Slate - "Why the White Labor Class is OK with Trump's Tax Giveaways to the Wealthy"
Why Trump Gets a Populist Pass
The president’s racial demagoguery makes it easier for the GOP to sell tax giveaways to the wealthy.
By Jamelle Bouie
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/04/how_trump_s_racial_demagoguery_makes_it_easier_for_the_gop_to_sell_tax_giveaways.html
Donald Trump wants to give himself a tax cut.
His new tax plan, a one-page summary unveiled on Wednesday in the last-minute scramble for an accomplishment before the end of his first 100 days, would cut the business rate down to 15 percent. Now, Trump isn’t a business, but he owns one, and it’s not structured like a typical one. Instead, it’s a “pass-through” corporation, meaning its earnings are passed through to the owners’ individual returns and then taxed at the appropriate marginal rate. Trump’s tax cut is structured to slash rates on pass-throughs as well other corporate forms. In other words, if passed, the president will save himself a nice chunk of change, on the order of tens of millions of dollars. (We don’t know how much he’ll actually save, because—unlike every other modern president before him—he refuses to release his tax returns.)
It’s of a piece with his approach to governance, where the presidency isn’t a sacred office as much as it’s a convenient base for siphoning wealth from public coffers, through petty graft and public policy. (For the former, see his regular “official” trips to Trump-branded properties.)
But while it’s hard to ignore this glaring conflict of interest, it’s worth turning attention to how this tax cut would affect the country at large. The details are straightforward. If passed in its present form, Trump’s plan would slash individual and business rates, repeal the estate tax, and end the alternative minimum tax (which hits a number of affluent households, in addition to the highest income earners). What’s more, Trump would eliminate the 3.8 percent investment surtax found in the Affordable Care Act, another break for the wealthiest households and estates.
snip - read on at the above link
= new reply since forum marked as read
