Trump’s Tax-Cut Smoke and Mirrors
Trump and the Republicans are once again proposing massive new tax cuts to solve the nation’s many problems. They cite Reagan’s big tax cuts in 1986 as a model for spurring economic growth, but there’s a problem with that rationale: You see, the decade before Reagan’s tax cuts actually saw higher growth than the decade after. In fact, during Reagan’s two terms America went from world’s greatest creditor nation to world’s greatest debtor nation, a stunning reversal from which we have never recovered. A major reason for this turnabout was Reagan’s lavish, debt-based defense spending—exactly what Trump is proposing.
In recent years, when corporations and the wealthy have received a windfall—from incentives to repatriate profits held in offshore accounts, for instance—they have not invested the money in business expansion and job creation, as the GOP propaganda would have us believe, but rather stock options for short-term financial gain. Plus, with unemployment now at a 17-year low, most economists believe massive tax cuts just don’t make any sense, except to fill the pockets of Donald Trump’s rich cronies, who have been parking their money in offshore tax shelters. All of this hidden loot was exposed by the Paradise Papers last November, the result of an investigation by 380 international journalists pouring through 67 years’ worth of records.
