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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Thursday, April 18, 2024

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has indicated to advisers he is keen on a new middle-class tax cut should he return to the White House, two people familiar with the discussions said, an initiative that could appeal to voters but could also worsen America's yawning budget deficit.

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... Among the ideas that advisers have presented to the former president is a cut to the federal payroll tax, said one of those people, a move that could lower the flow of money into the Social Security and Medicare trust funds and open Trump to criticism from Democrats that he is torpedoing the safety net for elderly Americans.

Trump has signaled that he is open to the idea, though he has made no commitments, that person added.

Trump's economic team proposed slashing the payroll tax in 2020 as a way to jumpstart the economy during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but his administration settled for temporarily allowing deferrals in payroll tax payments.

The recent conversations indicate that his economic advisers are still seeking a payroll tax cut, even though the economy is much healthier than it was four years ago, when it was hit hard by the pandemic.

Other ideas that Trump's close economic advisers are discussing include an increase in the so-called standard deduction on year-end tax returns and a cut to the marginal income tax rate for middle-income households, one of the people with knowledge of those conversations said. It was unclear if either of those ideas had been presented to Trump directly. ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-04-18 01:06 AM | Reply

Two comments...

1) wow the photo in the article of fmr Pres Trump as he appeared at the courthouse is, well, wow. But you decide...
www.reuters.com

2) what happened the last time fmr Pres Trump promised tax cuts for the middle class?

The 2017 Trump Tax Law Was Skewed to the Rich, Expensive, and Failed to Deliver on Its Promises (March 2024)
www.cbpp.org

... A high-stakes tax policy debate will accelerate this year through 2025 over the pending expiration of the individual income and estate tax provisions of the 2017 Trump tax law. Policymakers should use this opportunity to work toward a tax code that raises more revenues, is more progressive and equitable, and supports investments that make the economy work for everyone.

As this debate unfolds, policymakers and the public should understand that the 2017 Trump tax law:

- - - Was skewed to the rich. Households with incomes in the top 1 percent will receive an average tax cut of more than $60,000 in 2025, compared to an average tax cut of less than $500 for households in the bottom 60 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center (TPC).[1] As a share of after-tax income, tax cuts at the top " for both households in the top 1 percent and the top 5 percent " are more than triple the total value of the tax cuts received for people with incomes in the bottom 60 percent.[2]

- - - Was expensive and eroded the U.S. revenue base. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated in 2018 that the 2017 law would cost $1.9 trillion over ten years,[3] and recent estimates show that making the law's temporary individual income and estate tax cuts permanent would cost another roughly $350 billion a year beginning in 2027.[4] Together with the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts enacted under President Bush (most of which were made permanent in 2012), the law has severely eroded our country's revenue base. Revenue as a share of GDP has fallen from about 19.5 percent in the years immediately preceding the Bush tax cuts to just 16.3 percent in the years immediately following the Trump tax cuts, with revenues expected to rise to an annual average of 16.9 percent of GDP in 2018-2026 (excluding pandemic years), according to CBO. This is simply not enough revenue given the nation's investment needs and our commitments to Social Security and health coverage.

- - - Failed to deliver promised economic benefits. Trump Administration officials claimed their centerpiece corporate tax rate cut would "very conservatively" lead to a $4,000 boost in household income.[5] New research shows that workers who earned less than about $114,000 on average in 2016 saw "no change in earnings" from the corporate tax rate cut, while top executive salaries increased sharply.[6] Similarly, rigorous research concluded that the tax law's 20 percent pass-through deduction, which was skewed in favor of wealthy business owners, has largely failed to trickle down to workers in those companies who aren't owners.[7] Like the Bush tax cuts before it,[8] the 2017 Trump tax cut was a trickle-down failure. ...



#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-04-18 01:19 AM | Reply

He'll be mulling universal health care if his poll numbers drop low enough.

#3 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2024-04-18 01:29 AM | Reply | Funny: 1

@#3 ... He'll be mulling universal health care if his poll numbers drop low enough. ...

Yup. And that seems to be an important aspect to remember about fmr Pres Trump.

He seems to be, by nature, transactional, not strategic.

In other words, all that matters to him seems to be what benefits him today, now.

There never seems to be a regard for the future.

... presidential candidate Donald Trump has indicated to advisers he is keen on a new middle-class tax cut ...

But when (if) he gets back into the Oval Office, will he fall back to his usual screwing of the lower- and middle-class to suck the teat of the uber-wealthy? Again?


#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-04-18 01:40 AM | Reply

Another campaign promise with no intention to follow through.

#5 | Posted by jpw at 2024-04-18 09:27 AM | Reply

Every time the GOP talks about middle class tax cuts it actually means a huge tax cut for the top 1% of earners, peanuts for the rest of us and exploding the deficit.

#6 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2024-04-18 10:11 AM | Reply

Yes he is mulling it. $20 to the middle class, $2,000,000 to the 1%. In the end the GQP will negotiate that $20 down to a $75 tax hike and a repeal of the estate wealth tax.

#7 | Posted by Nixon at 2024-04-18 01:40 PM | Reply

We should cut all taxes.

Imagine how much better the nation would be without any taxes funding it.

#8 | Posted by ClownShack at 2024-04-18 01:46 PM | Reply

It'll be a $20 cut for the first year to progressively sunset over the following four years with a $75 tax increase the fifth year while the halving of the capital gains tax remains permanent.

#9 | Posted by jpw at 2024-04-18 01:46 PM | Reply

Another lie from the fat slob.

#10 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2024-04-18 08:15 PM | Reply

He'll decide on a Deficit Spending Tax Cut skewed towards himself and his big money donors.

Just like last time.

#11 | Posted by Corky at 2024-04-18 09:27 PM | Reply

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