Tag: Tax Cuts

These Tax Cuts Will Pay For Themselves

That is the common lie told whenever someone wants to cut taxes….they never pay for themnselves and in most cases have contributed to the rise in our deficit.

And now Donny and his ‘One Big Beautiful Bill is spreading the same manure always spread when taxes are considered….but is it manure?   Will they truly pay for themselves?

The answer is a resounding ….NO!

An analysis released Thursday by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that the tax cuts at the center of Republicans’ massive reconciliation package would do little to boost economic growth—and would not come anywhere close to paying for themselves.

The JCT report, published hours after Republicans pushed the bill through the House, estimates that the tax cuts would boost the nation’s average annual economic growth by 0.03 percentage points over the next decade—hardly the explosion of growth that GOP lawmakers and President Donald Trump have promised.

Economic activity spurred by the tax breaks—which are largely an extension of soon-to-expire provisions of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax cuts—would increase federal revenues by roughly $103 billion between 2025 and 2034, according to JCT.

That would barely put a dent in the overall projected cost of the tax cuts, bringing it down to $3.7 trillion from $3.8 trillion.

…

A separate analysis published Thursday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that the benefits of the Republican bill’s tax provisions would flow disproportionately to the wealthiest Americans.

“The $121 billion in net tax cuts going to the richest 1% next year would exceed the amount going to the entire bottom 60% of taxpayers (about $90 billion),” said ITEP, whose analysis did not factor in the impact of the legislation’s unparalleled cuts to Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance, which would deliver a major blow to the household resources of lower-income Americans.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/jct-republican-tax-cuts

But not to worry…..the GOP has found a way to make this problem more palatable to the more ignorant out there…..the bill that would make tips tax free….what little help that would bring will not offset the bigger deal of massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

Tax cuts does little to help the deficit so they must attack the programs that assist people in trouble….just so people like Bezos gets a free hand.

Stop believing the BS and start looking at the larger picture these tax cuts will do you no good.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Fighting Inflation….A Typical Solution

We all are suffering the ravages of inflation….well most of us mere peasants that is….Most of us need some help….with that said the IRS has stepped up to help out….

The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday announced the adjustments that will be in effect for 2023 tax rates in response to soaring inflation, meaning some taxpayers could see a lower tax bill. As the New York Times reports, typically when tax rates are adjusted for inflation, the adjustments are “incremental.” Not so this year. All seven income brackets will be adjusted, with the largest shift seen at the highest level of earnings. The top income tax rate, 37%, will apply to those who earn $578,125 ($693,750 for married couples filing jointly), a big increase from this year’s threshold of $539,900 for individuals. Those who no longer meet the cutoff for the highest rate will be taxed at the next level down, 35%, and so it goes down the line to the lowest tax rate, 10%. (For details on each level see Kiplinger.)

Axios explains why this happens: “The IRS adjusts tax brackets every year to ward off ‘bracket creep’—when your salary rises to keep up with inflation, propelling you into a higher tax bracket.” For example, someone earning $34,000 per year, if being taxed at the 1980 level, would be taxed at a 49% rate. But, per the Times, those whose salaries have been adjusted to match rising inflation (which is not the case for many in the US) won’t benefit from the adjusted tax rates. The inflation adjustments were not carried out prior to 1985. In addition, in 2023 the standard deduction will increase $900 from this year to $13,850 for individuals; for couples, it will go up $1,800, to $27,700. Other adjustments include benefits for tax-free public transit and parking costs, the worth of the earned-income tax credit, and estate tax changes.

Please stop helping us out.

Just once I would like to see a corporation pay some taxes….I know I know they are the highest taxed in the world (well that is the lie we are fed to make giving them hand-outs look magnanimous)….

If I pay 35% on my income so should the corporations….it is that simple.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will ‘Trickle Down’ Return?

For about fifty years the Repubs have promised with every tax cut that it would miraculously help the working class in the long run. Well that was a lie….and the working class is still waiting for the ‘trickle down’ effect promised.

And now that the GOP is out of favor I expect that there will be more calls for tax cuts to pay for all the assistance that was given to the country….including the wealthy that did not need the help.

I have given my thoughts on this BS and every time the GOP offered it is accepted….and now I try again to prevent bullshit from becoming policy.

My original posts…..

https://lobotero.com/2008/10/09/the-humor-that-is-trickle-down-economics/

https://lobotero.com/2011/06/24/trickle-up-economics/

Now that we have a new president I suspect the calls for massive tax cuts will begin in January 2021 by the GOP and its minions.

Neoliberal gospel says that cutting taxes on the wealthy will eventually benefit everyone by boosting economic growth and reducing unemployment, but a new analysis of fiscal policies in 18 countries over the last 50 years reveals that progressive critics of “trickle down” theory have been right all along: supply-side economics fuels inequality, and the real beneficiaries of the right-wing approach to taxation are the super-rich.

The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich(pdf), a working paper published this month by the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and written by LSE’s David Hope and Julian Limberg of King’s College London, examines data from nearly 20 OECD countries, including the U.K. and the U.S., and finds that the past five decades have been characterized by “falling taxes on the rich in the advanced economies,” with “major tax cuts… particularly clustered in the late 1980s.”

But, according to Hope and Limberg, the vast majority of the populations in those countries have little to show for it, as the benefits of slashing taxes on the wealthy are concentrated among a handful of super-rich individuals—not widely shared across society in the form of improved job creation or prosperity, as “trickle down” theorists alleged would happen.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/16/study-50-years-tax-cuts-rich-confirms-trickle-down-theory-absolute-sham

It is ALL a lie….there has never been any benefit for the working class from so-called ‘trickle down’ economics.

Just wait….the calls for wealthy tax cuts will begin again now that there is a Dem in the White House and can watch the middle class dissolve a little more.

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“lego ergo scribo”

Screw Those Old Farts! (Again)

Closing Thought–10Aug20

This is for all those old farts that still support the president…that would be Trump in case you are not sure…..

Trump has liberally used the power of the Executive Order when he cannot get his way from Congress and he has a new idea for his next EO.

A cut in payroll taxes,,,,yes it will give the worker more money but at the same time will begin the gutting of Social Security…..

An advocacy group representing more than four million American retirees warned Thursday that President Donald Trump took a dangerous step toward “single-handedly” dismantling Social Security by announcing he plans to sign an executive order suspending collection of the payroll tax as early as Friday afternoon.

With congressional negotiations over the next Covid-19 stimulus package still at an impasse, Trump told reporters Thursday that executive orders to suspend the payroll tax, extend boosted unemployment benefits, and reestablish an expired eviction moratorium are “being drawn now” despite questions over whether the president has the authority to unilaterally take any of those actions.

Trump said he expects to sign the orders “tomorrow afternoon or maybe the following morning” if White House negotiators and Democratic leaders don’t reach a deal. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have rejected the idea of cutting the payroll tax, the primary funding mechanism for Social Security.

Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said in a statement that “after learning that Democratic and Republican congressional leaders would not go along with his harebrained scheme to cut Social Security’s dedicated funding source, President Trump lashed out and announced he would begin dismantling the system single-handedly.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/06/retirees-vow-fight-attempt-gut-social-security-trump-announces-executive-order/

Once again the seniors will take a good screwing and yet they will continue to vote for the toads that are raping their benefits.

I am still working on where the logic in that sort of politics….

But I will admit I can see Trump’s point……his proposed EOs…..

The workweek came and went without a deal in Congress for pandemic relief, and that’s despite a two-hour meeting Friday with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Treasury’s Steven Mnuchin, and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Afterward, the latter two said they would recommend that Trump issue executive orders, and the president pledged to do just that in a Friday evening press conference, reports USA Today. Details are scarce—including on where the money would come from—but Trump said he planned to tackle four main issues, per the Hill:

  • Pay enhanced unemployment benefits through the end of the year
  • Defer student loan payments and forgive interest for the near future
  • Reinstate a federal moratorium on evictions
  • Defer the payroll tax until year’s end

Gridlock brought this about……

Trump signed four executive orders to act where Congress hasn’t, contending Washington’s gridlock had compelled him to act as the pandemic undermined the country’s economy and imperiled his November reelection hopes. Perhaps most crucially, Trump moved to continue paying a supplemental federal unemployment benefit for millions of Americans out of work during the outbreak.

However, his order called for up to $400 payments, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving. Congress allowed those higher payments to lapse on Aug. 1, and negotiations to extend them have been mired in partisan gridlock, with the White House and Democrats miles apart. Now, Trump, who has not spoken with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi since last year, sought to play the role of election-year savior, with the $400 weekly assistance, as well as a deferral of payroll tax and federal student loan payments and the continuation of a freeze on some evictions during the crisis. “It’s $400 a week, and we’re doing it without the Democrats,” Trump said, asking states to cover 25% of the cost.

This according to the conservs of Lincoln Project……

This defunds Medicare.

This defunds Social Security.

Tax collection is just deferred.

You’ll still owe these taxes next year.

Stop calling it Washington gridlock…it is the Senate that does nothing and I mean NOTHING….

Image

I still think the payroll tax thing is the beginning of the assault on Social Security and Medicare……I give Trump his props for doing what the Congress could not….but I still question his motives.

Something to think about……

President Donald Trump on Saturday afternoon openly vowed to permanently “terminate” the funding mechanism for both Social Security and Medicare if reelected in November—an admission that was seized upon by defenders of the popular safety net programs who have been warning for months that the administration’s threat to suspend the payroll tax in the name of economic relief during the Covid-19 pandemic was really a backdoor sabotage effort.

Announcing and then signing a series of legally dubious executive orders, including an effort to slash the emergency federal unemployment boost by $200 from the $600 previously implemented by Democrats, Trump touted his order for a payroll tax “holiday”—which experts noted would later have to be paid back—but said if he won in November that such a cut would become permanent.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/08/trump-just-admitted-live-television-he-will-terminate-social-security-and-medicare

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Where Oh Where Has The Economy Gone?

If you get the Tweets from the GOP then you will be thumping your chest because Trump has made us mere mortal Americans richer with his lame ass economic policies.

The problem with that LIE is that reality pisses all over it.

Like the BS about how much us mere mortals would benefit from Trump tax cuts……well it is total crap….https://lobotero.com/2019/10/30/closing-thought-30oct19/

I recall when he was in the WH early in his rein he precdicted with his policies the American economy would grow 3. 4 5 % and possibly as much as 6%…..so far that was Bullshit as well….

The summer temps may have been record-setting hot, but the economy experienced some chills. Data out Wednesday via the Commerce Department shows GDP grew at a 1.9% rate from July through September, down from a growth rate of 2% in the second quarter. Why, what it means, and President Trump’s morning thoughts on the economy:

  • The Washington Post frames the slowdown as expected, as business investment was curtailed following the president’s decision to ratchet up the trade war with China at the start of August. Many expected much worse, reports the Hill, with some forecasts as low as a growth rate of 1.3%.
  • The Post notes the 3% drop in business investment in the third quarter is the largest since late 2015: “Still, the sustained pace suggests it is unlikely to dive into a recession anytime soon, unless there is a major shock or the trade war worsens significantly.”
  • Consumer spending makes up 70% of economic activity. It grew at a healthy 2.9% in the third quarter, down from 4.6% the quarter prior.
  • The AP points out Trump has set “3%-plus increases … as a benchmark to demonstrate that his policies are succeeding in lifting the economy above the modest 2.2% growth of the Obama years.” Growth for 2019 is expected to end up around 2.3%. NPR notes we’d need “an economic miracle” to end up at the 3.2% growth rate that appears in Trump’s 2019 budget.
  • Though the GDP report was better than expected, most investors doubt it will do anything to change the mind of the Federal Reserve, which is expected to announce a quarter-point rate cut at 2pm Wednesday, reports CNN. (Update: It did.)
  • About an hour prior to the report’s release, Trump tweeted, “The Greatest Economy in American History!” The Week contrasts that with a tweet Trump wrote in 2012 during Obama’s presidency: “Q1 GDP has just been revised down to 1.9% … The economy is in deep trouble.”
  • So is he right about the greatest part? The Post reports that if the annual pace of roughly 2.9% seen thus far is sustained for the remainder of his term, it would be the fastest term of growth since the Clinton years. But that still wouldn’t make it the greatest, as Clinton and Reagan both experienced growth in excess of 3% a year during their terms.

Yes Irene….the economy is NOT preforming well under the leadership of Trump…..

The ‘Trump economy’ isn’t living up to his promises

AS the election approaches….now is the time to start looking at all the promises that Trump made in 2016……if his leadership has been a sham then maybe it is time to remove this person and install a new liar  to lead the economy.

In a closing note…where have all the fiscal conservs gone?

The Federal deficit has reached $23 trillion……and NO ONE cares!

The federal government’s outstanding public debt has surpassed $23 trillion for the first time in history, according to data from the Treasury Department released on Friday.

Growing budget deficits have added to the nation’s debt at a speedy rate since President Trump took office. The debt has grown some 16 percent since Trump’s inauguration, when it stood at $19.9 trillion. It passed $22 trillion for the first time just 10 months ago.

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/468600-us-debt-surpasses-23-trillion-for-first-time

Where oh where did the deficit hawks go?

Gone to knee pads everyone.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–30Oct19

Tax Cuts!

Every time we have a cut in taxes we are told that they will pay for themselves and that all the benefits for the wealthy will trickle down to the rest of us peasants….both are lies that the people believe every time and every time we , the average person, gets the shaft.

That said what about the tax cuts of two years ago the Speaker Ryan helped pass and screw us people….

After two years, President Trump’s tax cuts are not on track to pay for themselves, the latest Treasury data released Friday suggest.

Total federal government revenues ended up lower in 2019 than was projected before the passage of the GOP tax overhaul in 2017.

Then, in 2017, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that fiscal 2019 revenues, without the tax cuts, would be $3.69 trillion. Instead, revenues with the tax cuts were only $3.46 trillion.

To be certain, the difference, $225 billion, cannot be attributed solely to the tax cuts. Other economic factors have influenced economic growth over the past two years. For example, the tariffs put in place as part of Trump’s trade wars likely counteracted the stimulative effect of the tax cuts.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/two-years-in-trump-tax-cuts-not-on-course-to-pay-for-themselves

THat was a con job…..but what about all the bravado that Trump thumps his chest about….like” this is the best economy in our history”

More con….more lies…..look at the stats for yourself…..

It’s true the economy has been doing well – but there have been periods when it was even stronger.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-45827430

The truth is that the economy is the best in decades but only if you are already wealthy and are getting wealthier…..the rest of us continue to struggle….day to day……

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

That ‘Marvelous’ Tax Cut

This will be the first resurrection of the VOMITORIUM…..

About two years ago the Trump tax cut went into effect and we were promised so much to sell them to the public by Trump, Mnuchin and Kudlow the dude that played an economist on TV…….and yet NOTHING they promised to the public has occurred…..corporations are smiling with the windfall of profits because of the cuts….

But the biggest bullsh*t promise was that these tax cuts would slash the federal deficit…..so far after two years that is NOT happening….

“A treasury secretary who can’t count needs to be held accountable.”

That was the message progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (AFT) directed at Steve Mnuchin Friday, marking the two-year anniversary of the treasury secretary’s claim that the GOP’s 2017 tax cuts would slash the U.S. budget deficit “by a trillion dollars.”

AFT pointed out in a statement that the deficit has soared in the two years since passage of the tax legislation. CNN reported earlier this month that the deficit topped a trillion dollars during the first 11 months of fiscal year 2019.

“Mnuchin’s empty promise shows just how much the 2017 tax cuts for the rich were a scam on the American people,” said AFT executive director Frank Clemente. “Mnuchin’s prediction was off by $1 trillion.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/27/1-trillion-say-progressives-two-year-anniversary-mnuchin-claim-trump-tax-cuts-would

Another economic lie from Trump and his Boyz that has NOT materialized……manufacturing is NOT returning…..factories are NOT re-opening…..and those millions of jobs have yet to appear…….Mexico is NOT paying for the Wall our military families are…..all in all this is just bullshit with a capital “B”.

What more will it take for the American people to wake up and vote these corrupt toads out of office?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

 

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)…….

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.

 

It’s Tax Time!

Closing thought–11Feb19

Remember those “great” tax cuts that the Idiots in Congress and the president championed before the 2018 midterms…..they made sure that they always included the Middle Class when they were selling then bragging about their accomplishment?

Remember?

Well now that it is tax time how did we poor SOBs in the Middle Class fair?

T o answer that question….YOU WERE SCREWED!

You Feel For A CON JOB!  (as usual)……

That’s right you slow individuals that believed the GOP about the tax cuts are screwed!

The new tax law does result in some people paying higher taxes (especially over the long term), but the specific issue here is tax refunds rather than total taxes paid. Whether you get a refund or owe extra to the IRS at filing time is a function not just of your total taxes owed, but also of how much tax is withheld from your paycheck by your employer on paydays. And the big story here is that as a result of the new tax law, the Treasury Department tweaked things so that on average taxpayers’ withholdings fell by more than their actual taxes owed.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/6/18214039/irs-tax-refund-withholding-trump

No surprise to me…..tax cuts seldom help the Middle Class and yet the Middle Class buys the bullsh*t EVERY TIME!

The 2017 law was supposed to boost workers’ wages, create jobs, and drive more investment — and as we’ve known for awhile, it’s done none of that. But now we can add two more failures to the creatively-named Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA): It hasn’t encouraged corporations to return their profits from overseas, and it’s probably hiding a nasty surprise for many Americans come tax season.

Let’s start with the second idea. Lots of Americans work for an employer who sends them regular paychecks. Those employers rely on tables published by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to guesstimate how much their employees owe in taxes each year. Then they withhold the necessary increments from each paycheck. Come tax season, every worker settles up with the government. If their employer withheld too little, they pay the remainder. If the employer withheld too much, they get a refund from the IRS. As Matt Yglesias pointed out, the system has traditionally overdone withholding on purpose — roughly three-fourths of tax filers usually get a refund.

https://theweek.com/articles/822464/gops-tax-cut-just-keeps-getting-worse

Tax Cuts help NO ONE but the rich…..do not buy the lies and the manure about the Middle Class…..