Jan 18, 2018
lets face it, trump and the republicans managed to screw us over on the tax “reform’”
trump, during his campaign, swore that he would put an end to the outsourcing of jobs to other countries. He said it was priority number one. He, and only he, could get companies to bring jobs back to the United States and a key method of doing that was a new tax code. Now trump is just a mouth, who knows nothing about policy or how to govern, but he sides with those who have the benefit of the rich, which includes him to hear him tell it and corporations. The republican party has long been the party of those groups, rather than the average citizen. I have known that since I was a wee lad at my mommas knee. My father was a republican, and even then I didn’t understand why he would vote against his own self-interest and it has gotten worse since.
The articles are from December, but there is nothing later. Nor is there a copy of the tax bill since November on line. Now, in addition to that, as usual, they have managed to complicate things so that a layman can’t understand it, and have amended it since the lost copy that we have online. Remember, we discovered that Corker and trump were both getting special breaks because they were in real estate.
But lets look at the bill analysis:
Mother Jones’ analys is that corporations will be getting MORE of a tax break for the more resources they have overseas. Actually, the way they read the law, companies with assembly lines will benefit well lby having those assembly lines in other countries.
Follow that up with the next paragaph and you see how badly the “bring back jobs is likely to work.
“First, a corporation would pay that global minimum tax only on profits above a “routine” rate of return on the tangible assets — such as a factory — that it has overseas. So the more equipment a corporation has in other countries, the more tax-free income it can earn.” (Mother Jones….link above)
Follow that up with the next paragaph and you see how badly the “bring back jobs is likely to work.
“As a result, a U.S. corporation that builds a $100 million plant in another country and makes a foreign profit of $20 million would pay roughly $1 million in tax versus $4 million on the same profits if earned in the United States, says Rosenthal, who has been a tax lawyer for 25 years and drafted tax legislation as a staff member for the Joint Committee on Taxation.” (mother jones-article linked above)
That just starts the discussion over but you can see that a tax expert is saying that the tax so called reform does nothing to plug any job leakage. In fact, it is actually adding to the problem. But the Mother Jones article is just the first of the articles I looked at.
But lets look at the secon article:
Now this is CNN money. These people work with, you guessed it, the economy and money. This article lists 34 things you need ton know about the new tax code. First of all, only 14 percent of the executives interveiwed said they would be incrasing wages or highing more employees. Instead they were going to invest in stockes, either buybacks or in dividents.
Remember, the few companies who have seemed to do something for their employees in reaction to the tax “reform” have been questionable. Having worked for ATT for 37 years, I can tell you, that that 200 million dollars, that they are supposely giving out to employees as a one time thing will be recuped in some way. It may be in terms of a merger they want, or a rate height. But there WILL be some sort of pay off. I haven’t watched them in how they handle their employees for 37 years without knowing enough to know they can not be trusted. The same thing applies to other companies as well, I have no doubt at all.
On top of that, along with some benefits tht the rank and file citizens might get, there is the fact that this bill will create an addition to the deficit of about 1.46 billion. That is assuming things don’t go south with the economy which is all together likely since companies seem to be continueing the outsourcing process.
Finally from The Washington Post of Dec 15, 2017:
This article starts out discussing a company in Clinton, Tn that is moving to Mexico. The “hero” of the story is a man who has made tractor-trailor exhaust pipes for 13 years. For the last little while he has watched while Mexicans have been trained on how to the job. Nelson Global has decided that it is cheaper to have these parts made iin Mexico, so they are moving this plant and another up the road a bit to Mexico.
Meanwhile such companies as Wells Fargo, Caterpillar and Microsemi are looking to swift their operations overseas. Something the government is aware of because of the applications it is getting for retraining the workers to do other things. In addition Microsoft and Apple have switched over to foreign jurisdictions as well.
The point of that third article is that many workers are losing confidence that trump will keep his promise..with the next tax bill. The other two, shortly after this one, indicates that in fact he and congress did not,.
Lots of goodies for the rich. The corporations will save millions, maybe even low billions if they are bill enough, but offshoring jobs is still a lucrative action and every company today is in a global market situation.
My prediction is that the 1.46 billion added to the deficit will be a low ball analysis, and it will higher. Either that or with those exit paths still open, and automation available in bigger ways than ever, employment will go down instead of up.
BTW, did you know that 91,000 jobs got outsourcd in 2017. That is the highest it has been in 5 years….so 2018 will indeed be the test as to whether our economy is going to hit the skids or improve. I don’t see it getting better, not with the give away in this bill to the top wealthiest and the screwing over of the rank and file citizen that is eventually part of any give-away to the rich and power.
I can hear now….cut back on the safety net to say the money…..RIGHT screw over those most vulunerable….the republican way.
