The White House projects that the federal deficit will surpass $1 trillion this year, the only time in the nation’s history the deficit has exceeded that level, excluding the four-year period following the Great Recession.
“The 2019 deficit has been revised to a projected $1.0 trillion,” the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) wrote in its midyear review.
via The Hill.
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President Donald Trump says he will sign “maybe the biggest tax cut we’ve ever had,” and top Republicans keep pledging he will do it by Christmas.
Trump has promised his tax reform will help the middle class, make the United States more competitive internationally, and lead to almost unprecedented economic growth in the years to come. And he’s promised to eliminate the federal debt in eight years while he’s at it.
Getting through that list of promises is politically impossible, but even coming anywhere close to it in the next two months will be extremely difficult. Though congressional Republicans are saying tax reform will be “easier” than health care, the party is already embroiled in an intraparty struggle over how deeply to cut rates — and how to pay for them. And despite months of negotiations between top House and Senate Congress members and members of Trump’s administration — a working group dubbed the “Big Six” — Republicans haven’t actually agreed on many important points. And what they have agreed on has already raised some eyebrows within the Republicans conference.
via VOX.
The report, called “Families & Seniors Foot the Bill for GOP Tax Cuts,” includes state-by-state and district-by-district level data, and concludes that the average beneficiary from social safety net programs would stand to lose $1,500 a year under proposed cuts. And it comes as President Donald Trump is teasing another potential tax cut ahead of the midterm elections.
The House Budget Committee vote in June proposing $2 trillion in entitlement cuts got little attention, but the new report comes as Democrats are trying to short-circuit a surge in GOP enthusiasm around the midterms that could hinder their attempt to win back control of the House and, especially, the Senate.
via NBC News.
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The time to stop the Trump Tax Scam is now! The House is about to vote on their bill which would cut taxes for the wealthy and big corporations at the expense of seniors and everyone else.
Once you have made your call, please RE-BLOG this graphic with your friends!
Unless you’re a multinational corporation or someone with a yacht, there’s a lot not to like in the GOP’s tax “reform” plan, which the party wants to ram through Congress by the end of the year – even more to despise if you’re retired, going to retire or underinsured.
To pay for this runaway train of tax goodies for global corporations and the ultra-wealthy, the GOP is raising taxes on the Middle Class and refuses to address the long-term funding shortfalls in Social Security and Medicare. Neither the House nor Senate plan addresses this issue.
via Forbes.
President Donald Trump layered on another promise to his newfound insistence that he’s working with Congressional leaders on a 10% middle-income tax cut — that it wouldn’t raise the deficit.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal late Tuesday, Trump said his plan would be “revenue neutral.” But he wouldn’t divulge details on how exactly — or how, in vague terms — that would be accomplished.
As MarketWatch pointed out, any plan to cut middle-income taxes by the order of magnitude he’s described would cost, before the impact of economic growth, over $80 billion per year. Even a generous scoring of the economic impact would take the cost down to somewhere in the region of $60 billion to $70 billion each year.
via Market Watch.
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Certainly, seniors’ advocates do not consider it “unfortunate” that painful benefit cuts in the form of higher retirement ages were not enacted under President Obama. But McConnell and other GOP leaders have made it clear that they will move forward with this kind of ‘entitlement reform’ if they retain control of both houses of Congress.
The economy of the United States is booming, but its finances are going bust. In the first 11 months of fiscal 2017, the nation’s budget deficit was $674 billion. For the first 11 months of fiscal 2018, it was $898 billion, an increase of 33 percent. President Donald Trump’s administration now says the annual shortfall will exceed $1 trillion in 2019 and remain above that level for at least three years.
The deficit has exceeded $1 trillion in only four years, from 2009 through 2012, when unemployment of 8 percent to 10 percent depressed income tax receipts, low corporate profits reduced tax revenue and federal spending spiked to provide for struggling Americans, stimulate the economy and help fund state and local governments.
via NEWSDAY.
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Tax legislation approved by Congress and signed into law by President Trump will inevitably lead to the unraveling of working and middle-class programs to pay for massive tax cuts for the very wealthy and profitable corporations.
In the lead-up to the enactment of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, Donald Trump’s massive tax cut that mostly benefited rich people and big corporations, a coalition of powerful business interests formed with one major priority in mind: slashing the corporate tax rate. The Reforming America’s Taxes Equitably (RATE) Coalition comprised dozens of companies and trade groups that all insisted lowering corporate taxes would mean more jobs.
A ThinkProgress review found that about half of RATE Coalition’s members have made layoffs since the law’s enactment. In other words, not only did the expensive tax cut not bring more jobs, it couldn’t even forestall significant job losses.
via Think Progress.
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President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans’ tax cuts and spending increases will have serious impacts on the U.S. deficit. The national budget deficit will now surpass $1 trillion by 2020, two years earlier than expected according to a new report out by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Monday.
“Today’s CBO report underscores the reality that the Republicans’ $1.5 trillion tax plan will increase our already large national debt,” wrote Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen in a statement. “President Trump has given a huge windfall to the very rich and special interests – and put it on the nation’s credit card, asking working Americans to pay the bill.”
Van Hollen also expressed worry that Republicans will use this news to cut into entitlement programs like Social Security. “This week, House Republicans will move forward with their plan to pay for this tax giveaway: A budget procedure that would gut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and investments in our nation’s economy and future growth,” he said.
via Newsweek.
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President Trump and congressional Republican leaders, a group known as the “Big Six,” recently released their latest tax plan. The president claims that his plan “will cut taxes for the everyday, hardworking Americans,” but many taxpayers will actually pay more.
Incredibly, the plan costs $2.4 trillion over 10 years, but leaves 47 million households ultimately paying higher taxes so that the wealthiest taxpayers can get huge tax cuts. In fact, a few groups of Americans may be hit especially hard. Based on the details provided so far, many seniors and blind Americans can already tell that this plan will mean higher taxes for them in particular, since the plan eliminates a longstanding deduction they can currently and exclusively claim.
via Inside Sources.
