A $1.50 Pay Raise
So far, what critics said about the Trump tax plan is proving to be true: It’s a scam.
After its unveiling last year, opponents last described the proposal as a giveaway to corporations and the wealthy with crumbs for the rest of us.
Earlier this year, House Speaker Paul Ryan urged his colleagues to talk up the tax law by pointing out that a high school secretary in Pennsylvania was happy with her $1.50 weekly pay raise resulting the legislation. He abandoned that sales job when he realized how silly his spin was.
As attention shifts to this November elections, Republican legislators in tough races are backing away from touting the plan, according to a Reuters study. It seems that they don’t want to be identified with their own achievement.
As it turns out, the typical CEO is receiving an annual tax cut of more than $51,000. The bottom three-fifths of the population? They are getting a little more than $1 a day.
Meanwhile, the Koch brothers are moving in the opposite direction of Republican incumbents in endangered seats. The Kochs are sinking
$20 million into an election-year grassroots campaign—including home visits—to promote the plan, hoping that their spin will resonate with voters and help solidify the Republican Party’s grip on Washington, D.C.
The Koch campaign is playing up the bonuses corporations handed out to their employees as they enjoyed a cut in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.
But as banks experience a windfall, most ordinary taxpayers say they are only receiving tiny boosts or nothing at all. The Wall Street Journal reported that Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo enjoyed a combined earnings increase of $2.5 billion in the first three months of the year.
Last year, President Donald J. Trump said the new tax law would “cost me a fortune.” That statement is among the more than 3,000 falsehoods Trump stated during a 466-day period monitored by The Washington Post.
In reality, Americans for Tax Justice estimates that Trump will save at least $11 million and even as much as $22 million.
So yes, this is a scam.
The DC 37 Blog is an online publication of District Council 37, AFSCME, which represents 125,000 municipal workers in New York City.
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