If you’re getting ready to debate Trump’s proposed tax plan at the holiday dinner table with your uncle or aunt who wants to make America great again, here are some articles and columns that can help you organize your arguments a little. There’s feedback on the Trump tax plan from California to Kansas to New York and DC.
- 1. California – A Silicone Valley executive takes on the notion that tax cuts, corporate tax cuts in particular, will result in job growth. Marcus Ryu argues: “As an entrepreneur myself and a friend to many others, I know that lower tax rates will not motivate more people to start companies. People start companies for many reasons: a compelling idea, ambition for fame and fortune, a desire to be one’s own boss, frustration with one’s employer. I have never heard someone say, ‘I would have started a company, but tax rates were too high’ or ‘I wouldn’t have started this company, but then George W. Bush cut tax rates, so I did.'”
- Kansas – Here’s a piece from TrumpAccountable about the disastrous experiment in tax cuts that REPUBLICANS repudiated and reversed. Governor Sam Brownback, who is competing with Chris Christie of New Jersey for least popular governor in the country, launched an experiment in supply-side economics that failed by every economic and social measure. No Republican has an honest answer for what happened in Kansas.
- Washington, DC and New York – The Hill cites a report issued by Goldman Sachs that argues that the Trump tax plan would result in at most a .2% increase in growth over the next two years. Any business leader or Republican politician who thinks that a 1.5 trillion dollar investment (that will benefit the wealthiest Americans much more than middle income Americans) is a great idea has to go back to business school. It’s not a very good return on investment.
And for good measure, here’s another one from the other side of the Atlantic. Larry Summer’s recent column in the Financial Times took issue with the Trump tax plan on many fronts: “The Trump administration’s tax plan is not a plan. It is a mélange of ideas put forth without precision or arithmetic. It is not clear enough to permit the kind of careful quantitative analysis of budget costs, economic impacts and distributional implications that precedes legislation in a serious country. It is clear enough to demonstrate that the claims of Steven Mnuchin, Treasury secretary, Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, and Kevin Hassett, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, are some combination of ignorant, disingenuous and dishonest.”
So, prepare your arguments, stay calm, and be careful not to drink too much before talking politics at the dinner table. You can also keep cool if you try this great recipe from Nebraska: Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie.
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