As I type this post, the United States House of Representatives has just passed the reconciled tax reform bill by a 227 to 203 vote, which now goes to the Senate for a vote later today. It too will pass there, barring any totally unforeseen last minute defections of "yes" voters. President Trump will likely sign the bill into law later this evening. The enormously positive ramifications on the passage and implementation of this act will be felt for nearly all tax paying Americans for many years to come as middle class tax payers get to keep more of their own money.
Yes, we absolutely should have preceded this tax reform with a spending cut reform bill. There are huge amounts of waste, fraud, abuse, and frankly extra-constitutional (un-constitutional) spending sprees that occur every year in our federal government. Billions of dollars need to be trimmed there, but frankly it simply is not ever going to happen with the progressive, foolish, and entrenched members of congress that we currently have from both parties sitting there.
All of that said, I find it amusing how some of our good leftist friends are all of a sudden concerned about this tax reform act and what it will do to the national debt. While I can think of one or two of them who are sincere and consistent in this concern, most of these otherwise well-meaning leftist folk are simply playing partisan politics. If they were legitimately concerned about our national debt, they would have been protesting like I did when President Obama's policies saw a doubling of our national debt from $10 trillion to nearly $20 trillion during his administration. Needless to say, their concern rings a bit hollow now.
This is particularly true because this tax reform act will absolutely grow the economy and expand the tax base accordingly. More jobs will be created, and many of them will be good paying jobs. This means more taxes paid and more federal income accordingly. Will the expanding economy pay for the tax cuts that will ensue? Most objective economists don't think it will... as it is predicted to add $1 trillion over ten years by some of the more objective prognosticators. Some of the more partisanly optimistic ones are sure it will pay for itself, while the partisans on the left are predictably claiming doom and gloom and ridiculously that it will increase taxes for the middle class, as per the congenital liar Nancy Pelosi.
The fact that this was passed without any Democrat support at all in the House and likely none in the Senate to come this afternoon means that when the already-improving economy further accelerates, the Democrats will have no cover with the American people of why they voted against giving more of OUR OWN MONEY back to us.
And then of course we have some leftists that wish to play the class warfare card as they continue to hate the rich first, last, and always. This comes out particularly in the case of the decreased corporate tax rate reduction from 35 to 21%. Now I am the first to agree that large corporations in particular should not be subsidized with tax payer dollars to effectively lower their tax rate; however, it is a pretty basic economic fact that the consumers and share-holders are the ones that end up paying that tax in the form of higher prices of goods and services needed to offset the companies' tax liabilities and in reduced returns and dividends to stock holders. By making American corporations more competitive on a global scale, we will further see a growth in our economy and the creation of more jobs.
Indeed, here are just a few examples of corporations that will be investing in our economy specifically because of Trump economic policies and the tax reform:
- Foxconn Technology Group announced it was investing $10 billion in Wisconsin to build a factory that will employ 3,000 workers. The company predicted it will benefit another 22,000 workers indirectly.
- Corning Inc. announced during a White House ceremony with Trump that it was investing $500 million in new U.S. production, creating 1,000 jobs.
- Broadcom Limited announced at another White House ceremony its plan to move headquarters back to the United States, bringing $20 billion in annual revenue.
- My own company of AT&T has said that if this tax reform is passed, they will invest $1 billion creating 7000 new high paying jobs domestically.
While serious debt reduction needs to take place, and I will continue to lobby my elected officials ad nauseum on this issue, I think this once-in-a-generation tax reform has far more upside to it than not. It will indeed help far more Americans directly in their pocketbooks than anything done by the Democrats over the last eight years of the Obama administration. Despite the sycophantic media towing the Democrat line as always, I truly think come mid-term elections in 2018 when people vote with their pocket-books that the Democrats will be horrified at the outcome once again, and the nation will be better off for it.
