Because it saved most people, as you said, a tiny amount... And it hurt the country a lot. It actually doubled the amount of large corporations that pay no taxes. NO TAXES. You paid 25% (or so), they paid 0%.
Some names you may recognize that paid no taxes:
- Amazon
- Netflix
- Delta Airlines
- Chevron
- General Motors
- Occidental Petroleum
- Honeywell
- Deere
- American Electric Power (AEP)
- Principal Financial
- Devon Energy
- Halliburton
- IBM
- Whirpool
- Goodyear Tires
- Aramark
Here's what I will say about this, in my attempt to be reasonable and fair.... I think it's a rig, but the only way to know that for sure is if the POINT of the tax cuts comes through. The reason regular people get talked into this is because the basic idea is:
Cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy
- They have more money to grow, expand, etc
- They make more money
- Then they will raise your wages, provide you better benefits, provide better jobs, etc.
- They grow and prosper
- You do better, not because you got a tiny tax cut, because your employer improved your quality of life.
That is the sell. The sell isn't really that you got a tiny tax cut. It was that it purposefully made conditions better for your employer. If those things don't happen, it was either a con or the concept of "trickle down" doesn't work in the first place. What I see happen in the past is that the corporations and wealthy grow SIGNIFICANTLY, wages stay stagnant, benefits stay the same or get worse, etc.
It's actually a pretty complicated comparison to see if wages (and the lesser discussed benefits) are stagnant, rising, falling... Because it all depends on what time period you are comparing to.... Then you have to factor inflation and a host of other items.
What I believe to be true in all that, is that regular people are taking less of the pie. I believe the facts back that up. Even if across the board wages increased a little, once factoring in inflation, sometimes they are stagnant, sometimes its a loss, and sometimes its a tiny gain... but the pie keeps getting bigger.
1.) Pensions are gone in the private industry, that took away some of the pie.
2.) According to the Kaiser Foundation, employees are taking on more and more of the cost of healthcare. As healthcare gets more expensive, employers are typically passing more and more of that cost to the employee. I am confident a lot of you have experienced this. That takes away some of the pie.
3.) You pay a higher percentage of your income in taxes than extremely wealthy people do. That shifts the pie in their favor.
4.) The cost of education has gone up over 200% since the 90's... Wages haven't nearly increased that much. That shifts part of the pie. You have less money.
5.) Car prices are up 30% in the last 10 years. Your wages aren't up 30%. So what they do is offer 0% interest and stretch the loan out 7 years so you can still kind of afford it. That shifts the pie. Cars are one example, but its true of most things.
The pie is getting a lot bigger.... but your growth isn't. Go look at the data. It's right there.
That's a long post, based on the responses I wanted to try and provide more rationale in a fair way.
In my opinion, there is a better way to balance these things. It has to change. I've posted many times...I keep saying it, but 42% of the country makes less than $15 an hour... The huge percentage of people living month to month, the amount of household debt, suicides, foreclosures, millions of people are evicted from their homes every year, bankruptcies,1 in 5 on anti-depressants, millions are alcoholics, etc. The APA said 45% of Americans lie awake at night regularly due to financial stress... Nearly 70% of the country is stressed about money and bills. Americans, in the richest country on earth, are actually some of the most stressed people on the planet. We know why. It's right there in front of us.
Something is wrong. In my opinion, it's the imbalance. I don't think people can handle it. The amount of working hours, the amount of stress, how hard it is for so many Americans to literally just get to the next month. Etc. It's an improper construction of society.
How that relates to Trump is, I don't know that he is doing much of anything to remedy what I see the problem to be. I do hate him as a person, because he is loathsome. But from a policy perspective, I honestly believe he is making what I described above worse. That's why I want him gone.
I think you guys will find that less emotional, and more rational. I probably won't harp on those things again, lol. (I stress the world probably).
