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  • Trump, GOP get failing grades on new tax law

    Frank Clemente|Jun 20, 2018

    This is the time of year for final report cards, so it’s a good time to grade President Trump and congressional Republicans on their massive tax cuts mostly benefiting the wealthy and corporations. Six months after enactment, their new tax law is seriously underperforming, failing to achieve passing marks in one important subject after another. Tax Fairness: Once the law is fully phased in, 83 percent of the benefits will go to the wealthiest 1 percent. Those one-percenters will get an average tax cut of over $50,000 this year. Folks making und...

  • Corporate tax cuts not trickling down to workers

    Frank Clemente|May 16, 2018

    Working families are, as usual, getting the short end of the stick from the new Trump-GOP tax law. Huge tax cuts that mostly go to the wealthy and corporations are exploding the national debt, and threaten deep cuts to essential public services like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and education. Not only are the tax cuts unwise, they’re unfair. Corporations saw their tax rate slashed from 35 percent to 21 percent — a cut of 40 percent. Their wealthy CEOs, who are members of the top 1 percent, are getting a tax cut that averages more than $5...

  • The GOP's tax overhaul: worst Christmas present ever

    Frank Clemente|Dec 27, 2017

    Some Christmas presents are a wonderful surprise, others a big disappointment. We try to be polite about the clunkers, figuring it’s the thought that counts. But the new Republican tax law — what President Trump has described as a “big, beautiful Christmas present” for the American people — is the worst Christmas present ever. And there’s no need to be polite, since the thought behind it stinks, too. Imagine being promised a new doll or Xbox, only to unwrap the package on Christmas morning to find an empty box — empty, that is, except for an un...

  • Abolishing Obamacare rewards wealthy, punishes working families

    Frank Clemente and Ron Pollack|Jan 18, 2017

    Republican plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) threaten the health care of 30 million Americans and would erode some rare progress made recently to reverse America’s growing economic inequality. By taxing rich households and big corporations to subsidize health care for working families, the ACA does what good public policy should: level the playing field to give everyone a shot, not just those at the top. Abolishing the ACA would only further tilt the field in favor of the wealthy and well-connected. It turns out that taking a...

  • Families advance with recent tax bill, but corporations get a lot more

    Frank Clemente|Dec 30, 2015

    Surprisingly, Congress’ $680 billion holiday-season tax deal will bring some cheer to working families, and not just to big corporations this year. Refundable tax credits putting extra cash in the hands of hard-pressed workers and parents were included in a huge year-end gift-wrapped package of tax breaks — the type of bill that usually only offers big rewards to corporate fat cats. Every two years for the past few decades, Washington has renewed a collection of about 50 temporary tax breaks, called “tax extenders.” Even though some of them ha...

  • Apple tax dodging highlights need for reform

    Clemente|Jun 12, 2013
    1

    Talk about taking your business to “the Cloud.” In an ingenious effort to avoid billions of dollars in taxes, Apple, Inc., has been levitating subsidiaries between American and Irish soil, claiming that from a tax-law perspective, they exist in neither country and so are subject to neither country’s taxing authority. And, sadly, the scheme has worked: no taxes have been paid to the U.S., a relatively paltry sum was paid to Ireland. Though this was Apple’s most audacious tax-dodging scheme, it wasn’t the only one. Congressional investigators rec...