You actually think the public may get wise?
Speaking of confidence fairies...
1
How many decades must we endure this fiction that sometime, someplace, (usually just around the next election), a left-leaning populist savior will manifest to restore order and rescue us from unfettered neoliberalism? This populist savior will raise taxes on billionaires and Wall Street, and offer us functional social support systems that will enhance our lives in ways we haven't even dreamed of. When will people finally accept that: 1) We live in a corporate plutocracy run by billionaires 2) Our "government," our "elected officials," do not represent the vast majority of us, but follow the orders of their corporate plutocrat "owners" and 3) We will get no change in this pattern of behavior that endlessly institutes tax cuts for the super rich allied with social program cutting that harms a sizable majority of us? Let's face it: The American system of governance is set up to favor this Anglo Saxon, social Calvinist, imperialist, exceptionalist, Apocalyptic, ever expanding, proselytizing (if not for Christ, than for "American" capitalism) vision that is paranoid + suspicious about new ideas and idealizes eternal war, even at times of greatest strength. If we do not come to some deep realization that this system fails large swaths of the American population, then nothing will change. The pattern will continue, endlessly, even during the period of "failed state" collapse (should that horrifying event even come close to occurring).
1
A Republican tax bill is always a banquet for the rich -- now, the very very rich. But the Republicans are canny enough always to let a few crumbs fall to the floor, knowing that a large number of voters are going to pick up the crumbs and conclude that the banquet is for them. And it is, in one sense: ultimately, they will pay for it.
3
People who are on Social Security/Medicare should be gearing up to vote the Republicans out of Congress and in 2020, elect a Democrat President. This is the only way to ensure that Social Security/Medicare is preserved, protected and restored. This must happen because cat food is too damn expensive to eat now.
5
@OldEngineer (https://goo.gl/Jw9gx5)
Mais non.
First, when the GOP was out of power, they were the debt and deficit hawks, particularly during the Great Recession starting in 2008. That was the wrong time to be debt and deficit hawks.
Second, in a previous comment (https://goo.gl/Evf7tg), the following article was mentioned
“An orgy of serious policy discussion” with Paul Krugman, Klein 2017.12.14 (https://goo.gl/SWNR5u),
Krugman said:
“The United States is in a range where we really should not be worrying about debt. Britain spent most of the 20th century with debt levels well above what we have now, and never seemed to have any problem with that. Japan has debt of 200 percent of GDP, and people keep betting against Japanese government bonds, saying that there's bound to be a crisis; people call that the widowmaker trade, because so many people have lost so much money betting that the markets are going to reject Japanese debt.
It turns out that advanced countries, politically stable countries, have a tremendous amount of leeway on debt. We are nowhere close to anything that looks like a red line. If there's something we ought to be doing, we shouldn’t let the deficit impact deter us from doing it.”
Now that the economy has fully recovered, and is near full employment, it is wrong to incur large deficit as a pretext to cut social programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, that a large majority of GOPers support (https://goo.gl/4tqWGs).
" social programs essential to many ordinary families" must be slashed"
Too Wordy
They are going to slash " Social Security "!
Tell it like it is
1
It's not just Social Security. It's all of them.
There is a sucker born every minute. We have millions of them!
4
Well, the wealthy weirdo wackos told Ryan/McConnell to pass the tax bill. Why? Because they think cutting social services will encourage the lazy slackers in the 99% to pull up these socks. go to church, a “Christian” church of course, and develop some initiative.
Maybe the 99% will develop the initiative to go to vote??
7
It's Jude Wanniski's "Two-Santa Claus Theory", and that idea has been around since the 1970s... cut taxes, then cut social programs. One might, also, remember the Republican treachery in Lee Atwater's infamous 1981 interview on the GOP Southern Strategy -- where cutting taxes leads to cutting welfare, and, thereby, does "away with the racial problem" because "blacks get hurt worse than whites".
2
This bait-and-switch scam works because the switch comes much later and to different people: The rich win immediately and long-term; the middle-class gain a little immediately and get burned later. Ah, but the burn comes tomorrow, and tomorrow never comes, right? Gotta live for today, and today, man, we're grooving -- got a little more money in my pocket. Them Repubs got it goin' on. MAGA indeed! USA! USA! USA!
4
Republicans use the excuse of not wanting to waste money “to help people who won’t help themselves,” but are the main group that away benefits that’ll help those people help themselves. I agree with Muncy that the bait-and-scam works because numerous poor and middle-class people aren’t thinking of the future benefits/consequences but their current situation at that moment. The Repubs knows that so they’d use that to their advantage to accomplish their agenda of “a huge tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the rich, but gives ordinary workers a few crumbs..” leaving the lower/middle class to pay the consequences for their agenda.
Paul Ryan got half-a-million-dollar reward from the Koch brothers for letting secretaries eating a small extra french fries a week [D].
[D] Paul Ryan deletes tweet about tax cuts after Twitter backlash, Tatum February 3, 2018 (https://goo.gl/h9XeLH)
Continuation from previous comments at https://goo.gl/9woQvb.
2
Don't overplay your hand! There might be some more people out there who don't see much of a tax relief in the next months. There will be a lot more who will. Also, there will be quite a few who'll get a one-time bonus. The diabolical scheme of the cut is: get some now, and less later. That later won't be in November. Democrats are in the unenviable position to have to CAREFULLY explain that.
It doesn't help when you claim it ain't that much NOW. That will backfire. GOPers and their journalistic flack will argue: "Look, how elitist they are, for them it's not much but for hard working Americans it means the world!"
It's a very steep hill to climb, thus choose your arguments carefully. Thus when Orrin Hatch said, the problem with CHIP was the lack of money, Democrats should have pointed out that there was enough money for a big corporate tax cut but should have left the "crumbs " argument out. Do so each and every time such as when the GOPers claim for non-defense cuts because they need to pay for the military so that instead of killing the world n-times over they need to have an arsenal doing so 2n-times, remind them again of the tax cuts for the rich and the corporations. But DON'T mention FOR NOW how little the average citizen gets! It won't sell, and you only increase the pleasant surprise when it turns out to be a little more. And obviously, once more the GP will say, "see, we told you so, the Dems lie, because they are only interested in denigrating us."
2
The abject idiocy of not taxing corporations for the use of infrastructure cannot be overstated.
6
Paul Ryan reports the unnamed secretary can pay her Costco membership with the raise in pay. Shame she won’t have the $1.50 left over to by a dog and a drink.
You forgot to mention how Trump and his Republican buddies are lauding themselves over companies who are giving bonuses of $1000 to their employees as proof of how wonderful their tax legislation is.
They mock Nancy Pelosi for saying these bonuses are nothing but crumbs. She's correct. A one time bonus instead of a permanent wage increase! What a joke. Moreover these bonuses come with strings attached. My employer has announced that we are getting these bonuses. I won't get a dime because they are basing them on how many years you've worked there namely over 10 years.
4
There was a report that Home Depot employees will be getting a $1000 bonus. But that is ONLY if you've been working for them for 20 years! Home Depot was a MUCH smaller company 20 years ago. Probably less than 5% of Home Depot employees will be getting that $1000. Most of them will be getting somewhere around $300 or $400.
And it's the same story with some of these other corporations that are supposedly handing out $1000 bonus checks.
Read the fine print, folks. ALWAYS read the fine print.
2
The irony of Ryan's tweet was stunning, and either he intended it ironically and therefore cruelly, or if not, he is nearly clueless--despicable either way. The Republicans and Trump keep handing the Dems these campaign PR opportunities over and over and over, and shrug off any negative appearances. Please figure out how to use them effectively!
PS. I'm happy to see that more and more, thanks to commentators like PK, understand what this tax bill and it's destructive economics will mean to the future of the middle class and to its children and grandchildren.
Mr Ryan seemed to be genuinely surprised that masses were not weeping at his feet with gratitude after receiving a few extra crumbs.
Is it one trillion, or one trillion over 10 years ? Why not just say 100 billion a year and simplify the impact and avoid confusion?
Could the $1.50 per week tax benefit have been a joke and Ryan just didn't get it?
1
Yes. Elsewhere it was reported that the secretary said to please read the whole article, and note the 'graphs above and below her comment.
(Sorry, can't find that link.)
Just what is it is going to require to get GOP voters to realize their social and financial benefits are getting smaller and smaller, some even going away. What is it that will get through to GOP voters that their party leaders are hateful people, are not interested in your welfare. When will they wake up. Honestly, what will it take. Hopefully they will remember in NOVEMBER 2018 to vote for someone that wants to save their benefits, and that would be a Democrat.
2
Dear Mr. Ryan: I am so grateful for the $1.50 a week that your tax "reform" gives me. I want to invite you to go to a matinee movie with me as soon as I save up enough to cover the cost of treating you. I figure in about 4 months, at $1.50 per week, I will have saved enough for this thank you to you. I will contact you in June to set a date. We won't be able to have popcorn and/or a soda, as I would have to wait another 4 months to be able to include that in the thank you.
Sincerely,
School secretary
4
Paul Krugman is so unfair.
You can get a lot more than just french fries for $1.50.
With the fries, you also get those little packets of ketchup and salt. And paper napkins.
3
Ryan’s not out of touch. He’s 100% serious. He truly believes the little people should be grateful for an extra $78 a year. After all, he could have given them nothing on the grounds that not making them work for it will turn them into slackers like those hammock-swinging food stamp recipients.
1
"We'll see in November ". We will see status quo in November if the voters don't have someone better then the republican incumbent to vote for. The democrats are asking for defeat otherwise and an angry voter to boot. It would be useless to caste a vote for someone who will not win against the incombent. Too bad for the down ballad folk.
"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." P.T. Barnum
1
Yesterday I signed a paycheck which withheld $50.00 less in taxes than the previous check. This employee is paid every two weeks. There are 26 payroll periods in a year, which means this employee will take home $1,300.00 more per year. Out here in flyover country, this is going to be significant in this man's life. I know that I'm also going to have to begin giving raises soon. This is significant as well. Krugman wants to disdain every single thing Trump does, but under the last twenty five years of Krugman's free trade ideas, the U.S. was in decline. Now the threat of change is actually making a difference and I believe that when the change is codified, we will see a big difference. This big difference is going to lead to increases in wages and prices in the U.S. It's going to lead to more jobs and better conditions for the American worker.
And while Krugman says he wants a better lot for working people, he has actually championed the globalism that made the lives of U.S. working people less in every way. I'll take Trump over Krugman any day. My chances are better and Trump is more honest.
1
Your rage is misdirected. Economists have understood for going on three centuries now that international trade is almost always a positive-sum, win-win game. Trade is an engine of growth, precisely as Adam Smith understood. It is NOT international trade that has led to the decline of the American middle class. It is trickle-down economics, as practiced by Republicans beginning with Ronald Reagan and amplified by George W. Bush and now by Donald Trump. [They also practiced trickle-down economics during the Coolidge/Harding era, which helped to lead to the Great Depression, but I was just ignoring that for now.]
It's as if you think that economists have never even bothered to STUDY international trade. Paul Krugman is one of the world's leading experts in international trade theory. It is largely what he won his Nobel Prize for, along with his insights into economic geography.
Might I suggest an Econ 101 class?
4
Well, every man has his price. I guess yours is 1300.00 a year.
3
Delusional nonsense and you know it. Let's see what Trump's policies eventually cost your employee - and you. Also, Krugman is a journalist: he's not making policies or passing tax bills.
Do you think this gigantic deficit Trump has just created is going to have no effect? Now suddenly you don't care abut deficits, which you do only when a democrat is in the White House.
Ant the words Trump and "honest" in the same sentence? How is anyone supposed to take that seriously?
5
We're going to hit the debt ceiling a lot sooner than originally projected thanks to these tax cuts. Despite their claims to the contrary, Republicans are the party of fiscal irresponsibility.
11
"For tax cuts aren’t free. Sooner or later, the federal government has to pay its way."
You could consider spending cuts, Paul.
You mean, of course, the bloated military budget? Yea, I thought so.
2
Should we slash defense spending? No? How about Social Security? [Your Aunt Edna will not be happy with you.] How about cancer research? [Who needs cancer research?] Maybe we should abolish the space program, and just let China and Russia pioneer the new frontier?
People who call for spending cuts almost never SPECIFY exactly what spending they would cut.....
4
I found it interesting that Trump stated in his SOTU address tat he now wants to spend $1.5 trillion on infrastructure, or basically the same amount as the tax cut. That money would have to come from somewhere, with a $0.25/gallon gas tax being floated by some folks.
If that winds up being the case, Ryan's worker's break even will be 6 gallons of gas a week. Hope she drives a hybrid.
4
the republicans are down on globalization, but it is the globalization of wealth, that makes the 1.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthy possible. when the disastrous affects of the ever increasing federal debt bubble is finally burst the wealthy will be able to escape its affects because their wealth is globalized and not tied to the the US economy. while the rest of us are left drowning in federal and state debt the wealthy will remain profitable afloat on their off shore islands of protected wealth.
5
Since my neighbors and I can no longer deduct the full amount of our state and local taxes as we once were allowed to do, our federal bills have gone up considerably. I am sure that Trump and his cronies have figured a way to circumvent this, but we have not.
3
Trump and the Republican Congress only listen to their wealthy donors and craft legislation to curry their favor and generosity.This gives them no time or inclination to hear the plight of the vast working poor.This trickle down theory of economics did not work under Reagan and will not work now.
6
There is a major myth in America: that the working class is heavily burdened by federal income taxes. It just not true. A significant portion of the working and middle classes pays net-negative rates, in fact. So while Ryan's comment was silly, it isn't appropriate to judge unless we have the full context, particularly to what extent his subject pays taxes to begin with.
Krugman knows very well that corporations do not pay taxes: their clients do. Which is one reason politicians love corporate taxes: they can claim to be soaking the big, bad corporations cheered on by voters too unaware to realize that high corporate taxes are effectively a tariff on our own goods and services.
I don't have a prize in economics, but I am neither naive nor uninformed.
1
Does Donald Trump understand that tariffs ARE taxes? Do you?
1
Having corporations include taxes in the price of products is broad-based. When all taxation is local, the US will be segregated to death.
1
Yes.
Paul Ryan is not running for office again, he announced that after the tax cut bill passed. Does he get to keep the millions in his campaign fund, or does he already have a job offer for many millions at a Wall Street bank, or a D.C. lobbying law firm?
Either way, he looks like a happy man and one who will be able to afford however many French fries he and his family will ever desire.
3
And ironically, he got where he is thanks in large part to his deceased father's Social Security benefits, benefits which he advocates taking away from others.
The Republicans are planning ahead - they know the next president likely will be a Democrat (after the Orange Debacle). By running up the public debt now they will be ready to scream and holler about the size of the debt and the deficit then (like they did during the Obama years) in order to try to keep the Democrat from enacting any new social program improvements. But for now deficits don't matter, because their priorities are "more important".
5
republicans rant and rave about the grave effects of leaving our children with some debt but don't give a second thought to leaving those same children with an uninhabitable planet.
t rump last week took credit for the lack of deaths in airline flights; think he is going to take responsibility for all the train wrecks we have had in the last few months? Didn't think so either.
The trillions that this tax cut will cost US is money that should have gone into upgrading and expanding the railroad infrastructure, as well as all the rest of our infrastructure which is rapidly falling into such disrepair that We the People are in grave danger just by using our roads and rails.
With upgrades the value of our Nation would go up, increasing the value of the real wealth of the republican's billionaire donor class. That value being the Nation they are living and doing business in. If average Americans, all 300 million, of US were making a real livable and bankable wage the revenue from income taxes would probably make a real tax cut possible.
In a Democratic administration figures show that everyone does better, including those at the top. In republican administrations only the top do well, but they don't do as well as during Democratic terms. It is telling that they will take less in actual dollars if they get the illusion of doing that much better than all the rest of US.
4
I would like to take Mr. Ryan to visit a family I visited earlier this week in Conway, SC. The youngest daughter, who lives with her mother and an elder sister, has her own 7 year old daughter who must sleep in the same bed with her. The house has no central heat, just space heaters. Not only can one see daylight around some electrical outlets (there is only one per room, so extension cords that are probably overloaded are everywhere), but the floors are sagging and the roof leaking. Kitchen cabinets that used to reach the ceiling are also sagging. Rusty well water stains the bathtub so it too looks rusty. People have broken into their and neighbors' homes, including around the time a relative died.
This is a proud family. The lady who applied for a Habitat for Humanity house works full time and her daughter attends school. Her mother is retired. Her sister is disabled.
How far does Mr. Ryan think that $1.50 a week will go toward this young woman furnishing even a small Habitat house? She has no money to waste on french fries at a fast food place. Her daughter deserves to live in a safe house and so does she, but $1.50 a week won't buy one for her.
8
"people like Orrin Hatch declared that we can’t “spend billions and billions and trillions of trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves.”
The problem is, Orrin Hatch, that the GOP IS giving all the money to people who ARE "helping themselves" -- to the money.
So the problem is Orrin Hatch and his ilk, who will stoop at nothing to help themselves and their mates "help themselves". Everyone else can go hang, especially if they are poor, and made poorer by those who have "helped themselves".
5
What's worse is that Sen. Hatch was talking about CHIP--children's health insurance--when he made that statement. So I guess he believes that child labor should be reinstated. Can't have those lazy useless 5-year-olds getting healthcare!
The $1.5 trillion addition to the deficit (consensus of most economists) -- is equal to the Republicans opening a credit card in your name, and the name of each American and putting $4687 in charges on the card, all to send the cash to their wealthy friends -- while planning to cut benefits for the neediest (CHIP) and seniors (SS, Medicare) -- and leasing our public lands to oil and gas companies. This is corporate welfare at its finest -- the real moochers.
9
Oh, yes, and who profits from that huge tax cut for corporations and the upper 1% ? The Trump Corporation, the 1 percenters Ryan, Cheney, the Bushes, and how many more Senators - I'd love to know.
1
Well, I noticed, and I'm nobody special. It was as plain as the noon day sun that this payday for the ultra-wealthy was going to result in spending cuts in social services. The Koch brothers, who think anything other than Republican values is socialism (and thus to be feared), donate money to the GOP lawmakers. The wealthy oil men expect their party to do their bidding. Rep. Ryan and Sen. Hatch have made their feelings about the poor in this country public. The actions of the GOP speak more loudly than words. The wider the gap between rich and poor the more destabilized our country will become.
21
It really is pointless to listen to what they say, because it hardly ever comports with what they actually do.
See also, Jude Wanniski, "Two Santa Claus" strategy. The Democrats being the Santa Claus of social programs held onto power from the time of the Great Republican Depression of the 30s until the time of trickle down, supply side era of Thatcher and Uncle Ronnie. The Right/GOP realized that it was hard to run on taking programs away from people so they became the Santa Claus of tax cuts. Give people tax cuts! Cause who doesn't want to pay less taxes?! And since many middle/working class people were much better economically than their Depression era predecessors it would become easier to convince them that programs for THOSE people needed to be cut. Funny that at least some of them are THOSE people but don't realize the extent to which they themselves benefit from THOSE programs.
So as PK notes, they cut taxes and deficits go way up then they sell the average guy on the fact that cuts are needed (except for the Pentagon).
This tactic has been repeated from Reagan to DJT.
After all people have such short memories.
15
Democrats are realistic about the life cycle of income of real people, which starts negative and ends negative, with hopefully enough surplus when positive to provide a comfortable retirement after a career.
1
The most solid investment is in a company that invests in itself—both capital and labor, that invests in the future. If a company is expanding, it’s hiring. And that’s a national debt (which is a matter of the cost of servicing the debt) that pays off. Short-term and long-term.
1
And when wages are blamed for inflation forcing the interest rate hikes from our Fed raising the cost of allowing all that corporate cash to come back which could of been invested years ago while also contributing to a lower deficit what will we do... cut food stamps, of course. Maybe bringing back all those cheap dollars all at once could boost inflation, naw, it's that extra few dollars going towards a fair minimum wage. We will pay trillions for rich people's tax cuts over time but it's all the fault of LBJ and the agriculture dept. In the long run companies invest overseas and we pay our taxes for their sage shipping lanes.
3
“For tax cuts aren’t free. Sooner or later, the federal government has to pay its way.”
It is already happening. The government is going to borrow nearly $1 trillion a year for the next three years in an environment of rising interest rate, stoking fear of rising inflation, and the market tanked last Fri as a result. [A]
Rising interest rate will decrease the value of the dollar [A], which when coupled with tariff on foreign goods would induce an effective tax increase for everyone, from the lowest earners to the top 1% [B], since consumer prices would increase significantly [C].
A secretary may earn $75 more a year ($1.50 x 50 weeks), but loses out $131 when she buys a washing machine.
“The dollar’s exchange value is not part of the Fed’s portfolio. President’s get the dollar they want, and they transmit their dollar desires through the U.S. Treasury. From Trump’s mercantilist head to Mnuchin’s mouth, the result is a dollar in decline. A devalued dollar taxes every American first and foremost because Americans earn dollars” and “those dollars are exchangeable for less” [B].
[A] The Treasury is set to borrow nearly $1 trillion this year, and at least that much afterward. Here's why it matters, David 2018.02.05 (https://goo.gl/UA9uMx)
[B] Last Week Donald Trump Raised Taxes on Every Single American, Tamny 2018.01.28 (https://goo.gl/xknZ7X)
[C] The Economics of Dirty Old Men, Krugman 2018.01.25 (https://goo.gl/dfCdBg)
14
Et voila! Democrats have discovered the evils of debt, as they always do... the instant they are out of power.
1
Ryan's tweet was nothing short of a twit...taunting poor people.
16
The Eagles won the Super Bowl so I don't care! (I'll probably care again tomorrow)
3
While we're at it, how about putting a sign over the entrance to every McDonalds warning of the health risks of eating there. Ya know, a health care initiative.
8
There were enough voters to get Trump elected, and they all have a similar view of the world, or at least the US. That there are 10's of millions of deadbeats that are sucking up their tax dollars. First grade teachers that make $150,000 because they belong to unions. Guys that put on a neck brace to pickup their welfare check, and then get on their yacht to sail to the Caribbean.
God fearing white middle Americans sucking down 4.9 billion oxycodone tablets a year... oh, wait a minute...
20
I have never felt any particular animosity against people who were rich. However, these days it seems that it's not enough to make yourself rich - you have to make sure everyone else is poor. Apparently, every dollar that a poor person has is another dollar that's not available to further enrich the rich.
Dollars are scare these days - to all but the fortunate few. And no matter what anyone says - going to the grocery store keeps getting more and more expensive, not to mention the mechanic or - god forbid - the dentist.
I really don't know what to do. My savings ravaged by the recession, no time to build them back up, a monthly SS check which is less than $1200, bills to pay and property taxes and insurance and gas, physical and dental needs.
Just take the dental. At my age, and with my genetics, even with good hygiene, I need dental work. How in god's name did dentists keep from being covered under medical insurance? Every other orifice in your body - and the specialists who treat problems with them - are covered. But there is no good dental insurance available at my age - I've looked - and the obscene amount of money the dentist wants is impossible for me. So what's the alternative?
A clinic or program? Nope. See, I made the huge mistake of dedicating years to pay off the mortgage on my home. Having that asset, I don't qualify. So, sell my house? And live where? For how long on the proceeds? And then what?
I need help, GOP, and I deserve it.
31
Have you tried a local dental school? I have had extensive work completed at a school of dental medicine in southeastern Pennsylvania and have paid 30 to 50 percent less than in the community for complex fillings and bonding, root canals, and crowns. I need three implants and don’t expect to pay more than 2,500 dollars for each. Payment plans may be possible. The care is excellent—the students are eager to do well in clinical and pass their certification exams and the professors that approve all of their procedures are generally the most respected dentists in the area.
4
If you think that 2,500 per implant is a reasonable price, you have way more money than I. Maybe, Nancy, you should look into going to Mexico where all the Canadians seem to go. Much cheaper and I understand the work can be done well.
Yet if you had 6 kids with six different men and had a drug problem you'd be taken care of. It pays to think of only yourself and instant gratification. Forget the whole American work ethic because in the end where does it get you?
This administration is handing future generations a bag full of debts.
Hopefully this coming November young people will wake up and vote the GOP out of power.
23
Herbert Hoover: "Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt."
I think Herbert was engaging in some sardonic humor with that comment....
Sickening.
6
In three months she could buy a MAGA cap from TrumpCrap.Con
18
Though wrong-headed, I thought Ryan had a modicum of sense. Either he's being wildly delusional or intentionally trying to float absurd propaganda. in the latter case, that would brand him almost as stupid as Trump. So who knows what's going on with him. The R's are a rogue party run amok. Who knows what forces of good can rein them in.
9
I say democratic party offer additional tax cuts to middle and lower income class if they win next round of election. Resulting additional burden becomes the problem of republican regime that will follow. Hopefully, this will reverse the cyclical pattern of republican tax cuts followed by tax increase by the democrats.
3
You're basically defining the problem with politics in America, Assay.
4
“pass a huge tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the rich, but gives ordinary workers a few crumbs — or actually a bag of fries now and then. Then point to the big deficits created by that tax cut as a reason social program essential to many ordinary families must be slashed.”
What motivates these people? Maybe part of it is greed. But underneath that is the “let them eat fries” better-than-thou indifference to the 99% whose perceived failure of character accounts for their plight. A dose of strong medicine and extreme narrow-minded evangelical “Christianity”, that’s what the 99% need. Bravo Rebekah, bravo Kochs, hurrah Wilks bros - and of course, applause for Ryan/McConnell and their venal lackey associates in Congress putting the bonkers billionaires’ plans to work.
9
What we heard from the equities markets Friday and now today is big worries about inflation because worker incomes may be rising a smidge--blows my mind. The real issue is rates have to go up because these huge tax cuts are unfunded and have to increase deficit--what goes down must go up--in obedience to the financial equivalent of gravity. Darn right tax cuts ain't free. With no fiscal boost to follow there's nothing for it but bond yields to rise and prices to fall. Get ready folks it's gonna get ugly, and soon.
8
Prof. Krugman forgets about one more scam: the fact that Republicans are under pressure to inflate salaries prior to the midterms may result in depressed refunds next year. Let's see how the public likes that.
The scam is so obvious that elections are for Democrats to loose. One of the problems: the Democrats are stuck on abortion. As long as the abortion debate keeps being women vs unborn fetus, much of the white christian Republican base will not think twice to vote Republican, and thus throw millions of babies down with the bath water.
The abortion debate is crucial, and I, a progressive mother of two, wish a wave of womanhood would wash of over the Democratic party. A feminism that claims women as a protector of unborn babies; and that thus require societal protection for women (in terms of paid leave, protection to single moms, equal pay, quality services for early childhood) in order for children to thrive. And that claims that access to birth control and regulated abortion in the early weeks of a pregnancy go hand in hand with decreasing the overall abortion rate.
As long as the fringes of the Democratic party see a fetus as a constraint on a woman's body, and not as a human mystery to be revered, and of which women should take the most responsibility for, the message of the Democrat party is lost to many.
6
MS: It is not the "fringes" who believe in a women's right to have an abortion, nor the right of a woman decide if and when she wants to have a baby, nor if she is willing and able to make the supreme sacrifice of bearing a badly deformed child if that's what a 20 week test reveals. It's mainstream and if you are truly a democrat you wold know how most of us feel: don't have an abortion yourself if you are opposed, but don't tell me what to do with my body. (same goes for gay marriage sis-- I am not planning to marry a woman in this lifetime, but I am darn sure glad that others can choose their own partners and have the benefits accrued to me in my hetero marriage.) got it-- we value the freedom to live our lives as we feel best for us, while looking out for the commons by paying fair taxes and living a decent and law-abiding life. Thats the democratic party.
2
the fact that there were no WMD was obvious
Also obvious:
Americans are too stupid to see the obvious
In Wisconsin, $1.50 will get you one slice of pizza.
3
The blue collar types who support Trump and think this tax cut is gonna make them rich, cut their taxes, and "get those people", remind me a lot of the Tammany Hall base in NYC in the 19th and 20th century (actually, much the same people, come ot think of it, as Trump nation), where when confronted by the corruption of Tammany Hall, from the Tweed ring through Jimmy Walker and beyond, would say "sure, they stole a hundred bucks from the treasury, but they let me have a quarter".
4
I wish it were only the blue collar types who support trump. I live in an upscale retirement community where most are college grads and most support him. I can't tell you how many times I have been told he is doing what he said he would do. I'm not so sure about that blue wave in November.
3
That's terrible. I will have an extra $40 a month, and my salary is close to $100,000 a year so a drop in the bucket.
However my stock portfolio is doing well, at least it was.
3
I get an extra $76 a month with a salary of $ 141,000.
There are plenty of reasons to knock Trump and the GOP, but the Dems need to start getting a better message, and repeat, repeat, and repeat.
My suggestion would be to promote the overturn Citizen's United, and explain why. Why? Because without getting big money out of politics, it will be next to impossible to enact any other portions of the Democratic agenda.
18
Bob, may I just add to your brilliant comment-- a return to the Fairness Doctrine and a conservative FCC who returns to decent regulation of the airwaves that WE collectively own. The propaganda machine of the right and citizens United are two sides of the samedestructive coin.
1
Then in turn you must cut out all Union money too.
Wow Dr Krugman, excellent presentation of this bait-and-switch-blade scam. Be prepared for Fox Cable News to purvey the "we can't afford this" argument 24/7, without a single reference to the $1.5 trillion tax cut -- it's called propaganda. Please continue to beat this undead horse -- hopefully the rest of the nation's media will pickup and broadcast the contradictions.
7
since Reagan the "news" has been owned and operated by a few right wing corps - why do you think there's never any real news
GOP Congress Critters passed a massive tax cut to benefit the ultra rich who are their true constituents. They are now using the increased deficit their tax cut created as an excuse to cut benefits for ordinary Americans. They are scam artists.
11
Reagan was the template, smiling as he stabbed you in the back.
16
I cannot begin to tell you how awful I think Paul Ryan is. He is beyond awful. He actually makes the great buffoon seem human! I can only hope he is defeated next November and we never have to see him on the national scene again.
15
he is in a gerrymandered safe district - we are not longer a republic
we are a banana republic
Pat I thought Ryan was not running for Congress again because he is preparing for White House 2020. That's what all those donations following the tax bill are for.
Both parties play that idiotic little game of being deficit hawks when the other party is in charge. The Democrats have abandoned the working/middle-class a long time ago and are paying the price for it. If they keep talking the economy down and identity politics up our Tweeter in Chief will be re-elected, guaranteed!
1
I’m really tired hearing “ the Democrats have abandoned the working/ middle class a long time ago. This is tired line the Republicans use to pull the wool over the eyes of working class people who don’t know any better.
Over all the Democrats have supported many social programs that help the working class.
In contrast the Republicans have gone after these same programs and take their benefits away from working class people and then give the rich big tax breaks
They did this under Reagan, Bush and now Trump.
In the end the working class pay for their tax breaks
Yes Democrats are not perfect. I remember saying President Clinton is a Democrat but not my type of Democrat.
But I realize that he was still much better then the man that came before him, Reagan.
8
Th this is the same Paul Ryan who’s mother collected social security after her husband died to keep food on the table for Paul and his siblings.
Nice.
15
“To somebody working at Walmart at the starting wage, who just went from $9 an hour to $11 an hour — I don’t think that’s crumbs. To a person working paycheck to paycheck, just got a $1,000 bonus — that’s not crumbs.” Paul "Ayn" Ryan's response to Nancy Pelosi who called the raises and (selective) bonuses "crumbs".
Why don't you try supporting a family on $11/hour, Mr. Ryan, even with that one off grand, if you were lucky to get that. You're right, though, it's not crumbs. I more like chump change, especially relative to how much their betters are receiving from the administration and Congress they bought.
Did you also forget Walmart's Sam's Club closings at the same time? Tone deaf doesn't even begin to describe you.
7
Don't worry.
Now the entire Trump Clown Car will be working of reducing drug costs! Yay. (As promised at SOTU)
Schiff for POTUS.
5
Ha ha ha!! $1.50 a week! It reminds me of Trump throwing paper towels in Puerto Rico!
9
Oh you cruel leftist! That woman was not going to use her $1.50 to buy an order of french fries every week, she was going to use it to pay for her Costco membership. So there!
Coulda been worse – she might have said Sam's Club.
For his next column Krugman will explain to us laymen how $1,000 is really only ‘crumbs’.
1
The plutocrats of America are laughing at you. They regularly drop $1000 on lunch. For them, $1000 really IS 'chump change'.
If you don’t think $1000 is ‘ crumbs’ these days you must be living in the 1940’s
If you make $50,000 a year, a $1,000 bonus would be equivalent to a 2% one-time-only raise that would not be repeated next year. And 2% is also below the current annual inflation rate. So if your employer gave you the bonus and no other raise, you'd still come out behind your earnings for the previous year.
1
Or was the lady with the $1.50 raise being sarcastic in her comment?
5
“It’s such an obvious scam that you might think either that its perpetrators would get embarrassed or that the public would get wise. But the first won’t happen. The second – well, we’ll see in November.”
They are shameless and the public are everything but wise. Politicians have successfully been using the same scam for centuries, with the same results.
We are a stupid species with limited memories. If we choose to elect liars and megalomaniacs, we deserve whatever they do to us.
6
Ryan is one of those odious pious conservative Catholics, the kind you don't want to be in the same church with due to the mere fact that you know his vibe is there, boring into you. I know b/c I've sat with similar RC's, the holier than thou types...
NYT op-ed writer Maureen Dowd (echoed by Tim Egan) have labeled Ryan the "Irish undertaker" for his role in leading the legislative desecration and destruction of key funding provisions of Obama's ACA. The label is deserved, but does not change much.
6
One has to admire the depth of stupidity involved in sending out a Tweet like this. Really, bathyscapes ain't in it: how in the world could Ryan (or more likely some idiot staffer) possibly think that shouting hooray for an extra buck-fifty would sound good?
But then, I also admire the way that various right-wing flacks have jumped up to throw around lots of adjectives, ginned-up numbers, and insults to try and defend this madness.
Seriously, if one of these guys ever dropped below about 1400 RPM when they talk, stopped chanting, "Let me finish," gave over their remqrkable combo of insults and hurt feelings for fifteen seconds, or navigated through fifty words without making something up about us lefties and yelling at it, I'm pretty sure the resultant stress on the space-time continuum would either implode the planet or make the Enterprise's warp engines possible.
A buck-fifty. These people are savages.
2
"The second - well, we'll see in November." (Meaning will voters get wise to the GOP scam of pretending upper-level tax cuts benefit them.)
This November's election will probably not be decided by the adage "It's the economy, stupid!" That may have been true a quarter century ago, but not today. The outrages of President Trump will motivate the Democratic base. As for the GOP, well, their white working-class base votes their "white" identity, not their "working class" identity.
3
dems won't show, they would rather whine.
this is going to get vastly worse, and then it will get worse still
$1.50 a week times 52 weeks adds up to one free tank of gas that you can put in your brand new car that you can purchase with the 1 to 4 thousand refund Gary Cohn bragged about.
6
Or point to $1000 bonuses as more than crumbs as CEOs and the rich are getting multimillion dollar raises or tax cuts. Pence was doing that on his Facebook feed. A one time bonus is not an increase in pay. $1000 doesn't go as far as it did 10 years ago. In many places that won't even pay the rent for a month or cover a medical insurance deductible.
The people who won't help are members of the GOP and the business community. I don't refer to small businesses. Some of them are far more generous than the bigger, much richer corporations in this country will ever be. The tax breaks passed by the GOP dominated Congress support their donors, deprive us of funds to fix our infrastructure, provide a better social safety net, create good jobs for people, fund basic scientific research, feed people, in short ways to improve the lives of average Americans.
It may not save us much money but I think that every member of Congress who voted for this tax overhaul should be forced to turn over their salaries to the government. Why? Because what they did and have been doing has been making our government unequal to the tasks of governing. Let them eat less than adequate meals, forgo medical care, forgo eye checkups, ration medications they need. Let them live like the rest of us.
5
Yea you're right--bonuses are more or less bogus one-timers. Might support paying down some credit card debt, might buy a couple of dinners out. But once gone and salaries and hourly wages don't rise--it's a burger that's all bun and no real meat. Come November it won't register as much of anything... It's what lawmakers do who do don't believe in making laws or in actually governing. If that were the case we'd have a genuine infrastructure bill instead of a bloat-inducing tax cut. That might create a little yield we could drive on as well as fund some real employment.
2
My Father was a small business owner in Detroit....(three hardware stores,, one retail, two builders. ) This was from the 1950's into the early 90's. He had lifelong employees, 40 years many worked for him. I can tell you, categorically we would not have sat down to dinner if my father thought even ONE of his staff was suffering, or god forbid, hungry. He self insured EVERY employee before people even knew what that meant, at NO cost to them. He started a pension account, then when it became available a mutual fund for his employees retirement, again at NO cost to them. He would contribute to college funds, encourage growth and support all of his staff. Were we wealthy? We were average middle class, tidy colonial, my sisters not only shared a room, but a bed! Mom took care of us, the home, and had a BRILLIANT financial mind. Dad made a little, Mom turned it into MUCH more later in their life. Why am I telling this history?? Because my father RESPECTED, and VALUED the people that worked for him. He wanted for them, what he wanted for himself and his family...SECURITY and never to feel "the wolf at the door" it would never occur to him to take advantage or "scheme" ways to take more for himself by giving less to them. Now it's not satisfying to have enough wealth to fund several small countries, you must also grind everyone not YOU under the heel of your boot to feel REALLY accomplished..these people are truly VILE, you can almost smell the greed and evil rolling off of them...
1
The Americans who favor slashing benefits for the non-working poor most are the working poor. The Americans who favor slashing benefits for the working poor most are the lower middle class.
.
While it is the wealthy who are most in favor of tax cuts, it is important to remember that those who most favor cutting benefits to the needy are their neighbors. Those neighbors who work very hard to bring in slightly more, but do not depend on the government, are very proud of their independence, and hate the fact that their neighbors are sponging off of their tax dollars. Because many of those dependent neighbors started off just as their independent neighbors did, but made poor life choices along the way. Independence is at the heart of the American Dream and self-image. It is through appealing to that sentiment that Republicans garner their white working class votes. The Democrats are fond of saying how we all depend on each other, it takes a village, etc., but most Americans don't feel that way. That Democratic message has to change, or the GOP will keep winning, despite the "bait and switch" that PK describes.
5
Yes these neighbors sound spiteful for one , two what do they know about the neighbors that need government assistance? Those spiteful neighbors then go to church on Sunday then think themselves to be good Christians.
I grew around people like that, they believe they never needed the government help except when their kids go to college, they lose their job,need medical care when they are elderly and of course Social Security when they retire. They are so Independent
I would like to see the polling to support your opening assertion
Many of those Americans, MOST Americans are ONE catastrophe away from needing "a leg up" your comment drips smug arrogance. Of course EVERYONE that needs assistance is a sponge that made "poor choices" ....I'd be VERY careful casting aspersions, wouldn't it be awful if suddenly the whole block was gossiping about YOUR poor choices and if you'd just pull yourself up by your boot straps THEY wouldn't have to subsidize a sponge like YOU! It's truly amazing how quickly "the worm can turn" in this life...I ascribe to a little thing called "empathy"... give it a try...
Most poor and lower middle class citizens know that they're getting "screwed", but there's little they can do. Paul K says that "...we'll see in November", but we know that's not going to happen because the rich find it easy to get to a polling place while the non-rich don't. We'll lose half a day's wages getting to a place to vote, or have the boss say "If you leave, don't come back." You're screwed if you do and screwed if you don't. What to do?
Look to Australia and other countries which make voting mandatory, so everyone has to vote and workers are fined if they don't, but bosses also are fined if they prevent workers from voting. Workers know that $11 an hour (little more than $20,000 A YEAR} doesn't even come close to a living wage, but there's precious little we can do if we can't even vote without getting fired for doing so.
2
Here's a thought... What if when Ryan, McConnell, Pence and other self-righteous Republicans go for Sunday communion they partake of a french fry as a reminder of what good, caring citizens they are.
2
The deficit is only a problem if government borrowing is drawing resources away from more productive uses. We have near zero real interest rates and near zero inflation so we can hardly be considered to be at full employment. Meanwhile the "more productive" uses that the markets have in mind are speculations on imaginary money.
Tax cuts aimed to make the rich richer are problem without the deficit and Democratic deficit hawks have always fallen into the trap of compromises that cut vital public spending and investment while increasing taxes slightly.
So what if my children's well-being and financial future are in the toilet--
I get to enjoy this one small box of greasy fries! Sounds like a good deal to me...
3
Good column, as usual. As for November, you assume fair elections. I'm not that optimistic.
2
And also french fries on a regular basis is very bad for your health. What the hell Ryan was thinking? What about obesity? cholesterol? heart problem?
2
There is method to their madness. Get the poor eating French fries all the time, and they will die younger, thus saving American taxpayers billions and billions of dollars on Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security.
Republicans call that a win-win game!
$1.50! Thats two boxes of Mac n' Cheese! Mmmmmm thanks Paul. Dinner two nights in a row!
1
What is interesting in all this is that congress violated its own rules, but it doesn't matter. To allow the tax bill to pass with only a majority, rather than a supermajority (basically making in non-fillebusterable), the tax bill was supposed to be at best deficit neutral. The problem is that the GOP based this fiction on the growth that the tax cuts would generate would "pay for themselves" (yes, the same line Reagan and the GOP claimed in the 1980's......defict when Reagaon took office? 50 billion. Total US debt? 1 trillion, mostly WWII debt. When he and Bush 1 left? Deficits were 500 billion, debt was up to 5.5 trillion.....so basically it was paid for by putting it on the credit card)..so how can they claim this today? And if in fact this bill causes the deficits to soar, can be it be nullified (can't be).......so the GOP passed this based on a lie, bypassing their own rules, but blue collar America (of course) refuses to see this, and when the deficits soar they will revert to their mantra, that the deficits are caused by all those black and hispanics living off welfare, not the giveaway to the rich. The Trump base claims to be moral, good people, but what this proves is they are a bunch of people so blinded by both bias and self interest, they refuse to see the forest for the trees.
3
Trickle down at its finest.
3
The Democrats need to stop letting the Republicans get away with describing themselves as the 'pro-growth party', as if the Democrats are somehow against economic growth. Virtually every Republican tax proposal, and most certainly including the recently passed tax cut, is perversely designed to WIDEN the already yawning income and wealth gaps in this country. Plenty of research now shows that this will SLOW DOWN economic growth, not accelerate it.
Plutarch understood all this almost two thousand years ago: "An imbalance between the rich and the poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics." Plutarch understood that a healthy republic NEEDS a strong and dynamic middle class, to serve as a buffer between the rich and the poor, who would be at each other's throats otherwise. And the end result would be either a brutally oppressive oligarchy, backed by military force, or a wildly irrational populist revolution, neither of which is remotely desirable.
America is now treading a VERY dangerous path.
6
Anyone who is still opining and scratching their head as to why Ryan has been so acquiescent regarding Nunes & Co. as they brazenly attack the rule of law (Mueller, Rosenstein, FBI, Justice) in furtherance of Russia's poodle, it's been painfully obvious to anyone with two working eyes, ears and the part in between, what he's after.
Ryan, still giddy from his tax cut high and like a hound after a rabbit, is salivating to get his hands on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. I'd say he's sold his soul but in reality he's just another over rated, over paid, selfish jerk, and never had a soul to begin with. In fact, I'd be willing to bet he'd sell his own mother if he thought it would win him the trifecta - and who needs a mom when you were raised by Ayn Rand.
6
Cut government spending.
I question the statement that Mr. Ryan is out of touch. If he's so out of touch, why are so many (monetized) voices singing his praises, huh? Donations to him and the Republican party are pouring in. Democratic politicians are not receiving the same vocal support. Yes, the people are speaking and Dr. Krugman needs to listen up. These generous Americans realize that as the rich get richer the poor will be energized to get a piece of the pie themselves and abandon their greed and envy, their drugs and alcohol, their food stamps and housing subsidies and go out and create a product, solicit capital, and become rich themselves. These Americans want to support the bold, intrepid thinking of Mr. Ryan and thus are backing one of the few politicians that really and truly cares about all Americans, not just special interests. Well, except for the baby killers. He doesn't care for them. But then again, neither does Jesus. Freedom!!! And Jesus. God bless.
You should bless your lucky stars that you live in a country that encourages people to speak their mind even if their mind is corrupted. You clearly are in awe of Trump and his claims of Fake News. Try to remember that the press is not the enemy of the people. It allows the discourse that Trump and people like Ryan can't stand because they peel back the veneer of corrupt pols accepting huge campaign contributions from single sources. That money is pouring in means you should follow that money and see if those people supporting the likes of Trump and Ryan are really like you or just in the business of brainwashing you to believe in them rather than your country.
2
many horrific people in history had loads of supporters.
they were horrific people as well
just like you
they get away with everything because their base has been taught that trump and FOX news are the ONLY source of truth. EVERYTHING else is fake and proof that THEY are out to get trump and ruin america.
2
Like Vegas and Lotto Repiglickins exploit their supporters poor math skills and ignorant short term self interest putting all of us permanently in massive debt to give their billionaire donors trillions more in exchange for $1.50 bag of fries today.
2
It's seemed the Times hasn't been giving your due lately, so it was good to see your mug in a bigger block on the Times Wire page. I'm anxiously awaiting the signing of a contract for a congressional campaign. Wish me luck!!
Not only is the repulsive paul ryan patting himself on the back,so are the koch bros. by handing him $500,000 for passing THEIR tax bill.Does this sound like a bill that benefits anyone other than the very rich????For trump to mistreat his supporters,the nuts and bolts of this country,so badly is truly deplorable.To do so with the full support of the GOP is beyond comprehension.
4
The second won't happen either.....
We need to give Ryan a new job in November. Maybe one where he gets to ask: "Would you like fries with that ?"
6
“Trailer for sale or let, room to rent: fifty cents” ....GOP tax cuts, time machine not included...
Krugman: "... the example of a worker who’s getting $1.50 more per week. That’s roughly the price of a small French fries at McDonalds."
Krugman can use whatever contrived example he wants, but he doesn't help his credibility by failing to say that the actual tweet used the annual cost of a Costco membership as the point of comparison.
Source: Google images search for "paul ryan tax cut tweet".
2018-02-05 03:38:16 UTC
That’s your problem? It doesn’t matter how you choose to spend your $1.50, the point is ...its $1.50 !!
Paul Ryan is rather like Arya Stark, in his ability to put on a false face concealing an assassin. That boyish, blue-eyed phiz with its perpetually yearning expression continually makes people unable to comprehend the fixed evil of his soul. Somewhere, in a dark closet. there is a portrait of him which keeps getting uglier and nastier with every selfish deed he perpetrates.
3
Trump-republican strategy depends on a poorly informed distracted unintelligent electorate, professor. So it's a toss up, just like pretty much everything.
1
I've never been able to figure out Ryan. His home town and county don't vote for him and yet he constantly gets elected by southeastern Wisconsin counties. His altar boy appearance belies his meanness. I think he got used to the trappings of power and can now lookstraight faced at the voters and lie. A very deceitful man in my view.
6
We will see in November whether the Democrats can follow through and get segments of the population i.e. young people and minorities...to vote...Trump's far right base won't desert him....throwing the GOP incumbents can happen...but only if citizens actually vote.
dems - who had not voter registration of get out the vote plan in 2016 appear as though they are paid to lose.
I could be wrong. but they wont show in Nov
The public will not get wise. In his most recent column your colleague Bret Stephens used an apt word in the final paragraph, but if I put it here my comment won't get posted. This is the frustrating thing for me. I can live with true fiscal conservatives but we are in big trouble when ignorance rules everything.
1
Every president seems to get a trillion or 2 to play with. W got his Iraq War, obama made a few big banks a trillion richer. This tax cut may be at the expense of America's tunnels, bridges, roads, power, water and other infrastructures and systems. But ... tradition!
Being from Wisconsin I admit Ryan is not a choir boy who cares about us.
A wolf in sheep's clothing.
People , please vote this man out in November.
I am begging you.
6
A good friend with whom I never discuss politics said he figures the tax cut will get him about $500 a year.
When I suggested that the only ones liable got do well were tax accountants & lawyers finding new corporate loopholes there was silence.
Nobody likes to admit they've been "had".
3
Have they no shame?
1
When the democratic party learns to fight for keeps like the GOP, then we may see some progress. Otherwise, while the democrats may have the high ground, they are just a bunch of righteous whiners, with little backbone, and no strategy.
They have learned nothing from the last presidential election, they are in a coma.
If I yell in a desert and there is nobody to hear it did I make a sound? The answer...
If I am the only one that hears anything, then the answer is NO, I did not make a sound, not in this age of mass communication. And so goes with the democrats...
It's as if the dems are being paid to lose
in 16 they had no national get out the vote or voter registration effort.
we are sunk I pity those who can't afford to get out
There is no amount of money too small that a right-winger like Ryan won't try to steal and pass it along to those who want for nothing.
4
Whatever happened to carried interest
Dontcha mean "Freedom Fries"?
Republicans are nothing if not the Simple Symbol party.
3
Uh, I thought you thought the stock market would crash too. We live in an ephemeral world. Enjoy. Your authority has expired.
Wealthy Corporations and individuals "Coerce" Republicans to write and affirm legislation that enriches them after financing their election. Their Lobbyists fill in the blanks. The Republicans legislate kickback wealth to the wealthy in the form of a massive Tax Cut to earn more campaign money. The Corporations pay off their workers with bonuses to keep them from complaining. Now the Wealthy will finance the Republicans to stay in power to create and endless cycle of bribery, coercion kickbacks, leading to more bribery............
No wonder the Republicans are attacking the F.B.I.
At this point, Speaker Buck 50 Cent and the "covfefe" GOP are just taunting us. Never mind that their "wins" on the Job Cuts and Taxes Act with backdoor mandate repeal, Supreme and lesser court judge-packing, and Duh Memo will only hurt even (and especially) the ones who voted for them—They Won, that's all that matters, and if $1.50 isn't enough bread then eat cake.
Fortunately, neither the internet nor voters will forget such sociopathy. https://web.archive.org/web/20180203180153/https:/twitter.com/pryan/stat...
1
More than a thick coat of hypocrisy from Krugman. Just a few short years ago, Krugman was ranting away about the need for more massive deficit spending during Obama’s term. He claimed $450 billion deficit was sustainable and desirable.
He was calling for at least $1 trillion stimulus package to accelerate growth.
The Times should replace Krugman.
She'd better not get used to those french fries. They stop coming in 9 years.
1
Ryan is not out of touch. He is in touch with the people that matter to him and the GOP. As for everyone else, really, he could not care less.
He may not directly be a traitor, but by serving trump, who is a traitor, he is part of it and should spend the remainder of his life in prison.
1
No, it shows how out of touch the Democratic leadership is. They first falsely claimed that everyone's taxes were going up (everyone but the top 1%). Then they revised it to most people would only get a small tax cut. Then they screamed about the great injustice of the loss of state and local tax deductibility, glossing over the fact that for most working class and moderate income people, deductibility is a non-issue, since they don't itemize (many don't even own a home, and certainly don't pay more than $10,000 in local property tax). For millions of people, the doubling of the standard deduction is a huge benefit. That upper middle class people like Paul Krugman and the Democratic party elite dont appreciate how much that means to those living paycheck to paycheck only shows their contempt for most lower income people. Mock the $1.50 that makes a difference in their lives. Call them idiots, call them deplorables, keep it up -- the Upshot is already predicting that they will be rejecting the party that rejected them in November.
1
Well, let's admit Mr. T and Republicans understand the American voters very well. The former know how to manipulate the latter, enough of whom are anti-intellectualists and suckers. They enjoy seeing established institutions, no matter how essential they may be, are being discredited by Mr. T and his satellites.
Sad, isn't it?
2
Meanwhile we plan to spend trillions on nuclear weapons so we can kill 30 billion people.
1
Yet when the Obama administration ran up 7T in deficits Paul Krugman was silent about the deficit and it's long term consequences. Actually he was quite in favor of the deficits. Suggesting in numerous article that Obama administration should have spent more to give the economy a Keynesian push. So are the deficits good or bad ? . Or does it matter only who is in office. Of course this goes both ways. Republicans were complaining about the deficits Obama added and now they don't seem to care . One reason I think people have stopped caring about the deficit. No one party seems serious about the deficit.
1
I would rather pay it into a well-crafted tax plan that insures a minimal standard of health care for everyone.
4
I have been referring to Republicans as not good people. My wife would berate me for that saying all could not be bad. She is right of course, but where are the not so bad ones? I always exclude John McCain for his service was enough to earn exclusion . But what about the average Joe Republican? I may start carrying around a lamp searching all night for a Repuiblican that is a good person..
4
The scam works for Republicans every time. Tell your base how bad the government is to get elected and then prove them right with your policies. P.T. Barnum was right.
6
Donald Trump is kind of an odd hybrid of P.T. Barnum, Charles Ponzi, and Benito Mussolini.
It's the Mussolini part that worries me the most.
It would be interesting to calculate the present value of the future payments for deficits that are funding that bag of french fries on a per week basis. Don't have time to do the number crunching now, that full employment thing.
It would not surprise me if the worker ends up paying much more than the cost of a bag of fries each week (adjusted for inflation naturally) once the payments of principle plus interest for the titanic deficit balloon kick in. Someone has to pay for trickle up economics after all.
Godfather. Godmother. These were invented to solve the problem of children who were orphaned due to sickness or accident of the parents. In Catholic countries they are still sometimes a valid and revered institution. Friends and neighbors of the parents. Sometimes trusted family members. People you can trust. If you thought you had strong godparents to appoint, this would give you confidence to have children, even if you were poor. It takes a village. What is giving our poor people the confidence to have children?
2
Welcome to the world of the GOP, where they can sell a huge giveaway to the top .5% as helping 'the little guy'. For all the talk of bonuses and pay increases, the reality is most of the corporate tax cut is going to benefit the majority of shareholders who are not ordinary people, companies are using the windfall to buy back stock and increase dividends, and despite the E-trade commercials, it isn't going to make the middle or working class rich.
More importantly, what the blue collar blind don't see if the impact of this tax cut on them because it hasn't hit yet, the tax increases that will wipe out any tax cut they saw doesn't hit until they file their taxes next year. A next door neighbor, who works as a correction guard, was telling me how great this tax cut was, and when I told him to look at how much he would be losing, he said he wouldn't...I pointed out the local property tax is below the 10k limit, but that he would be losing close to 15k in deductions on state taxes, and it was going to probably mean he owed 3 or 4k a year to Uncle Sam..and he denied that.
More importantly, the red states are gonna see it when it comes back to them in cuts, when federal money is no longer there, when their rivers and air is polluted, when medicare and SS face cutbacks. The only nice part is when this hits, in the next couple of years, the GOP will have no place to hide, it was 'their' president and 'their' congress that made this possible.
It would be amusing if it wasn't tragic -- Paul Ryan, so delighted to find a fan among the working class who appreciates his tax cut crumbs, he was rendered temporarily oblivious to the income inequality that inspired positive feedback. Smart guy that he is, he removed the tweet once he figured it out. Well done Mr Speaker.
1
Republican economics:
Deficits are only a problem when a Democrat is the president.
5
"And those special circumstances – basically a depressed economy that needs a fiscal boost – don’t apply now, with the U.S. close to full employment."
This is the part that should be tattooed on every GOP apologist's forehead. For it is what they always miss when critiquing Dr. Krugman et al. for their calling for different fiscal approaches at different times. Different economic conditions call for different fiscal responses from the government. Here a foolish consistency would indeed be the hobgoblin of little minds.
Note that the republicans are equally inconsistent in their attitude toward deficits, but that they have it completely backwards. They howled for austerity when the economy was deeply depressed, and now, as we near full employment and the deficit swells back toward a trillion? Crickets.
Yes, some politicians appear to shift stance on the deficit according to who is in power. They're called Republicans.
Masterpiece just had a story about a woman named Victoria. She insisted that her Prime Minister, Robert Peel, provide food for the starving in Ireland. She was possibly one of the richest women in the world and she thought it the duty of the rich to look out for the poor.
But, she was not, after all, an American.
3
Can someone explain why Paul Ryan wants to hurt this country so?
He knows he is looting Social Security and Medicare just to give the billionaires a few more billions they will never be able to spend.
Nor do I think Ryan will get rich doing this. Maybe one day when he quits and becomes a lobbyist but even they don't get much more than $1 million a year.
Worse, Ryan got Social Security survivor benefits because his father died young. Those benefits helped Ryan get through college.
4
I am just shocked that GOP can get away with this behavior in broad day light...how can they manage to scam the regular people without the people even realizing what's happening to them?
3
Ryan is sneaky smart. He's the kid you automatically went to if there was money missing from your desk. He's a politician's politician and he knows exactly what he's doing and who he's doing it to. People like Trump are dangerous because they don't have a clue. They operate by accident. The "what just happened" school of political science. Where Ryan is calculating, Trump is waiting on somebody to feed him his next line. Pence is like Ryan. He has an agenda and he's politically dangerous. If Trump goes, Pence will be no bargain.
2
We may very well, rue the day that the Greedy Old Party pushed their tax plan, or tax cut, cut, cut, plan through Congress so that the wealthy could get am enormous tax break. This is truly a policy that will benefit the Koch Brothers, the Sheldon Adelsons, and the Mercers of this world, to name a few. It is my hope that the US will ultimately wake up and we can remove these miscreants from office. This country now serves the very wealthy, and not everyone.
2
In Scandinavia the people view each other as fellow citizens, and treat each other kindly - because they are fellow Norwegians or Finns or Danes. They want everyone to be educated and productive, so college is free and jails try to be redemptive. Not coincidentally, these countries are among the top scorers for "happiness"; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report#2017_report
In America, we have some people who think that way too. They're called Liberals. But there is a large Republican segment that views non-Republicans as the enemy. In stark contrast, these Republicans support gov't policies that are punitive.
Which might go far to explain why the USA has the highest incarcerated rate in the world, and why college tuition, medical insurance and the price of prescriptions have gone through the roof.
8
Homer Simpsons dilema - Lisa needs braces or tartar sauce. Everything that ever will happen has been predicted on the Simpsons.
1
We get to vote every year, a long time to wait. But with our dollars we vote every time we spend.
Believe in global warming? Then fly less and drive less. Believe we are swimming in too many untested chemicals? Then eat organic.
Believe we're politically headed in the wrong direction? Follow the money and if your dollars are supporting a company that supports causes you believe erodes democracy - buy elsewhere.
This is the best way to make our vote count. To paraphrase President Bush, "Don't get rattled, get spending". Or to paraphrase Trump's tweet "women are marching to celebrate our great economy".
If we spend our money supporting what we don't believe in, voting for who we believe in isn't going to do much.
First Paul Ryan accepted a $500,000 "donation" from the Koch brothers as soon as the tax cut bill became law. Now he's sent out that silly tweet about the $1.50 "windfall."
If this keeps up, Democrat Randy Bryce, who hopes to take Ryan's seat in the November elections, won't have to commission a single attack ad. Ryan, unprompted, is doing Bryce's work for him.
4
I keep writing my very conservative GOP Congressman (although it does little good in my very "red" Congressional District) about how disgusted I am. Yes, it appears I am getting $50 a month more. In the long run, the cost to me will likely be much greater. While I agree tax reform was needed, the manner in which it was done was completely opposite of what was promised (no, I won't be filing my taxes on a postcard). I use a pretty simple explanation about how the tax code doesn't benefit the average person. The tax code is what, 1,000 pages long? How many of those pages actually apply to YOU. Probably about 10. That means most of the tax code is not written for the average person - it's written for special interests and rich people so they can get around paying their fair share of taxes. My Congressman ran on a platform of requiring a balanced budget amendment. Amazing how this is now no longer mentioned, but has been replaced with screaming proclamations of how much money we are all going to get due to tax reform!!!!!!! I would much rather have my $50 spent toward infrastructure, the CDC budget or some other worthy cause if we are going to blow up the deficit. We indeed are going to pay, in more ways than one. While we will suffer the consequences of higher deficits, we will also suffer from decreased services that benefit the average American. As I told my Congressman - that is shameful.
2
Well written, and humorous in its sarcasm. Thank you, Mr Krugman!
So, this year, I received my usual COLA from Social Security, so should I thank the Trumpet? Ryan? McConnell? NOT!
What they should, and could do is raise the SS contribution ceiling to around $350K, so that my children may someday be assured of their COLA when 78 years old and on a fixed income.
Yippee! I'm getting about $0.82 cents per day for heating my house when it's cold.
The deleted tweet is the honest Paul Ryan.
2
Good article - right on the mark. Paul Ryan is a shill for Corporate America, Wall Street, Banks and billionaire Americans. Democrats must give Randy Bryce, everything he needs to defeat Ryan who has $9,651,665.00 cash in his re-election war chest. Ryan, isn't a friend of the middle class, retirees, senior citizens and working men and women.
2
I'd be interested to see how Krugmans stock portfolio has done since Trump has taken office. Did he sell everything in advance of the "collapse of the markets" prediction that was so spot on? Me thinks the former Enron adviser speaks with a fork tongue
1
As a Kansan, I have seen this movie before. Kansas was Charles Koch's dry run. There is no doubt that tax cuts are a pretense for cutting government programs and services, in the case of Kansas schools, highways, Medicaid funding...the list goes on.
227
Gary, Was there a movie about when the People's Party swelled their membership in Kansas and won 73% of the seats in the state legislature? They were sick of being controlled by Wall Street, which produced nothing yet controlled most people's lives and made scandalous amounts of money. They said gov't was no longer "of the people, by the people, and for the people." It didn't take the Republican Party long to essentially quash this populist movement. Now we take it as a given how our skewed economic process functions. 125 years of squeezing the little guy. Trump appealed to people who knew things weren't working for them, but like most of America, they didn't know the history or what would improve things. Sad.
It's winter in America...
4
These are simply awful people, no social conscience just self-serving at every turn.
7
It still hasn't been decided if the corporate tax cuts will benefit the economy and the middle class as advertised. We'll see. However, the corporate tax cuts could have been paid for by raising the tax on corporate dividends and capital gains rather than borrowing most of the revenue reduction and getting the rest from middle class taxpayers in high tax states.
9
After 80 years of living through presidents both good and bad wars both just and unjust scandals like Iran-Contra and Watergate I am still shocked and aghast at the things that are going on now. We argue was Nixon worse than Trump ? Maybe. Was LBJ both bad and good? But I haven't seen anything good come from Trump or the toadying Congress that people have elected because our educational system doesn't teach children how to think. So people who don't have the resources to go beyond A public school education have elected this monster and we the rest of us are stuck with it. I pray that November will change things but I don't have a whole lot of hope.
266
There are plenty of college-educated people who are doing quite well and knowingly helped elect this "monster," and still more who enable him. A higher education doesn't necessarily produce a good thinker, nor does it guarantee a healthy political bent. Not all education takes place in a classroom.
8
But you are certainly a realist. The propaganda published by both political parties and all levels of government is shameful and flies in the face of both reason and the historical record. Im not sure any longer that they even realize that they are lying!
2
I had a "public school education" and I didn't vote for DJT. Perhaps you meant elementary school education? Try not to be so elitist - its unnecessarily alienating and unproductive. Thanks
9
There needs to be a massive advertising campaign to get people to check their withholdings in order to avoid a nasty April 2019 surprise.
"Got extra money in your paycheck from the GOP tax cut? Make sure that you're not going to end up owing money come next April".
- Brought to you by the people who really do care about personal fiscal responsibility
19
In Puerto Rico you get tossed a roll of paper towels and in Pennsylvania you get a small packet of french fries. Isn't our government marvelous. They act as if they are tossing popcorn to the Seagulls at the beach. In the meantime bridges are falling down, trains our wrecking, and people drink poisoned water while the uber rich bask in the tropical sun on the decks of their new yachts contemplating a big piece of chocolate cake at Mar Lago in the evening.
42
And Obama gives 500k speeches to his pals on Wall St. You know, the ones that made out like bandits for 8 years while the middle class suffered.
Mmm. The best chocolate cake -- you won't even believe it. You'll get sick and tired of eating the best chocolate cake ever because -- it's so good and full of chocolate! And if you stole the US presidency in 2016 by conspiring with Russia, you get two scoops of ice cream with your cake! Yea!! That way all the one-scoop losers in the room can see how important you are, as well as how utterly childish and petulant.
Well that's a rich (and ridiculous) comment.
I'd certainly rather private corporations pay private money to a private citizen for whatever (like a speech) than OUR tax dollars paying the salaries of Trump's 6 Wall Street Goldman Sachs moguls appointed to his swamp, while they rob us blind.
Paul, I wish you had spelled out for us exactly what income level is getting that $1.50 increase Ryan finds so cheery.
5
That individual was a teacher.
1
I have a relative that pointed to that $1.50 as evidence the tax cut works. I said, but that 1% gets millions. Didn't matter. I said it adds over a trillion dollars to the debt. Nope. Doesn't matter. DT and the GOP kept its word to her. I said, did you see the story the other day where we may be borrowing 1 trillion? Nope. Fake news. She's a CPA by the way. If we're depending on rational voters to see the scam, we're deluding ourselves. We're hosed, people.
43
Charles, a Koch brother in Wichita, says he was pleasantly surprised that his pay went up $26,973,076 a week. That will more than cover the cost of buying a few more Paul Ryans.
49
and also a lot more french fries to feed Paul Ryan.
I'm glad people are finally catching on to what a doofus Ryan is. He's never held a real job, so he has no idea how the rest of us must cope with issues he and the GOP cause. And he's easily one of the most wrong-headed when it comes to public policy. Maybe this time around the good voters of Wisconsin will wake up and toss him.
37
Actually, he used to drive the Wienermobile for Oscar Meyer!
Does anyone think the person who thanked Ryan for her extra $1.50 might have been being sarcastic? Sounds like sarcasm to me.
18
“Lather, rinse, repeat.” I like it. I’m going to start calling it “shampoo tactics.” If you’ll look at your recent shampoo bottle, it didn’t work for the shampoo companies for very long. I don’t mean to sound unkind, but Ryan should start reading more than Ayn Rand and his cherry-picked von Hayek—a glance at his shampoo bottle would be a start.
5
i have NEVER understood how Paul Ryan can reconcile his devotion to Ayn Rand and his supposedly devout Roman Catholicism. The two are completely incompatible. Ayn Rand was a fifth-rate philosopher. At best.
1
One of the catches to this scam is that the deficit will be up double by the end of 2018, America will have to borrow more to pay for this and interest rates will skyrocket and those poor slobs who want to buy a house or a car will be paying hundreds more per month in interest which will wipe out any increase in take-home salaries. And then some.
14
What is so depressing about this latest craven Ryan revelation is the fact that he is two heart beats away from the Oval Office. Is there no good person out there to lead America?
18
Gotta love the hypocrisy of Mr. Krugman. After 8 years of telling us that the #Obama deficits didn't matter, he now pivots and frets:
"anything that reduces revenue will eventually have to be offset by later tax increases or spending cuts"
Guessing his prescription won't involve any spending cuts, huh? Where's my boy Len Charlap to remind us for the 1000th time that deficits don't matter?
2
Paul Krugman has been consistent, saying when the economy and employment are down deficits are helpful, but when, as now, they are doing well, deficits can be harmful.
11
Actually, I think he was being sarcastic. Typically, the Repubs like to grant tax cuts then whine we can't afford anything else, so basic assistance to people has to go! If we couldn't afford to help people (a constant rhetoric from the Rs), we can't afford a tax cut either.
And on the tax cut ... the median income in the U.S. is about $50k annually. (you know - that number which divides the population into 2 equal halves) Yes, (Senator Grassley) the average is $73k annually, but right now about 75% of the population is below that number and only 25% above. When considering the median, your tax cut will amount to about $14 or less per week. That's not even enough for groceries for a week for 1 person IF you're willing to live on beans and noodles - certainly not anything remotely healthy. Think about that - half the population gets less than 1 week's worth of groceries for 1 person. How is that going to really help people? Another quarter of the population will get about $25 per week, which is a little better. Now compare that will people who make $500k or more (about 2% of the population) where one is typically making a few thousand extra per week, or billionaires who make several million more per week. The economy relies more on US than on THEM, yet they constantly get the spoils. This is grievously wrong.
5
@RJ:
I know you live in NH where people seem to see things through a block of granite, but there is something you are leaving out, context. When Krugman made his statement about deficits (when the GOP, especially people from New Hampshire, were all the tea party/deficits are gonna kill us, screaming about Obama spending away our future), the US economy was in a tailspin, it was the largest recession in US history, the banking industry was teetering, the dow was about 6500, and unemployment went over 10%...so stimulous was needed (and a tax cut could have been argued then, though there is a problem with that, see below).
The GOP tax cut, on the other hand, came at a time when the economy was growing, where unemployment had plunged from 10%+ to 4.5%..and the economy was doing well enough the fed wanted to raise interest rates. So basically the GOP 'stimulous' was enacted into a growing market, which is going to cause the deficits to soar and likely inflation...to give the .5% a huge tax break they don't need, since the .5% are the one layer of the economy that has been doing really well all along...but hey, why confuse anyone with fa cts, Trump and the GOP are gonna make everyone rich, tax cuts are gonna pay for themselves,e tc.
3
Shorter Ryan don't spend that buck fifty a week all in one place.
Ryan has been telling us for years who he is, a Randian partisan
hack Believe him
7
The secretary who works at the school gets a 4¢ an hour raise. The Koch brothers, who sent Paul Ryan a $500,000 thank you gift, will get about $26,923,000 (yes, that's about $27million) per week from the #GOPTaxScam. The Kochs got themselves a pretty good return on investment.
20
Speaking of budget busting, what happened to the 2017-2018 budget? Not only do we have unfunded tax cuts, we have no budget that takes into account the revenue shortfall. We'll keep spending and passing short term funding bills. Who cares? We just print more money and the stock market keeps going up and up (slight correction last week notwithstanding). Blame the democrats. No, blame the FBI. Fake news.
4
Don't forget to blame Obama! No. Wait a minute. Let's save him for when the big crash comes !
2
You can't bust the budget if there is no budget! [Meme picture of the guy pointing to his forehead]
I find myself hoping that Paul Ryan and anyone else who has supported
this extorntionist Tax, wait make that Wealth Distribution to all together
too Wealthy, Bill, are voted out of office as soon as possible and then
a Law passed where there Pensions are Confiscated and their
Health Care Canceled.
Scrooge looks more and more like a nice person compared
to Ryan and his gang of thieves.
7
Yes, better french fries than fixing roads, bridges, railroad tracks, the electric and communications grids or anything else that might help the general public. It has been a decade since Rohatyn and Ehrlich put together a cogent argument for an infrastructure bank: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/10/09/a-new-bank-to-save-our-infras... . Yet here we sit, with french fries and tax cuts for the upper crust.
How are we going to do any of these things unless we can fix our presidential primary system and rein in the morass of social media? How can we fix anything if people keep gravitating towards political poles?
Speaker Ryan is a bad actor, but it is our citizens who put him there, who believe his charming, shallow analyses.
We had better get out the vote in November. If not, we've no one to blame but ourselves.
13
In Nov. the good people of Wisconsin have a chance to remedy this situation. He can try and hide his hubris by deleting the tweet but in the next election they can "let him eat crow.".
12
Maybe Paul Ryan will run for President and then we can all let him know just how very very little we think of him.
6
Ryan and others of his ilk can't retire from Congress fast enough.
7
I never cease to be amazed at how short-sighted Republicans are. Let's take a simple example: Health care for the average American. Now really, who wants to live in a country with a lot of sick people walking around?! Does that make sense? Does that lead to productivity? or prosperity? or new ideas and inventions that benefit the country long term? What about the expense of people showing up in Emergency Rooms for health care that then costs considerably more than basic, preventative healthcare costs when provided on a regular basis? Republicans never seem able to think about anything down the road! It's all about getting more money for "ME" - NOW!! It's never about what's good for our country - especially long-term. They just don't seem able to THINK about the long-term. All the things they dream of cutting are like that - Social Security - Medicare - Prescription Drug Benefits - Child Care - Education - the Arts - All these things that cost money now make a better country in the future! They're an investment in a Better Country tomorrow - that is, DOWN THE ROAD. It really seems that Republicans have a very limited vision of American life beyond THIS WEEK. And what damage they do to our country in the meantime!!! Truly sad. And sadder still is how many Americans buy into this simplistic, short-sighted, deeply selfish vision. Thank God there are other Americans who see it differently; let us hope they - we - prevail in the near future.
17
Looking at events from Canada, I can be thankful that my mothers family moved from Ohio. But i truly empathize with my American cousins and friends . What a sad state of affairs. But don't you feel that the Democrats are almost the same as Republicans? Look how quickly Obama was co-opted by the establishment.
It wasn't so obvious but he also increased military spending etc etc.
Yes, the only option you have is to get out the vote . Everyone needs to go door to door , sign up voters and take them to the voting booths . Its what I did 2 years ago with my 88 year old friend to get rid of our own authoritarian
P.M. When you are a granny, one cares about the country their grandchildren will inherit.
They don't get embarrassed because their donors are cheering them on and are just as clueless--and condescending--as they are.
4
The perpetrators won't "get embarrassed."
The public won't "get wise."
And, at 67, it won't be me that pays for it. It will be my child, my grandchildren and the children and grandchildren of middle-class, working-class and working-poor Americans.
My generation---at least, the white people of my generation---has been the most privileged generation in American history. Our privilege was the legacy left us by "The Greatest Generation." The legacy we leave, however, will be a torched economic landscape of massive wealth/capital/income/opportunity inequality, deepening deficits/debt and greatly diminished prospects for any kind of upward mobility.
We should be ashamed.
20
And we continue to wonder at the unconscionable behavior and votes of the Republican Party and its leaders, Paul Ryan & Mitch McConnell. They are not only TONE DEAF, but supremely DEAF to needs of American people. This tax scam which enriches the rich will continue to notch spiraling out of control deficits long after they and Trump are gone. Not soon enough for me - throw the whole bunch out and start over! November 2018 will be a good start!
2
Ryan might as well of said: lLet them eat French fries--until we raise taxes to pay for doubling our one-year, newly borrowed debt this year."
NYT reported that the "federal government is on track to borrow nearly $1 trillion this fiscal year....almost double what the government borrowed in fiscal year 2017."
The Congressional Budget Office said the reason was because tax receipts are going to be lower because of the new tax law.
3
What really got my attention when I looked at the national debt clock (usdebtclock.org) was the US Federal Budget Deficit (GAAP) in the lower left. It is over $5 trillion per year. Is that because of unfunded benefit obligations?
3
I am feeling trickled upon!
1
Read Jane Mayer's Dark Money, 'The Hidden History of the Billionaires behind the Rise of the Radical Right.' It's well documented, the looting of America, facilitated by the GOP.
One Nation, Under Cash, with Liberty and Justice for the 0.1%
4
For workers it is brother can you spare a dime. The treasury purse is empty because they have all given of the spendable revenue to tax cuts for millionaires and corporations. As for small fries, how about coffee and a warm roll -- maybe with some butter. Be grateful and vote and vote Republican and next year maybe they'll throw in an orange.
1
Ryan doesn't care what you or I think about his tweet. The only thing he cares about is using Trump as a vehicle to dismantle the social fabric of this country by eliminating Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. He already accomplished the tax cut for the rich and corporations and was rewarded with $500,000 from the Koch brothers. The only hope for change is his defeat in 2018, I hope Janesville wakes up.
4
What if the "blue wave" isn't big enough?
I remember when Nixon won.
I remember when Reagan won.
I remember when Bush 1 was president instead of Gore.
I remember when Bush 2 was elected and re-elected.
Now we have Trump and a Tea Party Congress.
This has been a long time coming and I have lost heart. What if the "blue wave" can't wash this away. What has become of us? What next?
Last night I heard a distant cousin ranting about the corruption in the FBI. She used to be a devote and peaceful Christian, but lately she's actually crazy and violent. She believes everything from FOX now.
She's not going to go away easily.
8
Paul Ryan has no shame. I remember the moment when I so clearly saw through him. It was the day that he dragged his wife and children to a soup kitchen, had them don aprons along with him, and posed for photos of them all "washing" clean pots and pans in the kitchen. Does anyone else remember that? I was stunned, and ever since that day I have had no respect or trust for anything that Paul Ryan supports. He has not a clue as to how to function in the world in which most Americans live. A raise of $1.50 a week is absolutely insignificant, but he just doesn't get it. Neither do any of his partners in crime.
6
The Tax Bill scam derives from the inherently undemocratic nature of Republican Party meant to benefit a small group of billionaires. It's indistinguishable from anti-democratic libertarian thought. The Republican tax bill scam is the libertarian doctrine of "maximum freedom" in all its ugliness. Republicans are destroying every single program from the Social Security Trust Fund, to Medicare, to CHIP because they’re hostile to anything that may limit the radical individual freedom of the few most powerful and wealthy individuals like the Koch's. Public education has consistently advanced freedom and opportunity. However, Republicans want to destroy it because it relies on taxes. It’s why someone as incompetent as Betsy DeVoe, who was a total failure and nearly destroyed Michigan’s education system, is still a darling of the Republicans. Republicans are only interested in one tiny aspect of freedom; making a society in which only a very few, very wealthy people, have maximum possible freedom, while everyone else gets little to no freedom. It’s why the Republican Party is so corrupt; its current philosophy is inherently hostile to democracy. The way the Republican tax bill was just passed showed total contempt for democracy. It's not surprising that Jefferson Davis is so admired by many Republicans and was posthumously admitted to the Libertarian Hall of Fame. To them, the taxes which Lincoln proposed to pay for basic services and basic equality were far worse than slavery.
2
So throw him out. Get out the vote in November. That's the only thing that will make a difference.
3
I live in his district, believe me - we are trying!!
2
Paul Ryan, Orrin Hatch, Mitch McConnell. The Freedom Caucus. Where do such people come from? How can they sleep at night?
1
Not gonna happen. A nuclear exchange.
The aliens are in control. They won't let it happen.
They don't have the power to intervene in small thing, expect within specific targets. They can do great feats in individuals that seem important.
That is all I have. I seem very important to them given my behavior. They want me.
Paul Ryan's deleted tweet, his continued propping up of a toxic president and his service as a water boy for big-money donors reveal a person who is morally bankrupt. If he had any decency at all, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.
3
Aren't these the same Community Health Centers so many of the GOP touted as the alternatives to Planned Parenthood?
1
I will not receive as much as one single penny in tax relief for the callendar year 2017. Further, the Republican Party no longer represents Americans; it is a front for people who want a country where they can own slaves, cancel future Presidential elections, and declare The madman in the White House to be the first Emperor of this land and his children as the heirs. Since the Democrats have shown they are unable to to mount a compelling and effective loyal-opposition, I find myself with no political party to turn to. We are in dire need of a new political party dedicated to doing more than lining their own pockets. Were I 20 years younger, I'd be helping to organize one.
6
We still have hope. They are going after the low hanging fruit first: Medicaid only with work. Let's see what happens when they start chirping about Medicare and Social Security.
A whole party of crooks. But, it's always been Party over Country for them.
4
When the bank breaks, the voters will wake up and elect Democrats into office. The Democrats will do all they can to fix the problem created by Republicans, including having to raise the tax rate, and at that point, the Republicans will go mad screaming how Democrats are ruining the economy and want to kill jobs.
It's actually quite amazing.
2
Well, L-I-C is known to be ravenous for McDonald's Big Macs before sleep. And the world economic order is often compared in the price of Big Mac's in the globe's expensive cities. French fries for Cheeseheads seems reasonable. Actually, French Fries are the most popular order on McDonald's menu.
Shucks, maybe we'll get paid in 'quarter-pounders' when the Fabulous Five - Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, MS and Facebook, a.k.a. Citizens United, arrange a deal to buy-out Congress, including Democrats. At least we get to eat something.
What better than Cucina Americana for the common man: McDonald's Fries with ketchup? (I admit, I am hooked on occasion.) By jove, there would be a British Revolution if the fish & chip industry folded post-Brexit. Just ask the L-I-C for his opinion on the status of Big Macs and Fries and you will get a better answer than queries about his financial holdings and and the Deep State that is driving the Russia inquiry.
Indeed, the fact that Paul Ryan was raised on Social Security survivor's benefits is a good example of why some might want to disassemble the program. The problem with Federal welfare programs is that they help the good,the bad and the ugly, regardless of skin color or the content of character...no matter how craven, misinformed or mendacious.
1
Paul Ryan is a poor soul who has lost his way. Populism, magical populism, is his answer. 'We will have a budget as soon as the American people give us control of the government.' With control came the postcard tax form but tax reform aimed only for the rich. Gone is any concern with ethics, morality or the welfare of all Americans. He is blessed only by the reward given him by the less caring of others--the Koch brothers: $500,000. The only hope is that a sufficient portion of his constituency still have enough moral gumption to kick him out of Congress and back to his family and his kids. Due to his due diligence in finding tax breaks for the Koches,they will have poorer schools to advance them in the modern economy.
3
Meanwhile, back at the track (the railroad track), accidents continue to pile up. Even Republicans involved in a train derailment won't vote to improve national public transportation. It's not unique that spending priorities and tax handouts to to reward the wealthy are gloriously skewed at the cost of lives, hunger, infrastructure decay, educational needs and so many other aspects of what a truly "strong" America requires. When Donald J. Trump so ironically used the word "disgrace," he was and is oblivious to the truly disgraceful actions not only of himself but of a federal government unwilling to serve the nation's needs.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
2
Tax-cut is a magic word that defies reason.
It can turn french fries into freedom fries, they don't provide any substance, and just materialize after you have been starved.
1
I wonder when the American public will discover that Paul Ryan is only a water carrier of the GOP.
2
Paul Ryan one day will grow up to be a lobbyist.
Under Trump Health Care he will not be eligible for a spine transplant.
History is not going to be remarkably kind to a man who caused so many million Americas suffer for the sake of a mentally ill president.
1
MSNBC’s Joy Reid had an even more apt description of what Paul Ryan was celebrating: the working people of our nation getting “an extra dollop of gruel.”
The Republican vision of America is positively Dickensian. Next they’ll be yelling, “Are there no prisons? Are there no work houses?” and throwing people in jail for being too poor to pay fines.
Oh, wait, they’re already doing that:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/opinion/sunday/is-it-a-crime-to-be-poo...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/opinion/ending-cash-register-justice....®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0
4
The GOP scam works so well because big money owned media such as Fox News, Sinclair Broadcasting, and several talk radio networks feed the working poor a steady diet of conspiracies and lies that keep them voting for the Trumps, Ryans and McConnells.
Dr. Joseph Gobbells perfected the Art of the Big Lie and the Republicans are practicing it with great skill and at great political and business advantage to themselves.
2
Recall Reagan's first term, large tax cuts later required same size tax increases.
The Laffer Curve wasn't so laughable in RR's 2nd term. Another reason the Gipper resides in the mediocre presidential bin.
1
My right wing friends keep telling me that “more money in your pocket will change your tune”. But what they neglect is that the value of those dollars is going down, and fast.
Seriously - the value of the dollar to the euro has gone down like a rock over the past 12 months.
Read it and weep: https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=EUR&view=1Y
1
The really obvious scam is gerrymandering. Because of this, many more Democrats would have to vote to elect a Democrat than Republicans would have to vote to elect a Republican and even with more Democrats voting more Republicans are likely to be elected. The Republican perpetrators of this scam aren't embarrassed either.
1
And trump has a $50,000 a pop Super Bowl party in the Xanadu that is Mar-a Lago.
1
They have been doing this for years. Rank and file Republicans keep voting for them.
Why would you think it would change?
2
All we have to do is figure out how to convince the Republican voters.
"we can’t “spend billions and billions and trillions of trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves.” This epithet so loved by Republicans got it's start in 17th century England where the "able bodied" poor are just not helping themselves. In the 19th century the English "Lords" in Ireland blamed the potato blight on the Irish: "they could just get a job", not heeding their cruel policy not even allowing them to own their own farm. Sound familiar Americans? If Democrats don't get off their you know whats and vote this time, democracy in our country is over. That is Paul's subtext here.
3
The most epic response to Ryan's tweet is this one: https://twitter.com/LOLGOP/status/959864090670895104 Pretty much says it all!
In a comment to one of the many liberal/progressive political blog posts about this notorious, and oh-so-generous $1.50 weekly, a writer who knows the tweeter personally confirmed what we all had thought --- that it was purely and simply snark. Clueless Ryan, oblivious to irony and sarcasm, fell for it in a very cringeworthy way,. Yet again, we are reminded why Right Wing comedians should never quit their day jobs.
2
Ryan’s ill conceived tweet wasn’t nearly as insulting as Nancy Pelosi’s claim that $1,000 bonuses are “crumbs.” Maybe $1,000 is a “crumb” to a rich leftist from San Franpsycho that made a fortune in Congress trading on inside information, but for the American middle class it can mean paying bills, going on a vacation, or extra savings.
Krugman also reveals his socialistic worldview when he argues that “tax cut have to be paid for.” The implication being that the income earned by Americans belongs to the government and bureaucrats in Washington simply decide how much we are allowed to keep. WRONG. Our income belong to us. Taxpayers ARE the government and we are sick of our money being wasted on frivolous government disasters, Obamacare for instance. We have begun the process of taking back our government and if leftists would get out of the way, we’d make this a better world.
For a genuine comparison, how about a post that describes the weekly income raise of a few overpaid CEO's?
1
I think it was LBJ who said the GOP has two tasks: investigate the Dems and reward their friends. Until they are punished at the polls they will stick to this tried and true script. And the Dems, when in office, will again have to clean up the GOP prolifigacy. It would be so much better if the GOP would work for the entire electorate.
2
Paul Ryan is almost as credible touting GOP tax cuts as he when washing dishes, or trumpeting his amazing marathon time.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a16306/paul-ryan-soup-kitc...
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/paul-ryans-marathon-everyone-el...
So, elect your redistributionists then. What's that? Been tried before to no avail? Must be some flaw in the rhetoric, or perhaps in it's hollowness? See, guys like this cannot name ONE policy of the current left that benefits the working classes. And no, Obamacare served the abject poor, not those earning just enough to float a working class lifestyle, and it punished anyone in the middle class who had decent health insurance before this Rube Goldberg nonsense. Please. Start your revolution so we can get this silliness over with get back to hating one another for better reasons.
Invest in America. Buy a politician.
2
If you look closely at Paul Ryan's face, his character is clear. He is a privileged, white collar thug, in the prime of his life, with plenty of options should he leave his job. And he is trying to take health care and financial benefits away from the single mothers, the poor and sick and powerless. People like that don't listen to reason, nor do they respond to pleas from those they harm. He and his kind need to be voted out of office, where they can no longer harm the American public.
Don't worry about him, he will be fine.
4
The Republicans are simply lying when they say the do not intend to cut Medicare and Social Security, and they are using the rolling budget scam to hide their lies. Mitch McConnell tries to reassure voters that there will be no cuts to social welfare programs while the Social Security Administration budget is getting a huge cut. And the rolling budget is hiding the Republicans' real purpose. Thus the CHIP program got funded at the cost of $31 billion in cuts to support for the ACA, and the community health centers were not funded. There are serious problems with funding CHIP without funding the health centers that support it. Now DACA is held hostage to a stupid $25 billion wall, and look for more defunding of medical services, or schools or some other social programs to be attached to that "clean" bill. The Republicans use continuing resolutions to avoid telling the public that there really isn't enough money to fund critical support systems. They will drag this out until the 2018 election is over and then, secure for another two years, they will spring huge cuts to all the programs they promised to support. This is bate and switch, don't be fooled.
2
The headline should read "Let Them Eat Freedom Fries". After all, we are where are are today because of the history of the GOP.
An extra $1.50 a week? Thanks GOP, maybe after 2 months of bigger paychecks I'll go to the movies... by myself.
2
Isn't it amazing that Paul Ryan can't be embarrassed? Add a trillion and a half to the deficit so one can point to a secretary's extra $1.50 in her paycheck. It's pathetic and worse yet, Republicans and Trump supporters will feel no shame.
Each day the twilight zone episode continues.
Perhaps a memo from someone in the House Finance Committee addressing Ryan's tweet on the matter will convince us all that Trump and his lapdog minions in the House are doing us all a great service and any critical comments by those of us left that can still think for themselves should be investigated.
2
And of course the "makers" are laying off workers to compensate for the bonuses and paltry raises. Here's something from Feb. 1 MarketWatch, not a liberal mouthpiece: Since Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced it would hand out bonuses and expand benefits to more than 1 million associates thanks to new tax reform measures, the retail giant has also laid out plans for store closures and thousands of layoffs at both the store and corporate level." So these folks no longer have jobs and no benefits, minimal as they are.
Ah, yes, the job creators....
2
Capitalism is doing to me all things they told me communism was going to do to me when I was a child growing up in the 1950s - we need socialist brakes on our capitalism to make it successful. If not it will eat its own young
Jerry W N E Kingdom VT
1
I urge everyone to bombard Ryan on twitter with their measly tax cuts so he’s forced to see the truth behind his great middle class tax cut scam.
1
Plain and simple--Paul Ryan hates Americans. He is not a policy wonk as some say he is. He is however a hollow shell for the Koch and Mercer families.
He will do anything at all cost to advance the anti-government agenda. I often wonder if his wife, his family and his priest know what is really going on.
I think they all would be shocked that Paul is not his brother's keeper he is brother's enemy.
2
Let's extend your analogy using French fries a little further: Ryan and his Republican cohorts are so out of touch that they are offering stale, greasy and unhealthy vat scrapings to people desperate for true relief from financial burdens the GOP has created. First, we get tasteless crumbs, then we run the risk of clogging our arteries just when we realize how inadequate our health care system is. Keep pointing this out. The damage down the road for a $1.50/per hour wage increase is nonsensical and damaging. No wonder Ryan deleted that stupefying tweet. Now we must show him we won't forget what he's done. Bring on the November elections!
1
Those who get to slice the pie
Give themselves bigger pieces!
We've seen this down through history;
The pattern never ceases.
It's human nature, I suppose,
To want more and more and more;
But it'd be nice to get some crumbs
For those getting kicked out the door.
92
The social democracies of the world have made great strides in controlling the greed of the powerful. NOT THE USA!
Everyone wants the bigger half. It's just that most of us understand we can't have it. The GOP and Donald Trump don't.
1
We know that a massive transfer to the rich will happen. We know that the middle class has a much higher marginal propensity to consume than the rich. We know that initially the rich, or if you rather the job creators, use their additional after-tax income to invest. This extra investment initially boosts securities prices. The higher prices for securities enable investments to occur that might have been undertaken. These can range from factories, shopping centers and housing. What we don't know is the path that equity prices and interest rates will take between the enactment of the tax shift and the eventual financial crisis or other event occurs, at which time the excess supply of loanable funds as compared to demand for loans will push risk-free short-term interest rates down to near the lower bound, as was the case during the 1930s, in Japan for decades and in America since 2008.
The primary change that has fundamentally changed the economy can be best described by Warren Buffett, who said, "Through the tax code, there has been class warfare waged, and my class has won, "It's been a rout"...
Rich people have much higher marginal propensities to save and invest than non-rich people who have higher marginal propensities to consume. The world-wide shift in tax burdens from the rich to the middle class has created an imbalance where there is a much greater supply of lendable and investable funds relative to securities to invest in.." https://seekingalpha.com/article/4139026
1
My monthly take home salary has increased by $50.48. I can eat French fries at McDonald's every day--whoopee!
86
Mine went up 70 dollars a month. And this is on a taxable income of 92000 a year.
But your cut will be phased out - not the huger cut for the top 1%. And how would you feel about not having Social Security or Medicare? They're both avowed targets of the Republicans.
4
Don't forget that it phases out over the next few years and you'll be back to the same old tax burden, but with inflation and same salary.
4
Paul Ryan, who got a generous donation from the Koch brothers as soon as the new tax bill passed, owes the American people and his constituents an apology.
I am not holding my breath.
10
If we had pre-Reagan inequality, the bottom 80% would be getting $11,000 more per year in income, according to Larry Summers. Alternatively, the bottom 99% would be getting $7,000 more per year in income.
Kind of puts that $1.50 x 52 = $78 in context, doesn't it?
9
Maybe $ 1.50 once meant a lot to Paul R, unlike to a person with a large inheritance. He worked at McDonald's when well-off kids might have joined the Peace Corps or practiced sailing skills. One commenter noted his helping with the care of his grandmother with Alzheimer's and his benefiting from the social safety net. Relationships with other kids his age might be something better forgotten. He has apparently crossed the divide between the haves and have-nots and has blocked his consciousness from his voters' pain.
1
Let's put Ryan back to work in a McDonald's for a year or two and see how he feels about raising the minimum wage and an extra order of small french fries once a week!
1
A friend of mine got all excited that he got an additional $50 in his paycheck. I pointed out that was $25 a week and asked him what he was going to do with it? I also pointed out that he wouldn't have it forever since it is going away in a few years. He got defensive and pointed out it 'it was better than nothing'. I then offered to give him a dollar if I could take $10 away from him. He was not amused.
14
Let's not forget, more than ever, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are also on the Republican hit-list due to their tax cut. Throw in increased illness resulting from their deregulation of environmental protections, we will have more sick Americans with less health care. I can't wait to vote in 2018 to begin putting the brakes on this madness.
9
With gerrymandered states literally all over the country, 'putting the brakes on this madness' may not be nearly as easy as a lot of "Non-Trump's-New Order" voters seem to think. IT IS GOING TO BE A LONG, HARD, EXPENSIVE SLOG. And, unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the voice of reason will prevail. On average, every election cycle sends back 90% of incumbents to continue doing what they were doing...even if what they were doing was undermining the financial health of the United States of America.
1
Good point, but lest we forget the Tea Party did displace a lot of Democrats. We can do the reverse in 18'. Keep the faith.
1
I for one am grateful for the .95 cent increase in my weekly salary. As an educator in the USA, I realize that my contributions are minut compared to the job creators such as WalMart, AT&T, and Boeing. The billions of dollars in tax breaks they will receive over the next ten plus years are well deserved and these companies should not be expected to pay their fair share when it comes to improving the infrastructure to that allows them to make those hundreds of billions of dollars. That burden should be put squarely on the shoulders of the middle class, single parents, and working poor. After all, isn't time they, the "job takers", started paying their fair share?
11
The Donor class Republicans may believe the nation won't wake up in Nov. because they believe in the power of commercials to sell the tax cut french fries as a big treat. Already slick adds are out attacking Nancy Pelosy as complaining about the crumbs of the tax bill. Many Americans intuitively understand the tax bill is for he ultra-rich but many also resonate with anti-Democrat adds. I for one am not passively waiting to see how this food fight ends, I have joined "indivisible" to resist.
5
And let's not forget that these minuscule tax cuts for the middle class are temporary - phased out by 2024. By contrast, the massive, budget-busting tax cuts for corporations (and their biz jet-cocooned executives) are "forever".
So Paul Ryan will not only rip that bag of McDonalds fries right out of the hands of that apocryphal wage earner, he'll be simultaneously slashing her family's health care, her eventual Social Security stipend, her children's milk money and her parents' already bare bones nursing home subsistence-level existence (the last by capping annual Medicaid expenditures across-the-board).
This is "American Exceptionalism" - torn straight out of the pages of Charles Dickens:
"Are there no poorhouses? No workhouses? No prisons?" ....Then let them die and "decrease the surplus population".
- Paul (Ebenezer) Ryan
9
Thank goodness for the likes of Paul Krugman. The Republican establishment and the President have fooled the American public, and given industry a whopping tax cut forever. By 2025, we will face the budget apocalypse.
3
Until the Republicans pay for their actions at the polls they will continue on. As long as they support Restrictive Abortion Laws, No Gun Control Legislation, No Immigration and the Right to Discriminate against Gay People, I am afraid they will continue to be elected.
3
We agree on one point: "For tax cuts aren’t free." However, neither are tax hikes, or minimum wage increases or any of the other well intentioned "let someone else pay" techniques you support. Corporations don't pay taxes at all. All expenses are funneled down to the consumer in the final cost of goods and services. The truly "obvious scam" is your ability to ignore the tremendous benefit already provided by reducing taxes and regulation on US industry. Get your big government out of the way.
2
3 million jobs under 8 years of George Bush. And that was with two “tax cuts for the job creators.” And that does not count jobs lost after the November 2008 subprime meltdown.
11.5 million jobs under Obama, almost 400% more . And that was with the lapse of the tax cut for the job creators and with the “jobs killing" Obama care. Actually 16 million jobs but 5.5 million were jobs that came back after the greatest recession since the Great Depression.
Clinton gave Bush a balanced budget.
Bush gave Obama a whopping $1.1 Trillion deficit in his budget of Oct. 1, 2008. With the Great Recession and tax revenue losses and unemployment expenses, that actual number was $1.4 Trillion!
Obama got this down by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion.
And 20 million people got healthcare with Obama.
The numbers are out there. Search on jobs by president and deficit by president.
I am also waiting for the President and his Republicans minions to blame the recent decline in the stock markets on Obama and Pelosi.
2
The Republicans guaranteed their 13% tax -giveaway to corporations would provide "real" tax reductions and higher wages for "all" Americans - no matter their socio-economic class. How about they put our tax money where their mouths are and split the baby by increasing the Federal minimum wage by 7%? If the Republicans are to be believed employers will be substantially increasing wages anyway, so they should have no objection - right?
1
Let's not forget that the Koch family donated $500,000 to Paul Ryan's campaign account just days after the passage of the tax bill. What other GOP congress members also benefited, and by how much?
2
McConnell
So instead of the jobs and tax cuts act its the yachts and fries tax cuts act? Or the Yachts and Social Safety Net Cuts act with Fries...?
1
It is interesting to me that Paul Ryan’s alleged net worth is $7 million. Yet, he has only held one other job (with a family business) for one or two years. How does one amass this amount as a “public servant”?
7
We really do need to pray and parade, to motivate and get out the vote, come November (actually come October so people think about it) - because as I do not eat french fries I would have no idea where to spend one dollar and fifty cents. Won’t buy anything except gum where I live.
1
Democrats - you better start right now in getting this straight. Not just the income effect but the huge tax cut for corporations increased after tax earnings and fueled the raise in the stock market and voila; the 1% just got a 7 $Trillion increase in their net worth - capital gains not taxable till sold.
Pay attention!
128
I think you need to look at the stock market over the last 5 years. If you do, you will see that the run-up started well before the tax cuts were proposed and voted on. The economy has been on the rebound for several years now after being on the brink of failure - how soon they forget. The previous administration, of which I was not enamored, wanted corporate tax cuts as well but somehow Congress didn't get to them. Hmm. Wonder why?
2
Democrats have it straight. The GOP tax bill is a vehicle for the huge transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the 1%. It's egregious. And any Congressperson who justified voting for it by saying it was needed for the economy is a bald liar. Now they've overstimulated the market, and the next Great Recession is just around the corner, except that they've also managed to obliterate a lot of the safeguards that allowed the 99% to survive the last one.
Howard, You are absolutely right, my friend. We need side-by-side comparisons of what kind of raises were granted to various professionals -- from Ryan's school secretary to elementary and preschool teachers; next to journalists and the legislative aides who wrote the "Nunes memo." Then add in hedge-fund managers, cabinet members, US Senators, maybe even the orange drone himself. Now you've got a buzzworthy chart! Thanks!
If I remember correctly, the Democrats and much of the main stream media were frequently telling people that only the wealthy would get a tax cut while many of the middle class would pay higher taxes. They were also saying that there was no way any of the corporate tax cuts would filter down to average Americans. That's what made the bill so unpopular. Now people are seeing tax cuts (albeit small) and hearing about big companies paying bonuses and raising wages. This leaves many people with the impression that they were mislead by opponents of the Republican tax bill. Not everyone will realize what widespread long-term harm will be done by the huge loss of revenue nor care that the wealthiest are the primary beneficiaries as long as they get a little something. My point is that not being totally honest and straight forward when debating an issue can have some negative consequences.
1
And they made fun of Nancy Pelosi referring to the tax cut for lower income people as "crumbs" which is exactly what this cut is. Even the $1000 bonus is barely a week's pay for middle class workers. Let them eat crumbs.
14
On the internet, you are seeing groundswell of working and middle class people fearful that these tiny increases are just a bit of pablem to cover up what will he a soaking at tax time in 2019 when they can no longer claim their deductions and will be weft with huge tax bills. Many are encouraging one another to readjust their withholding so more is taken out to prepare themselves. So already, many people, particularly in highly taxed states, are rightly predicting an increase in their overall taxes and a decrease in their income due to this tax bill. I would pass this on to otheirs: Best to increase the amount you have withheld if you itemized previously. areas also uncertain that seniors will continue to get the over 65 deduction, so they may want to think about that, and even if they are not itemizing anymore, increase their witholdings.
7
Exactly the advice I gave my family...Losing my deductions will cost me dearly and increase my taxes by about 25%. Tax scam indeed.
8
Dear Prof. Krugman,
Could you please address the hypothesis that the big corporations that are handing out these pay raises and bonuses in the third decimal place are doing so to help the Republican administration. After all, it is in their interests to make the people believe that these "tax cuts" are good for them.
35
They've been buying back their own stock to make Trump look like a gift of God.
But it looks like the jig may be up on that.
1
Sounds like a great plan to make America great again: Reduce social security, shrink 401K plans due to inflation, make health care unaffordable, let pollution go wild... In due time, life expectancy will rival that of Russia. Cheers, - with everyone dying ten years earlier, lots of expenses will be spared.
57
Ryan and friends know one thing - how to loot the country. Perform a leveraged buyout by taking on $1.5T in debt, leaving the new management (us) to handle the eventual bankruptcy when we can't make the payments.
if it helps to wrap all this in laissez faire philosophy, they will do it.
As someone said, just follow the money, the bulk of which goes to the top.
31
As Trey Gowdy said in his post retirement announcement, there is nothing in the Republican Congress anymore that beats winning. If you are going to be reasonable, sane, decent, those things have to go the way of the dodo bird because you must win, even if the win trashes the country and sends us into horrors on every level. I doubt the Democratic side is much better. They better get a message and quick because if taxpayers think long enough that they've had some sort of windfall to their bottom line with this tax cut, Trump will have two terms and the mid terms will be another could-have-been and another huge disappointment. Meanwhile Republicans are doing their usual successful thing, staying on message and right now that message is, "Look at what tax cuts are doing for you, yippee." It doesn't seem to matter that Paul Ryan was tin eared enough to take the sarcastic tweet of a school secretary who was "so pleased" she was getting a whole $1.50 extra in her paycheck every week that she could now buy the lower Costco membership. And in just a few years those tax breaks for the middle class on down will expire. But not the 1% huge tax cut and not for corporations. Are we all insane or something? Or are there that many people in the country for whom a $1,000 extra in their pockets in a year is going to make them feel financially sound? We're in the worst horror show imaginable and the monsters are winning.
3
This American obsession with taxes seems self defeating. Most of the Europeans I've spoken to about their tax situation, freely admit to the pain of paying high taxes, but in the same breath, cite the benefits of a strong social safety net, open health care and educational systems.
Health care is less costly in Europe because their doctors aren't burdened with half a lifetime of student debt. European rail, air and road infrastructures are maintained and up to date. They enjoy a good quality of life. Some things, they tell me, are worth the cost.
It may be true that America is too big and diverse for European style socialism, but the alternative being shoved down our throats is one that elevates greed and dishonors American ideals. It is short sighted and unsustainable.
Mr. Ryan's self-congratulatory tweet about a minuscule increase in take home pay under the new tax plan highlights the disregard with which we are held as our leaders embrace a self-serving "survival of the fittest" ethos.
66
I see this, "It may be true that America is too big and diverse for European style socialism" all the time but I haven't an inkling why size or diversity would be a limiting factor for socialism or even moderately social democratic policies. Can you explain why you think they are relevant? Thanks.
With his "$1.50 more per week" revelation, I bet that Ryan is one of those restaurant customers who feel that a 5% tip for his server is more than sufficient. Wonder what his reputation is around the D.C. eateries, but then again someone else probably always picks up the tab.
43
NO US Congressman EVER picked up a lunch bill...EVER....in the end YOU and I always PAY HIS/HER BILL. Tar & Feathers anyone?
Like the Koch bros?
In early 2019, the US will discover just how fake this tax "reform" is. As angry as they might be about it then, the federal courts will be a wasteland and utterly useless to pursue any redress.
24
Many seem to be grimly steeling themselves for this fiasco and are increasing their witholdings in the understanding that the loss of all those itemized deductions will increase their tax load when they file in 2019.
1
The question Ryan forgot to ask was how much of that $1.50 covers the rise in rent, the cost of health care and other expenses for this secretary? Ryan, like many Republicans, needs a course in critical thinking.
26
Ryan's wife is a trust fund baby, and all his full-time adult employment has been in the political arena. It is deeply ironic that this man sees fit to deliver any financial advice whatsoever to people would do real work in private industry. If we were to do as he does, and not as he says, the US economy would be non-existent.
4
Llewis:
No. Ryan, like many Republicans, needs to be defeated at the polls on November 6, 2018.
Ryan is an Ayn Rand follower. He got Social Security Survvor's benefits when his dad died when Paul was a teenager. He used that money to pay for college.Now he wants to gut Social Security. (Ayn Rand ended up taking SS and Medicare at the end of her life. She was a hypocite too.)
"I got mine. To heck with you." -- Paul Ryan
1
I have to give Paul Ryan some credit in Dr. Krugman's first paragraph. Ryan was ALMOST honest in his tweet, though he WAS overstated.
I got $1.30.
So, I am not dancing in the streets. I cannot even get the McDonald's SMALL French fries for that. And we musn't forget that this tax break is not permanent to have to be fought another day as are the cuts for the 1% and corporations. This one weans out in five years, by which time the GOP will have cut Social Security and Medicare benefits to pay for the income lost from upper class taxation. Since I am 70 and have difficulty finding work beyond minimum wage, I should start now to juice up a shopping cart to hold my belongings. I am already borrowing from Peter to pay Paul just to keep a roof over my head and get one meal a day (often just a sandwich or cup of soup). I have worked since I was 15, many times holding mid-executive positions. I am educated. But at some point I may become homeless. Maybe I will be lucky and die before 2023. After all, I had to drop my supplemental insurance because I could no longer afford it...so Dr. office visits are out of the picture, and who knows what diseases I may be harboring.
There are millions of Americans like me. We are hanging on by a thread. Just as soldiers were still dying as the peace talks went on for years about Vietnam, we are in jeopardy while the GOP holds our country hostage and continues to inflict pain and suffering on Americans. Save us, save yourselves. VOTE!
89
Your commentary touched me to the core . . .
God Bless you, God Bless the America we once knew, God Bless the America we could be.
1
Mountain Dragonfly you should note that the $1.30 will buy one pound of good quality pinto beans. Combine that with brown rice and you can live decently on that which some of us do. Cooking it yourself is simple. If these disparities continue, then I can see the Treasury Department will coin again the 1/10 cent piece, and we will see the plastic mill coin return as was common in World War 2.
Doesn't the new $10,000 capon Mortgage deductions mean that residents of blue states with higher property values will be paying taxes in behalf of Red states with lower property values?
22
Smart people in these states are increasing their witholdings and taking an income cut this year so they don't get slammed wit. Tehuger taxes they will pay in 2019 as a result.
Jeremy:
You are correct. "the new $10,000 capon Mortgage deductions mean that residents of blue states with higher property values will be paying taxes in behalf of Red states with lower property values"
Republicans are AGAINST using the tax code to generate "income redistribution" except when it works in favor of fat cats and RED states (most of which ALREADY get back more than $1 in federal disbursements for every $1 in federal tax that they pay).
2
Yes
1
Yes the government has to pay its way, but it doesn’t have to pay so much to get there.
3
@TD:
Please tell us what government benefits that *YOU* recieve you will give up so we can eliminate that cost.
Don't tell us what benefits that others get but do not affect you are expendable.
2
Since I get nothing that shouldn't be very difficult.
'You might think that... the public would get wise.'" Well, sure, *wisdom* is great, but the public needs to be *informed* of the facts: the long-term costly reality of this short-term tax cut illusion. A clear & concise message delivered by credible & relatable people.
The individual tax savings are designed to time out after the 2020 elections. Corporate tax cuts are permanent. Ryan's tweet is the smoking gun, the unintended confession...
November does not need a complicated & wide message. It just needs facts: inspiring ones... Enough to get people to the polls.
18
Yes, and one does have to ask Trump supporters if that $1.50 per week bonus was worth those French fries when their Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are "devoured" by rising deficits. We all know those are the first to go in order to keep Wall Street execs sated with not only more money but also caviar and French wines.
This administration and Congress has sold us to the highest bidders. The sad thing is that those folks who voted for Trump, Ryan, and company, just can not see what so many others have puzzled out: That is that those tax cuts for the affluent will not "trickle" down to the every day American. Rather we will remain parched while the upper 1% are bathing in champagne.
28
A million dollars ain’t what it used to be. Ten’s more like it but can you tell me who’s worth twenty or ten times as much a year. You read in the nytimes a woman is a victim if she’s getting only 25 million a year. A college football coach 98 million. I keep reading how expensive I phones would be if they were made here but never how cheap they would be if executives were paid much less.
To Republicans and Democrats of wealth the numbers above are within their grasp. They rigged it that way. What’s a million bucks compared to real wealth?
To people that need an extra twenty in their paycheck a lot.
If you think a few hundred bucks for a medical plan wit a thirty thousand deductible is affordable and wise you might begin rethinking which party you belong to.
15
Let us not forget that the worker could pass the french fries bye and go to Starbucks for a cup of coffee (that I can remember costing a dime).
2
Imagine Paul Ryan jubilating over multi-billionaires getting an increase, as a result of his tax reform, of $1.50 a week - proof that the new measure works!
4
Good column as usual.
Costco is where low income people have an opportunity to buy some goods in bulk like rice, beans, or corn flakes. Used books too.
An interesting question would be Paul Ryan’s income tax savings. He should tell us.
But I did my best to calculate an estimate. It’s hard because I don’t know that reverse Robin Hood’s deductions. But to do the best I could running Paul’s salary ($223,500) and 3 children and no deductions through a 2017 tax calculator and a 2018 calculator you get a 2018 tax savings of about $1,500.
That will buy 120 meals from Blue Apron at $8.99 a plate.
Paul Ryan may retire this year after doing his best to cut Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and food stamps and who knows what else. This has been an ambition of his (in his own words) since he was doing keg parties at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. Paul Ryan’s father died tragically when PR was 16. Paul was a good kid, worked at McDonald’s, and helped his mother take of his grandmother who had Alzheimer’s. From 16 years of age to 18, Paul got social security survivors benefits which he put toward college.
PR’s pennsion today is based on 20 years in the House. I can’t calculate PR’s pension. J Bonner has $85,000 a year after 24 years. Ryan is 48. Whatever his pension, he can collect at 50.
The maximum SS pension at 66 2016 is $31,668. That secretary’s SS in PA probably will not be the max especially after PR’s cuts.
12
Many low-income people cannot afford to shop at Costco -- it takes money to save money, buying in bulk costs more upfront, many don't have that kind of ready cash.
11
Nor do many have storage space, even if they could afford the membership fee and bulk purchase cost.
5
Lee is right. Also they don't have a place to store buying in bulk.
1
Let us not forget: tax cuts for the poor and middle class EXPIRE. Because there were structural changes in the tax system, that means this secretary (and a great many people making higher salaries than hers) will not just lose the $1.50 a week, they will have to pay at a higher percentage than in 2017.
21
You are correct with your financial analysis but be aware of your sexist assumptions - not all secretaries are women as in the Mad Men era, however much repubs wish that time back.
Not necessarily true. While I totally agree that Paul Ryan's tweet was way out of touch and tone deaf, I'm not sure I buy that's it's all a big scam - that's a big jump to make. Republicans have always believed in smaller government and downsizing large social programs. I do not see how lowering taxes, even though it may raise the deficit, is part of some heinous plan to cut social programs. They were always going to seek those cuts regardless. This is an example of what I call the 'Conspiracy Theory' movement we see lately. Like flat earth theory or debunking the Apollo moon missions. I am a little disappointed to see Mr Krugman, whom I respect greatly, partake in this kind of conspiracy theory nonsense. Tax cuts or not, Republicans will always fight for smaller government and social program cuts - it's not some bait and switch scam as is proposed here.
2
Smaller government like a 600 ship navy, almost unlimited electronic surveillance powers, a secretive government generally, devious "tax cuts" which disappear for the "little people" and are "permanent" for the big people , covert wars in Africa, Syria, and who knows where else (it is secret). That's smaller government? I don't think so.
When looking for truth in our world of mendacity and spin, don't pay attention to what they say. Just watch what they do, ie, follow the money. Then construct the best-fit hypothesis for what they did. That approach says that the 'tax cut" bill was indeed a setup for destruction of social programs.
So basically your argument is that it’s a Krugman’s argument falls into conspiracy territory because in actuality this GOP behavior isn’t a NEW bait and switch, but rather just par for the course. Agreed.
1
Yes, we will see in November. When that time comes we will learn how effective the Democrats are at delivering that message.
The Millenials are now over taking the Boomers for voting. If the message is well delivered that they will be the recipient of this bill's long term effect then the power will shift away from the GOP even faster than it already is.
We shall see.
8
So many criticize the acts of Republican legislators. As a representatives in a republic these legislators must represent their voters. Like it or not, their most activist voters are insisting on the acts being criticized. Of course, the Paul Ryans must advance their best arguments in favor of the criticized acts. What would you do? Tell the truth? Refuse to act and face primary challengers, negative talk radio in your district and disappointed donors?
Sure you would.
2
I think you mean they are bowing to pressure from their big-money donors. What could they do instead? Try honesty about why taxes are important and how they should be used to benefit a civil society and strengthen communities.
4
At the Federal level so many Congressional districts have been gerrymandered that a minority of voters are represented in Congress. Wake up.
1
A minority of voters is represented? Not possible!
A more typical outcome is an additional $200 to $400 per month increase. Enough for a monthly payment on a car. Multiply that by millions and it is very significant. Krugmonics is voodoo economics, as was painfully illustrated during the Obama years.
1
Even if your numbers are correct, and I would need proof, you forget that only the tax cuts for the 1% are permanent. Everyone else will see their cuts end in a few years. So we will be paying for the cuts for the wealthy.
3
Jaco, so far nobody I know has gotten that much. The highest I've heard is $106 per paycheck ($51.50 per week). Most people I know have gotten about $50 per week (I got $49) which is about $25 per week. Not going to buy a car with that.
4
Jaco- Have you seen something the rest of woke humanity managed to miss? You imply Krugnomics failed during the Obama yeras. It failed at being implemented !! Krugman called for much larger deficit spending, spending that small-minded types effectively blocked from occurring. In fact Krugnomics, had it "become policy " , would likely have accelerated the recovery you allude never came.
In 1970 I was a medical assistant working for the best family practice physician in our town, in fact he was Chief of Staff at the city’s hospital, too. When I asked him for a raise, he offered $5 per week more.
I laughed and said “That’s barely the cost of a pair of white nylon stockings.”
(remember them?)
Fast forward to Paul Ryan’s 2018, almost 50 years later, and $1.50.
That’s not even an apple or two.
15
I got $19.96 per week. While it's not $1.50 per week, this is not life-changing money either. It's about a half tank of gas. It's not even really noticeable.
I remember Kasich crowing about tax cuts he "delivered." I'm still trying to figure out how best to spend the extra $0.97 per week that got me.
As for my most recent tax cut, I think I have figured out how best to spend it. I need to support those who are not actively working to lower the standard of living for most Americans so I'm going to spend it helping those who are running against Republicans. My first check for $19.96 is going to go to Randy Bryce. The next will probably go to Richard Crosby, who is running against my tea-party-whacko "representative" Brad Wenstrup. Sherrod Brown will get a cut as well, as will Richard Cordray. I'll keep researching to find more worthy candidates.
I'd really like to see the country get two toxic things out of politics -- money and religion -- but I have to work within the current reality, so donations it is. I invite others to join me.
30
Cut taxes now, let later (Democratic) administrations figure out how to pay for it. This has been a key Republican strategy since Reagan.
Bonus effect: Reps then blame Dems for raising taxes and for public spending necessitated by years of neglect. It's a win-win – except for the American people.
23
I find it ironic that her 1.50 a week pay increase doesn’t really buy her anything. It pays for a “right-to-shop” fee.
2
Does anybody know…
1. How much of the tax cut is for corporations and how much of it is for individuals?
2. Of the amount for individuals what the beakdown is for the various income levels?
3. The breakdown of the above for 2017, 2018, 2019, etc?
4. The impact on the deficit on a year-by-year basis?
5. Given the growth expectations, is there a surplus on any given year that offsets previous years’ deficits, and reduces the increase in the debt to $1.5 trillion?
6. How much of the cut is due to the reduction or elimination of the Obamacare taxes and penalty?
7. The impact on the deficit of the health care plan that will replace Obamacare?
8. How much of the reduction in the deficit is due to reductions in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?
At the very least, what are those numbers for 2018?
A large deficit in 2018, coupled with the planned reduction in the Fed’s “Quantitative Easing” policy, might cause a significant increase in long term interest rates, which could derail the stock market and even push the economy into a recession ahead of the midterms.
Paul? Your comments?
5
Dr Krugman,as usual you ignore the well known fact that as bureaucracies grow over time they become less efficient and justify their existence by broadening their scope of regulations,needed or not. We have demonstrated that with a national debt of over $20 Trillion,including over $9.3 T under Obama (much of which he chose not reduce because of the recession) and our unwillingness to pay. Thank you Mr.Keynes!! Read the article in today's paper re the subway and Cuomo and DeBlasio's intransigence that is merely a fight about who should pay. Ultimately NY wants the US government (the rest of us non New Yorker's to pay for these repairs and upgrades as well as the third tunnel.
1
I don't see how Republicans can trot this tax plan around as something that has benefitted workers, like the Walmart plans to raise wages, etc.
Don't they know that Walmart employees form the largest demographic of state welfare recipients? A rise in wages to 11 or even 12 dollars an hour is not enough, and we shouldn't have to give giant tax breaks just to get a wage raise.
Wages should be in line with inflation (so around 22 an hour) and if giant corporations don't like it, too bad, because there should be an enormous penalty or an outright restriction on moving overseas. The Boomers and Gen X experienced a world where one could work 40 hours a week and afford to buy a home. They voted in Reagan who swept it all away.
Three decades later and we're still being handed crumbs, $1.50 a week to be exact.
Bring in the guillotines.
6
We have estimated that the reduction in our taxes will be extinguished by the increase in Medicare costs.
6
“…using an online tax calculator to test this for a typical American worker ($45,000-$75,000 income, non-itemizer, head-of-household with 2 or more children), I got 4.3% additional disposable income in 2018. For that $45,000 earner, that’s $1,935, and for the $75,000 earner, that’s $3,225. ..”
Per Richard Luettgen (1Recommend)
A 1.5% mortgage rate increase in a $200,000 home loan will wipe out the $1,935. On a $300,000 mortgage it will wipe out the $3,225.
By how much will mortgage rates increase, if at all? What will be the impact on apartment rents and on the housing industry?
Language is important. The tax cut (which I oppose) does not generally “give” anyone anything. It let’s them keep more of what they had already earned through their labor or via returns on their investments. The money is not the government’s to give back to taxpayers. It is ours to begin with, except that portion we required to hand over to the government for its operations (1/3) or redistribution to others (2/3).
1
I'm not sure you understand that this is a deficit-financed tax cut, that we will be BORROWING yet more money from countries such as China and Japan, to 'pay' for the tax cut. So this is manifestly NOT a case of "letting people keep more of their own money".
The US tax code is still a disaster. The GOP promised a overhaul, instead they just gave a tax cut, mostly for the rich, filled with pork so they could get it passed. What the real argument here is how the money the federal government takes in should be spent. My personal wish is a much smaller military with the money going for social programs and infrastructure. I also believe under normal times such as now we should have a balanced budget, not live paycheck to paycheck, credit card to credit card.
8
The USA subsidizes the fossil industry by $20 billion a year - $14,5 of which is federal. Will these cuts be made? You are not alone. According to the IMF total government subsidies are over $5 trillion world wide to fossil fuels. Imagine the fiscal gain of $14.5 billion to health care in the USA!
4
Of course, this is the change in her paycheck, based on adjustments to withholding. There is no guarantee that the real after-tax net would be down (or up) by this amount--or any other.
Here in California, the changes to my owed tax from limiting state and local tax deductibility would not show up in a withholding difference (unless I adjusted the number of deductions).
One of my fears has been that withholding adjustments can be rigged to show a fake benefit, that would only become evident when taxes are filed -- very conveniently after the 2018 elections.
An irony is the W4 form (used to calculate withholding) adjusts using the number of personal exemptions you enter on the form--and the personal exemption (including the double exemption for blind, disabled and seniors) is gone courtesy of the same Paul Ryan.
2
Don't get me wrong, but if that woman is thrilled over her $1.50 tax cut, I'm not going to take that elation away from her.It's like some people being easily entertained.
The real issue is that in order to pay for her tax break and the millions being given to those who don't need a tax cut, we are going to be majorly on the hook to nations like China in order to borrow the money needed to pay for the government services that tax revenue will not cover.
4
Its believed that out-of-touch Paul Ryan mistook the woman's sarcasm for being 'thrilled', hence the disappearance of his tweet.
1
One thing Trump and his cohorts do well is repeat. Repeat. They tell us over and over again their main 'talking points' until they slowly seep into our minds; even if they're lies. He's said so.
People are rather lazy citizens and like being fed things; easier than actually researching and reading about them. So, we also must repeat our main values and ideas and reasons to vote Democratic. The 'french fry defense' is a good one. He actually thinks $1.50 a week is a good deal; I mean, for someone else. I'm guessing his tax cut is in the tens of thousands, if not more. Trump's is surely more.
People must be reminded of that: over and over again, quote the numbers of what the tax cut did for Trump, the top-tier and all his largest contributors. Take the mask of these so-called 'patriots' and show us where the money goes. Where the US money goes. Easy, follow the money.
4
The expansion of Community Health Centers, one of the under-recognised elements of the Affordable Care act - along with increased support for the training of Family Medicine physicians - came too late for a friend of mine. She had had a heart attack, discovered she had Type 1 diabetes and had just about no money after working at blue collar jobs her whole life. There was no health care for her - no provider, in a state with very little Medicaid and for which she could not qualify. No welfare. And so, she died, at the age of 50 or so in the richest country in the world, with the very best health care - because she couldn't get the diabetes meds she needed nor the care for her heart disease. I'm sure Orrin Hatch would consider it just another case of people getting what they deserve. Personally, I've always thought of it as murder.
7
Stop this hyperbole about " in the richest country in the world". How about the biggest debtor nation in the history of the world? Try to conceive what $20 Trillion dollars looks like, then imagine paying it off
In speaking online in 2016 with Trump supporters, who are working class (i.e. truck drivers, plumbers), I found that they could not distinguish their self-interests as working class individuals making $40-90k per year and the uber-rich billionaires with who Trump associates. They read into Trump's declarations of "draining the swamp" whatever they wanted to believe. So they wouldn't be swayed when I warned that Trump's tax cuts would not help them but would be instead helping his uber-rich associates. I don't think they are paying close enough attention or making sense of what is going on in Trump's tax bill, so I doubt they have found Trump's tax help to the 1% to show them otherwise. In other words, Trump's voters don't really understand, care, or know what to do when Trump lies and contradicts his campaign promises.
5
Paul Ryan should be asked why, exactly, he decided to delete his tweet that bragged about the $1.50 per week the hypothetical secretary will gain from the tax cut, and why, furthermore, he does not support a minimum wage law that would give her an additional $1.50 per HOUR.
6
Thank you for those last two paragraphs. These days, when I listen to Ryan, Hatch et al.,on the one hand defend the tax cut and on the other anguish over deficits and the need to cut entitlements, I feel like I'm an episode of the Twilight Zone. Maybe that explains it...I am.
5
" ... Orrin Hatch declared that we can’t 'spend billions and billions and trillions of trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves.' "
I suggest that any cuts first be applied to Congresspersons and their staffs. These are, by and large, college-educated people (frequently at public - i.e. tax-funded - colleges) who have the skills to prosper in the market economy so many of them champion. Instead of feeding at the public trough.
Yeah, I'm talking to you, Paul Ryan and Tom McClintock.
3
Actually, Dr. Krugman and those who criticize the "policy wonk" Paul Ryan is being very unfair.
What Ryan is trying to point out is the truth of the tax bill - the GOP is giving $1.50 a week to the lowly secretary but billions to the corporation and millions to the top 1%. He was being, for once, honest and instead of praise he draws criticisms.
How can we expect the politician to be honest if we don't acknowledge them when they try to be honest?
2
Also in the Times today, "Labor Dept. Plan Could Let the Boss Pocket the Tip". And, Trump appointees being Trump appointees, the hacks at DoL suppressed their own analysis showing the damage to be done to the servers if the new rule is implemented. The Democrats have been handed a campaign issue they can flog early and often.
Meantime, should this part of the GOP class warfare of legalized wage theft become official, tip in cash, folks. In cash.
6
RDG, how would tipping in cash help? Most of those who receive tips (ball boys, waiters, waitresses etc.) put tips in a “tip bucket” for all workers ( bus boys, dishwashers etc) Some keep their own tips but not all. At any rate, if this passes, what’s to stop the bosses from just taking the “tip bucket” or confiscating personal tips: “Hand them over or lose your job!” ?
1
Why do people need help from the national government to survive? Leaving aside those who are incapacitated to varying degrees by illness or inherited conditions, people need help because there are enough jobs where they live, the jobs don't pay enough to support themselves or their family and essential needs, like health care/insurance, cost far too much to afford.
All of these can be seen as the obvious fruits of a brutal enterprise system. Corporations are required to get labor as cheaply as possible. They are required to provide the minimum benefits they can get away with. The result is those at the bottom of the system, those who often do the meanest, dirtiest but essential work, get the least pay.
Republicans don't want these people to starve (really) nor do they want cancer patients sitting on sidewalks dying (kinda upsets people). They want the working poor to find a way to better themselves, to lift themselves up or, absent that, just take any job the enterprise system offers. Yet, it is the employers, the owners, along with harsh competition, that helps to force people into poverty.
The modest social programs we have, in truth, help the enterprise system to survive, but that doesn't matter to cheap politicians making promises.
Every step of the way, the Republicans move closer to securing the wealth of the wealthy and putting the squeeze on the lower economic 1/3. When you understand this, the mystery falls away from their actions like a low fog on a summer's day
4
In the fourth line above, it should read "People need help because there aren't enough jobs..."
Paul “Ayn Rand” Ryan in a rare moment of candor on Twitter expressed what Trump supporters fail to realize about about the social Darwinism of the current GOP. While Trump doesn’t read, Ryan summarized what most politicians are thinking about in protecting the 1% at the expense of the middle class and poor.
4
Does anybody know…
1. How much of the tax cut is for corporations and how much of it is for individuals?
2. Of the amount for individuals what the beakdown is for the various income levels?
3. The breakdown of the above for 2017, 2018, 2019, etc?
4. The impact on the deficit on a year-by-year basis?
5. Given the growth expectations, is there a surplus on any given year that offsets previous years’ deficits, and reduces the increase in the debt to $1.5 trillion?
6. How much of the cut is due to the reduction or elimination of the Obamacare taxes and penalty?
7. The impact on the deficit of the health care plan that will replace Obamacare?
8. How much of the reduction in the deficit is due to reductions in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?
At the very least, what are those numbers for 2018?
A large deficit in 2018, coupled with the planned reduction in the Fed’s “Quantitative Easing” policy, might cause a significant increase in long term interest rates, which could derail the stock market and even push the economy into a recession ahead of the midterms.
Paul? Your comments?
A buck fifty raise for the week? Wow. I thought it must have been a joke. It is, but somehow I don't feel much like laughing. Good luck to us all with these self involved individuals running the show.
3
That $1.50 will be further reduced when the employer seized her tips, as the Trump Labor Dept. proposes.
4
I have friends who are Republicans as well as ardent Trump supporters and they just don't get it. To decimate social support programs including social security, Medicare, and Medicaid was their plan all along. You can't support huge tax cuts without it or the federal deficit will skyrocket. Those who have money will not be affected as those who live on the margins of society--the poorly educated, the chronically ill, the elderly. These are folks that will pay, and pay dearly.
5
I always find these essays exhausting. What Mr. Krugman fails to explain is that adding about five percent to a debt that the country has no means or intentions of ever paying off is actually meaningless. The republicans could have made it ten percent, when you make 3.4 trillion, spend four and owe twenty, but for the fact that no one has called your bluff, your bankrupt. Why shouldn't our morals be too.
I think that up-tick for Republicans in polls is related to those tax cuts and I'm not at all optimistic that people will catch on to the scam. That teacher was happy with her $1.50 saying it would pay for her Costco membership. Of course, she's not thinking about what it might cost her.
If the prediction I got for my husband and me is correct, we'll get about $20 a week in cuts. We plan to celebrate by having breakfast at McDonalds.
3
GOP'ers have been getting away with this bait and switch since the Reagan years...with basically little or no consequences. This is because of the poor management (read out messaging) by the Democrats and their friends. The mainstream press is largely hamstrung by their commitment to honest and non-biased reporting. IMO nothing but perhaps a long shot spin-off from the latest women's political movement in combination with possibly a Mueller bombshell might change this dynamic enough to weaken this current Republican onslaught of our values and institutions.
3
It's even more of a scam when one considers that when the nation's credit card debt must be repaid for these tax cuts benefiting mostly the wealthy, because of the disproportional cuts the debt will have to be paid disproportionately by those who DIDN'T benefit from the cuts. It's "I'll get somebody else to pay you Tuesday for a hamburger for me today."
3
The Republicans have been laying the groundwork for a couple of decades now to "starve the beast", by abandoning the tenets of the responsible "fiscal" party in order to accumulate massive debt, so that they can do the bidding of their billionaire backers, i.e. the Kochs, etc. That bidding is to cripple social programs that are not welcomed by these conservatives, and to do so by claiming that which PK has stated in this article. The brainwashing will continue, through the likes of Norquist IIi and all of the other right wing talking heads in order to manipulate their minions keep them in power. It is up to us to vote them out and make the necessary adjustments for change.
4
The other day I read of someone who was so happy to see his paycheck increase by $200, as it would help compensate for the $300 increase in monthly health insurance payments. When the GOP can find people who celebrate losing $100/month you know we're in for trouble.
4
We borrowed $1.5 Trillion for this tax cut over 10 years. That's about $1200 per taxpayer or $100 per month. So if you don't get at least that much from the tax cut--you lose and are donating to the richest corporations. And $1.50 a week? That's about 6% of the worker's pro rata share of the debt. Not a winner.
3
This was brilliant!
I was wrong when I thought serious economists shouldn’t do comedy, but this column was an excellent mix of parody and paradox.
“What will Ryan take after he’s given a teacher a weekly serving of fries—the choice of whether she wants them along with the ability to make her own.
1
Why haven't the Democrats challenged the Republicans to justify the change in the "Estate Tax" which is not a "Death Tax" but an "Inheritance Tax"? Most large estates consist of a large amount of untaxed capital gains. The law should set a reasonable exemption amount and eliminate all the means of avoiding the tax and then tax the inheritance at a modest rate. Sort of the Republican mantra of broaden the base & lower the tax.
We could kill "Carried Interest" completely!
1
One could ask the same question about any number of topics. The
answer is clear. The democratic party has no idea what it wants
to achieve as a party, nor, what is worse, how to go about
achieving it other than forming as large an anti trump coalition as possible. Its separate special interest groups have confused
their interest with the party's. As a result, there
are many voices competing with each other for a party branding
label for what the party might stand for. This makes it impossible
to adopt a few key policy principles, of wide popularity to non trump acolytes, and to stay on message 24/7 promoting them in swing districts and purple states while not being distracted by any diversionary tweeting.
The fact that the leadership cannot figure out that this is very problematic and
requires fixing bodes badly once the big bucks kick in seriously
against democratic incumbents in (formerly) swing states. The fact that
the leadership has been completely unable to neutralize the efficacy
of the tweets to dictate the daily discourse is astounding. Wars are
lost by inept or incompetent generals.
In the meantime, the sole unifying principle is the all too easy pose of being anti trump, expressed with as much justifiable anger as possible. But that
will not help once the fall campaign begins, if we manage to get that far.
In order to avoid the endless back and forth between true believers
and committed skeptics, it is probably useful to present a numerical
based argument based upon salary range, fed new tax bracket,
and then add in some relevant data like expected state income tax
change given change in deductions for state inc taxes (does citizen
live in blue or red state, itemize deductions, etc.), expected change in
health insurance premiums due to ACA changes. Those are
the easy short term evident categories of expenses that will
determine whether the mythical secretary/teacher in question buys fries or, imagine that (!), a car (i.e. a down payment, possibly).
But as everyone must surely realize, there are many lurking state
tax increases in the works in order for at least some (blue/purple) states
to pay for items that fed govt will no longer pay for, given the size
of the tax cut. A complete plausible list of such needs compiling and publishing in order to make this discussion as evidence based as is possible these days.
Then there are the surely inevitable interest rate rises that will
be needed once the fed govt outspends its means by what
appears to be way too much and inflation finally rears its ugly
head. That will affect borrowing rates on credit cards, used
to pay either for the fries or the car.
So to avoid this, won't the only way to pare the deficit be
entitlement cuts, excuse me, "reform".
You are right about your political analysis but wrong about your economic one. As you yourself have stated many times in your blog, the government can run deficits forever as long as it can continue to make its repayments and the interest it pays doesnt soar- debt erodes with inflation over the long term. Thats why the british government is still paying off debts from the 1800s and they are tiny. I know you are trying to focus on the bait and switch but in preparation for the starving part of starving the beast, you may as well get the debt arguments warmd up as well...
3
I didn't even get fries. Along with many others in NY, NJ, CA and other states, I saw my lunch taken away, SALT and all, and maybe the house. A move to Wisconsin to vote against Ryan is in the offing.
2
Ryan's tweet was illuminating and self defining. A shot to his own foot. Just as Mitt Romney's recorded remarks in 2012 about writing off the 47% of voters who don't fully sustain themselves, use government benefits and therefore could be expected to vote Democratic. How Ryan and staff could not see how ridiculous his message was, is beyond imagining. "Out of Touch" does not begin to describe it. It shows that we don't elect the best people much of the time and that does not limit their potential for "leadership." This tweet will be a legitimate point in the coming mid-terms. And the investment markets may not look so rosy by then either, though I am not hoping for that.
2
Somebody, like George Soros, should fund public service messages that informs the public Congress did not make filling a new W4 form mandatory and they should check their deductions to make sure they will not owe in 2019. To do this they should also provide a free app that could take 2017 tax data and estimate what will owe for 2018.
1
Paul Ryan has been a smiling phony for a long time. President Obama referred to one of his earlier tax propsals as economic Darwinism. The newest plan is more of the same. He has always been sanctimonious extreme right wing elite. He likes to call himself a policy guy. He is no such thing. He is an ideology guy who has sold out hardworking Americans for 1.50.
3
Not one columnist, Democratic Congress person or average citizen mentioned a way to help the elderly. I can think of at least two: do not tax Soc. Sec., give a large tax deduction to those who buy Long Term Care Insurance to encourage them to buy it & make it affordable. That would help a lot. I’m sure we could come up with a lot more. However, you don’t see any suggestions like these.
The tax cut was an obvious scam that will do exactly what the republicans intended; make the public believe that our social programs are unsustainable and eventually make cutting them the only option. They didn't abandon their deficit argument, they simply found a more nefarious way to dismantle the social supports enacted after the great recession.
2
15 dollars an hour, right now. Way overdue. It is time for a living wage.
1
The world had changed. The real "collusion" is not limited to the elections. The American administration is clearly signalling that Putinism - authoritarian government backed by interlocking billionaires' interests - has found a resounding echo among the Republican political establishment (down to the vulgar style, avalanche of lies, attacks on the Rule of Law, religious conservatism, tolerance of white supremacy, etc.). The president is so
scared of Putin that he has to continue delivering as much destruction of America's (and the rest of Western democracies') founding principles. It sure looks like the Russian oligarch mafia system is successfully replacing Communism as the real threat. This time, it is not a Cold War, but an international Warm Embrace between the insanely rich. The Trojan horse was the Citizen's United decision, which will continue to define this era until people come to their senses and realize the mortal danger it represents. Although Europe does not have such a uniquely American scourge, it is itself vulnerable to disruptions by Putin and China's rising economic clout.
2
Well put - “Authoritarianism interlocking with the interests of billionaires” was Mussolini’s conception of Facism
I think we should calm down. Let this play out. Make deals on immigration, etc...
Nobody cares what I think anymore, so I have totally separated from politics. It's a non-issue for me.
Politicians, economists, pundits, reporters, none of these groups care what we think anymore. Good luck to you all. Our family will find a way. Good luck to everyone else.
There seems to be an implicit premise that the voting public *wants* the poor to be better off. I see no evidence of this.
What I find most hypocritical is that the real philosophy of the GOP as it rants against "Tax and Spend" is that it practices "Spend and Spend." The Republican administrations since, and including Reagan, have added much more to our debt than have the Democrats. This GOP/Trump government has put that trend into overdrive.
The numbers are real and no amount of spin can change them.
At least the Democrats are realistic enough to understand that you need to take in money in money to spend it. That insight seems lost to the GOP. Somehow the magic of tax cuts will solve all problems ... at least for the rich.
2
Oh my goodness, I'm not even sure if "out of touch" is the best way to describe the reasons for Paul Ryan's tweet. Celebrating $1.50 more a week? That's a reach.
2
The following was in the Associated Press story that Ryan based his tweet on:
"Wayne Love, who works in managed care in Spring Hill, Florida, got an extra $200 in his paycheck last week, which he said will help offset a $300 increase in the cost of his health insurance.
“I have heard time and again that the middle class is getting crumbs, but I’ll take it!” Love said by email.
"Julia Ketchum, a secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week. She didn’t think her pay would go up at all, let alone this soon. That adds up to $78 a year, which she said will more than cover her Costco membership for the year.
"And Todd Anderson of Texas and his fiance, who are both educators, got an extra $200 in their paychecks combined that they plan to use to cover the costs of a second baby on its way."
---
Based on the above, I think Mr. Love in Florida got it right: "the middle class is getting crumbs".
2
and all that dough and much,much more will go to healthcare.
I hope we have become woke and gained proper respect for our ideals enough to to vote Real American come 2018/2020.
To be clear: e.g., vote the GOP OUT and start a real march to greatness with the (yes) imperfect but very pliable Dems.
Intellectually honest politically secular Conservatives and Progressives can find place there for now to right the ship.
Understand that 42% of us will NOT see their way to vote GOP out however bad. They invariably will vote GOP mostly because they are psychologically wired to:
go authoritarian oblivious to or embracing of the dangers/obvious downsides,
hold social/economic myths cultivated by the likes of a dime store romance author
need the entity that justifies/supports their elitism, prejudices, irrational fears, scapegoating, primitive religious narratives, selfish aims
buy the catchy sound bite that makes them feel "good", "safe" "special".
So the remaining 58% of us with clarity of mind, honesty, and good heart must join forces at least for now.
As to tax cuts:
simply raising the Minimum Wage to at least $15/hour is scads better for us overall than a race to the bottom tax cut;
And isn't our physical/social health, higher education, infrastructure, innovation, and a scientific respect for the environment ABSOLUTELY key to our continued success as a Nation?
And don't we form governments and pay taxes to be sure those key monumentally BIG and important collective things are done and done right for us?
Duh!
2
It's the classic Republican Ratchet. Revenues have nothing to do with deficits; only expenditures matter,
1
I'm getting another $5.68 per week. That works out to $284 a year. No, I'm not innumerate, I knocked off two weeks because my vacation is unpaid. Well, I'm pleased that the Trump administration is covering my family's annual donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center!
4
Ours is a country that is now blatantly run by and for the oligarchs. Living in the US has gotten much more expensive for ALL but the very very top. And there is no meaningful trickle down. Ever. The double whammy will come with cuts to healthcare and social security, and those cuts will come and will be blamed on democrats and immigrants and globalization and UFOs. As a country, we are willfully uninformed. I have no faith in the electorate or the Democratic party to improve things. Trump and his ilk may be the end of days for this great country. I hope the Koch grandkids show some compassion for their subjects.
2
As the pundits like to say it, "LOOK what we do has an objective!! It helps the people who help US. Wait, we didn't say it helps the majority of American citizens. We said it helps US. How? To get re-elected. You don't really think we are here to help those large numbers of average citizens who put us in office because we LISTENED? Of course not. We follow the money, genuflect to the money, are bought off by the money. After all, you don't really think we are in politics to better the United States of America, do you? We went into politics because: we were promised things; our spouses wanted nicer houses; we couldn't make it as: business owners lawyers or accountants or anything else except as politicians.
1
Much has been written about the questionable effect of the tax cut for the middle class, but I’ve seen little about what is likely to happen to the tax windfall for corporations and the 1% when it becomes necessary to take action to address the deficit and increase revenues needed to run the government. That day will come. Does anyone take the long view, which may not be that long if the balance of power can shift in Congress? Are these tax cuts in the short term worth the tax increases that will be inevitable to restore the country to the kind of place we want to live? What can we do to restore a sense of corporate responsibility to our country? This deficit problem will not be solved by gutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and entitlements alone, and how corporations think they can be profitable without customers with disposable income after these benefit cuts, is a mystery to me.
4
Exactly. Cash-strapped, sick people aren't shelling out for goods & services.
Between 7-9 a.m. EST on 2/5/18, our comment was deleted - it had over 400 'recommends', and ranked #3 in Readers' Picks when it disappeared.
Nothing about the comment violated any NYTimes rules.
11
Nancy Pelosi described $1,000-$2,500 bonuses as crumbs. In her and Paul's rarefied crowd that is probably true. In Ryan's district a free fries iare welcome. Who is out of touch??
2
Who do you know who's getting a $2,500 bonus, or even a $1,000 bonus?
There would be no bonuses at all if the tax scam were not so geared to favor the wealthy (private jet deductions, etc.). Big business needed for political reasons to pretend that employees would share in a meaningful way in the huge tax cuts.
The bonuses are strictly for show. For example, Walmart gave out little bonuses and then closed a slew of stores. But regardless of meager, one-time bonuses, their workers are still so poorly paid that they qualify for government assistance programs. So the US subsidizes Walmart's profits and the gargantuan wealth of its owners. And then whines that Walmart's employees are gaming the system.
Is that why you voted for Trump (if you voted)? Did he promise you a small bag of fries along with his rampant racism? Are you sick and tired of winning yet?
It’s chump-change for chumps.
Bill, the bonuses ARE crumbs. They are being given to people who have worked for years, not recently hired. Wartmart, I think 20 years. That's $50/yr bonus. Big whoop. Must have raised that minimum wage at least a few pennies an hour.
Mr. Krugman's point, that the minimal tax cut for most people will be offset by future social spending reductions, is well-taken, there is a much simpler, more direct, point to make. Included in the tax "cut" bill is the elimination of the requirement to carry personal health insurance or pay a penalty. There is a unanimous agreement among economists that this will increase insurance premiums by a meaningful amount. So, any person who pays insurance premiums just got a tax increase. And yet, this simple fact, two weeks after passage of the bill, is no longer referenced in any cataloging of the bill's impacts. We do know, however, that Melania is upset with Donald. So, there's that...
26
The tax bill was rushed, but also contrived. Apparently, Mnunchin and Mulvaney are behind this bait and switch for the little guy: told to use out of date 2017 tax tables to calculate witholdings.
So, for 2018, paychecks look larger than they should be making workers think they got a nice tax cut. Based on out of date tables, they will be playing catchup ball in April of 2019, when it's too late to get angry and vote.
This move was calculated and deliberate. Just as the tax bill was calculated and deliberate to stiff Democratic voting states.
The GOP has weaponized even the dreary work of tax collection to increase their chances in the midterms.
I"m glad there's a lawsuit over this--isn't it bad enough that Republicans hijack the truth without hijacking revenue collection?
Again, this is all the result of Citizens United. your government--brought to you by millions in dark money from American oligarchs, and Russian political funding through the NRA.
86
I've read several of your comments and have to commend you on your clarity. Thank you for your input.
And, don't forget, the IRS was not given adequate time to figure out new withholding amounts. I am a tax preparer and I am warning everyone who will listen that, although your standard deduction has doubled, your personal exemptions are now gone according to the law. So if you are a family of 3, that's $12,150- you can no longer subtract from you taxable income. In many families, that is a wash with the increased standard deduction. My point is don't be surprised if you owe money in April 2019 since this was all so rushed.
74
@dcf - Yes, yes, yes; Dems say the tax tables deliberately under withhold, and have ordered an investigation:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-administration-opt...
26
I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who noticed that if you’re married and have more than one kid, your taxable income increases. Also, without exemptions, there is no way on your W -4 to adjust your withholding for deductions greater than the standard deduction. Not that we know what is deductible anymore.
The IRS, already short staffed, lost 6,000 employees last year. Who knows, maybe Mnuchin will figure out there is a little more to his job than ogling the gold at Ft Knox, fondling money at the mint, and writing policy on napkins over cocktails. Not to mention finding sources outside of Forbes magazine to identify Russian bad actors.
1
Whatever Trump does is some kind of scam. The spectacle of his ongoing enablement leaves very little hope for the future of the US.
1
When the Irish Famine was underway, same arguments as Hatch declared. Yes the poor are always with us and people who won't help themselves is the prhase the great Orrin Hatch used tin the tax reform debate. The Irish death toll was in the millions. Jonathan Swift wrote his famous treatise about cooking babies for food, he the Irish theologian, also a moralist. How in the middle of so much need not only for living wages but for infrastructure spending (which would employ people and repair our old and crumbling transportation network, place rapid rail in places where needed, etc.) and other necessary expenditures of a modern, civilized society. What will make America great? Is this the argument globalization, or a race to the bottom? How about that tax benefit to the wealthy? Or the moon shot, or driverless cars.
33
Very short version
The US tax reform, as the French tax reform under Macon, is the response to global competition for corporation to locate. 9 days later, the PRC suspended capital taxes on US companies to prevent them from leaving.
Paul Krugman is a life long advocate of globalization
As to pass trough, 21 days after the reform passed, Walmart increased its minimum starting wage to $11 an hour, specifically citing the Trump tax cut. Paul Krugman predicted it would take years.
Paul Krugman neither understands that the globalization he advocated would inevitably lead to global competition in taxation, nor the speed at which the modern economy operates.
7
So to summarize your point, the return of American corporations to America was short-circuited by a Chinese taxcut. Because of the taxcuts, tax revenues that could of supported social safety and general infrasture in both countries has been cut. However, the revenue however now accrues to the corporations, most of which is distributed, not to low-level employees, but to the shareholders and management. So, how's your point any different than Krugman's (other than citing Walmart's self-serving pr release for a wage rise that could easily explained best by the tightened labor market)?
125
In 2018, how much of the tax cut is for corporations and how much of it is for individuals?
If the debt will increase by $1.5 trillion in 10 years, the average increase in the deficit (and in the debt) will be $150 billion per year. How much will the deficit be in 2018, if any? Or will there be a surplus despite the effect of the accelerated depreciation rules? Will there be a surplus in 2019?
What will the effect be on long term interest rates in 2018? On mortgage rates? On the construction industry? Will there be layoffs? Will the increase in coal industry jobs, and in another industries, more than compensate any layoffs in the construction, clean energy (solar panel installation, for example) and other industries? What effect will all this have on the stock market?
Which of these effects will be felt before the November midterms and how strongly?
Will there be another downgrade in the rating of US Treasury bonds, resulting in even higher long term rates?
Are companies that want to sell their products in the US now going to locate their new factories in the US, and not in China or France, for example? Will they close any factories they now have in China? If so, how will this affect Chinese imports of US goods and services?
How about the ones that want to sell their products in China?
How will the US react to the above? Will there be a race to the bottom in taxes?
10
@Eben Espinoza SF
Economics are not Woof's strong point and he has some weird animus against Krugman.
9
I am confident in the wisdom of the voters. There are many factors that have, are, and will contribute to their vote in November. Election results in Virginia, New Jersey are signaling that voters are having a negative reaction to the approach taken by both the White House and the Congress. It also appears that tax revenues are in decline and a new debt limit crisis may hobble the implementation of needed fixes to our major commerce systems like public works, transportation, healthcare and education delivery.
It also would appear that our most urgent priority of developing technologies to meet the challenge of eventually ending the dependence of the US. and the World on fossil fuels is unnecessarily being delayed and is putting the US at a competitive disadvantage in the World future. We will need an entirely different transport system (no small challenge) and a new source of energy that does not depend on fossil fuel combustion. This is a tall order and probably is the greatest challenge that the World and the US have faced in the history of humankind. This will require a total shift in the holders of World capital and will need to be managed with finesse, So new candidates should begin to define policy responses to educate the public what will occur when the government is changed.
23
On the way to becoming more and more a Banana Republic. Americans are just not watching and reading all the can. News outside urban areas are limited to sports, religious preachers, celebrity news. I guess real news is just not interesting. Our can mania man in the White House really knows how to sell his lies well. So the debt accumulates as billioniars make all laws. I bet after eight years we will have a big deficit again (as we did after Reagan and Bushes reign). Then the democrats will be left once again with raising taxes. The billionaires will by then have hidden their billions in tax havens of shore and never be taxes. What a scam. Our infrastructure in urban areas are continue to suffer under this administration. Higher education is the highest in the world, yet doesn't necessarily get you a good jobs that lets you pay back the debt, now at 1,4 trillion. I travel a bit and see how Europe and Canada has a richer life, work less, have good labor laws and unions that truly work with employers. The infrastructure, trains and roads are beautiful, unlike here. The rhetorics continue to blind citizens here. The voter laws are designed to favor the wealthy, with citizens united and voter districts redrawn to favor the republicans who by now should be clear to anyone to favor the billionaires .
4
"I am confident in the wisdom of the voters.". you mean the same group of people who elected Trump (understandable is view of the alternatives) and continue to support him now (not understandable)? Good luck with that.
You confidence in the wisdom of the voters is misplaced. Exhibit #1: President Trump.
Doing the French thing in the US
Thomas Piketty, of "Capital in the 21st Century fame, observed that Macron in France and Trump passed. down to the details, the same tax reform. (Trump, Macron: même combat)
How can this be ?
"one the vulgar American businessman with his xenophobic tweets and global warming scepticism; the other, the well-educated, enlightened European with his concern for dialogue between different cultures and sustainable development" (Thomas Piketty 12/12/17))
There are two explanations
1. Both are equally mean spirited
2. Both could not be more different, but have been forced by global competition (globalization) re capital gains taxes, wealth taxes, corporate taxes to adopt the same tax strategy
Mr. Krugman prefers the first, and as a relentless advocate of globalizaton ("In praise of Cheap Labor") will never admit to the second as it would prove that he did not understand the distributive effects of his (now largely wrong proven) theory
However , after 9 days the Republican tax reform passed on Dec 19th, the NY Times reported on Dec 28:
" China said on Thursday that it would temporarily exempt foreign companies from paying tax on their earnings, a bid to keep American businesses from taking their profits out of China following Washington’s overhaul of the United States tax code"
Global competition in taxation is real, and of all American Economists Mr Krugman contributed more to it than any other - without understanding how.
8
How in the world did Krugman contributed to global competition? I thought it was companies trying to save on labor costs.
1
We get that. But why does Google get to live here, use our services, and then funnel their profits overseas to pay less taxes? When they cite the US having the highest corporate tax rate it is a lie simply because none of them pay that rate. They lowered the rate and left all of the exemptions. we will end up yet again subsidizing corporations. Republicans don't mind corporate welfare. They just hate feeding and sheltering humans.
1
You're overplaying your hand. Not being an abonné of Le Monde, I don't have access to the full article behind the paywall. However, a quick look at the non-payant part gives "des réformes fiscales similaires" ("similar fiscal reforms"), "les similitudes" ("similarities"), and "des réformes fiscales extrêmement proches" ("extremely close [i.e. similar] fiscal reforms").
Is it impolite to point out that "similar" and "the same" are similar but not the same?
On the other hand, is it possible to pass a bill for more than one reason? Is it possible to mitigate or attenuate the effects of a measure that may be in some respect necessary and in others harmful?
Your are correct to say "well, we’ll see in November." I have my doubts about the wisdom of a wide portion of the electorate. Will at least some of Trump's followers realize they've been conned by then? And I have doubts that among those who do have wisdom, there will be enough motivation and participation to increase the progressive tally enough to turn the House and Senate. It's a long road to November, so we better keep fighting.
43
If enough people are deluded into thinking that expiring tax cut really makes their lives appreciably better and they are headed for the middle and upper middle class slots, we'll have Trump again, we'll keep the greedy, jaded Republican Congress which, it appears more and more from those who've had it and are leaving, is the nastiest place on earth to wind up. Trey Gowdy has said, and I believe him because he was their henchman, winning is everything. Nothing else matters. That one sentence should terrify all Americans and wake them up. The racists are delighted to have Trump because they think it's going to give them top perch over all whose skin is a different color and that they will have plenty of money. If this continues, they will get the first but they're going to be broker than they are now. It is a long road to November. The deficit is going to hit sooner than the
Republican Congress anticipated and the bills are going to start coming due and the coffers will be empty because tax deductions have already started showing up meaning less money in the Fed bank account. Then there's talk of a huge gas tax and other things because after all, those brilliant financial wizards, Trump and Ryan, are just going to make up the difference by taking everything away. You didn't get a tax cut. You got rooked, America.
You really put your finger on it; will the voters realize how they've been conned? And will they turn out to vote?
1
The publisher I work for was just bought by a corporation that used several hundred million dollars from the Koch Brothers to supplement its offer. None of us know what's going to happen, except that those of us who are on hourly wages will see our paychecks shrink--a corporate decision that was made several months ago. (Since I'm past retirement age, I just feel lucky to still have the work.) It's true that publishing is a struggling industry, and every new technological innovation causes upsets and adjustments, but now that so many people expect to get their news and information free from the TV and internet, it's in real jeopardy. I don't expect to gain much from the Republican tax cuts--in fact, I have a feeling I'll be losing, one way or another.
53
The Republican plan is not a scam. They really believe that we are not each others' keepers, and that any programs that assume we are, are socialist or communist or redistribution and therefore unamerican and a violation of the property and property rights of those with property. They believe that our inalienable rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness are rights not to have our lives, liberties, or the property that makes us happy interfered with by government.
The right to life does not mean that the government must keep you alive to the extent that this is economically feasible. It just means that government will not kill you or let others kill you. It does not mean that if the economy decides you are not worth keeping alive (you have no savings and cannot find a job that will pay for food, medical care, etc.), government has a duty to enforce your right to life by overriding the economy and keeping you alive. Charity may be available, but you have no right to it.
Since presumably a majority of us do not believe this at present, Republicans are duplicitous in advocating policies based on this understanding of rights, and are trying to implement them slowly and partially enough that we will not notice. So the real meaning of the debate over entitlements is whether we are going to cut the standard of living and the standard of medical care for those without adequate private savings. But Republicans manage to stop it from being discussed this way.
115
you're stating the Libertarian position (which i agree with), not the Republican position (which only pretends to be libertarian'ish when it's politically useful).
Over my lifetime I paid tens of thousands of Medicare tax. Anyone saying Medicare should be cut is going to have one badger-like opponent. I paid up front for my benefits. Hands off.
1. As Bill Clinton said in 2012 - “Democrats believe that we are all in this TOGETHER; and, Republicans believe that you are ON YOUR OWN.”
2. Republicans also cynically use Right to Life as a wedge issue. They deny a mother the right to choose; but, do not provide medical care, food and other basic subsistence rights to families in need.
Please consider this comment and similar comments when you vote in 2018.
Now … why did I think that Ryan (or SOMEONE on the illuminati side of the aisle in the House) thought that $1.50 per week could buy a worker a new car? That’d be a TON better than a small McDonald’s fries.
Republicans claim that the tax bill will put substantial added disposable income into workers’ pockets: using an online tax calculator to test this for a typical American worker ($45,000-$75,000 income, non-itemizer, head-of-household with 2 or more children), I got 4.3% additional disposable income in 2018. For that $45,000 earner, that’s $1,935, and for the $75,000 earner, that’s $3,225. That’s not chicken-feed. Period.
Oh, but that same typical earner will be paying about 5% MORE taxes in 2026! Hell, I don’t even know if I’ll be ALIVE in 2026 (I’ll be 71). Then, that assumes that the undivided Republican government of THAT time would commit the political suicide of TAKING that additional 5% from the middle-class.
And I STILL haven’t stopped laughing at Democrats all of a sudden getting religion about deficits and the debt. Again, Republicans expect that net federal tax revenues will go UP on lower marginal rates for everyone but the upper-middle-class and the wealthy as the economy expands in response to the lower corporate tax rate and added disposable income by the vast majority of American workers – more jobs, higher wages, a dramatically higher labor participation rate.
Out of “French Fry” excuses yet?
Of course not. Bring it.
2
Wherever there is competition, the corporate tax cut will be used to lower prices, Richard, and that will just reduce the economic product statistic.
9
Steve:
I doubt it.
With the opportunity to keep more of the profits they generate, and with more disposable income in the hands of workers through lower taxes that will spike demand, corporations are likely to start investing more robustly in GENERATING more in order to EARN more. That means jobs, organic competition for skills and bodies to satisfy that increased demand, and higher wages as a consequence of that greater competition. A virtuous cycle will have been re-ignited.
It's already happening.
1
Richard - You are simply making the argument for trickle-down economics. Return money to the rich and corporations and they will send it down the economic food chain. I challenge you to point to one single incident where this has actually worked. Look at the result in Kansas when Brownback used this philosophy. What the philosophy fails to recognize, is demand is what causes businesses to expand, not cash or tax breaks. The cash will go to the stockholders in the form of dividends or be used for industry consolidations, which are almost never good for the customers or employees. Companies that receive tax breaks, don't increase wages as that creates a long-term expense that will continue long after taxes must be raised due to deficits.
This race to the bottom on taxes for countries to compete in the Global Economy is incompatible with the practice of the US, being the world's military protector. We can't afford the continued rise in our military spending and the cuts to social programs that will be attempted. Countries like Luxembourg that have no military expense can drop their tax rates to much lower than we will ever be able to, and therefore, the race to the bottom is already lost.
14
This whole things stinks, stinks, stinks. First make tax cuts that don't add up and are already adding to the debt. Then protect Trump at all costs,even though his grift and unfitness for office is staring everyone in the face. If this isn't some republican Razmataz.
73
Cutting funds for community health centers is the least we have to worry about from Ryan and company. We're all aware that Republicans in general, and Ryan in particular, would just love to get their claws into Social Security and Medicare (let alone Medicaid) given that those are the programs that eat up our tax revenues. Trump is on record as being opposed to making those cuts but when has a promise or a principle ever stopped The Donald from doing what congressional conservatives think best?
94
Stu -
Those of us who run community health centers don't think it is the "heart." Nor do our millions of patients.
1
Notice that the same R's have no problem with increasing military ("defense") spending in an irresponsible manner, no matter whether it is needed or not. Guns not guns and butter. And scare people to believe that not one penny less can be spent. But use Walmart/Amazon tactics so the worst paid in the military survive on Food Stamps and other "handouts". Best practices from private industry you see.
1
With an aging population and concomitant increases in dementia and the need for adult day care those community health centers will be in desperate need.
The tax cut is "free" right now. But it won't be in the years to come. Deficits will increase and the GOP and their supporters will say that we have no choice but to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, education, research....the list goes on.
When the history of this era is written, future scholars will note that the Republicans took care of the people who needed it the least, and abandoned those who needed it the most -- all the while proclaiming the importance of their Christian faith.
312
Your point about the historical record will surely be proven true. As for those religious sorts, it's tempting to recite an old poem that used to hang on an office wall in dad's lumber yard: “When the one great scorer come to write against your name, He'll judge not that you won or lost, but how you played the game.” Unfortunately, many of them either can't see how everything is totally rigged in favor of the wealthy, or they're shameless hypocrites who couldn't possibly care any less about life's inherent unfairness and social injustice.
56
Larry’s comment highlights the hypocrisy of the “so-called” Christian evangelicals who support the Republican fat cats. The evangelicals should reread their Bibles and note that Jesus spent substantially all of his time among the needy and humble masses.
1
We will not have the choice of raising taxes again because the money will flee offshore.
1
“Let them eat french fries” - ha, that's a good one, as a local service reminder, however, school lunch programs are hardly sacrosanct as long as Republicans are in control. I'm sorry to admit that a lot of people very close to me both young and old are Republicans, and some of them have disowned me over my “lefty” political views. Adding insult to injury, even a few school teachers and other underpaid working professionals whom Democrats have long supported now side with the Guilty Obstructionist Party. One of the reasons they give is abortion, and that is the most offensive excuse of all for me.
I deplore abortion every bit as much as they do, but far more despicable to me is seeing the very party that makes supporting a young life next to impossible score political points off of other people's utter desperation. Now that they have the presidency and majorities in both parts of Congress, why aren't we hearing a lot more from Republicans about abortion now, and why did the “Trump Towers Tax Act” come first? Anyone can see why: abortion is not truly high among their priorities, at all – like race-baiting and other Republican tactics, it's merely something to sucker people out of their votes.
210
Yes, and i remember during the Reagan era that the Republicans decided that ketchup could count as a vegetable for the school lunch program. That told me all I needed to know about Republicans.
4
A lot of the race-baiting is quite genuine, not merely a political ploy. That is what so shocked and disgusted me in the 2016 presidential campaign. We progressives can't make sense of it. (People can't really still think that way, can they?) But, yes, it's become apparent that Trump voters and Repubs in general really are that racist.
4
Abortion needs to be off the table. It’s a decision between a woman and her physician. Let’s not turn our country into “The Handmaids Tale”.
4
And while we're talking about crumbs of $1.50 a week (hooray?) my health insurance which as a farmer I pay for myself was increased by 58% this year for an additional $6000 thanks to the GOP war on the ACA and their tax bill. Don't think I'll see any "crumbs" from their actions that will counteract the additional costs of GOP policy.
449
The main reason I quit the Farm Bureau is that they support Republican policies that favor large corporate farms, not the small farmer like us. Vote with your feet, folks.
5
Susan, you as a farmer have assets, real estate property and equipment, no doubt some savings, a home and car. Over half the population of the United States, the richest country the world has ever known, does not have a thousand dollars saved for an emergency.
Susan, if you get sick, without health insurance, you could lose all of your assets. (The leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is illness, even for people that have health insurance.) Half the country has little or no assets, therefore nothing to lose if they get sick and have to go to the community hospital down the street, that is free. The ACA, for these people, (half the country), was just another monthly bill they could not afford, for something they didn't need. (A backstop to avoid a loss of assets.)
Knowing these facts, is it any wonder the Republicans used the ACA as a cudgel to win all the power in the Federal government? Obama, was in a bubble, surrounded by people that value health insurance because they could afford it, they had assets to protect!
As a contractor myself, I valued the ACA to bring health insurance down, it worked, especially if you were self employed. I believe the insurance companies used the self employed to subsidize the break they gave to big corporations.
The answer, of course, is single payer universal healthcare, which we will never see in the U.S. All congress is completely bought off, Republicans and Democrats.
4
The bait-and-switch scam that Krugman decries didn’t appear out of thin air. It was devised by some very rich people as part of a long-term strategy. Why do they care so much? Is it really about money? Or is it something deeper, more visceral, a need to dominate and impoverish everyone else?
The great English historian, R.H. Tawney, in his magisterial work, “Religion and the Rise of Capitalism" (1926), tells us that by the mid 1600’s, most English Puritans saw in poverty "not a misfortune to be pitied and relieved, but a moral failing to be condemned, and in riches, not an object of suspicion ... but the blessing which rewards the triumph of energy and will.”
This ideal of individual morality, derived from Calvin, has been with us ever since. But it has surfaced with renewed zeal in our time, with men like the Koch bothers, Robert Mercer, Art Pope and Sheldon Adelson determined to spend whatever it takes to replace democracy as we know it—a leveling force—with a fascistic, plutocratic model of government.
For these billionaires, however, religion is not the motivator. Rather, it's how they see themselves, their self image, that drives their lust for power, their need to dominate. They are the "makers," deserving, while the rest of us are "takers," undeserving and cadging off their efforts. Identity politics isn’t just for Democrats anymore.
For a penetrating interpretation, see George Monbiot’s short but defining piece in The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/p5dg6b5
577
Exactly so, and Monblot's article illuminates. As usual, Mr. Cohen, your post is penetrating and astute. The real motivation goes even deeper, to the dilemma and tension of individual human consciousness itself, but this is most helpful.
26
And Rebekah Mercer, worse than her father, by what I've read. And a corral-ful of Texas billionaires who made all those billions all by themselves.
33
A friend of mine, a former attorney for a large corporation, once told me, "They really believe that the guy who dies with the most money wins."
4
Paul Ryan was raised on Social Security. His family wouldn't have made it without the government's help. Ryan grows up (on Social Security) becomes a lawmaker, and wants to take away from others the very thing that gave him a step up when his family was down and out.
946
I'm no fan of Paul Ryan but I doubt this information is correct. Ryan's father was a prominent attorney in Janesville, WI and died suddenly when Ryan was 16. His mother then went back to work. Maybe (or maybe not) the family collected Social Security after the death but it seems like a mischaracterization to say that he "was raised on Social Security."
4
The point is Jim that the social safety net is there for when citizens find themselves in circumstances where they can't make it on their own. Whether it is for a week or a lifetime, a compassionate society net recognises this.
56
Absolutely, Linda of Oklahoma. What the likes of Paul Ryan blithely skim is that we know he lived on government support -- what he would call "the dole." We are quite sure his mother was "able bodied" and "should have" held down a job--or three--after her husband, his father, died. How lazy could she be? Could Ryan please explain how THAT was OK, how he square that in his own life while other are stripped under his withering judgement?
We the people, the majority of us, are paying attention. We will not forget the $1.50/week touted as something we should be unendlingly grateful for as the Koch's, the Mercers and the like are awash is millions more. We will not forget. Never forget.
12
The GOP is on a high after the tax cuts: their success made them feel like those masters of the universe they are serving, their true constituents, with, as you said, some crumbs set out for the mice. Their campaigns will be funded at even more obscenely high levels, and that is going to be tough to fight successfully.
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Republicans who voted "yes" to the tax overhaul knew they'd be enshrining their own golden parachute. Their millions gained in Congress would be protected from taxes and they'd have lucrative options to consult for their rich benefactors--once they leave office. What a shameful, arrogant bunch.
76
"Their campaigns will be funded at even more obscenely high levels, and that is going to be tough to fight successfully. "
I don't know, Cheryl, if the Democrats manage to find candidates who really inspire the electorate (such as Obama in 2008) maybe they will be able to survive even in the face of the onslaught of opposition money. The Democrats made a big mistake in ignoring/belittling the Sanders campaign in 2016, which did NOT depend on megadonors.
I hope the Democrats are able to find enough really good candidates in the mid-terms to turn this horrible situation around. Of course, the Republicans will just go back to obstructing, as they did under Obama, but at this point, I think gridlock would be a lot better than allowing Trump and the GOP to just gallop forth with their terribly destructive agenda.
“…anything that reduces revenue will eventually have to be offset by later tax increases or spending cuts…”
Eventually. Unless GDP and tax revenues increase as claimed.
In the meantime it will have to be financed, which means that long term interest rates will rise.
This may negatively impact new home construction and home rentals, and result in layoffs. It may also impact the stock market.
56
The economy is a balancing act. This tax "reform" is a major distortion of the status quo. A radical change that may have consequences unthought out by the "geniuses" who passed it. The premises are entirely based on right wing theories of how things should be, rather than on a careful analysis of how things actually are and how things actually work. So their fantasy is that giving the wealthy a huge tax break will result in higher economic activity that will in turn solve all our problems. But there is nothing in past history to back that up. In fact, a lot of the wealthy adhere to the idea that the game is to amass as much wealth as possible and to get it by any means necessary. Then you build a castle, get a lot of guns or security guards, and keep the riff raft at bay. Sounds wonderful eh?
It was obvious that tax cut would end up giving a pittance to the majority of workers -- including those bonuses, basically a one time deal Republicans just aren't interested in benefitting the masses, they believe in individualism, every man/woman for themselves, making it the land of opportunity -- ideas that are great and may have applied in earlier times but not responsive to today's problems - need for affordable health care, providing a safety net for the poor etc in other words evolving, like other countries have.
66
In 2014, the top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97.3 percent of all individual income taxes while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.7 percent. The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid more than the bottom 90 percent combined. The individual income tax is a progressive tax and has never fallen disproportionately on the poor since it was implemented in 1913. So, if there is a deficit in the future from the tax cut, any tax increases will fall on the upper 50 percent with a significant portion falling on the top 1 percent.
On the other hand, payroll and sales taxes are regressive. The corporate income tax is also a regressive abomination that falls disproportionately on the poor and middle class who purchase products from corporations. That's because any corporation has to make a market profit to survive and the prices on products are adjusted to account for a market return.
By cutting the corporate tax, we made the US much more competitive against just about every country in the world. I know because I've been a professional and leader in international tax with major corporations my whole 40 year career. Boards of Directors make decisions daily about where to locate businesses based in part on tax rates. I've had to advise them that the US was not a favorable tax location. I can now say that the US is very attractive. At the same time, we relieved the poor and middle class of an unseen regressive tax that Krugman and many others obviously fail to understand.
11
Best guess is that Paul Krugman understands the impact of the corporate tax cuts as well as anyone. He has been less harsh on this aspect than on much of the rest of the alleged "tax reform" package.
His point has been that cuts to the corporate tax accrue mostly to corporate executives and those who own corporations including via owning stock. In short, it is a fantasy to claim workers in US factories or purchasers of consumer products will see a significant benefit from the stock buy-backs, and increased dividends and large corporate bonuses that will absorb most of the tax dollars saved by companies.
US companies look mostly to total costs when siting new production facilities, including wages paid employees, and secondary costs like site building, pollution controls needed, and impact of corporate taxation.
Any company needing lots of labor at a facility will be most strongly influenced by local wage rates. For activities that require local work--like solar installation--local wages are mandatory in whatever markets are targeted.
Companies should not get a "free pass" any more than all teachers, medical workers, police, and firemen should get a "free pass" because what they do benefits everyone, ignoring the benefits to all (including corporations) taxes purchase).
50
Cry me a river. Most corporations don't pay even close to the tax rate their hired lobbyists say is so punitive. Some corporations even pay a negative tax, receiving more from the federal government than they pay in. If the new tax overhaul cut loopholes that would be something--but tax experts say it doesn't and they documented 35-pages worth.
The Games They Will Play: Tax Games, Roadblocks, and Glitches Under the New Legislation
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3084187
17
“…By cutting the corporate tax, we made the US much more competitive against just about every country in the world…”
Does this mean that a company that wants to sell its products in the US should now locate its new factory in the US and not in China, for example?
How about a company that wants to sell its products in the Eurozone, or in Japan, or in China, should it now locate its new factory in the US and not somewhere else, for example?
“I know because I've been a professional and leader in international tax with major corporations my whole 40 year career. Boards of Directors make decisions daily about where to locate businesses based in part on tax rates. I've had to advise them that the US was not a favorable tax location. I can now say that the US is very attractive.”
Is there a difference between “tax location” and the location of the factory?
10
Eminence, (as high priest of the Keynesians) might we suggest that in honor of Lyin' Ryan's french fry 'gaffe', we all start calling the Trump Tower Tax Cut a "loot-and-switch", thereby recognizing the Vulture GOP'er crowd's attempt on a grander scale doing to Social Security and 'entitlements' the same gutting they've done up and down Wall Street and Main Street for 40 years ?
It's really sad Matt Taibbi has already taken the descriptor "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money" for Goldman Sachs - the phrase so aptly fits the GOP'er party which will soon clamor for budget cuts, screaming 'deficit deficit deficit' over what they themselves created only 6 weeks ago.
You're right the transparency is obvious; painfully so.
And lost in all the nothingburger Memo kerfuffle last week was news that in 2019, the GOP'er House, GOP'er Senate, and GOP'er prez will increase borrowings some 84% over 2018:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/02/03/the-u-s-governmen...
in order that 1%ers like His Unhinged Unfitness, Congress, Senators and the Koch Bros. Inc./Adelson/Mercer combine can stuff their pockets.
Such news could cause markets to suddenly decline by 666 points - or more.
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Does anybody know…
1. How much of the tax cut is for corporations and how much of it is for individuals?
2. Of the amount for individuals what the beakdown is for the various income levels?
3. The breakdown of the above for 2017, 2018, 2019, etc?
4. The impact on the deficit on a year-by-year basis?
5. Given the growth expectations, is there a surplus on any given year that offsets previous years’ deficits, and reduces the increase in the debt to $1.5 trillion?
6. How much of the cut is due to the reduction or elimination of the Obamacare taxes and penalty?
7. The impact on the deficit of the health care plan that will replace Obamacare?
8. How much of the reduction in the deficit is due to reductions in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?
At the very least, what are those numbers for 2018?
A large deficit in 2018, coupled with the planned reduction in the Fed’s “Quantitative Easing” policy, might cause a significant increase in long term interest rates, which could derail the stock market and even push the economy into a recession ahead of the midterms.
Paul? Your comments?
The Devil will make them do it.
This is exactly the kind of re-branding that Democrats need to learn - Trump Tower Tax Cut. Yes!!! Really sums it up in a memorable way.
I really feel that the Democrats should throw the midterm elections. Give Republicans 4 years of control of the Senate, Congress and Presidency. They would then have to own all of their sweeping changes. I feel if the Democrats get the House or Senate in 2018, then the usual Republican blame game will convince people that we were on the right track and once again derailed by the Democrats. It would have some real tragic consequences, but it may convince the majority of the 99% that the Republicans only listen to the 1%.
34
No, then they'd just cancel the 2020 elections. I think two years of untrammeled Republicanism will show anyone who's paying attention what the Republican goals are.
No. People's lives shouldn't be casually tossed aside to prove a point.
Might agree if it weren’t for the courts. No backsies there.
Sadly, the Republicans never stop proving H.L. Mencken's timeless observation that no one ever went broke by underestimating the American public.
171
Winter is coming.
47
Ryan and the GOP have nothing but contempt for the poor. Just thinking they can buy someone off with 1.50 a week should be viewed as an insult. Nothing more than teasing a dog with a morsel and then making him beg for it. It is surprisng that they formented anger against Obamacare by pointing out that some working people get less than the poorer people below them. Let me point out the fact that the rich or those richer than the 1.50 lady will get much more than her. Angry now? Or just stupid.
63
Alan, you have expressed the feelings and thoughts of thousands! Thank you !
What gets me is that the Trump supporters still think he has done something!
Four cents an hour raise. For a person working 40 hours per week, that is all an extra 150 cents amounts to (actually 3.75 cents per hour).
37
Back when I was in college in the late 50s and working for the summer at Lord and Taylor I received a raise from $1.00 per hour to $1.02. Actually for a summer part timer it was a big bonus. Eventually I got to $1.05 and my first job out of college paid $1.10. When my husband first graduated from law school the average starting attorney in Seattle made $3000 per year!
7
But back then you could buy a full-size car for $3,000, and gas was 30 cents a gallon.
1
Yes, but what did a car, lodging or a meal cost at that time. Can't compare that with today.
1
Yes, the purpose of recent tax cut is to blow up the deficit and then cut funding to, and destroy all social programs because these attempt to create a level playing field.
But that's only part of the picture. The longterm the goal of the GOP and Trump, is to create a society ruled by the .0001 percent and their heirs. They want to eliminate a merit based economy and create an small plutocracy where inherited wealth allows their idiot sons and daughters rule. This is the real GOP hustle. So we all need to vote...While we still can.
368
It sounds fantastical--out of a weird sci-fi tale. But how else to explain it?
1
It is ironic that the US Supreme Court upheld Citizens United in the name of free speech, and that the decision gives the moneyed class more freedom to trample so many others.
2
“The long term goal of the GOP ... is to create a society ruled by the .001 percent and their heirs.”
Really?
How about a counter tweet from a democratic leader estimating how many freedom fries a man like Martin Shkreli would take home from this deal, if he weren't already in the big house.
25
There is no denying that many Republicans are good Christians.
10
Paul Ryan is supposedly a "devout" Catholic. Not much of a consciousness that I can see. The majority of republicans have supported the move to take health care away from people, and other social safety nets also. And by the way, there are very decent and honest Jewish people, Muslims, atheists etc. Christians don't have a monopoly on doing the right thing- far from it!
Christians. Not necessarily good. Good implies following what Jesus said.
There is no denying that many Republicans are good Christians, as long as you mean they sanctimoniously give only lip service and in their heart and deeds serve another master. NOT if you use the word to mean a follower of Christ.
The degree of odiousness of Paul Ryan is appalling. The $1.50 is a grim glimpse into his cluelessness. Horridly, so many fragile people will be cruelly hurt by his casual evil.
290
I wonder when Ryan went grocery shopping for a family of 4 with a $100 for a week. He would probably Just get enough for 1 meal and be surprised that it did't last 1 month. No clue to the real world and the way people live.
4
The American voters chose Trump. That was stupid. I doubt that they are clever enough to understand that the millionaire's tax cut will result in cuts to Social Security and Medicare among other programs.
377
The majority of American voters did not, in fact, choose Trump. The Electoral College and gerrymandered voting districts chose Trump.
3
The American voters choose Hillary (3 million or so more than Trump), unfortunately, one person one vote doesn't count here in the good ole USA!
Leave it to the electoral college to put the power to elected a President into the hands of the few who seemly are most in need of social programs.
2
American voters chose Hillary Clinton. The Electoral College chose Trump.
3
Speaker Ryan missed his century:
"Many thousands are in want of common necessaries..."
“Are there no prisons?”
“Plenty of prisons…”
“And the Union workhouses,” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“Both very busy, sir…”
“Those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
391
Yes....having just watched Victoria ...the episode about the Irish Potatoe famine...I wonder will people look back at us in 100 years and wonder how we could be so cruel.
2
And these were all recommendations made by Scrooge for a government solution to the problems of the day.
The counter argument was individual charity would carry the day - digging into our individual pockets to provide relief.
But you knew that, didn't you?
Ayn Rand couldn't have said it better.
Thank You, Professor Krugman!
Keep up the good work. Voters have a lousy memory, and Fox Entertainment News is on all the time.
Eight-and-a-half months to go 'til Americans can #DumpTheChumps. Every tidbit like the one you point out in this article needs to be archived and brought out for the big push a few weeks before election day. Voters need constant reminders of what they think about.
You could also mention Paul Ryan received, according to the Times, a half-million dollar 'campaign donation' shortly after the Billionaire Tax Cut was passed. Pretty nice payday for a midwest boy who grew up noodling catfish.
We're all rooting for you up here on Mars, Professor!
117
Really. Aren't there limits to how much one can "donate"?
Speaker Ryan considers his victory "in the bag." But shall be a delight when voters in Ryan's congressional district delete him from seat in congress in the midterm elections. A ketchup slurpee would go well with his fries and Koch.
171
If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. As satisfying as that would be, as satisfying as see Cantor lose his seat to someone even more insane and radical right wing, we are a long way from that happening. Recent polls have diminished the Democrats' lead, no doubt because their foolish focus on supporting illegal immigrants.
We can only hope, PV, we can only hope. Since you are in Wisconsin, I hope you are contributing to the effort to oust Ryan once and for all. Trump and Ryan are both con men, but in some ways I think Ryan is even more despicable.
Where is this secretary in a high school in Lancaster PA? I bet $1.50 that she doesn’t exist. The whole tweet is just ruse to try to keep a specific demographic (White Women in Suburbia) in the GOP camp!
Who even notices $1.50 or even $3.00 (after taxes) in their paycheck? No one!
34
The fact that $50 per week makes a difference in her alleged life shows how little she gets in the Republicans' vision of our country.
If such a person exists and seemed to make a "happy" comment about it I'm sure it was meant as sarcasm.
Would you like fries with that tax break? Oh i'm sorry, you tax break is fries.
59
Now thassagoodun - thanks for the laugh !!
4
Freedom Fries, Sir. The peasants are trained to be patriotic. Of course, to the GOP that means cannon fodder, servile and satisfied with crumbs. Add an extra large helping of " religion " and the metamorphosis is complete.
Drones, for the Rich. Thanks, GOP. NOVEMBER.
66
I'm afraid the second won't happen either
6
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." Abraham Lincoln
Unfortunately, Trump, Mnuchin, McConnell, Ryan, Hatch, and the other Republican bait and switch scam artists and con men may fool too many people for too long.
87
Evangelicals will buy snake oil until global warming produces Soylent Green.
The tax cuts for the 1% is the result of voters electing the Republicans through massive gerrymandering put in place over the years by REPUBLICANS
TMcM
49
Silence after 8 years and $10 Trillion in deficit spending and now acting upset about tax reform when you cannot know the results. You seem to be more in favor of more social programs than better paying jobs. Your polemic is not an economic study. It is a rant.
1
What Obama policies are you talking about, Harold? You ignore policies that originated under Bush (three tax cuts, two unfunded wars, huge increases in defense spending) and that continue to add to our debt today. You ignore the Great Recession, with its precipitous drop in revenues. You ignore every other factor, including an aging demographic.
To control the national debt, you have to know what policies cause it. Most economists agree that the Great Recession caused the biggest rise in our national debt, followed by Bush's tax cuts.
Now the GOP has added $1.5 trillion in one fell swoop, and are on schedule to give us $1 trillion deficits every year for the next four years. Btw, we'll be paying for the latest corporate tax cut for the rest of our lives.
1
Let's see: tax cuts blew up the deficit under Reagan and Bush II. They had to be reversed in Kansas and are destroying Oklahoma.
I believe the point that Keynes made was that deficits are necessary to sustain the economy in bad times. When times are good we need to properly fund government and not crowd out private investment.
Unfortunately, due to Republican intransigence, we missed the best time to work on infrastructure. During the recession, wages were low; materials and the cost of borrowing were also low.
Here in California, which, as most states, cannot run a deficit, Gov. Brown has increased taxes and kept a lid on spending as the economy has improved. He has run up our rainy day fund for the next (inevitable) downturn.
1
I bet you an order of fries our deficit will be twice as bad by the time these four years are up, and he started with a decent economy, unlike the one he loves to hate. Oh and about those social programs, hope your Mother or Father, or anyone that you love is unable to work, it might be hard for them to survive without them.
I'd like to ask Mr Ryan how much more he has in his pay check from the tax cut. That should be revealing to his staff and Joe American in comparison.
80
In the story “Paul Ryan Deletes Tweet Lauding a $1.50 Benefit From the New Tax Law” there is a twitter screen shot with a direct link to Ryan’s opponent in the November race, Randy Bryce. Americans all over the world can donate $1.50 to Repeal and Replace Trump Stooge Ryan with
Mr Bryce who is running against
Big Money Politics.
Please participate in this tiny step
that will hopefully lead to getting
Corporate Money out of our political system.
32
Just looked up Randy Bryce web site- sending donation tomorrow! Hope everyone sends something- maybe more than that measly $1.50 - Lets help get Ryan out of there!
The exodus of Republicans from Congress will likely accelerate n months to come. Their work is done! They are in Washington not to save unborn babies or arm the peasants or even to keep the women down but to cut their own taxes.
The Democrats who "win" the House and Senate can decide what social programs to actually cut. GOPers are good at that in theory but have short attention spans for actual governing.
Made America Great Again!
11
Well, the GOP voters who still support Trump, no matter WHAT he does, will find a way to rationalize the Tax Boondoggle as another MAGA pile of wonderfulness. One can only surmise that having a bigoted, misogynistic con artist as President is what Trump supporters like, and are willing to endure anything to preserve.
It's up to the rest of us to save the country from the oblivious self-deception going on.
37
And why won't the first happen? That is, why won't there be embarrassment upon the part of the Republicans (sic)? This has nothing at all to do with fiscal responsibility; rather with malfeasance, which is just about all that demagogues and people like them are concerned with. The only exception to that would be a very intense desire to avoid detection regarding their successful efforts to defraud the body politic of a real election, notwithstanding the fact that only something like 40% of those eligible to vote did so, albeit futilely due to the fixers associated with a party which will not die (at least not yet). Full employment! That what "His excellency" mouthed about during the campaign...there is nothing of the sort going on. What is going on is an attempt to reinforce the disenfranchisement of the populace and to impoverish all but an amalgam of classes of people deemed to be somehow more socially desirable than others, mainly based on race. November? Read complacency and insouciance.
3
When I read, “A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week...", it never occurred to me that the woman might have been happy about her increased pay. I really thought that she was being sarcastic. Ryan is even more clueless than he appears!
68
Unless she was totally unable to multiple she was being sarcastic !
A college friend whose husband is a huge Trump fan gives her a $100 a month allowance . This from her money which all goes into his bank account. Heck I spent that most days. Typical Republican thinking! Keep the little woman down !
Randy Bryce- please donate to his campaign to defeat Ryan. He has a good chance to beat Ryan.
The sad fact is that to many Republicans in Congress, a pay increase of a buck fifty a week is a needless extravagance.
18
Ryan is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel for folksy sales pitches. That he did not see this latest justification for the condescending insult that it is shows the necessity of voting these people out. Our survival depends on it.
39
A little math here, thanks to a tweet by Zack Moller. $1.50 per week equals $ 78 per year. 1.46 trillion tax cut divided by 327 million in the USA divided by 10 years works out to be $ 446 per year per person. Were is the other $ 368 of my money?
23
It’s much worse than that. A large part of those 327M are kids who don’t pay taxes. The other part of the money goes into the pockets of the rich, not toward programs to improve everybody’s life, e.g., infrastructure, education, health care...
Re November. Some people, esp middle-upper middle incomes, will get more than a bag of fries per week. Not a huge amount, and not worth the cost and damage of the overall tax plan, but enough to be potentially noticeable. For the $1.50/week person, the scam is clearcut. The question for November is whether some who get a little bit more will be fooled by it.
18
White working class people aren’t stupid. They are willing to make financial sacrifices to elect people who share their views about guns, gays, God, and minorities. If tax cuts for the wealthy are part of the price they must pay, they’ll pay it. In 1980 they voted for Ronald Reagan & the GOP by 60-40 and that margin has only increased ever since. Economic issues have never counted for much, and won’t till there’s another Great Recession.
11
They had better start thinking about saving for retirement. The Republicans intend to cut Social Security as well as Medicare.
1
"In 1980 they voted for Ronald Reagan ..."
Less than 10 years earlier in 1972, George Wallace won the Michigan Democratic Primary. The issue was the looming cross district school busing plan for the purpose of racial desegregation. Judge Rhodes (a Nixon appointee) stated: “Transportation of kindergarten children for upwards of 45 minutes, one way, does not appear unreasonable, harmful, or unsafe in any way...."
http://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/15/archives/mass-busing-is-ordered-for-de...
Fortunately the Supreme Court ruled his metro area wide rule unconstitutional. So only Detroit remained in his sights. The desegregation plan let the the destruction of the Detroit Public School system long before Betsy DeVos or people using their homes as ATMs.
When Reagan talked about someone from the Federal Government, in the era of identity politics, showing up and saying they were here to help, well as you said:
"White working class people aren’t stupid."
1
So sad, but true
McDonald’s fries is the perfect metaphor: loaded with salt and fat.
Oh, and they win “best fries” (aka “The Pre-Diabetes Awards”) because they, coincidentally I’m sure, have the most added sugar... to potato starch.
8
This GOP behavior used to be just bait and switch for "conservative" ideologues.
Now its different. It is a also by design or accident a key element in Putin's long term strategy for the permanent weakening of America.
15
"Orrin Hatch declared that we can’t “spend billions and billions and trillions of trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves.”"
That is indeed the lesson: the Republicans are helping themselves -- gorging like hogs at the public trough. What makes this moral and admirable and, conversely, social safety net programs immoral and despicable is just this basic fact that the Republicans are helping themselves (and their wealthy donors) to the goodies. Unlike the poor and disenfranchised, they are not waiting around for someone else to do it for them. Good old American initiative is being duly rewarded.
As Krugman notes, the cynicism of Paul Ryan and his ilk is breathtaking. As is their deep and abiding faith in the inability of the undeserving and lazy to figure out how they are being conned. They are betting that tossing the masses a few meager crumbs for a few years will be enough to keep them from seeing that the loaf itself has been pilfered. But let's give credit where credit is due. So far this cynical faith has been richly rewarded.
31
The problem with the Ryan/Rand philosophy is that the can only see "takers" and "makers". A school secretary is neither. If you believe selfish behavior to be ethical (a central tenant of Randian philosophy), then you are probably proud that you minimally reward workers who choose to do something for public good.
25
The irony in Paul Ryan's adulation of Ayn Rand is that he is actually one of the 'moochers' she abhorred. He manufactures nothing. He produces nothing. He merely takes and distributes from others. And he doesn't even see it. It would be laughable, if it wasn't so frighteningly sad.
4
The price of gasoline in my neck of the woods is up by about 50¢ per gallon since Trump took office. That extra buck and a half won't even cover the secretary's increased costs to get to work over a week.
177
Same trick works at the state level too.
5
Mr. Kugman along with most of the public must be frustrated with GOP success. Carry on though. Please don't give up. One by one, middle-class supporters of the famous GOP "trickle on them' economics will eventually get the message that they have been deceived for a generation and more. Don't give up.
7
"Republicans constantly use the alleged dangers of budget deficits to argue for sharp cuts in social programs." But of course Mr. Trump wants a bill " ... that fully funds our great military." A military that already costs more than the next half dozen countries combined. The model seems to be North Korea, which is No. 1 in percentage of GDP spent on the military. And so ... "North Korea is one of the most miserable places on earth. 'The standard of living has deteriorated to extreme levels of deprivation in which the right to food security, health and other minimum needs for human survival are denied' according to a recent report by the Korea Institute for National Unification, a research group based in Seoul."
19
My favorite comment about this this week was a Tweet saying:
"Charles, a Koch brother in Wichita, said he was pleasantly surprised that his pay went up $26,923,076 a week. He added that will more than cover the cost of buying several more Paul Ryans"
This all just demonstrates perfectly how they sold this, for anyone who bought it anyway. All you have to do is give $1.50 to the little people and not only will they not complain that this allowed you to give billions to others, they'll end up thanking you for it.
343
How much money is enough for the ultra rich?
2
And don't forget the extra coming with those fries, a soupcon, or is it an extra heaping? of racism and war against blue state taxpayers which makes this extra tasty for the deplorables.
2
Good article!
I sadly watched the GOP successfully pass an expensive Tax Cut Bill shamelessly skewed towards aiding the rich, while adding to our debt.
Must I now watch as they seek funds to cover the deficit caused by this windfall to the wealthy, by cutting programs essential to the old, the ill, the poor?
Or add more to our debt by asking for more funds for the military.
If we have to create a more daunting deficit, the government should earmark funds to fix the fragile infrastructure and transportation systems of our country.
What is going on? Where are we going?
16
This is Ryan’s 47% moment. May he never live it down.
Did the IRS deliberately rig the withholding tables to give now and take away later? It used to work the other way—interest free loan to Treasury—but I got an unexpected bump in my (federal) pension deposit this month. Is that part of the ballooning deficit?
13
A .5% increase in earnings is excellent...if you already have a billion dollars earning money.
15
Distopia on steroids coming our way? The GOP now has a Trumpet for their "let them eat french fries" decades old movement. Yes, November has to be the answer.
My guess is that Mueller won't last but his dismissal will generate massive walks of people yearning for the return of their democracy, to be 'free once again'. We may see walk outs, government shut down 'by the people', and recalls initiated by we the people.
Ryan and Ayn Rand discredited forever.
17
"Let them eat french fries". The USA's modern equivalent of Rome's "bread and circuses".
I once dated a fellow who lived on the wealthy as a property manager and assistant in San Francisco. He wore clothes that his "patrons" cast off and even drove regulary one client's Porsche. He lived like a millionaire on other people's stuff. He stole stuff from their basements and garages figuring that they wouldn't miss it which, in fact, they didn't. A Wisconsin boy, raised amid wealth his goal in life became to be wealthy according to his sister. He only hung out with rich kids who had their own planes and cars. After some positive options trades on the stock market which he bought with essentially other people's
money he eventually reached the 1 million mark. Living very frugally, never owning a car. He continued to live in a rent controlled studio apartment even though he could have done better. With him there were many arguments over the facts of economic reality for most people. He would say that a person could take that $1.50 and invest it. Thus, I know how privileged people think and they have no idea, for example, that there are homeless who really can't work. Once we were walking down Market St. and a homeless man passed us talking to himself and yelling. I turned and asked, "Would you hire that person?" He did see my point. Paul Ryan is a person like him and nothing he says or does is a surprise to me.
41
Math always helps shed some perspective.
That $72 per year, if applied equally to every citizen would be 23 BILLION dollars. That's assuming you're talking about every wage earner, every non-wage earner, every retiree, every infant, everyone in prison. Literally everyone in the country. Obviously, it does not apply evenly to everyone.
The tax cut costs 1.5 TRILLION dollars. Put another way, this meager increase in this woman's pay(who, working for a school district probably works 9 months out of the year, if we're being honest-so the $72 is an over-estimation).
In the best example-if we all get this whopping $1.50/week it costs 1/65th of the money being lost on this tax cut.
15
Many schools districts run year round, but not all. so if the are 12 weeks she is not working, she would be getting $18 less.
The GOP loves to eat our seed corn then cry famine, shrink programs and offer deregulated private sector businesses in to push out working government programs, or institutions playing to their voter/funding base. Trump plays to the bleachers even though he would like to play to the box seats. It all boils down to calling the game free market capitalism while using loaded dice.
28
They could have gotten the same result by raising the minimum wage by roughly 8¢, and that would have left the tax base in better, not worse, shape. I wonder why they didn't take that approach?
(Only rhetorically, of course; I know exactly why they didn't take that approach.)
22
Ryan was supposed to be the smart one. The woman was probably being sarcastic. He takes this sarcastic comment and tries to turn it into a virtue.
The annual deficits are structural as our economy can only sustain 1 to 2% real growth per year. I remember when Greenspan said that we are paying down our national debt too fast and by doing so that investment opportunities in government bonds will be limited. With tax cuts, wars, prescription drug benefits, the Great Recession and more tax cuts we are now forecast to issue another $1 trillion in new debt.
If the Republican's succeed in returning us to a feudal stage, it will because we will complacently take the $1.50 and enjoy the fries.
14
@Mark Smith,
Greenspan actually made that statement during the same week that George W. Bush was first inaugurated as President.
The Devil made him do it - or was Greenspan actually the Devil? lol
On and on the circular argument goes. Not a word about the effect of unfunded tax cuts until the dust settles, then new name calling upon the poor. They are unmotivated, welfare queens, undeserving. A perfect plan to dismantle the social safety net.
17
My incredible, beautiful tax cut amounts to $20 per pay period. For this amazing bounty, my country is poorer and less able to invest in education, research, infrastructure, FEMA, the environment, food safety, social programs, and more. I plan to commit my tax cut money to electing people who value country over party. Join me in spending your tax cut for change for the better.
513
That was my plan, too, Isopeda: in response to the scoffers who said "oh, if you're so upset about getting a tax cut, you're free to give that money away," I pledged to do just that. I decided to donate the extra money each pay period to non-profits trying to compensate for tax cuts or to Democratic candidates who shared my values.
Sadly, my first biweekly paycheck after the tax cut went into effect was $1 less than last year's base pay. The increase in my health insurance premium (I have a dependent) more than made up for the supposed gain.
6
Our "tax cut" is significantly higher than yours. We do not need it. We do not want it. I resent impoverishing our country for the greed of the few. We are donating it to social programs and Democratic candidates. I encourage others to follow your lead.
4
My "incredible beautiful tax cut" is a raise in my taxes of several thousand dollars, despite being a middle income person, to fill the corrupt pockets of Trump, his family, his cabinet and his corrupt congressional Republicans by taking money out of mine. Millions of other taxpayers are in my position of having been targeted by the Republican congress because we live in blue states, or in my instance, since my state is now a deplorable state, blue areas in deplorable states.
Believe me, I will be working for change for the better.
2
So those impending cuts to Social Security and Medicare will come with a side of fries? What's not to like?
22
Great article. The sad point is that most Americans are asleep to reality and are most focused today on the Super Bowl. Their children will live with the terrible debt consequences of "tax reform" aka giveaway to the mega rich and global corps, in part thanks to Citizens United.
Americans have had a history of sleeping until the crisis is dramatic. Sometime, like for the Titanic and the French Revolution, the response to being dozzy is catastrophic for many. Or over population and immigrant naivete, that leads to starvation, civil disorder and die back. We are heading for rough seas, while the mainstream media plays soothing musak about the rising stock market and housing prices (bubbles... reality).
I expect that most people will be confused by the political advertising about the great Repub tax deal this November, since that was part of the plan and structure of the deal. The mega billions to the wealthy will be spent in part, not on jobs, but on selling nonsense and sleep potions to voters.
14
The expected budget deficit for fiscal 2019 is expected to pass through $1 trillion. The credit card spending is much larger than the tax cuts to average Americans.
5
Usually Republicans are masters of reducing complex issues to simple slogans that will fit on bumper stickers. And Dems are constantly at a disadvantage, because countering these simple but misleading arguments requires Americans to have a greater attention span than the average 3-year-old. "Death Tax" is so much more catchy and concise than "Anti-Hereditary Aristocracy and Privatized Serfdom Prevention Tax." Well, finally they have the chance for some payback, if they figure out how to use it. "$1.50 for 99% and millions for 0.1%"
27
This has been the same tired playbook of the GOP and their right-wing libertarian 1%ers for decades. One variation or another of trickle down. When the system fails the little guy has to pay the price. Turn back the clock to David Koch's political platform. As it typical and planned, there has been the constant media attention on the empty memo. What comes next to distract us from the real destruction of this country's soul?
11
Not that I'm a big fan of the "tax cuts pay for themselves" crowd...but this just exposes Krugman's ignorance of sovereign, fiat money (like the U.S. has).
Where do taxpayers get the dollars with which they pay those taxes if government doesn't spend them out into the economy first? Taxes don't provision government, they make the money valuable.
The current problem is that the tax reduction / spending / public policy benefits go almost entirely to the wealthy...true for Trump, but especially true for Obama. The benefits of economic recovery during the Obama years went entirely to the top 10% of incomes. For the first time since World War II, the bottom 90% actually was worse off than before the Great Recession.
See https://www.huffingtonpost.com/l-randall-wray/the-federal-budget-is-not_...
and
http://billmoyers.com/2014/09/29/smart-charts-economic-recovery-1-percent/
And now we will have infrastructure funded by PRIVATE investors, who will expect a larger return on their investment through large tolls which will represent a new stealth tax increase on the middle class and lower class. A bad solution for the 90%, even for the middle class Republicans who support Trump.
26
@Will Hogan: And sub-minimal maintenance, if precedent is a guide.
7
Some days the outrage gets exhausted and all I can muster is despair. These people are just getting started. Our only hope is the mid-terms, and actually they can do a lot of damage before then - already have.
36
Waiting for the midterms is like waiting for Godot. Good luck.
Yes, but the public won't get wise if democrats don't use your "talking points" -- particularly this one -- in their campaigns! U.S. taxpayers can't afford this tax scheme, and democracy can't either. Do we really want to be in further debt to other countries? As of November 2017, we owed China $1.2 trillion and there is a chance they won't lend the U.S. more.
9
There are predictions that Alter Boy Ryan will not, like increasing numbers of his Congressional Republicans, run for re-election in 2018. Having successfully delivered a tax savings bonanza to the party's corporate/millionaire/billionaire donor-benefactors, Ryan has certainly positioned himself perfectly if he should seek to join their plutocratic ranks after his days in the House of Representatives are over. One aspect of a potential career change by him is certain. Any financial sector income package he would receive would definitely exceed his Congressional pay by more than $1.50 per week. Ain't public service great!
24
Not only will he be paid in the private sector, he will be collecting a Congressional pension for the rest of his life!
And that differs from Harry Reid, and any other democrat you can name, how?
1.50 a week will not cover the increases in interest rates for mortgages and car loans that the additional 1 Trillion dollars in borrowing from the Federal Gov. will cause.
And will probably not help much either in compensating for inflation, that is the coming increases in food, gasoline, entertainment, energy, school supplies, clothing and so for by the higher financial costs for manufacture and distribution caused by the higher rates.
We enjoyed a few years when inflation was below 1 %. Now is 2.6 %, this year will probably creep above 3 %. Not even 15 more a week will help much either.
46
Worker benefits come heads or tails
For the Wealthy the size never fails,
And often they're fickle
Hold off on that trickle
Generosity it never entails.
It seems the rowboats never rise,
For Yachts it's hardly a surprise,
Trump spoke with forked tongue
Pinchpennies the Young
Never trust a man with close set eyes.
79
If Democrats retake power, they should amend the tax-cut law so that only corporations that increased the total wages of the lower-paid 90% of their employees by ,say, 6% for that year, would receive the tax cut.
This requirement could be satisfied by increasing the number of workers and/or by increasing wages, or some combination thereof.
Republicans promised that the tax cut would trickle down.
This proposal would ensure a meaningful trickle.
135
@Paul W. Case Sr.: A typical wishy-washy Democratic half- or quarter-measure. Why do you not ask for complete reversal of the tax cut, followed by elimination of giveaways like the tax credit for moving facilities out of the U.S.? You'll never see a Republican halfway plan like this; they start with maximum demands and then, if anything, increase them. This is one way the political spectrum has been pushed way, way over to the right in the past 30-40 years
11
6% is exactly what IG Metall is requesting for German workers.
1
Why not go all the way and nationalize the means of production so that the workers' paradise you crave can be birthed?
This from the man, who when asked on the night of Trumps election and a tanking market when stocks would recover. His reply was “maybe never”. Nice call Mr Krugman.
If the Atlanta Fed is even close to right about their GDP forecast for Q1, at 4.2 on the low end and 5.2 on the high end the tax cuts will not be a significant burden to the government fisc. Oh, I think this is the economy, according to MR Krugman, where 2-3% was the new norm. Again, not even close. If I was as wrong as he is about my business I would be out of business. But I sign the front of paychecks, not the back. Another thing Mr Krugman and I don’t have in common.
3
"His reply was “maybe never”. Nice call Mr Krugman." An opinion re stocks that Mr. Krugman later revised and acknowledged he was initially mistaken on. Nice attempt at leaving out have the story chris oc.
33
If chris oc knew how to communicate precisely his comment might be worth something. But apparently it's too difficult for him to say what he means by "4.2 on the low end ..." instead of writing only to himelf.
6
Chris, Trump's first year was 2.6%, and the consensus predictions are nowhere near 4%. If real GDP were to grow anywhere near 4% there would need to be a major increase in the total labor force. With unemployment at just over 4%, there isn't enough slack labor force available to support a real GDP growth of 4% - unless we bring in a lot of new labor (AKA "immigrants"). How do you feel about that, Chris? Seems like Trump's and Republican's immigration policy is directly in opposition to supporting the real GDP growth rate needed to offset the deficit increases for their "tax reform". Far far more likely that real GDP growth next year will be 2-2.5%, and the deficit will balloon up by $150-$200 Billion for 2018, even without all the spending increases Trump has promised. Once upon a time Republicans stood for fiscal sanity, and Democrats were the crazy-spending party. Now Republicans seem just as eager as Democrats to spend hundreds and hundreds of Billions more than the government has, and put it all onto future generations to pay for. "Tax reform" is another Republican scam to steal from the working and middle class, and payoff to wealthy people and corporations. And you've bought that lie all the way. When will you catch on? "Maybe never".
2
Ryan claims to be a disciple of Ayn Rand, whose notions of capitalism are arrogant, selfish, and cruel -- all of these virtues in her view. Meantime ever fewer of our business models are serving the greater good with any distinction. Corporations are designed to facilitate the feeding of insatiable executive and shareholder appetites for ever-increasing profit, and Trumpism embraces and facilitates that antisocial greed by removing common-sense regulations intended to protect American consumers and workers -- always for a few dollars more that the people don't see. There is scant trickle-down. From the Speaker of the House you expect vastly more than serial nonsense. But the GOP's bait-and-switch has hornswoggled its base for years. Behind the current low unemployment numbers, however, are grimmer realities of life in a corporate-run society: lower quality of life in general -- less access to health care, money-starved public schools, less job security, less access to higher education, mediocre public transport and deteriorating infrastructure coast to coast. These are supposed to be primary concerns of our lawmakers. Ryan's idiotic attempt to white-wash a deficit-boosting giveaway to corporations (which are prospering more than ever) and our wealthiest (who are richer than ever) by crowing about a worker getting a buck-fifty "more" a week is obscene, shameless, and just plain infuriating.
454
That was an excellent comment.
15
" lower quality of life in general -- less access to health care, money-starved public schools, less job security, less access to higher education, mediocre public transport and deteriorating infrastructure coast to coast."
Why can't people understand that this isn't just a byproduct of their policies, these *are* their policies.
102
Voters and politicians in Kansas seemed to wise up to this reality last year, but did they really? Keep bringing this up and maybe the message will get through!
2
And then there are the corporate PR machines hyping the "bonuses" to employees...only to try to hide the fact that they have quietly reduced the hours or dismissed dozens or hundreds of other employees, "downsized" or closed part of their businesses altogether. I don't begrudge the success of those on top, but how much is enough when one has most of the pie? Maybe it would seem more genuine if the CEO's and stockholders gave up some of that self-investment money.
228
$1,000 tax-cut bonuses!!!
Well, “up to” anyway...
Lowe’s is following in the footsteps of America’s largest employer, Walmart, and its most direct competitor, Home Depot, in rolling out a $1,000!!!! “Tax Cut” bonus program that grabs headlines.
But the bonuses are actually structured according to tenure. At all three chains, you only get the full $1,000 if you’ve been employed with the company for 20 years.
* Less than two years: $200 ($150 for Lowe’s workers)
* Two to four years: $250 ($200 for Lowe’s workers)
* Five to nine years: $300
* 10 to 14 years: $400 ($500 for Lowe’s workers) [Not even $500 at 14 YEARS!]
* 15 to 19 years: $750
* 20+ years: $1,000
47
And, I assume, one-time payments at that. Flattery for the Donald--nothing more.
3
very good! we ll know how few people would have worked 20+ at any of these stores. if my experience is any example? you are lucky to find a competent person there for more than a month or two.
3
May I suggest that the Democrats use this now-deleted tweet in their upcoming election advertising campaign, citing the source. Maybe also showing how much, let's say trump, stands to gain from the tax cut. Perhaps some trump supporters would finally get the message about who wins and who loses. So very unfortunate that we, as Canadians, who are affected by what happens in the US, are not allowed to advertise during your elections.
631
As an American I can only say that I think it's a shame that Canadians cannot vote. I cannot believe how gullible American voters are.
45
Unfortunately, the democrats just can't bring themselves to doing the kind of messaging that the republicans do. It's "unseemly", I suppose. Politics is a knife fight to which democrats bring a spoon.
34
No the campaign literature needs to focus on the facts - Americans don't want to feel jealous of Trump or anyone else, they want to build a future for themselves. Calculate the gives and takes: you got $1.50 and if we cut Medicaid, your sister the nurse will lose her $45,000 per year job at the nursing home, will that $1.50 help your family? How will you and she cover your mom's cataract surgery since she's on a fixed Social Security income without any cost of living increases? Subsidized breakfasts are being cut - without that $2.50 a day you're a $1.00 in the hole. No pre-K available in your state because the federal grants are cut - how's that $1.50 gonna pay for pre-school - where does that leave YOUR son? Make it personal, don't make it about the other guy.
8
Not to mention, the $1.50/week raise is just a 0.5% increase for a minimum wage worker, which is much less than inflation. So, not a raise.
480
That isn't a raise, it is just an increase in take-home pay. Depending on her personal circumstances, she may owe it back in income taxes when she files her return in April 2019.
30
A prior condition for embarrassment is the ability to feel shame: Ryan and his ilk are shameless.
898
Ryan got paid to not feel shame. Ryan's campaign fund got paid $500,000 by the Koch's right after the tax bill passed but also after Ryan had said he didn't intend to run for re-election - apparently, it's OK to pop unused campaign funds into your pocket while nobody's looking. It also seems like the Koch's got a good deal - $500,000 is probably 0.01% of what the Koch's will gain from all the shredded regulations and tax breaks they will now directly benefit from.
9
If only whining and spending other peoples' money produced net jobs. If only 50+ years of the war on poverty by the liberals made meaningful progress against poverty.
They don't and they haven't. But let's pretend that saying "shame" will change anything. Typical left wing campaigning though, so there's that.
True psychopaths feel no shame, no empathy for their victims, and have lower anxiety levels than the regular folk. All this while taking $500,000 from the Koch brothers after the tax scam was passed. https://www.snopes.com/kochs-contributed-ryan-after-tax/
2