Republican propaganda surrounding their partisan tax plan
pushes the notion that when rich people have more money they’ll invest and
create more jobs, going so far as to call the bill the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
If you own or manage a business you know that’s just not true. Generally
greater profits end up mostly if not completely in the hands of the company
owners. Some few forward thinking folks will do some form of profit sharing so
that their employees will get a little of the extra profit but that’s a small
minority. No business creates jobs just because they have more profit, they
only create more jobs if there is more demand.
Only demand for goods and services create jobs, if there is
no one with both the desire for your product and the money to pay for it no
business owner in their right mind adds to their payroll. So, if Republicans
really wanted to create jobs using tax cuts they’d make sure that those cuts
went to the folks most likely to spend those extra dollars which actually
increase demand and create jobs which in turn generates more taxes. Instead 60%
of the tax cuts will go to the top 10% of earners who rather than spending it
will most likely invest it in the stock market which is nice for your 401k or
Mutual Fund IRA if you’re among those fortunate enough to have one but it won’t
put money in your pocket right now.
In case you think there is no proof, just look at Reagan and
the first Bush, after Reagan’s tax cuts early in his term then when the economy
didn’t take off he had to repeatedly raise taxes in order to avoid increasing
the deficit. What’s worse is while his tax cuts largely benefitted the very
wealthy his tax increases were felt mostly by the middle class.
This is all Economics 101 and either congressional
Republicans know that and are willfully lying or they’re stupid. I’ll leave it
to you to decide which is more likely.
Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa pushed back when questioned
about the merits of eliminating the tax
on estates valued at more than $5 million stating “I think not having the
estate tax recognizes the people that are investing, as opposed to those that
are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or
movies.” I don’t know about you but I find that offensive coming from a guy who
last worked a job like average Americans hold in 1959 when an assembly line job
like he held paid well enough to buy a house, a car and raise a family.
Today that assembly line job barely pays enough for a family
of four to cover rent, food and medical care. Even when both adults work full
time most families just don’t earn enough to save millions of dollars as
Grassley seems to think. Throw in a few recessions and a health crisis or two
over the course of 30 years and a lot of us can’t manage to pay for our
children’s college education without student loans.
As economist John Kenneth Galbraith pointed out long ago,
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in
moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for
selfishness."
It’s not too late to call Senators Cruz and Cornyn to let
them know they’re tax plan is bad for most Americans and you’re not happy about
it.
Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 15, 2017
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