If you really thought Donald Trump actually cares about the middle class, you were duped.
As Republicans in Congress were putting together the tax plan, Trump repeatedly tried to sell the bill to the American people as one that does not benefit him or the wealthy.
“This is going to cost me a fortune,” Trump said in November. “This is not good for me.”
“The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan,” Trump claimed in September. “We are looking for the middle class and we are looking for jobs — jobs being the economy.”
And that’s how Trump deceptively sold the plan. By lying.
Of course, most Americans saw right through his lies, considering that a majority opposed the bill.
The New York Times reports that not only will Trump and his rich pals benefit from the elimination of the alternative minimum tax, but Trump’s businesses will also benefit from lower corporate tax rates.
[T]he “wealthy and well connected,” as Mr. Trump described them, will benefit disproportionately from the proposed legislation. That’s in large part because the big tax cuts for corporations heavily favor shareholders, and the wealthy own a disproportionate amount of stocks and other assets.
In other words, there is no way in hell that he and the wealthy do not benefit from his tax plan.
Soon after the Senate and House passed his bill, Trump celebrated by admitting that slashing taxes for corporations was more important to him and Republicans than any tax relief for the middle class.
“Our plan also lowers the tax on American business from 35 percent all the way down to 21 percent,” Trump bragged. “That’s probably the biggest factor in this plan.”
Corporations and wealthy individuals were given a massive permanent tax gift this year while the rest of us will get mere breadcrumbs that will only be temporary before we get smacked by higher taxes in the long-run.
And Trump made it clear to his wealthy buddies that they just got richer because of him during his Christmas retreat at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.
According to CBS:
President Trump kicked off his holiday weekend at Mar-a-Lago Friday night at a dinner where he told friends, “You all just got a lot richer,” referencing the sweeping tax overhaul he signed into law hours earlier. Mr. Trump directed those comments to friends dining nearby at the exclusive club — including to two friends at a table near the president’s who described the remark to CBS News — as he began his final days of his first year in office in what has become known as the “Winter White House.”
The president has spent many weekends of his presidency so far at the “Winter White House,” where initiation fees cost $200,000, annual dues cost $14,000, and some of the most affluent members of society have the opportunity to interact with the president in a setting while many Americans cannot.
Americans should be disgusted and outraged by Trump’s tax plan. The wealthy are certainly going to laugh their way to the bank while the rest of us struggle to get by.
This tax plan adds $1.5 TRILLION to the deficit, a debt that will be put on our shoulders and the shoulders of our children and grandchildren to pay while rich families wallow in their greed knowing they don’t have to pay their fair share like everyone else.
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