Reason # 92: Tax Promises
Why do we need to defeat Donald Trump and ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House?
Despite existential changes in the GOP, the core essentials remain the same – at least theoretically. First, fiscal conservancy – the budget must balance – is the keystone. This carries important implications. Since the second core element is a strong military and support of military alliances, an enormous part of the budget expenditures must go to maintain the military, with the best weapons man can make and our allies must receive extensive support. At present, that means billions are needed to prop up the Ukraine in its brutal battle for survival with Vladimir Putin. Military aid is so important that it supplants money that other nations use to enhance the social status and quality of life of citizens. If that means that Beverly Vance loses her medical coverage; so be it.
Part of this conservatism is that it must be done in the framework of capitalism, as purely as possible. This is twaddle. For example, four years ago, when Trump’s gross mismanagement of COVID drove us into unemployment, with decreasing GDP and growing inflation, the firm hand of the FTC slapped the invisible hands of capitalism off the steering wheel of the economy and adjusted bank loan rates to help bring down inflation. Republicans want the market to decide what the minimum wage for workers is, rather than to humanely assist workers to escape poverty by maintaining a livable wage and breaking the never-ending cycle of Ricardo’s Iron Law of Wages that keeps salaries at subsistence levels. But when deregulation, introduced by Republicans, results in cataclysms like the Great Depression of 1929, the home savings and loan crisis of the 1980, the Enron debacle, the Credit Default Swap crisis, etc., Republicans come whining to Congress to bail them out with very non-capitalist corporate bailouts.
That brings us to taxes. It is axiomatic that if you want to balance a budget, taxes must equal expenditures. This is where Republicans wander from their principles. They consistently offer the greedy voter tax reductions that are guaranteed to break the budget, in the clear understanding that, during a subsequent administration, Democrats are forced to crack down and balance the budget (Carter, Clinton, Obama).
In 2016, Donald Trump, irresponsibly, promised that he was going to cut taxes for ordinary voters and won their trust. Of course, he had lied, and he screwed them. The poor got nothing, the lower middle class a few dollars, the upper middle class a few $ thousand. His rich friends got millions and corporations got billions. Is that hyperbole? No. Apple Corporation got tax breaks equivalent to $120 billion!
Now it’s 2024 and Trump is desperately promising tax breaks – ten in all – to date.
https://www.aol.com/finance/donald-trump-made-least-10-145919237.html
He has said just this week, that he would “make car loan interest fully tax deductible” and cut taxes “for Americans who live abroad”. These are in addition to “his calls for fully extending his 2017 tax cuts with modifications and an array of add-ons such as eliminating taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits.”
What is the price tag on these promises? U.S. Budget Watch 2024 puts the 10-year total at $ 9 trillion. Trillions? Yes, $9 trillions.
https://www.crfb.org/…/fiscal-impact-harris-and-trump…
Extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will cost the budget $5.3 trillion and little or none will go to workers.
Exemption of overtime pay adds $ 2 trillion (caution, Project 2025 seeks to drastically reduce overtime pay.)
No tax on social security benefits puts us another $1.3 trillion in the red.
Reduction of corporate taxes for domestic manufacturers boosts the deficit by $200 billion.
No tax on tips – $300 billion; credits for first time homebuyers – $ 150 billion.
And then there is the promised Trump tariffs, essentially taxes that increase the cost of consumer goods – with workers bearing most of the toll – will bring in $2.7 trillion to the budget.
Kamala Harris has promised to increase taxation of corporations and the very wealthy by $4 trillion. She promises to reduce individual taxes for non-wealthy Americans -1.6 trillion;
In comparison, tax cuts promised by Kamala Harris have a much larger benefit for ordinary Americans and approximately one third of the adverse impact on our budget deficit.
What are the chances we will see what these politicians promise? In the case of Donald Trump, the answer is crystal clear; Trump has a fifty-year track record of broken promises, stiffed creditors and a tsunami of lies.
The odds are clear; if you vote for Donald Trump you are going to be bitterly disappointed and become poorer in the process.
Please share this message with your friends and please, add your thoughts, to expand upon what are only brief sketches here.
To date, I have written 92 Reasons NOT to vote for Donald Trump . They are archived at my Facebook page
“100 Reasons NOT to vote for Donald Trump”.
Please visit the page and share the URL with your friends and colleagues.
Please click on the URL link below.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565843924438
You will be prompted in an on-screen box to “See More on Facebook”.
You can view the page even If you are not a registered Facebook user. Simply click on the X in the upper right corner of the pop up box and you will be able to view the site and all of its contents.
Because many have problems using Facebook, I am currently working on posting these reasons to a web page
Please visit and share the URL link with your friends and correspondents.
Why have I committed to posting 100 Reasons NOT to vote for Donald Trump? Because I do not have time to post 10,000.
Fred Grannis
October 14, 2024