I can't help but be reminded of the Russian oligarchs raping their country. What I fear is that this ongoing uncontrolled expansion of the deficit will place the newly-elected Democratic president and Congress in the position of having to raise taxes, perpetuating the trope that they are the party of tax and spend.As Deficit Explodes, GOP Demands Emergency Tax Cut for the Rich
[Ted Cruz is] currently devoting his efforts to a much more important cause: demanding another tax cut for the rich, this time without Congress’s approval.In a letter sent to Steve Mnuchin on Monday, the senator from Texas urged the Treasury Secretary to use his “authority” to index capital gains to inflation, a move that would almost exclusively benefit the mega-rich. Claiming, falsely, that the United States economy “has experienced historic levels of growth as a result of Congress and the current administration’s policies such as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” Cruz insists that it is now crucial for the Treasury Department to adjust capital gains for inflation “so that everyday Americans can continue to enjoy better lives and livelihoods.” And by “everyday Americans,” he of course means (but doesn’t say) the spectacularly wealthy.Missing from Cruz’s call for Mnuchin to use “executive authority” to end this “unfair” treatment of taxpayers, which was signed by 20 of his Republican colleagues, is the fact that, according to the Penn Wharton Budget model, a whopping 86% of the benefit of indexing capital gains to inflation would go to the 1 percent (and reduce annual tax revenue by an estimated $102 billion over a decade). Perhaps seeking to address this criticism, Cruz claimed that changing how capital gains are taxed “would…unlock capital for investment, increase wages, create new jobs, and grow the economy, benefiting Americans across all income levels.” In other words, he’s arguing that the executive branch should give the super-rich another tax cut and it’ll benefit everyone because of trickle-down economics which—checks notes—has never actually worked. Including in the case of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act... Trump has reportedly “told confidants...that he remains deeply invested in making the change,” and his National Economic Council chair, Larry Kudlow, has been pushing for it since he was hired. Also, as Bloomberg points out, “Trump is looking for issues to win favor with voters and donors during his 2020 reelection campaign,” so perhaps the rich will get another well-deserved break.
I'll close comments for this post.
The sad but true fact is that pretty much anyone that wants to be a controller of people is not fit for the job. Some tallish presenter of a British TV show about cars once said (approximately because of my memory) 'What we need is some sensible person in a cardigan, who will come in, once a week, and tell the bureaucrats what to do'.
ReplyDeleteObviously that sensible person would need to not have any ulterior motive in mind while they metered out their instructions.
Physiognomy is a good way of picking someone to decide things for you, let your subconscious and millions of years of evolution guide you, we do it every time we meet someone new.
I don't live anywhere near the USA but I can still tell that that woman Cortez is a nice person, yes, just from her face, but then I also know that Bernie Sanders is a good person and see how much that helped him in his quest to make the USA a better place.
I live on an island with almost 5 million other people, right now we have someone 'running the country' who seems to have merit, and, she doesn't get into the press trying to make the opposition look bad. But unfortunately, that's exactly what her opposition does do, and we all know how people are so easily corralled into their sheep pens by the media and it's puppet masters.
Lol, I have no training in political science, left school young and became a builder, so what do I know ?
But I reckon we all need to trust our subconscious, our gut.