We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes (Leona Helmsley, 1989)
Leona Helmsley was no longer young and beautiful by the late 1980s, by which time she’d become known as New York City’s “Queen of Mean.” Regardless, you have to know back when she gave that infamous quote Donald Trump felt some love. For her brash attitude, and definitely belief about rich and poor people, and taxes. This was after all when he was in the heady days of Art of the Deal and becoming known outside NYC. Well, nothing has changed and as far as Trumpty’s concerned rich people shouldn’t have to pay a dime. Regular folks? He says pay up. NOW! We all know this of course. But Trump and fellow rich people in government try to pretend regular and even poor folks benefit from GOP tax cuts when it’s clear they believe tax cuts are for RICH people. Alas, someone shaping a load of Trumpian bullshite on taxes accidentally spilled the beans with some truth. Which is that working class and poor people will see tax HIKES.
We shouldn’t be surprised. I’m not referring to the current tax policy Trump’s trying to force Congress to pass. No one expects anything different from him and Republicans. No, I’m referring to the fact that in putting together the policy paper Trumpty’s minions went and told the truth on him and themselves! It’s not like we don’t see simple things like misspelled words and other typos, or even links to things the idiots who create this stuff really should have read first. Or maybe they did but were too stupid to comprehend what they were reading. That’s a real possibility with this gang. In any case, as this article from MSNBC tells us Trumpty’s minions have gone and admitted that yes, they will increase taxes on anyone making 30k or less.
The (news) zone is so flooded with nasty brown organic matter coming from Trump (who is after all a flaming orange human shaped rectum) this kind of thing can get easily lost. Fortunately it DID get noticed. I for one find it amusing that once again this administration’s incompetence has led to it telling an inconvenient truth on itself. Trumpty wanted to provide ‘evidence’ his Big, Beautiful Bill would be awesome for everyone’s taxes. Except of course it isn’t and the bigly statement touting the “BBB” included this:
On a page entitled “ICYMI: ‘Average earners’ tax bills would fall under House tax package, forecasters say,'” the White House includes a link with the text “Click here to see the official analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation.” The Joint Committee on Taxation is a nonpartisan committee that, among other duties, produces distribution tables breaking down how different income levels will be impacted by new tax laws.
Oops. Some folks including Democratic Representative Don Beyer looked at the links and what do you know? That’s right, the bill hikes taxes on the lowest income people while cutting them for the rich. It’s right there in the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) the WH statement links to. The JCT data tells us:
In 2029, Americans making less than $30,000 will actually pay more in taxes under the GOP’s plan than under current law. Americans making less than $15,000 — the poorest of the poor — will pay 53% more in taxes than they do now as their average tax rate jumps from 3.3% to 5.1%. Meanwhile, households making over a million will pay 6.4% less in taxes (totaling an estimated $74 billion collectively), as their average rate falls from 30.8% to 28.7%.
So it’s business as usual for Trump and Republicans. Cut taxes on rich people including batshit insanely rich ones and pay for it by taking from working class and poor people. Now, you might at first glance say ‘Well, that sucks for the under 30k folks but I make a little more than that. I might not be well off but I’m solidly middle, or at least lower middle class.’ Not so fast folks:
Americans making over $30,000 will get a tax cut, according to the JCT. But those numbers, as Brendan Duke of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes, do not include other tax law changes such as the higher threshold for the estate tax, or the cuts to programs like SNAP and Medicaid that primarily benefit the poor, or the effects of the president’s tariffs. When you add those, the benefits of the Republican bill become even more skewed towards the richest Americans. In fact, the New York Times reports that economists at the Penn Wharton Budget Model, another nonpartisan outfit, “found that many Americans who make less than $51,000 a year would see their after-tax income fall as a result of the Republican proposal beginning in 2026.”
Bottom line the whole thing is yet another push to give more to rich people. People for whom NO amount of money and wealth will ever be enough. The real, appalling truth is that Trump and these people have a visceral hatred of and regular or poor person with a dollar in their pocket. As far as he/they are concerned that’s a vile injustice because money is for THEM and not what Leona Helmsley dubbed “little people.”
Will this blow up into a major, ongoing news story? I wouldn’t bet on it. After all, the people in the executive suites and boardrooms of major news outlets benefit from conservative tax policy. I’ve written about it before. I could go into all that but I want to keep this short and on-point. The “point” is that as I write this Trump and GOP Congress Critters are hard at work trying to yet again transfer more money from regular, working poor and poor Americans to the (already) wealthiest ones. So keep you eye on the ball and raise hell with your elected representatives.
***Zoomers, we are always in need of donations. It’s been an especially rough month and my own health has not been great these past few weeks, which just adds to the frustration. Anything you can spare will be immensely appreciated. And thank you to all who have donated generously already. Ursula***
Sooooo someone said the quiet part out loud. I think we knew this all along and just had it proven in black and white. Ouch.