(Cartoon image is by Mike Konopacki at huckkonopackicartoons.com.)Donald Trump and his Republican congressional cohorts told a lot of lies when they passed their tax "reform" law. First, they tried to pass it off as a middle class tax cut. That didn't last long, since it was obvious even to dunces that almost all of the tax cuts went to the rich and the corporations.
They then told Americans that workers would benefit from those cuts, because the corporations and other businesses would use their tax cuts to create new jobs and give current workers a raise. That has now been exposed as just another lie. Here is the truth from Americans for Tax Fairness -- and that truth sounds just like what Democrats said would happen:
HOW ALL OF AMERICA’S BUSINESSES ARE SPENDING THEIR TRUMP TAX CUTS
- 4.2% of workers are getting any one-time bonuses or wage increases from their employers. Just 6.5 million workers are getting a one-time bonus and/or a wage hike tied to the business tax cuts. The total U.S. workforce is 155 million, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. [Source: Topline Corporate Data spreadsheet]
- 5.4 million are getting bonuses and 1.9 million are getting a wage hike; some number are getting both.
- Just 395 businesses are providing their workers with one-time bonuses and/or wage hikes for which the cost has been announced or is able to be estimated. There are 26 million U.S. businesses, per the Tax Policy Center.
- Corporations are getting 11 times as much in tax cuts as they are giving to workers in one-time bonuses and in wage hikes. 149 companies have been identified as receiving $71.7 billion in total tax cuts. That compares to $6.7 billion in one-time bonuses and wage hikes identified as going to workers.
- Corporations are spending 59 times as much on stock buybacks as they are spending on workers’ bonuses and wages. Authorizations for stock buybacks, which overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy, have increased by $393 billion since the tax law was passed, while workers are getting $6.7 billion in one-time bonuses and wage increases.
- The richest 1% own 40% of all stock; the richest 10% own 84%. [National Bureau of Economic Research/Washington Post] Stock buybacks waste money that could be used for useful investments, creating jobs and higher pay.
- A total of 120,910 private-sector job cuts have been announced at 186 companies since the tax law was passed by Congress. [Job cuts spreadsheet] The actual job-loss total is higher, but some big companies, including Amazon and Wells Fargo, have not offered precise figures in their layoff announcements.
