The Republican party is on the precipice of passing the Trump tax bill, clinging to it because there has been no significant legislation passed by the Republicans this year. Trump continues to try and sell it as some big windfall for America, but in truth, it exposes an agenda that has nothing to do with average Americans, but for corporate donors and special interests instead.
The ugly truth about the GOP tax plan: It was created to appease wealthy donors who have threatened to cut off campaign funding if the Republicans don’t pass this bill. And, unsurprisingly, it delivers a windfall of savings to Trump and his family.
Here is Trump trying to sell the idea that the tax plan isn’t making his wealthy friends happy. The story may seem believable to his base, but the facts tell another story altogether.
In truth, Trump appears to present a bill that was custom-made to help he and his wealthy friends. One example: The Senate may slash taxes on “pass-through” businesses, which includes the Trump organization.
An NBC News analyst found that Trump and his family stand to save bigly:
Trump and his family could save more than $1 billion under the House tax plan that passed two weeks ago, according to an NBC News analysis.
These two quotes from Republicans will tell you what you need to know about the motives for the bill:
“My donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again,’” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), who is close to Trump, told reporters recently.
“Well, I think all of us realize that if we fail on taxes, that’s the end of the Republican Party’s governing majority in 2018,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said this month.
Vox reported that tax experts, liberal and conservative, agreed that the plan centers on a permanent tax cut for corporations from 35 to 20 percent. All the other talk about helping the middle and lower class is a passing afterthought that will very likely result in eventual tax increases for lower-income families as well as throwing around 13 million Americans off health care through the repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that repealing the tax credits included in the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate would harm the poor in the country. Since most of the household tax cuts are temporary, middle-class Americans will likely see tax increases by 2027. The tax cuts for corporations, however, remain permanent.
The plan would also increase the federal deficit by as much as $1 trillion over ten years, which would imperil future funding for Medicare and Social Security.
“It is, in short, really nothing that Trump promised it would be. It is not for the forgotten people he has claimed to represent,” wrote Dylan Scott for Vox.
Trump continues to take to Twitter to say that “Obstructionist Democrats” are trying to block this bill and that they don’t want Republicans to have credit for “how really good it is.” In truth, if Democrats were acting in a partisan manner, they would love to give the GOP all the credit for yet another re-packaged trickle-down economics disaster. Instead, the Democrats are trying to stop it from negatively impacting millions of Americans in the first place.
The only people who don’t like the Tax Cut Bill are the people that don’t understand it or the Obstructionist Democrats that know how really good it is and do not want the credit and success to go to the Republicans!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2017
Meanwhile, the people in Trump’s base, who tend to watch Fox News, are not seeing an ad informing them of how the tax plan serves Trump. Fox News claimed it was because the ad features a Trump impersonator.
See the ad below and pass it along to your Trump-supporting acquaintances:
BREAKING
New TV AD exposes the truth about GOP tax plan: it benefits Trump family & people like him. pic.twitter.com/2P0HlODEbc
— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) November 27, 2017
Featured image: Screenshot via YouTube
