Trump-GOP 2017 Tax Cut: Reality of Impact is Ugly and Not What Was Promised

Piles of promises are like piles of horse manure

(Always watch your step)

Reality of 2017 (or any) GOP tax cut: Dinner's on us 

FIRST: This Flashback of any Trump-GOP Tax Cut BS.

Right before Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December 2017, Trump proclaimed: “It’ll be fantastic for the middle-income people and for jobs, most of all ... I think we could go to 4%, 5% or even 6% [GDP growth], ultimately. We are back. We are really going to start to rock.”

A year later, it’s very clear that the tax cuts boosted the GDP and jobs a bit — and just for one year.

The only thing that “rocked” were corporate profits and the stock market. And we’re facing trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.

A poll of more than 100 economists employed by major firms in corporate America (hardly DEM/Leftists) guided by facts and hard data, not supply-side delusion result: 84% of those economists reported that in the year since the bill was signed, they “have not caused their firms to change hiring or investment plans.”

FACTS FROM MARKET WATCH ANALYSIS HERE.

UPDATE HERE FROM THE NY TIMES (via MSN):

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration pushed a $1.5 trillion tax cut through Congress in 2017 on the promise that it would spark sustained economic growth. While the tax cuts have goosed the economy in the short term, officials now concede they will not be enough to deliver the 3 percent annual growth the president promised over the long term. 

To produce that average growth rate for the next decade, White House forecasters say, the American economy would need (1) additional rollbacks in labor regulations, (2) a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, and (3) another round of tax cuts. 

Getting all those policies implemented would be highly unlikely, given a divided Congress, and a ballooning federal deficit, which could limit lawmakers’ appetite to spend money on a new tax cut or infrastructure plan.

But without those additional steps, Trump’s economic team predicts in just-released report that growth would slow to about 2 percent a year by 2026. Ironically, that is the same year when many of the individual tax cuts included in that 2017 law are set to expire thus essentially producing a tax increase for millions of Americans.

Most forecasters project economic growth of about 2 percent in the medium and long run, but that rate would fall far short of the heady promises that Trump made about his ability to fuel the American economy. Trump predicted growth of as much as 5 percent, but his advisers routinely promote 3 percent as the new normal. 

Growth has averaged just over 2 percent back from 2010, the first full year after the 2007-2008 Great Recession ended, right through 2016, when Trump was elected.

Even if all the new measures were adopted, growth would slow over time, but it would still stand at 2.8 percent at the end of the decade, the White House forecasters say.

Story continues at the link above.

My 2 cents: This is not unexpected news – many people predicted this – and why not any GOP and their sustained “trickle-down” mindset.

Quite simple: It pours for the top, but only oozes to the bottom.

Thanks for stopping by.