In his place we have Republican Tax-Cut Santa, who has different priorities.
You see, the new guy doesn’t care whether you’re naughty or nice. In fact, he’ll actually reward you if you’re naughty in the right ways.
But mainly he cares whether you’re rich, especially if your wealth comes from property (preferably inherited property), not hard work.
.. So this is basically a tax cut for shareholders.
And who are these shareholders? About a third of the total benefits will go to foreigners.
.. the top 1 percent of domestic households owns 40 percent of stocks, the bottom 80 percent just 7 percent.
.. Next year, most people will probably see a small tax cut, although for the middle class it will be a smaller cut than the one they got from Barack Obama in 2009 — a tax cut almost nobody noticed.
.. the second most important piece of this tax bill, after the corporate tax giveaway, is a drastic tax cut for business owners, who will end up paying much less in taxes than people with the same income who work as someone else’s employee.
.. Over the months ahead, as thousands of top-dollar accountants and lawyers get to work, expect to see many more routes to tax avoidance emerge — but only for the rich and well connected.
.. But the doctors can get around the rule by buying the building they work in, then charging themselves an exorbitant rent. Voilà! They get to pay much lower taxes — because real estate investment trusts, strange to say, do get the big tax break.
Donald Trump’s Spending Push Rankles Fiscal Conservatives
Republicans hope to avert ballooning deficits that may result from president-elect’s low-tax, big-ticket agenda
This suggests the GOP will be willing to tolerate higher deficits in the short-run under Mr. Trump because the party is largely united on overhauling corporate and individual income taxes.
.. And reduced revenues, they worry, could be used to justify big cuts to safety-net programs like food stamps and Medicaid.
.. Under current policy, the Congressional Budget Office sees the budget deficit of 3.2% of gross domestic product holding around those levels for the next four years. By the end of Mr. Trump’s first term, deficits would rise to 5.3% of GDP under the House Republicans’ tax plan, and to 6.8% under Mr. Trump’s proposal, according to an analysis by Cornerstone Macro, a research firm.
.. The last two times Republicans reclaimed the White House from Democrats—in 1981 and 2001—they also successfully pushed for large tax cuts. Deficits nonetheless rose during their administrations.
.. Deficits have also fallen below projections in recent years due to a surprising decline in the growth rate of health care spending and because interest rates have been lower than projected.
.. Already, Mr. Trump has forsworn any changes to the largest future drivers of spending, Social Security and Medicare.
.. Other advisers say they are open to recycling a proposal made by President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to pay for infrastructure with one-time revenues from taxing multinationals’ profits stashed abroad.
.. Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, has echoed arguments made in recent years by left-leaning economists who supported more spending to boost growth.
“With negative interest rates throughout the world, it’s the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything,” Mr. Bannon said