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STRIKE ONE: TAX RATES
The Claim
The taxes for Middle Class America — who Donald J. Trump (DJT) repeatedly called the “forgotten men and women” — are going down and rich people’s taxes are staying the same or may even go up.
DJT on September 28, 2015 at a news conference: “[The tax bill] is going to cost me a fortune.”
DJT on May 7, 2016 on Meet the Press: “For the wealthy, I think, frankly, it’s going to go up. And you know what? It really should go up.”
DJT on September 13, 2017 at a meeting with members of Congress: “The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. I think the wealthy will be pretty much where they are.... If they have to go higher, they’ll go higher, frankly.”
DJT on September 29, 2017 at an event for small businesses: “By eliminating the tax breaks and special interest loopholes that primarily benefit the wealthy, our framework ensures that the benefits of tax reform go to the middle class, not the highest earners.”
DJT on November 29, 2017, at a speech in St. Charles, Missouri: “[The tax cuts] are not good for me. Me, it’s not so — I have some very wealthy friends. Not so happy with me, but that’s OK. You know, I keep hearing Schumer: ‘This is for the wealthy.’ Well, if it is, my friends don’t know about it.”
DJT on November 29, 2017, the same speech in St. Charles, Missouri: “Our focus is on helping the folks who work in the mailrooms and the machine shops of America. The plumbers, the carpenters, the cops, the teachers, the truck drivers, the pipe fitters. The people that like me best.”
DJT on December 16, 2017, at the White House: [The tax cuts] are “one of the great Christmas gifts to middle-income people.”
The Truth
Every single one of these statements is complete b.s. Donald Trump — over and over and over — just bald faced lied to the very people who never wavered in their loyalty to him. Millions of Americans root for him and trust him, and he repays them by blatantly lying to their faces. It’s just not right.
The truth is that wealthy Americans got a windfall from the tax bill (and were going to from the very beginning), a fact Donald Trump acknowledged when he walked into dinner at Mar-a-Lago after the bill passed and said to the entire room, “You all just got a lot richer.”
The alternative-minimum tax was slashed, the estate tax was weakened, and the top two tax brackets saw the largest reductions by percentage than any of the others — which is fine if that’s what you want to do, but at least be man enough to be honest with the “forgotten men and women” who fervently believe in you and count on you to tell them the truth.
The United States Joint Economic Committee (JEC) — one of four joint committees of the U.S. Congress, this one responsible for reporting the current economic condition of the country — reports this: “The personal income tax cuts were heavily weighted to the very wealthy, with the top 1 percent of households — those with average incomes of almost $2 million – projected to receive an average tax break of nearly $50,000 in 2020. Their tax cuts alone are worth more than the entire average annual income of households in the bottom 40 percent.”
The Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, found that, in 2018 — the first year the tax bill went into effect — “the lowest income households (those making less than about $25,000) got an average tax cut of about $40. Middle-income households (who made between about $48,000 and $86,000) paid about $800 less.”
But here’s the most dishonest part of all: The tax bill is booby-trapped with built-in, automatic tax increases that are triggered every two years beginning in 2021. By 2027, Americans with incomes of $100,000 and under — which is roughly three-quarters of American taxpayers — will have a higher tax bill in 2027 than in 2019. Essentially, the tax “cut” was a delayed tax increase for most Americans. Naturally, this is not the case for corporations and wealthy Americans, because tax cuts for corporate profits, investment income, estate tax, etc. were made permanent.
Does the timing of this seem suspicious to anyone but us? The booby-traps triggered in 2021, just months after the 2020 presidential election. Hmmm…