Thursday, April 27, 2017

Day 97: Tax Plans

Today's coverage was dominated by the administrations tax "plan". It was not so much a "plan" as a wish-list of tax cuts. To avoid linking to lots of articles:
  • Here's an overview of the "plan". It primarily consists of huge gifts to most businesses, and hefty tax cuts for the very rich. Lower income people would benefit slightly from an increased standard deduction. This is an incredibly anti-progressive shift in taxation (progressive being the opposite of regressive for tax codes).
  • There is no proposal to close tax loopholes whatsoever, but does do away with a number of taxes that only impact the wealthy, including the alternative minimum.
  • The entire thing will blow a huge hole in the federal budget, as no new revenue streams are proposed.
  • When anybody tells you that tax cuts will pay for themselves in increased activity in the entire economy, they're lying through their teeth (case in point: Administration). The rule of thumb is that a third of a tax cut is recouped in increased activity.
So, in summary: gift to the rich, hole in federal budget. This thing looks terrible.

In other news:

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