We begin today’s roundup with analysis of the president’s tax plan, a plan that would be a windfall to the wealthiest Americans. Paul Waldman at The Week explains how Donald Trump is misleading the public on this issue:
If you've been paying close attention for the last couple of years, you know that when Trump says the words "believe me," it is a clear signal that he's lying. This is no exception.
Trump has been adamant that he won't profit from his tax plan. Asked by a reporter whether he'd benefit from the plan, the president responded, "No, I don't benefit. I don't benefit. In fact, very, very strongly, as you see, there's no — I think there's very little benefit for people of wealth."
There is one way that might possibly be true: if Trump pays no taxes at all, in which case his taxes can't go down any further. Of course, it's impossible to know for sure, since unlike every president in the last half-century, he refuses to release his tax returns. But if we set aside that no-tax possibility, we can look at the plan to see the ways Trump and other rich people would get a windfall from the changes he wants to make to the tax code. And there are plenty.
John Cassidy at The New Yorker explains how Trump would benefit from the plan, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars:
For starters, Trump would benefit from the abolition of the alternative minimum tax, which the Internal Revenue Service uses to insure that high-income people who have a lot of deductions and sheltered income contribute at least a minimum amount to the federal government. In 2005, the only tax year in the past couple of decades for which we’ve seen any of Trump’s filings—someone leaked two pages of his return to the financial journalist David Cay Johnston—he paid $38.4 million in federal taxes, and $31.3 million of that was to cover his A.M.T. liability.
Without the A.M.T., Trump’s tax bill that year, including self-employment taxes, would have been just $7.1 million. (This despite the fact that he grossed $152.7 million in business income, capital gains, salary, and interest.) Obviously, we can’t be absolutely sure that the A.M.T. has hit Trump in other years, or that it would hit him in the future. But, as a real-estate developer who can take advantage of many different deductions and loopholes in the tax code, he is exactly the type of taxpayer that the A.M.T. is designed to catch.
The New York Times estimates that Trump would enjoy a windfall of more than $1 billion. But hey, Trump’s chief economic advisor Gary Cohn claims you’ll get $500 or $1,000 in savings, and you can use that to buy a car. Yes, he really said that.
Catherine Rampell:
I put “plan” in scare-quotes here because it’s not really a plan. At best it’s an outline, offering barely more detail than the bullet points the Trump administration released in April. It doesn’t even specify the thresholds for the individual income-tax rates it proposes. It also doesn’t identify a single individual tax preference it would kill, despite claiming to simplify the code and close lots of “loopholes.” Even the state and local tax deduction, which administration officials have talked about eliminating, isn’t explicitly mentioned. [...]
If you promise that your policy will “pay for itself” through faster economic growth, you must commit — in advance — to cutting the programs you love most if that growth doesn’t materialize.
For Republicans, that means writing language into their tax bill lopping trillions off defense spending. Hey, if they truly believe their plan won’t cost a dime, surely there’s no risk to our national security.
Turning to the crisis in Puerto Rico, Ed Morales at The Nation calls for an end to austerity and protection of citizens from “disaster capitalism”:
Puerto Rico is now the target not only for rapacious vulture funds trying to collect on debt, but also for exponents of Katrina—style “disaster capitalism.” A recent Washington Post op-ed suggested that companies like Home Depot would profit immensely from a major hurricane by cornering the market on home—reconstruction materials. In fact, Ken Langone, who helped finance Home Depot for its founders, is one of President Trump’s closest allies. So is the billionaire hedge—funder John Paulson, whose Hotel Vanderbilt—accused of turning away island residents hoping to cool off in its air—conditioned lobby—is currently a FEMA—approved bunker. And, of course, the notoriously unreliable electrical grid—administered by a power authority $9 billion in debt and already being primed for privatization—might not be restored for months. The power grid also affects water distribution, which depends on electric pumps. Privatization has been touted as a way to create greater efficiency, but Puerto Ricans have already experienced the negative effects of the partial privatization of the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, which resulted in increased rates and poorer service. What’s more, the goal of making utilities profitable can inhibit badly needed modernization. The island’s grid must be switched from outmoded electrical lines on poles—most of which were toppled by Maria—to underground lines, but such an investment is not profitable, at least in the short term.
On the issue of grifters in the White House, here is The New York Times editorial on the matter:
In August, Mr. Kelly embarked on what he said would be a thorough housecleaning. Time now for him to round up top members of the administration for an all-hands lecture on the difference between public service and self-enrichment, and the importance of sunlight as a disinfectant. Sadly, though, they seem to have already absorbed a more persuasive lesson from the chief executive — get it while you can and to hell with the rules.
On a final note, don’t miss Eugene Robinson’s piece on cabinet members living large on the taxpayer dime:
So are there members of President Trump’s Cabinet who don’t travel by private jet? Put another way, do any of our top officials understand the difference between public service and personal luxury?
Trump may not have Made America Great Again for you or me, but he has made it pretty sweet for political appointees who want to jet around like billionaires at other people’s expense. Nice work if you can get it.