The Sheer Bold Balls of The Republican Tax Cuts

Donald Trump, who millions of regular people voted for in hopes he would somehow “drain the swamp,” famously vowed not to lower taxes on the rich. Now: How do you think his tax plan will actually affect the rich?

Everything is lies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don’t get bored learning about details of “tax reform” because “tax reform” is just a boring way of saying “the precise way the Republican Party plans to screw the poor in favor of the rich.”

Never take your eyes off the fucking tax plan!!!

The Republican Party exists to cut the taxes of its financial backers, the rich. That is what it does. The rest is just hand-waving. That is a useful thing to keep in mind going forward. There are new details out today about what Trump and the Republicans will actually propose. Commit these details to memory and discard any statement from any politician that does not contain exact numbers. Politicians know that it is quite easy to miscategorize or simply lie about the overall impact of their tax plan because Americans are economically illiterate. They also know that it is quite easy to tell middle class voters they are getting a tax cut (of one dollar) and fail to mention that millionaires are also getting a tax cut (of a million dollars) and this is not technically a “lie.” Fortunately there are many fine journalists working to explain the actual salient features of the forthcoming Republican tax proposal. Like this, from Bloomberg, bolding ours:

The emerging framework includes a proposal to cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent — a costly move in revenue terms that Trump and Republicans say is necessary to create job growth….

Three tax lobbyists familiar with those changes said they include cutting the top individual tax rate to 35 percent and creating a 25 percent rate for certain “pass-through” business owners — both down from the current top rate of 39.6 percent. Such changes would cut taxes substantially for the top 1 percent of earners, said Kyle Pomerleau, an expert with the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning Washington policy group.

My—that sounds like an incredibly substantial tax cut on the rich!!!! If I’m not mistaken!!! And also:

The framework is also expected to eliminate the estate tax, three people familiar with the discussions said. That tax applies to estates worth at least $5.49 million per tax filer. Many Republicans want to end it.

Does a $5.5 million estate qualify you as “rich?” Who am I to say??? What are the optics here, Washington Post?

Among details that have become public, the plan’s benefits would accrue largely to the wealthy, an awkward position for a president who promised his administration would be an economic boom for working-class and middle-class households.

A shock as well as a surprise! That our moron billionaire leader might take an action that would help the sort of people who make up his entire cabinet and social circle and family! I stand amazed! And here is another fun fact to muse on: Yes, this plan would constitute a substantial tax cut for the rich, but it would also mean that some of the rich would be getting a bigger tax cut than others who are members of the rich, and how long do you think it will take before the less pandered-to subsection of the rich come whining to their pet Republican politicians that they should all be getting the big tax cut? Note this framing from the Wall Street Journal:

The emerging Republican plan would “open a gulf between wages and pass-through business income that has never existed before, putting the high-wage earners at a disadvantage,” said Andy Mattson, a certified public accountant with Moss Adams in Campbell, Calif.

Keeping the top tax rate on wages near 39.6% would be a way for Mr. Trump to defend his argument that he isn’t prioritizing tax cuts for the rich, even if other pieces of the tax plan favor wealthy business owners, investors or heirs of large estates.

In other words if the Republicans pass this version of massive tax cuts for the rich it is only a matter of time before the discriminated-against corporate executive class, who earn their millions through good old-fashioned pay checks, will be clamoring for a new tax cut so that they should not be placed at a disadvantage to their hedge fund-running neighbors. This, indeed, is the true face of inequality in the Trump era.