Another propoganda piece by Michael Busler! Where to begin? At the top
A: Busler asserts Trump tax bill 'treated all Americans the same." Really?
"the final tax legislation, which President Donald Trump signed into law Dec. 22, allows most of its individual income tax provisions to expire by 2027, making the tax benefit distribution more lopsided for the top 1 percent than in earlier years.
In 2018, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, the top 1 percent of income earners would glean 20.5 percent of the tax cut benefits — a sizable chunk, but far less than the figure that’s preferred by Democrats. And in 2025, that percentage would be 25.3 percent, with the top 1 percent (those earning above $837,800) getting an average tax cut of $61,090.
Just two years later, in 2027, the percentage of tax benefits to this income group jumps to 82.8 percent, “because almost all individual income tax provisions would sunset after 2025,” explains TPC. The top 1 percent still benefits from some of the remaining tax cuts, such as reducing the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. But their average tax cut drops by nearly two-thirds to $20,660 in 2027. [1]
The tax cuts also expire in 2025, reverting to a tax system which still benefits the wealthy over the poor. In addition, while personal tax cuts expire, the corporate cuts were made permanent which also benefits the wealthy.
B: Busler claims the tax cuts raised more money - i.e.that more revenue came in than before - a classic case of confusing coincidence-correlation-causation if ever there was one, as well as pulling figures out of context.
"Nominal revenues rise because of inflation and economic growth. Adjusted for inflation, total revenues fell from FY2017 to FY2018 (Figure 1). Adjusted for the size of the economy, they fell even more. The most appropriate test of the revenue impact of the TCJA is to compare actual revenues in FY2018 with predicted revenues in FY2018 assuming Congress had not passed the legislation. In fact, the actual amount of revenue collected in FY2018 was significantly lower than the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) projection of FY2018 revenue made in January 2017—before the tax cuts were signed into law in December 2017. The shortfall was $275 billion" [2]
C: Busler complains that the Biden bill will "treat Americans differently" because lower earners will get more benefit while the wealthy pay more. Uh Ok. Apparently Busler is okay with treating lower income people differently and in a disadvantaged manner but not the wealthy who clearly have MORE disposable income.
D: As a further complaint about unfairness, Busler says "will also raise corporate income taxes by one third. That will reduce dividend income for anyone who owns stocks. Others won’t be affected at all."
Well, exactly. Poor unfortunate wealthy stock players might pay more taxes.
"A whopping 84 percent of all stocks owned by Americans belong to the wealthiest 10 percent of households. And that includes everyone’s stakes in pension plans, 401(k)’s and individual retirement accounts, as well as trust funds, mutual funds and college savings programs like 529 plans.
“For the vast majority of Americans, fluctuations in the stock market have relatively little effect on their wealth, or well-being, for that matter,” said Edward N. Wolff, an economist at New York University" [3]
As has been said before, there is a class war and the wealthy are winning it. Shame on people like Busler to run propoganda for them and pull a Trump "we are so oppressed" approach.
[1] https://www.factcheck.org/2018/01/democrats-misleading-tax-line/
[2] https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/did-the-2017-tax-cut-the-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-pay-for-itself/
[3]3 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/business/economy/stocks-economy.html
