near its full employment level of output, where additional demand will lead to rising inflation, we are pretty much back in the world where we need taxes to offset spending. Any major increase in government spending will lead to higher inflation, unless we have higher taxes or have some other mechanism to reduce demand in the economy.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/20/modern-monetary-theory-and-taxing-the-rich/

Next how about that Green New Deal that is getting the conservs lathered up to the point that they resurrect a fear from the 1950s……

Much of the Democratic Party, including almost the entire pack of contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, has embraced the concept of a Green New Deal (GND). This is an ambitious plan for slashing greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same time creating good-paying jobs, improving education, and reducing inequality.

At this point, the specific policies entailed by these ambitious goals are largely up for grabs, as is the question of how to pay for this agenda. One way of paying for it, borrowing from the economic doctrine know as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), is that we don’t have to.

Modern Monetary Theory argues that a government that prints its own currency is not constrained in its spending by its tax revenue. Some on the left have argued that we can just print whatever money we need to finance a GND. This claim does not make sense.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/18/paying-green-new-deal-modern-monetary-theory
 
All this is possible…it will NEVER fly with conservs who live and die on tax cuts……a real shame….for this countries needs big ideas once again…..the Repubs are NOT those people.

How Did The Rich Get Richer?

Closing Thought–20Mar19

If you are social media or watch any main stream media then you have heard all about how the rich got richer…..especially after Trump’s tax cuts…..

May I see a show of hands…..do you know just how did the rich get richer?

Okay would you like to know? Of course you would…it may be one of those issues that helps you who to vote for in 2020….

I could bore the crap out of you with all this monetary policy claptrap or I could turn you on to the cartoons below that make this all so much simpler…….

Something massive and important has happened in the United States over the past 50 years: Economic wealth has become increasingly concentrated among a small group of ultra-wealthy Americans.

You can read lengthy books on this subject, like economist Thomas Piketty’s recent best-seller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (the book runs 696 pages and weighs in at 2.5 pounds). You can see references to this in the campaigns of major political candidates this cycle, who talk repeatedly about how something has gone very wrong in America.

Donald Trump’s motto is to make America great again, while Bernie Sanders’s campaign focused on reducing income inequality. And there’s a reason this message is resonating with voters:

It’s grounded in 50 years of reality.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/this-cartoon-explains-how-the-rich-got-rich-and-the-poor-got-poor

Don’t just bitch about stuff……

Learn Stuff!