The Patriot Post® · Despite Leftist Class Warfare, Tax Cuts Benefit All Americans

Under President Donald Trump, the economy has shed the sluggishness of the Barack Obama years and taken off, resulting in more jobs, higher wages and more business investment. Progressive Democrats can’t stand it.

Obama is the only U.S. president to never achieve a single year of 3%+ GDP growth. Despite three major hurricanes, this year we’ve already witnessed two consecutive quarters of such growth. It has been so significant that even The New York Times was forced to acknowledge it, last week declaring, “The American job market is the strongest it’s been in a decade, and arguably the strongest since 2000.”

That it is.

The Trump economy — thanks to an aggressive agenda of slashing burdensome regulations, cutting taxes and “draining the swamp” — is close to firing on all cylinders. The current unemployment rate of 4.1% is a 17-year low and, as noted by Investor’s Business Daily, “It’s broad-based, with minorities, women, men and even those with low incomes, showing the best gains.” In fact, the only demographic not to see significant employment gains is teenagers, who are suffering from the relentless Democrat effort to pass huge minimum wage hikes that price unskilled labor right out of the job market.

Trump has done his part to stimulate economic growth, and after nearly a year of legislative fecklessness from the Senate, it appears that Republicans are close to passing a major tax reform bill.

Not surprisingly, Democrats and their Leftmedia super PAC object.

In a recent Reuters article, columnist Lucia Mutikani “reported” that “U.S. job growth increased at a strong clip in November, painting a portrait of a healthy economy that analysts say does not require the kind of fiscal stimulus that President Donald Trump is proposing.” In other words, Trump’s economy is already picking up steam, so we shouldn’t reduce the levels at which the gaping maw of the federal leviathan devours the earnings of American workers. Heaven forbid those who earn the money actually keep the money!

In its current state, the GOP’s tax bill would slash taxes by $1.5 trillion over 10 years (out of a projected revenue of $43 trillion), but even this meager 3.5% reduction is too much for the fanboys and fangirls of Big Government. That’s because statist Democrats believe the checkbooks of American workers rightfully belong to government.

Just consider how this issue is framed by The Washington Post’s Damian Paletta, who whined, “Until now, Republicans had the benefit of not explaining how they’d pay for their tax overhaul, which was going to cost trillions of dollars without offsets. Ultimately, Republicans agreed to borrow up to $1.5 trillion to finance the tax cut.”

Taxes are the earnings of private citizens confiscated by government to pay for its operations. A tax cut, therefore, is a reduction in the rate at which government takes a worker’s earnings. To say that the government must borrow to finance a tax cut is to assert that the earnings rightfully belong to government first, and that allowing workers to keep more of their earnings amounts to an irresponsible grant from government. That may be true in a nation of slaves, but NOT in a nation of free men and women.

The Left seems most livid about the fact that high-earners and corporations get the biggest tax cuts, but that only makes sense; they pay by far the most taxes. The hated, evil Top 1% (those making $1.8 million or higher) earned 19.2% of income but paid 28.2% of income taxes. The top 10% (those earning above $181,000) earned 41.7% of income but paid 55% of all taxes. The bottom 20% earned 4% of income and paid 0.8% of the taxes.

So yes, when we reduce tax rates, logically those paying the taxes will see the biggest savings. Think of it in terms of weight loss. If a drug company promises taking their pill will result in a 20% weight loss in six months, is it somehow unfair to a 150-lb woman who loses 30 pounds because a 600-lb man lost 120 pounds? Both benefitted equally in proportion to their starting weight.

This rage against corporate tax cuts is also utter foolishness, and it reveals an astonishing level of ignorance of how businesses work. Tax cuts to businesses leave profits in the bank and therefore more capital that can be invested in pay raises, benefit increases, equipment upgrades, etc. All of these benefit the employees of these businesses.

Democrats (and anti-Trump Republican Sen. Bob Corker) have also lamented the possibility of a growing deficit due to tax cuts, which is quite disingenuous from a group of people who worked side-by-side with Obama as he doubled the national debt, increasing it by a staggering $10 trillion. Of course anyone with a high school competency in math understands that the problem is not that we tax too little, but that we spend too much.

The reality is that the rapid ramp-up in the economy is a direct result of the positive outlook held by consumers and businesses as a result of Trump’s tax-cutting, pro-growth agenda. The economy will grow even more if tax reform passes. Combined with federal spending cuts and a reduction in the size and scope of government, we could see an economic boom not seen since the Reagan years.

Only anti-freedom, pro-Big Government statists could bemoan that.