Note from the Editors: It’s been approximately one year since the passing of the Republican-backed tax plan championed by Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. As with most pieces of legislation– especially those that affect Americans financially– opinion is divided on whether the new tax plan helps or hurts families across the country. Seeking to foster more bi-partisan dialogue on campus, the Voice has partnered with Connecticut College Democrats (CCDems) and Connecticut College Republicans and Conservatives Club (CCRCC) to help educate readers on the stances held by both sides of the political spectrum. The pieces below reflect the unofficial positions of both clubs. Finn Boed ‘21 penned the response for CCDems. The CCRCC respondent has requested anonymity.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has been and continues to be harmful to the people of the United States and was passed under disgraceful conditions. Many legislators were given minimal time to read the lengthy bill and amendments to it were still being written on the night of the vote by lobbyists and legislators alike.
Luckily the deficit-hawks in Congress didn’t seem to read the debt-heavy bill they voted to pass. Republicans have long cried for fiscal responsibility and balancing the budget, yet voted strictly on party lines in the Senate to pass a bill that bores a $2.3 trillion hole in the budget over ten years, as announced by the Treasury Department. Where are those hawks’ cries now?
Isn’t it funny how our government works? Lobbyists hired by entities connected to the wealthiest Americans helped write this bill. It wasn’t altruism. Their job was done in the interest of those who hired them. Considering that 62 percent of the tax benefits go to the top one percent of the country, it is no wonder they hired lobbyists to help its passage. An example of the unequal nature of the cuts is reflected in the reduced number of estates responsible for paying the Estate Tax, which is a burden that now impacts the wealthiest 0.2 percent.
By 2025, when all individual tax cuts are set to expire, a large number of Americans will see little change in their tax bill or perhaps a slight uptick even as corporate tax cuts remain. Clearly, the bill had a group it was designed to benefit. Corporate tax cuts gave breaks to companies that have largely done little good with it.
Jeffry Bartash reported in MarketWatch that actual investment spending is “not nearly enough to show the tax cuts are achieving Republican goals.” The drop in corporate tax revenue the government has received as a result of the slashed corporate tax rate will not be made up by spending in the economy by businesses.
Since the tax cuts became law, CEOs across America have been selling their shares at record rates following buyback announcements from their companies. Patrick Temple-West and Victoria Guida report in Politico that public companies “have announced more than $600 billion in buybacks in the first half of this year [2018].” A growing stock market helps many Americans, yes. However, the lion’s share of benefits from these buybacks fueled by corporate tax windfall go to the wealthiest Americans. As Ryan Vlastelica writes in MarketWatch, the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans “own nearly 90% of stocks.” •
