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“By all accounts, the incoming administration is determined to return the country to another round of trickle-down economics. On top of that, he seems determined to impose steep, universal tariffs on all important goods brought into this country on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs, rather than the American consumer.”
— “President Joe Biden on Tuesday took direct aim at President-elect Donald Trump’s economic agenda, denigrating his plan to impose sweeping tariffs and cut taxes as a ‘major mistake’ that will weaken the economy,” Politico reports.
$4.6 trillion
“As discussions intensify on Capitol Hill over reupping President-elect Donald Trump’s signature tax cuts, Republicans are headed for a massive fight over what could be a nearly $5 trillion price tag,” Politico reports. “Top House and Senate lawmakers are deeply divided over what, if anything, to do about the hit to the budget that would come by renewing the slew of tax cuts benefiting millions of Americans that are set to expire at the end of next year.”
7.8%
“The average tax rate on U.S. corporations fell by more than half, to 7.8 percent, in the wake of Republicans’ 2017 tax overhaul, according to a new government analysis,” Politico reports.
“Oh, we’ll be cutting.”
— President Trump’s response when he was asked at a Fox News town hall meeting if he’ll address entitlement spending to deal with the country’s burgeoning debt.
1.2%
While Amazon said it paid “billions” in taxes in 2019, the company actually paid $162 million in federal income tax—a tax rate of 1.2 percent on profits of more than $13 billion, according to Yahoo News.
$3.2 trillion
Bloomberg: “Joe Biden plans to pay for $3.2 trillion in policy proposals with new and higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, including a measure targeting companies like Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. that have reported paying no federal income taxes in recent years. … The so-called minimum book tax, which his team estimates would raise $400 billion over a decade, would be coupled with increases in the top individual and corporate rates that Biden has already promised.”
15%
President Trump’s economic advisers are exploring whether the president should campaign for reelection proposing a 15% tax rate for the American middle class, with some seeing the idea as a simple way of selling Republicans’ economic agenda as not merely beneficial to the rich, the Washington Post reports.
23%
The 400 wealthiest Americans last year paid a lower total tax rate — spanning federal, state and local taxes — than any other income group, the New York Times reports. “That’s a sharp change from the 1950s and 1960s, when the wealthy paid vastly higher tax rates than the middle class or poor. Since then, taxes that hit the wealthiest the hardest — like the estate tax and corporate tax — have plummeted, while tax avoidance has become more common.”
$1 trillion
“The U.S. budget gap widened to more than $1 trillion in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the Treasury Department said Thursday, the first time deficits have topped that amount in seven years,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“There are lots of reasons to worry about how President Trump would handle a recession, should we tip into one. There’s his incompetent economic team. Or the limited fiscal policy tools at his disposal, given that Republicans already spent nearly $2 trillion on tax cuts. Or his efforts to discredit the Federal Reserve just when we’ll need it most. … One underrated concern: Trump’s tendency to double down on stupid and destructive ideas, despite — perhaps because of? — overwhelming evidence of their stupidity and destructiveness.”
