Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts Did Not Live Up To Promises, Says Report
According to a report from Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), Donald Trump‘s 2017 tax cuts have not lived up to their promises, Newsweek reports. Notably, the report highlighted that while the tax cuts were proposed to pay for themselves, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that the cuts would increase the federal debt by $2 trillion over 11 years.
JEC vice-chair Representative Carolyn B. Maloney noted in a press release that the legislation had exacerbated inequality, which she notes was at an “all-time high” at the time the law was passed.
“And it isn’t on track — as the administration had claimed — to ‘pay for itself;’ instead, it will add almost $2 trillion to the national debt. That will make it harder for policymakers to fight the next recession and has already prompted Republicans to consider cuts to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.”
Per NPR, the non-partisan Tax Policy Center reported that over 60 percent of the tax savings from the cut went to people in the top 20 percent income bracket. Not only that, the reduction decreased the corporate tax rate by 40 percent — a point used by some Trump critics who believe the president is fighting for the elite as opposed to the working class.
BREAKING NEWS: @RepLeeZeldin just voted AGAINST lowering taxes for the middle class to protect Trump tax cuts for the super rich.
RT to show Zeldin the power of our grassroots movement to beat him in 2020. pic.twitter.com/LPosGPELrm
— Perry Gershon (@perrygershon) December 19, 2019
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell previously suggested that the tax cut would provide the United States with a permanent boost in economic growth, which has also failed to materialize, with economic growth virtually the same as in 2015.
“With the two-year anniversary of the Republican tax cuts upon us, we now have enough economic data to say definitively that they failed to deliver for American workers and families,” Maloney said, noting the various failures of the cuts in the realms of GDP growth, business investment, and household income.
“Americans would be right to feel cheated,” she added.
Although NPR noted that the U.S. stock market is “booming” and unemployment is almost the lowest it has ever been, the tax cuts nevertheless failed to achieve their goals, and there were more Americans who disapproved of them last tax season than those who approved.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, Trump claims he will enact a “major middle income tax cut” if Republicans maintain control of the Senate and take back the House in 2020. Although Trump previously promised a similar cut that he claimed would take place before the 2018 midterms, he appeared to have had a change of heart in the wake of fear of an economic recession back in August as well as his flip on a payroll tax proposal.
