What Tax Cut Exactly, and For Who?

by Dwight Jeffress, Updated Jul 1, 2019

 I had posted this on FB a while back, but then I took it down because my conscience was getting to me. So, I will post it here.

Read at your own risk.

This new tax bill when it was passed into law was a bit of an anomaly and it took specialists in the filed a while to determine what effects it would have.

Repost from Facebook that was taken down:
"To be honest... my return this year was at least half of what it was last year. Partly because from and I quote from my accountant "the new tax law took away the exemption allowance for each family member". Taxable income at least doubled from 2017 which put me in a higher taxable income, my monthly gains in paying a "less" federal tax per month over 2018, negligible... amounted to roughly less than $8 a week...

I was told by my accountant and I have read numerous articles where there are taxpayers far worse off than I am, who were hit with shocking results. This does have to potential to affect the economy to a certain extent. Fortunately, I prepared ahead of time, and I watch this stuff like a hawk, so I was not hit as bad as it could have been.

No big financial gains for me this year and going into the fourth year with stagnating wages... not good."

Once being a die-hard conservative Republican in years past, I would have probably lauded this... but its really difficult now. It was hard to see at the time what was going on. Unfortunately, as we have now passed through the 2018 tax year, we are now seeing the implications of this bill that was passed. It favors the upper echelons of the financial bracket as well as corporations. Those with lots of money will benefit.

The lower middles classes, as well as the working and poor, do not fare so well with this new Tax Act as can be seen by my own personal tax return, in addition to tweets and news articles like the ones I will have linked below. It's pretty much a disaster.

I received half of the tax refund I received last year.

At the root of this is the conservative ideology of what can simply be termed as "trickle down" economics. Give major cuts to the rich and the benefits will "trickle" down to the economic classes, that's the simplistic explanation. There are many issues with this economic ideology that I will address in coming posts. A few are such that the whole idea is based on the supposed "good will" of those receiving the tax cut (i.e. the rich and corporations). It is assumed that they will take the extra money they have gained from their cuts, deductions and like them to reinvest into the economy, the local economy, by starting new businesses, investing in new ventures as well as helping create thousands of new jobs. I used to believe in this ideology, but the tidal forces of the economy have made it personally challenging for me to build a life for myself. It makes it difficult to get ahead when companies slash jobs, outsource labor, stash their money in offshore accounts as well as engage in questionable enterprises that do not necessarily involve just their own money but cause fluctuations in the economy that cost people their savings, the jobs, and their livelihood.

We have been able to live through the Reagan era when the first notion of "trickle down" was proposed and passed. This was also the time we began to see wages stagnating. If the rich saw a larger portion of their finances released for investment, I would expect to see some economic growth for all classes, yet, as the data would suggest, we see wages not staying in parity with the cost of living. Essentially, yes, wages have gone up, but so have costs of living, as well as peripheral goods and services, therefore purchasing power has stalled.

Also to point out that the Republican party has always been the proponents of a balanced budget as well as reducing the deficit.  This new Act now pushes the ceiling for the deficit and raises the amount of debt the country carries to even greater levels than what it became under the Obama administration.  

In the end, the current situation I believe is falsely softened by the availability of rampant quick and easy credit in the form of myriads of loans, credit cards and the like. Household debt per family is at an all-time high. Simply because people are not marching in the streets to protest this turn of events over the last 50 years reveals the ignorance of the electorate. It also reveals with some citizens what's more important in terms of major issues this country faces. There are narratives and issues that people adhere to that neglect other issues that affect the country. This is really to the detriment of the country as well as to its citizens. To pursue one issue above another really is causing the crumbling of our republic. The "greatness" of America, is really not that great, its a false narrative sold to a section of the American people so they hear and believe what that want to hear and believe. It's a major issue and its time for a change. It will change. When the masses move for change, the government will lose its footing and change will occur.

A lot of this article is composed of rhetoric, I will be posting later with supporting data, research articles, as well as instructional articles that seek to educate and inform. It is up to the reader to decide which path they will take.

Don't let yourself be deceived any longer. Educate yourself about the economic system you live in, about the currents of the financial institutions that reside in this country. We must make a change and reclaim the American Dream for all the people, and not just a small percentage of the upper echelons of society.




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