“Kansas GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts have failed so dramatically and incontrovertibly that the state’s Republican legislature overrode Brownback’s veto to eliminate them. Incredibly, a majority of the Republicans in both chambers of the state legislature voted against the tax cuts. In a new interview with Russell Berman, Grover Norquist insists the failure in Kansas does not tell us much at all about anything. ‘If you’re a Republican looking for a model,’ he says, ‘Kansas is not the model.'” So much for voodoo economics (aka trickle down economics). More …
Taxes
GOP Paul Ryan Says ‘Death Tax’ Hurts Wisconsin Small Businesses. IRS Data Shows Otherwise.
“As they push to abolish the estate tax, the House Speaker and President Trump may be exaggerating its harm to small businesses and family farms.” More …
Paul Ryan Makes It Clear That Cutting Medicaid to Pay for the Health Bill’s Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Enables Deeper Corporate Tax Cuts in Tax Legislation to Follow
“House Speaker Paul Ryan has made a key Republican motive for pushing ahead with the House GOP health plan explicit in recent interviews: passing the health package first facilitates deeper tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations in subsequent tax legislation.” More …
Trump Budget Based on $2 Trillion Math Error
“One of the ways Donald Trump’s budget claims to balance the budget over a decade, without cutting defense or retirement spending, is to assume a $2 trillion increase in revenue through economic growth. This is the magic of the still-to-be-designed Trump tax cuts. But wait — if you recall, the magic of the Trump tax cuts is also supposed to pay for the Trump tax cuts. So the $2 trillion is a double-counting error.” More …
Trump’s “Small Business” Tax Plan Helps Only the Rich
Earn more than $700,000 under Trump’s “pass-through” business plan? Congrats. Everyone else? Sorry. More…
Trump Budget Director Admits GOP Goal Is Wealth Retention, Not Low Deficits
“Donald Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney, in a new interview with CNBC’s John Harwood, basically admits that what he cares about is reducing transfers from the rich to the poor.” More.
Border Adjustment Tax: Income Chilling, Tax Bringing, Job Killing
“Major retail chains have been grumbling for months about a House Republican proposal to replace the corporate income tax with a new kind of broad consumption tax, known to wonks as the destination-based cash flow tax but increasingly called the border adjustment tax.” Funny ad from the National Retail Federation.
Kansas Supreme Court Orders Governor to Fund Public Schools
Why Kansas’ Fiscal Implosion Is Bad News for Trump
Who Benefits from President Trump’s Child Care Proposals?
“During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump proposed three new tax benefits related to child care – an expanded credit for low-income families, a deduction for higher income families, and a savings account. These proposals bring attention to the burden child care costs can place on low- and middle-income families. Our analysis finds that about 70 percent of benefits go to families with at least $100,000 and 25 percent of benefits go to families with at least $200,000. Very few benefits go to the lowest income families who are likely to struggle most with paying for child care.” Analysis from the Tax Policy Center.