RED ALERT: The Trump tax bill being rammed through Congress right now is confusing so let me break down what it’ll mean for you. Spoiler: You’ll get stuck with the bill. Follow along for details. 1/
YOUR TAX BILL
47 million households will get a tax hike! Yes, you read that right. In a plan that cuts taxes for corporations and millionaires, millions of middle-class families—especially those with children—get a tax increase. 2/
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Professor @DarrickHamilton & I have a new issue brief today detailing 4 specific ways that the Trump tax law affects communities of color. Like the economy in general, the new law puts black and brown people at a disadvantage.
First & perhaps most obviously, most people know that the law is skewed to the rich. Because of longstanding racial income gaps, a tax law that benefits the very high-income over everyone else also disproportionately benefits white households over households of color. 2/
Second, racial wealth disparities are even more acute than income disparities, and this new tax law dramatically favors existing wealth over new wealth creation. 3/
By now, most Americans know this tax bill is terrible. We know it's unfair, it's a giveaway to the rich, it cuts health care & puts other services at risk.
What hasn’t sunk in yet is how it could also harm the economy, costing jobs and prosperity.
I count at least 5 ways. 1/
First and most directly, by cutting taxes on the super-rich and asking everyone else to pick up the tab, this bill will exacerbate our already sky-high levels of income inequality, as @DLeonhardt correctly points out. 2/ nytimes.com/2017/12/17/opi…
Beyond being morally repugnant, increasing our income inequality will also cause the economy to grow more slowly and will result in more fragile growth, bringing recessions on more rapidly. 3/ imf.org/external/pubs/…
This coming week is make-or-break for the GOP tax scam. If you have any interest in fighting this disastrous bill, follow along for a state-of-play update. Short version: we CAN still stop this thing. 1/
Here’s where we are: Both the Senate & House have passed versions of the GOP tax scam. They have a lot in common (huge tax cuts for the wealthy & corporations, tax hikes on millions of middle class families) but aren’t identical. 2/
To become law, the House & Senate have to pass identical bills. So to come up with ONE new version that both chambers can pass, the GOP has sent their bills to a “conference committee.” 3/
New analysis out TODAY shows that the Senate GOP tax bill would raise taxes on half of all families.
But, really, it's even worse than that. Once you include the spending-side changes, the bill looks even worse. THREAD TIME. 1/ rooseveltinstitute.org/who-really-pay…
The Senate tax bill doesn't only change taxes, it has also has big changes to spending, including cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and lots of other things. A full distributional analysis would include those cuts too. 2/
For example, here's the official JCT (cbo for tax) analysis of who gets a tax cut in 2019 under the Senate bill, and next to it is a FULLER distributional analysis that includes the SPENDING CUTS. 3/