The data and premise of the headline and research is offensive to me. Trickle down tax policy is a lie. It's not "nullified" by trade wars. the Trump tax reform bill is a tax cut for rich people. our tax policy in history has proved, definitely, that Reagan was wrong, and tax cuts for the rich create one thing: federal deficits.
I'm disappointed that the nyt has this headline in 2019. nyt is perpetuating the lie by running headlines like this. this is at best, an opinion piece, and at worst, it's normalizing the continued March toward income inequality and plutocracy. wake up!!!!
2
But Trump and the GOP don't care about the poorest taxpayers....they only care about their rich donors.
1
"A typical middle-class taxpayer would expect to receive about $471 in 2020 from the tax cuts, the researchers found, but tariffs would reduce that benefit to $159."
A weekly average increase in income of $9.06 gets reduced to $ 0.03. That's a tax cut? And it's proof the we're paying for the tariffs.
Let's get real.
So what assumptions are the economists using in generating these projections? If is that US consumers will continue buying Chinese goods in spite of the tariffs? Or, possibly, that US companies will raise prices on domestic goods to match the Chinese price levels, rather than underprice their Chinese rivals.
Where is Grover Norquist and his GOP no new tax pledge? Hiding under a rock just like the cowards who signed the pledge?
3
I remember Ben Bernanke in the Crash...does the Fed have any other tool in its box if a recession comes in 2020 & they've got interest rates back down to 0%?
In 2008/2009, Republicans refused to do stimulus that they had always done for Republican presidents because there was a Democrat - a black one at that - in the WH & they clearly wanted to tank the economy & the country & glue that permanently to the Democrats.
Is the Fed confident that Democrats will control both houses of Congress after 2020 & do what Congress normally does - sans Republican majority - if the need is there? Is that why it's willing to throw away interest rates as a tool?
1
Just in case facts matter to you at all, if you check just about any reliable dataset, you'll see that total US US debt doubled during Obama's tenure, because of multiple different fiscal and monetary stimulus programs. In other words, in the 200 years since the founding of America, accumulated federal debt totaled X.
In eight years under Obama with "no stimulus" (according to you) federal debt was 2X.
Do facts (or arithmetic) matter at all, or is every issue reducible to silly (and false) sloganeering?
@Fred Rick Funny that you forgot to factor in the 2008 Great Recession and the efforts the Fed and Obama administration put into place to rescue the economy from Wall Street's greed and folly. Those efforts contributed to the deficit doubling that you so love to complain about. Wonder where the economy would be now without quantitative easing and billions spent to create jobs and save some Fortune 500 companies. Remember it costs money to pay for bankning and other corporate recklessness.
3
Here's the rub, many economists and editorials decried the tax cut, and I agreed with them. However, the tariffs look like a sort of tax increase, which will put money back into the Treasury.
President Trump's tax cuts provided a "temporary jolt to the United States economy"? Let me know when the temporary effect ends.
2
@The Ancient Let the poorest taxpayers know when that jolt begins.... we'll wait.
2
The best way to reverse the negative effects of Trump's tax and tariff policies is to support Elizabeth Warren's candidacy for POTUS. She not only understands how we got where we are, she is proposing policies which show she can get us out of this unfair, destructive mess.
7
Right, like giving educational forgiveness to the people who were irresponsible enough to take loans they couldn't afford. While the people who worked and skimped their ways through are being asked to foot the bill for their less responsible colleagues.
1
aside from economics the tariffs are good policy because China is the earth's greatest polluter not just CO2 but plastics and other things in general. China's greatest comparative advantage in trade is their willingness to sell us things that are cheaply made without concern for the environment but with such short life cycles as to be disposable. So they foul the environment making stuff that gets quickly thrown away compounding the cycle. Tariffs on china is the biggest step towards saving the planet. they should be 50%.
3
Really? This is silly stuff not serious economics.
1
"The potential for Mr. Trump’s tariffs to nullify his signature tax cut shows how the president’s trade war could undermine his biggest selling point going into his 2020 re-election campaign: a strong economy."
It also shows that Gary Cohn was correct.... Trump is a moron!
5
Trump's tax cuts, mostly for the 'rich and powerful, are no panacea, especially by keeping huge loopholes that allow corporations to pay much less than ordinary citizens. And who get's screwed the most? The poor, of course, as usual.
9
Actually, the tariffs are working exactly as planned and in concert the with tax cuts. The tax cuts primarily helped the wealthy and the tariffs primarily harmed the middle class.
The wealthy, therefore, were beneficiaries of both Trump policies which is exactly what was intended. Shift the burden to the middle class. Screw the little guy which is what Trump does best.
I often wonder if I am the only person in S. Carolina who understands this?
16
Pretty sure you are.
3
As a social progressive and fiscal conservative, I’ve voted for candidates of both parties. Now that the cowed GOP Congress has so easily transformed from free traders to full-throated crusaders for protectionism, presumably to duck inane presidential tweets and minimize the prospects of primary challenges, I intend to continue to vote as I did in 2018. - straight D.
52
your complaint is with the administration not the facts. you do not want to pay a living wage or union wages for that matter, do you?
@Bob
I say yes to a living wage and Unions. Joining a union was the best thing I ever did.
Considering the lopsided nature of the so-called "tax cut," where the ultra-rich took two-thirds of the goodies, it probably wouldn't take much to wipe out the benefits given to an average, non-plutocratic American taxpayer.
Most Americans were tossed scraps while the 0.1% gorged themselves on an all-you-can-eat royal banquet. The average American will probably hardly be aware of any difference, not having gotten much to begin with.
46
@Joe S.
A tax cut just lets people keep more of their own money, it's not "giving" people anything. Rich people had bigger savings because they pay overwhelmingly more tax than poor people. In fact the bottom 50% of this country before Trump even revised the tax laws didn't even pay federal income tax, and that number didn't really change, which is why the tax cut didn't benefit them as much. Hard to enjoy a cut to a tax you don't pay or hardly pay at all.
Go figure, tax cuts benefit people who pay the most taxes.
4
Romney's bottom half of the country paying no "income" taxes (thyroid pay plenty of others) is just more right wing propaganda. It does include a small percentage of the true working class poor, but most of the so-called non payers are children and Senior citizens living on their Social Security.
6
let them eat cake.
2
President Trumps understands tariffs backwardly. He truly believes that U.S. imposing tariffs makes other countries forced to pay U.S. the difference... We know there's no adult men nearby the WH, the question therefore is: what about the Senate in Washington? Or, what about the U.S. voters?...
1
Tariffs, protectionism, sure fire ways to wreck the global economy. The super rich will suffer as well, they may not feel the pinch but they will suffer in many indirect ways. Nobody wins, Trump and the Republicans can kiss 2020 goodbye... in case you were looking for a silver lining in all the chaos and suffering this is going to cause.
3
Jim Tankersley
Wrong. You sound as if tax cuts benefited everyone across the entire income spectrum. The tax cut benefited only the super rich and lower income segments. A lion's share went to the former while the latter got couple of hundred dollars more. The middle income class got hammered with tax increase big time.
The tariffs are going to affect everyone. Albeit the super rich won't feel it and the rest will.
9
The supposed tax cuts did nothing for me whatsoever.
However, I have a small brokerage account, with just a few stocks that could hardly considered risky, that has lost 17 percent of its value in the last month. That scares me but it annoys me even more.
Every time Trump opens his mouth the account loses more money. Surely the rich Senate Republicans who have huge stock portfolios have noticed what is happening to their money too.
If I understand correctly, the President has to declare a national emergency to levy tariffs. Trump has abused this power repeatedly, and it is high time that the Senate claw back this authority. Considering that Republican senators portfolios are tanking too, it is shocking to me that they have not acted.
Concentrating the power to arbitrarily declare emergencies to build walls and levy tariffs into the hands of one person is extremely dangerous, particularly when that person may turn out to be insane once he or she has taken office.
7
Doesn't the fake news NYT realize that China and Mexico are paying the tariff on imports to USA? Whatever led you to believe that U.S. consumers will pay higher prices and that these equate to higher taxes on U.S. taxpayers. Larry Kudlow almost lost his cabinet position for speaking truth to power on this very topic. Tongue firmly planted in cheek.
2
@Brian except that costs are not passed on to consumers due to you know a little thing called price elasticity
1
Brian you do not understand that, yes, the importers to this country, do pay the tariffs, however, as those tariff payments to the US government are the cost of doing business they are passed on to the customer. That customer passes that increased cost on down until it reaches you, the consumer. The US gets the money from the importer and we the customers pay the increased costs of paying those tariffs. It’s a tax, a hidden tax in the form of inflated costs and jobs are not going to come back to America because of tariffs. You have bought the Trump lie, he’s a con man and always has been.
3
@Zion that's naive. Perhaps not 100% but to the extent the supply chain absorbs a portion of the tariff, my 401K takes a whack as the markets adjust for revised (downward) EPS forecast. Go look at white goods - the cost of the tariffs is now at the retail level.
Where's my handout? Er "bailout" from losing money in my retirement account?
4
Somehow I have a feeling that the rich will get by.
6
Wait a second. For the past year and a half all the NY Times has reported is the tax cuts were for the wealthy. (which was so untrue).
Now those newly reported gains are mitigated by the tariffs?
How about adding in some real balance here. How much does one swell of illegals crashing the border cost us taxpayers? How about the thousand that just crossed together or just the monthly total (5000 plus a month).
How much is that costing us?
Mexico is rushing to Washington to stop this. We got their attention. Hopefully these tariffs never kick in. But I'm all for them.
The Democrats and it's mouthpieces like the NY Times will be once again shocked at election time when Trump wins (easily this time). AND their wont be Russians to blame this time.
2
Tariffs are taxes, wow! Who knew?
2
Oh ya more money to spend, exactly $40 a month- wow living large
3
this analysis here is almost entirely wrong , China owns approximately 28% of our sovereign debt, we can't pay them back, so they will pay themselves back in the form of import taxes otherwise known as tariffs, brilliant President Trump, you are an economic genius.
2
Trump gave away all that tax money to the rich and big corporations and has to replace it somehow. Tariffs do it on the backs of lower- and middle-income folks in a way that’s harder for them to see directly.
The idea of economic war against the entire rest of the world, in 2019, is absolute madness. But only an insane country could elect this guy, so here we are.
4
In 2008, the US experienced the largest financial crash since the Great Depression- the direct result of decades of tax cuts for the wealthy, attacks on the poor, labor and job outsourcing, financial deregulation, reduced spending on education, infrastructure and capital investments and since 911, spending $ trillions of taxpayer money on the Pentagon and strategic debacles in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unfortunately, none of the structural problems which precipitated this crash have been resolved. Indeed, the near continuous appreciation in equities since 2008 has not been based on investments in new plants and equipment (i.e. business spending) but rather, on an infusion circa $4.5 Trillion of ultra-cheap money from the US FED (Bush II, Obama, Trump), and Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for share buybacks, purchasing stock futures and to sustain [still] insolvent banks. This money has also inflated bond markets and trendy real estate in Boston, NYC, SF, Seattle, etc. The directors of US foreign policy are now attempting to use tariffs, trade wars and out right military threats to compensate for continuing US economic decline. This is very dangerous as it will likely lead to global economic implosion and potentially a world war. See- Wall Street Warns of Mounting Recession Risk from Trade War By Will Mathis and Enda Curran June 2, 2019; Link: www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-02/morgan-stanley-sees-recession-within-a-year-if-trade-war-builds
3
I wish the NYT could make up their minds. They finally admit what was being denied for all this time, the lower tax brackets greatly benefitted from the tax cuts, especially due to the doubling of the standard deduction. Most of all, it helps people who do not own property and do not benefit from any mortgage interest or property tax deduction, the people the left supposedly care about most. In addition, the "rich" now pay more of their so-called fair share with the $10,000 property tax deduction cap. Yet is is the wealthy NY liberals who cry foul the most over that provision. Hypocrisy at it's finest.
Tariffs on products purchased by consumers hurt those already hurting. Republican tax cut went to those that invest or in many cases, merely play with their money. This is not balanced, just nasty.
4
There are three things that we need to get out of our heads:
1. That Trump knows anything about anything, or plans anything at all.
2. That the passel of clowns surrounding him at this point will ever, ever, stand up for this country and tell him to take a flying.
3. That loudly explaining reality to voters means anything to them at all. It barely means anything to progressives.
3
between tarriffs/higher prices, NO solution to Health Care (in 2.5 years with don the con at the wheel) the nominal "tax cut" (i.e. steal from the poor give to the rich chimera of a tax cut) has left the American People far worse off than we were in 2016.
GOP and don the con are NOT good for America
5
I don't believe these analyses take into account the effects of retaliatory tariffs, which will also have a substantial impact on US producer incomes.
2
Trump tariffs are Republican wealth redistribution through an unconstitutional tax on imported products and undeserved increased revenues on domestically produced products, plain and simple.
5
Not that the Trump "tax cut" benefitted many people. Middle-class people pay more, and the benefits go upwards while jobs that earn a living wage and produce goods needed by Americans are shifted overseas.
It's all a tissue of lies and pickpocket's diversions.
5
The article is saying that the net effect of Trump's tax cuts are negated by his tariffs, for all except the richest. That adds up to stability. Trump is indeed a stable genius. Or at least a zero sum nobody whose schtick adds up to nothing.
2
"tax cuts...putting more money into taxpayers’ pockets."
When was that? I must have missed out.
11
@cherrylog754 ...and then picking those pockets...for whose gain?
1
We don't need to worry, because there's a very stable genius in charge.
5
With a 19th Century mindset "I like tariffs", a lack of economic education and unfettered ignorance, Mr Trump's tariffs will hurt our economy and throw America back into a 19th Century time warp. The problem with having an ignorant, uneducated president with little knowledge of history and less understanding of 21st century global trade who thinks he knows more than the real economists is that the disastrous effect that Trump's actions will have on America may not be felt until after the 2020 election. Trump has taken credit for the soaring economy that started to recover in 2009 after Obama took control of the disaster created during the Bush administration. Americans have short memories otherwise they would never have elected all those Republicans to Congress who now want to roll back Obama era regulations meant to prevent another financial meltdown like 2008. What will 4 more Trump years do to destroy the lives of average Americans (many of whom voted for Trump and his supporter in Congress).
13
I guess Im still confused as to why Congress AND White House staff, would listen to a man who’s only accomplishment was getting over not paying thousands of workers by claiming bankruptcy! The only title he actually ever EARNED was “bankruptcy king” and “draft dodger”! And yet he’s the one making monetary and military decisions. Anyone else confused? Have Republicans really become extinct and replaced by “Trumplicans”?
20
"The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that the tariffs cost the typical American household $414 in 2018. That is estimated to increase to $831 per household given Mr. Trump’s recent move to raise Chinese tariffs to 25 percent."
Why aren't the Dems buying billboards along interstates stating these facts?
23
@whaddoino I agree but sadly there are not enough billboards in the world to announce all of the insane things our corrupt, lying president has done to harm us.
2
Trump can’t be worried about his own personal tax cut because he pays none anyway.
16
What tax cut? My taxes went up. Lost deductions and thus paid more.
Average "cut" was $28 for working people across the country
We paid more than that in increased taxes on Americans because of the first set of tariffs.
We need to start impeachment hearings to start NOW to expose the huge corrupt rot at the core of the Republican party so even the "reddest" parts of the country cannot ignore the degree to which we are being robbed by Republicans.
11
Trump is motivated by two things: everlasting fame and greed. He assures the former by his daily nonsensical utterings and tweets which assures constant and continued coverage by the cable nets. As for "greed", keep in mind that Trump scuttled a $400M inheritance, turned it into several casino based bankruptcies and always, always was provided more loans which he bilked to his benefit while always stiffing the lenders. He has continued this pattern while in office and needs lower interest rates to fund his excesses. What better way to get the Fed to lower rates than destroying the economy with his reckless tariffs? Powell first waived the white flag in Jan....he is close to waiving it again.
8
He inherited a strong economy from Obama, and can’t help it but to bankrupt us all, by savaging it to his family and friends.
12
" I like people that don't understand how Tariffs work ". We know, Donald.
Sad.
13
It's not a bug, it's a feature
8
This article does not look at tariffs in a wholistic manner. First, tariffs are being used as a policy to encourage other nations to be more balanced in all their dealings with the USA. After WW II the USA used the Marshall Plan to help strengthen liberal democracy in Europe. The USA basically gave the farm away to help rebuild Europe. This was great, but after Europe got back on its feet, it did not want to rebalance the benefits it received. For example it expected the USA to pay the greatest share for NATO so Europe could build it version of socialism. China is similar. We supported their entrance into the WTO with the hope if they build trade withe the rest of the world that they would be less authoritarian. Now they claim the whole S. China Sea. Mexico was a similar story. We gave away the farm with NAFTA, because Mexico was in financial ruin and we wanted to help stabilize their gov't. Also, the USA wanted to reduce the number of illegal aliens crossing our border. I agreed with the concept, because I believe we should help our neighbor. Now we have a large trade unbalance with Mexico, which is fine. However, they should not be a launching pad for those wishing to be economic refuges (i.e., 80% of the Central American refuges do not meet the criteria for refuge status). Since the USA helps Mexico financially they should help us with the refuges that are gaming the system, with the support of our judicial system, and stop them at their southern border
1
I stopped reading after I realized that you were actually arguing that we did not profit from the Marshall Plan, which ushered in a stable Europe, shut down the endless generational wars, and led to precisely that immense prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s that you lot are always bellowing about getting back.
Mark Twain was right, 119 years ago: every time this country behaves generously, decently, confidently, in accord with what we say are our principles, we do wonderfully; every time we act like petty little moneygrubbing cowards, we do badly.
4
What's your excuse for Trump's abysmal treatment of Canada, with which the US has a trade surplus?
1
@Rod
While understanding that much disagreement is value vs. fact-based-- I think it is important to understand how global economics differ from household.
Much of the impetus for the Marshall plan was the disintegration and fascism that arose in Europe after the US. withdrew after WWII. Economic stability and finance require stable government and laws --which likely helped create markets for US post-war development.
Economists have repeatedly pointed out the impact loss of immigrant economic energy and tax revenue will have for the US. There are certainly arguments for protecting communities and industry with the increase in global capitalism-- I do not see any plan to change this coming from the GOP and many industries have already been hurt.
Migration had fallen with Mexico and in fact had reversed in the other direction most recently. Refugee issues come heavily from outside Mexico and probably relate to our bad past foreign policy decisions. Supporting economic development and the rule of law in these countries would be a better use of resources than sending US troops on expensive outings or building easily-surmounted fences.
1
Mexico might take a stab at containing the flow of desperation that is coagulating at our southern border but it’s meaningless. Even without The Trump Wall we cannot afford the Trump Tax Cut. Here comes that day of reckoning. I mean The Money has to come from somewhere; right? Turns out that the funds are going to come from the same old chumps. YOU and me.
5
Why should this surprise anyone? Trump and the members of his administration, and much of the Republican controlled Senate, are extremely wealthy, to a man and woman. I can't imagine that any of them has sweated being able to pay a monthly bill in decades, if ever. They don't care one whit for the blue collar suckers they conned into voting for Trump, and the free-for-all money grab they've been engaged in since he entered the White House has no end in sight. The only people with the legal power to stop all of this, the House, lacks the courage of their convictions, even as the evidence to impeach Trump sits on their desks.
9
@J Young. The House knows what it's doing. If they impeach, the Senate will NEVER convict and Donnie will be officially and legally innocent. They aren't impeaching because they know impeachment won't work, and Donnie knows it too. That's why he wants it so bad.
2
@Brookhawk
"Donnie will be officially and legally innocent." Well...I don't believe jeopardy attaches to a failure to convict in an impeachment trial; the accused could be tried again in a federal or state court within the judicial system.
What Trump giveth his stupidity invariably takes away. Not only are his trade wars hurting American importers and consumers, they are hurting the stock market. At last report, 175 Chinese firms including giants like Alibaba are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with a total market value of $394 billion. The Economist magazine warns that if these firms begin to feel unwelcome and shy away, they will find alternatives in "the immensely complex global network of financial and commercial ties. Already, Wall Street lenders are not as essential in Asian high finance as they used to be. Last year, seven of the top 20 equity underwriters in Asia were Chinese banks. And while America still controls the dollar payments system, said the Economist, "in time that too could change."
3
To lead off that Trumps tax cut helped taxpayers is a lot of truthiness.
The author should have read this article from last August in their paper
You Know Who the Tax Cuts Helped? Rich People
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/12/opinion/editorials/trump-tax-cuts.html
“The idea that the tax cuts were going to line workers’ pockets was always a mirage. Most people will enjoy only a modest and temporary tax cut — families earning $25,000 or less will save on average just $60 on their federal tax this year”
And it was used to goose the stock market.
“The most notable outcome of the tax law is one that few Republicans talked about: Companies are buying back their own stock — a lot of it. Stock buybacks are expected to reach a record $1 trillion this year. After Congress reduced the top federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, businesses are flush with cash.”
16
We can only hope that the tariffs will slow down the booming economy and increase unemployment. Otherwise how can Democrats blame Trump for a good economy?
@Robert Bosch --Don't worry Trump will destroy the economy. He damages everything in which he's involved. He's the Baby Huey of modern economic politics.
1
What will it take for the business-class Chamber-of-Commerce Republicans to turn against Trump—even to the slightest degree—and to speak up against his trade policies? Some damage to American business (from the Trade Wars and the tariffs) is quite predictable; does Trump have to crash the entire economy before any Republican does ANYTHING?
The window of opportunity to prevent catastrophic damage from the trade wars is closing rapidly. If I were a Chamber of Commerce type, I would do something NOW, while I still might be able to save the economy in general and my own business in particular.
1
The secret motivation behind Trump’s seemingly bizarre tariff wars is to manipulate the stock market downwards. Trump’s strategy is to cause a substantial decline in the stock market in 2019 with the belief that it will recover and move higher just in time to influence the 2020 elections in his favor. Unfortunately for Mr. Trump, however, stock market manipulation is a federal crime. It seems impossible to overstate the evil to which this latter-day Mephistopheles will stoop to secure and increase his own personal power. In “Faust,” Goethe described this kind of evil as follows:
“All lies it was,
A phantom and a cheat,
But it seemed like wine
And tasted sweet.”
9
@John Cahill
Trump is a coward who wants a war. But unlike many cowards, he seems loathe to shed other people's blood. For that, I give him credit.
He almost certainly thinks the ultimate outcome from tariffs will help the independence of the US economy. If he thinks restoring manufacturing to the US will strengthen us in a wartime in which we act without allies, which seems to be his foreign policy goal, he is correct.
I don't agree with his decision to take apart the Atlantic alliance or to prevent a Pacific one. But tariffs are part of isolationism.
He is wrong but consistent.
1
and here we see one reason President Trump does not want to release his tax returns: if he is so obviously clueless about giving with one hand and taking away with the other, how could he possibly hope, even with professional help, to tackle the complexities of a tax return? after all, he did have to sign the returns... didn't he?
3
According to this paper and others the tax cut was of zero benefit to anyone except the rich so how could the tariffs offset tax cuts that never existed. Of course the idea that the tax cuts were for the rich only is hogwash. I'm in the middle class and saw a significant decrease in the amount of tax I paid when compared to 2017 and that was with a slight increase in income, but no other changes. Most Americans are clueless as to how taxes work and their only measure is the size of their refund check, which is meaningless. The important number is the amount of tax paid to the government.
2
@JimH wrong. There have been many cases reported of small middle class bumps in paycheck that was followed by taxes owed at annual filing in the thousands of dollars...thus negating the paycheck gains.
12
@JimH Our taxes went UP after the tax cuts; we’re lower middle class, we don’t own real estate, and we don’t live in a high-tax state like New York. This next year will be expensive for us, not just because of more expensive food, but also because of the campaign contributions we’re going to make to Democrats for victory in 2020.
20
the most important number, Jim, is how many Americans do government tax and tarriff policies push into serfdom while benefitting the very richest? every time the President opens his mouth about the Billions! his tarriffs are scooping up, he sounds like he believes these are funds coming directly from the governments of our trading partners and flowing into Mnuchin's clutches at Treasury, with just a little off the top for Ross as a transaction fee. does Trump actually know who pays these tarriffs? could he actually belive what he is saying? will the marks ever wise up to the long con?
2
This is the first Times article so far as I can tell to link Trump's tariff program and his tax program. Which is odd, because tariffs are taxes, so this is where the conversation should have been from the beginning.
And yes, replacing a progressive tax (income tax) with a flat tax (tariffs) has been on the Republican agenda for 60+ years. Trump just hit on a path to doing it that would send Republicans into nationalist ecstasies rather than populist rage. You have to admit that he's a genius swindler.
16
The strength of the US economy and the status of the US dollar as the global reserve currency has been built on reliability and leadership in international organizations.
A failure of leadership on climate change, starting trade wars and other foreign policy fires by the Trump Administration risks long term damage to that reliability.
The General Session of the United Nations laughing in Trump's face was not a good sign of things to come.
17
Beneficiaries of the tax cut?
The rich.
Burden upon whom the tariffs fall?
The poor.
Who does this administration represent?
Vote accordingly.
70
classic. he is creating an economic problem that he will then blame on the fed.
15
Early in this administration's tenure, there was talk of a 10 percent (or maybe more) across-the-board import tax as part of the long term Republican plan to shift taxation from income to consumption. This idea may be behind the sudden urge to tax consumers for buying goods that went through Mexico. With the treatment of goods from China on top of the proposed treatment of goods from Mexico, you have pretty much an across-the-board consumption tax. That tax won't wipe out the gains this lower middle class person got from the tax changes - there weren't any. I am paying more on less income. As a song said years ago, it costs too much to be poor. We have got to get these grifters out of the government in 2020!
41
I am a tax preparer and a progressive who despises this tax law. I replied to someone earlier who falsely claimed to be paying significantly less tax on a little more income. That is nonsense. Unfortunately your claim to be paying more tax on less income is also nonsense. Let's allow the other side to tell lies; they are so much better at it.
4
I was working in Mexico City in 2008; just after the US financial meltdown occurred. Mexico did not experience the same level of economic distress, and ex-pats living in the US were coming back to Mexico.
Trump may only see "bad hombres", but I saw an emerging, thriving, middle class. That was the key to America's post WWII economy. Mexico will find ways to trade with other countries than the US. It offers low cost labor, but an increasingly more educated workforce.
27
Ponder this: If a recession would doom Trump’s chances for re-election, how would you feel? Tough decision.
16
@Ziggy But what if the Recession comes after the 2020 election?
1
Sometimes the fever has to get worse to break.
A recession (caused by trump) gets him kicked out? It’s karma.
You and I don’t have a say in this.
1
for many Americans, the recession that started in 2008 has never really ended. employment is said to be up, but the figures are very misleading about how many are actually in the workforce, how many had their financial futures crippled by things like the loss of ther homes (such a windfall for vultures like Mnuchin), and how many have either given up or never gotten started, falling into addictions, post prison unemployability, and other disabilities? the cost of housing, education, and medical care have skyrocketed while the ballyhooed skimpy wage increases some people have seen in the last two years wouldn't cover the cost of a bedpan at any hospital in America. yes, things look mighty different depending on whether you crawl around in the dirt or look down from the Olympian heights.
2
"Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said his colleagues were clearly uneasy with Mr. Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on Mexico." But as usual, the Senate will do nothing because this profits the kleptocratic McConnell and his wife.
As for Trump, he has no idea of what he's doing. He just likes the fact that once he tweeted about Mexican tariffs, the media shifted its focus away from the Mueller report. Trump manufactures the crises, doesn't know how to solve them, and the middle-class American public picks up the bill.
89
Great comment. Please write more and more often about the relationship of Trump, McConnell and Chao. They are ripping off America in so many ways...McConnell as the gravedigger of American democracy.
8
@Wiltontraveler Trump's "crises" should bn now be familiar as pickpocket's diversions of the victims' (us!) attention.
McConnell's and Chao's collaboration is a given. Putin probably "shopped" them like the Germans did in the countries they later invaded from 1939-45. The carrot would be enrichment...the stick some secret they don't want to get out (but many in Kentucky appear to know).
1
I still think that Trump is accidentally including a pressure regulator to a hot economy, inadvertently extending the boom.
3