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Liberals Were Very Wrong About Tax Cuts. Once Again.

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  • Liberals Were Very Wrong About Tax Cuts. Once Again.

    Liberals Were Very Wrong About Tax Cuts. Once Again.

    For those of you who survived the Great GOP Tax Cut Massacre, things are finally looking up. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent last month, the lowest level since 1969. We’ve now experienced over a full year of unemployment at 4 percent or lower. The economy beat projections, adding another 263,000 jobs in April. Wages are rising.

    It was Larry Summers, Bill Clinton’s former Treasury Secretary and Barack Obama’s White House economic adviser, who warned that tax reform would lead to over 10,000 dead Americans every year in December of 2017. Summers, considered a reasonable moderate by today’s political standards, was just one of the many fearmongers.

    The same month, after cautioning that passage of tax cuts would portend “Armageddon,” then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi explained that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), a reform of corporate tax codes and a wide-ranging relief, was “the worst bill in the history of the United States Congress.” Worse than the Fugitive Slave Act? Worse than the Espionage Act? Worse than congressional approval of the internment of Japanese Americans? That’s a really bad bill.

    The tenor of left-wing cable news and punditry was predictably panic-stricken. After asserting that the cuts wouldn’t help create a single job, Bruce Bartlett told MSNBC that tax relief was “really akin to rape.” Kurt Eichenwald tweeted that “America died tonight … Millenials [sic]: move away if you can. USA is over. We killed it.” “I’m a Depression historian,” read the headline on a Washington Post op-ed. “The GOP tax bill is straight out of 1929,” proclaimed the same writer. And so on.

    None of this is even getting into the MSM’s straight news coverage, which persistently (and falsely) painted the bill as a tax cut for the wealthy. “One-Third of Middle Class Families Could End up Paying More Under the GOP Tax Plan” noted Money magazine. An Associated Press headline read, “House Passes First Rewrite of Nation’s Tax Laws in Three Decades, Providing Steep Tax Cuts for Businesses, the Wealthy.” “Poor Americans Would Lose Billions Under Senate GOP Tax Bill” reported CNN. Yahoo News ran one piece after the next predicting doom.

    The GOP tax cut’s “unstated goal is to leave the poor and vulnerable in America without the support of their government,” ABC News pretend centrist claimed. “It’s not enough to give money to rich people. Apparently, Republicans want to kick the poor and middle class in the face, too,” a columnist at Washington Post noted, leaning hard into two of the stalest canards about tax policy.

    Of course, the notion that allowing Americans to keep more of their own money is tantamount to “giving” them something is just transparently specious. Does any liberal really maintain that government owns all your income, and anything you keep is a gift? Tax rates were not handed to us on Mount Sinai, they were cooked up by economists. In truth, you only “give” taxes, you never keep. And the government only spends.

    In any event, the idea that the poor or middle class are being shaken down by the cuts was even more of a dishonest claim. As Chris Edwards has pointed out, the TCJA’s largest percentage tax cuts went to the middle class. Even the liberal Tax Policy Center estimated that 65 percent Americans paid less last year (6 percent paid more) due to tax reform. More than 44 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax. (Though corporate taxes are also a tax on consumers, so cuts benefitted nearly everyone.)

    That hasn’t stopped former vice president Joe Biden. “There’s a $2 trillion tax cut last year. Did you feel it? Did you get anything from it? Of course not. Of course not. All of it went to folks at the top and corporations,” the presidential hopeful claimed the other day. It’s a fabrication.

    Whenever you hear people bellowing about the wealthy benefitting most from across-the-board tax cuts, they always leave out the fact that wealthy pay the vast majority of income taxes: the top 20 percent of income earners paid over 95 percent of individual income taxes in 2017, the top 10 percent paid 81 percent and the top 0.1 percent paid nearly a quarter of all federal income taxes......
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

  • #2
    Like I kept telling Carp who toed the party line about "only the rich got the cuts" - I am probably considered lower middle class in my income. Maybe middle-middle class, depending on what part of the country you live in. I definitely am getting more per pay check and I paid in less in taxes to the federal government. I got back less in my tax refund, but that is because they were taking OUT less because of the tax cut. Even though I was not able to itemize this year, my standard deduction was greater than last year when I did itemize. It ended up making my taxes simpler to fill out.

    My company also made more money last year and I got one of the biggest raises I have had in years.

    Comment


    • #3
      What dreadful twaddle you read! It’s a short blip in performance in exchange for a mountain of debt that was not spent on anything useful. What a waste of money!

      What you actually paid for was a Trump vanity project; he gets to be the beneficent mafia boss for a while. A few shillings in your pocket, and then what?
      Last edited by firstfloor; 05-13-2019, 05:02 PM.
      “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” ― Oscar Wilde
      “And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence” ― Bertrand Russell
      “not all there” - you know who you are

      Comment


      • #4
        I love this liberal delusion that allowing people to keep their own money is an inherently bad thing.
        Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
        But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
        Than a fool in the eyes of God


        From "Fools Gold" by Petra

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Sparko View Post
          Like I kept telling Carp who toed the party line about "only the rich got the cuts" - I am probably considered lower middle class in my income. Maybe middle-middle class, depending on what part of the country you live in. I definitely am getting more per pay check and I paid in less in taxes to the federal government. I got back less in my tax refund, but that is because they were taking OUT less because of the tax cut. Even though I was not able to itemize this year, my standard deduction was greater than last year when I did itemize. It ended up making my taxes simpler to fill out.

          My company also made more money last year and I got one of the biggest raises I have had in years.
          I'm upper working class/lower middle class and yet not only did I make more money last year (thanks in no small measure from the raise I got as a direct result of the tax cut) but paid less taxes on it.

          I'm always still in trouble again

          "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
          "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
          "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Mountain Man View Post
            I love this liberal delusion that allowing people to keep their own money is an inherently bad thing.
            Maybe Trump thinks; Look, I gave them a tax cut, now I’ll claw it back with my trade war, and trick them again by giving them another tax cut at election time! It’s even the same money!

            Stocks taking a hit!
            Last edited by firstfloor; 05-14-2019, 07:42 AM.
            “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” ― Oscar Wilde
            “And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence” ― Bertrand Russell
            “not all there” - you know who you are

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by firstfloor View Post
              What dreadful twaddle you read! It’s a short blip in performance in exchange for a mountain of debt that was not spent on anything useful. What a waste of money!

              What you actually paid for was a Trump vanity project; he gets to be the beneficent mafia boss for a while. A few shillings in your pocket, and then what?
              letting people keep more of the money they earned is a "wasted of money?"



              Waste away then!

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                Liberals Were Very Wrong About Tax Cuts. Once Again.

                For those of you who survived the Great GOP Tax Cut Massacre, things are finally looking up. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent last month, the lowest level since 1969. We’ve now experienced over a full year of unemployment at 4 percent or lower. The economy beat projections, adding another 263,000 jobs in April. Wages are rising.

                It was Larry Summers, Bill Clinton’s former Treasury Secretary and Barack Obama’s White House economic adviser, who warned that tax reform would lead to over 10,000 dead Americans every year in December of 2017. Summers, considered a reasonable moderate by today’s political standards, was just one of the many fearmongers.

                The same month, after cautioning that passage of tax cuts would portend “Armageddon,” then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi explained that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), a reform of corporate tax codes and a wide-ranging relief, was “the worst bill in the history of the United States Congress.” Worse than the Fugitive Slave Act? Worse than the Espionage Act? Worse than congressional approval of the internment of Japanese Americans? That’s a really bad bill.

                The tenor of left-wing cable news and punditry was predictably panic-stricken. After asserting that the cuts wouldn’t help create a single job, Bruce Bartlett told MSNBC that tax relief was “really akin to rape.” Kurt Eichenwald tweeted that “America died tonight … Millenials [sic]: move away if you can. USA is over. We killed it.” “I’m a Depression historian,” read the headline on a Washington Post op-ed. “The GOP tax bill is straight out of 1929,” proclaimed the same writer. And so on.

                None of this is even getting into the MSM’s straight news coverage, which persistently (and falsely) painted the bill as a tax cut for the wealthy. “One-Third of Middle Class Families Could End up Paying More Under the GOP Tax Plan” noted Money magazine. An Associated Press headline read, “House Passes First Rewrite of Nation’s Tax Laws in Three Decades, Providing Steep Tax Cuts for Businesses, the Wealthy.” “Poor Americans Would Lose Billions Under Senate GOP Tax Bill” reported CNN. Yahoo News ran one piece after the next predicting doom.

                The GOP tax cut’s “unstated goal is to leave the poor and vulnerable in America without the support of their government,” ABC News pretend centrist claimed. “It’s not enough to give money to rich people. Apparently, Republicans want to kick the poor and middle class in the face, too,” a columnist at Washington Post noted, leaning hard into two of the stalest canards about tax policy.

                Of course, the notion that allowing Americans to keep more of their own money is tantamount to “giving” them something is just transparently specious. Does any liberal really maintain that government owns all your income, and anything you keep is a gift? Tax rates were not handed to us on Mount Sinai, they were cooked up by economists. In truth, you only “give” taxes, you never keep. And the government only spends.

                In any event, the idea that the poor or middle class are being shaken down by the cuts was even more of a dishonest claim. As Chris Edwards has pointed out, the TCJA’s largest percentage tax cuts went to the middle class. Even the liberal Tax Policy Center estimated that 65 percent Americans paid less last year (6 percent paid more) due to tax reform. More than 44 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax. (Though corporate taxes are also a tax on consumers, so cuts benefitted nearly everyone.)

                That hasn’t stopped former vice president Joe Biden. “There’s a $2 trillion tax cut last year. Did you feel it? Did you get anything from it? Of course not. Of course not. All of it went to folks at the top and corporations,” the presidential hopeful claimed the other day. It’s a fabrication.

                Whenever you hear people bellowing about the wealthy benefitting most from across-the-board tax cuts, they always leave out the fact that wealthy pay the vast majority of income taxes: the top 20 percent of income earners paid over 95 percent of individual income taxes in 2017, the top 10 percent paid 81 percent and the top 0.1 percent paid nearly a quarter of all federal income taxes......
                Most of this is disingenuous use of statistics - which I've covered elsewhere. For example, "largest percentage tax cuts went to the middle class" is a statement most likely based on the raw tax tables - which is the one place it is true. It does not reflect the effective tax rate after all of the income gains realized by the wealthy are factored in.

                Biden's statement is also not true - it did not "all go to the folks at the top." Everyone who paid taxes saw some reduction in taxes. But the dominant part of the benefit went to the most wealthy. See my other posts for the math and breakdown.
                The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy...returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Martin Luther King

                I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong. Frederick Douglas

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by firstfloor View Post
                  Maybe Trump thinks; Look, I gave them a tax cut, now I’ll claw it back with my trade war, and trick them again by giving them another tax cut at election time! It’s even the same money!

                  Stocks taking a hit!
                  He called me this morning and asked to ask you that you not expose his trickery and deceit anymore.
                  The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                    letting people keep more of the money they earned is a "wasted of money?"



                    Waste away then!
                    These are the same sorta folks who think that letting someone keep more of their own money is "giving" it to them and taking it away from someone else.

                    I'm always still in trouble again

                    "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                    "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                    "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
                      These are the same sorta folks who think that letting someone keep more of their own money is "giving" it to them and taking it away from someone else.
                      But when it comes to tariffs, suddenly the liberals are experts on the evils of taxation!
                      The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                      Comment

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