It's been a few years and we've been through one crisis after another, so I wouldn't be surprised if many folks—not Daily Kos readers of course, I mean other folks—have long forgotten the nonsense that was the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, colloquially referred to as the 2017 GOP (or Trump) tax scam.
The process of writing and passing that bill was a disaster from beginning to end because Republicans are bad at governing, even when they have all the power. People who actually care about this country were able to stall it for months—an incredible achievement considering we were living in a Republican hellscape at the time—but then, after adding some handwritten notes in the margin of a bill most of Congress hadn't even read, it was hastily passed in December 2017. And boy, have we been paying for it ever since.
Rather than jolting the economy as former House Speaker Paul Ryan/Mitch McConnell/the Trump administration promised, the tax scam hurt American jobs. Harley-Davidson shut down a Missouri plant, leaving 800 employees out of work, and an Oklahoma energy company laid off 400 employees due to tax law changes. Declining tax revenues from the legislation precipitated a brutal 35-day government shutdown as Democrats attempted to negotiate with Republicans. From conception to implementation, the GOP tax scam was an absolute disaster for the United States.
Paul Ryan promised a tax cut for everybody, at all income levels, while also paying down the debt. I'm no economist, but I did survive Reaganomics (so far, anyway) and the math wasn't mathing. Don't take my very astute analysis for it: The Washington Post wrote the claim was "worthy of Four Pinocchios." And the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Tax Policy Center, and many other actual economists agreed.
The 2017 GOP tax scam was a 10-year, $1.5 trillion windfall for the wealthy that, among other things, created huge incentives for corporations to export jobs and profits overseas. That’s a problem that Democrats now aim to fix with the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act.
Sign and send the petition to your members of Congress: Undo the damage that Trump left behind. Pass the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act.
Mark Sumner sums it up nicely here:
It was obvious from the beginning that almost all the benefits from the tax cut would go to a handful of wealthy corporations and individuals. It was also clear from the beginning that the tax cut would punch a massive hole in the budget, leaving everyone else to pick up the tab as billionaires carried off their stacks of cash. All of that has proven to be completely true: With the Trump cut in hand, major corporations have walked away year after year paying tiny amounts, and often paying nothing at all.
RELATED STORY: Trump 2017 tax cut wasn't just designed for wealthy, it was customized for specific billionaires
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For example, the Trump tax scam incentivized shifting profits to offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Many American multinational corporations took advantage, as they are wont to do, reaping the benefits of the U.S. economy—infrastructure, workforce, and the like—while contributing very little to it.
As a result, American multinational corporations have reported 61% of their foreign income in seven tax haven countries—with 10% in Bermuda alone, an astonishing sum that exceeds Bermuda’s GDP many times over. Studies show that such offshore tax loopholes are costing taxpayers over $70 billion a year.
Democrats Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas have introduced the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act to undo this damage. As of this writing, it has been co-sponsored by 19 senators, 108 representatives, and has been endorsed by over 90 advocacy organizations.
“By ending Trump-GOP tax breaks, which encourage multinational corporations to both outsource good-paying American jobs and shift profits abroad, we can raise revenue, bring back American jobs, and make tax laws more fair for all,” said Congressman Doggett, senior Member of the House Ways and Means Committee. “Let’s add more jobs here in America and insist that profits earned from American consumers are taxed in America, not hidden in offshore tax havens."
The No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act would, among many other things:
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End the preferential tax rate for offshore profits and ensure companies pay the same rate abroad as they do in the U.S.;
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Treat corporations worth $50 million or more and managed and controlled within the U.S. as the U.S. entities they in fact are, and subject them to the same tax as other U.S. taxpayers;
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Deem any merger between a U.S. company and a smaller foreign firm to be a U.S. taxpayer, no matter where in the world the new company claims to be headquartered—discouraging corporations from renouncing their U.S. citizenship in order to dodge taxes; and
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Eliminate special tax breaks for big oil companies.
By ending the tax scam’s incentives for sending jobs—and profits—overseas, the bill would help enact a Global Minimum Tax negotiated between the Biden administration and 130 other countries, ending the race to the bottom on corporate taxation. It would make sure that multinational corporations pay the same tax rate on profits earned abroad as they do at home.
Not only did the Republican tax scam provide massive tax cuts for millionaires and large corporations at the expense of critical programs and services like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and education, it also drastically changed the international tax system—for the worse. Every tax dollar corporations avoid paying results in higher taxes for our families and communities, and less money for infrastructure, education, health care, and other urgent priorities.
This legislation is an important step in undoing the damage of the 2017 GOP tax scam and finally moving the U.S. to a system where companies will pay their fair share to the country that has made their success possible.
Sign and send the petition to your members of Congress: Pass the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act. End corporate tax loopholes.