Progressive Breakfast: Small Business Leaders Unite Against Tax Cuts

MORNING MESSAGE

Small Business Leaders Unite Against Tax Cuts

The GOP's massive tax cuts for the wealthy will badly hurt small businesses, their employees and customers, according to Sen. Ron Wyden and job creators from all across the country who have joined him to denounce the plan.

Tell Lawmakers To Vote NO! On Tax Cuts

Say no to the GOP tax scam! Call your senators today at 888-516-5820. and tell them to VOTE NO. The GOP plan gives huge tax breaks to corporations, the 1 percent, and the GOP’s big-money donors. The rest of us will pay with big cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, education, and other necessities. We beat them before. Let’s beat them back again.

GOP Bets Farm On Tax Cuts

GOP places risky bet on trickle-down tax cut. Politico:“Republicans are on the cusp of passing the biggest corporate tax cut in American history, betting it will ignite an economic boom that creates better jobs and fatter paychecks for middle-class Americans. That boom may never trickle down. Some economists and corporate executives are already warning that simply lowering tax bills won’t necessarily cause companies to hire more people and pay them better. Instead, they could just wind up returning the extra cash to shareholders. That could leave President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans celebrating a short-term legislative win that hurts them in the long run, with bigger deficits and little to show for it. And an already deeply unpopular bill — that includes immediate hikes on some individual taxpayers — could become a serious political headache in 2020 and beyond.”

“Vote-a-Rama” Means What, Exactly?

Senate tax bill moves to floor debate. Vox:“Senate Republicans have entered a frantic rush to put a tax overhaul on the Senate floor in the next few days. Republicans are readying a bevy of last-minute changes that could redirect billions of dollars in the US economy over the next decade, changes that senators hadn’t even seen in writing mere hours before they voted to start debate on the tax bill. But the bill has cleared its first important hurdle. The Senate voted on Wednesday evening, 52 to 48, to start debate on the Republican tax plan. But that’s really just the opening act. Over the next two days, the fate of the nation’s tax code will be adjudicated on the Senate floor. The centerpiece of the Republican tax plan is a huge corporate tax cut, at a time when most Americans think businesses should be taxed more, not less. It also slashes taxes on ‘pass-through’ businesses disproportionately used by rich people (like President Trump) to lower their tax burden. The top tax rate for the richest Americans would also be cut, and the estate tax for wealthy inheritances would be rolled back.More changes could be made on the Senate floor, where a process colloquially called ‘vote-a-rama’ could force some tough votes for lawmakers on both sides and, maybe, change the substance of the final plan that the Senate passes. How this all shakes out could determine whether — and, more importantly, how — Republicans overhaul the nation’s tax code for the next generation. The path forward is complex. Here’s what happens next.”

Specious Debate About Pass-Throughs

What you need to know about the Senate’s pass-through tax debate. Politico:“How to tax a class of businesses known as pass-throughs is quickly shaping up to be one of the knottiest issues facing Republicans now trying to shuttle a sweeping tax code rewrite through the Senate. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) are threatening to oppose the plan — and Republican leaders can only afford to lose two votes — because they say it doesn’t cut taxes deeply enough for those businesses. They worry corporations will see a far bigger tax cut, putting pass-throughs at a competitive disadvantage. The dispute is bringing the once obscure issue to the fore. Here’s what you need to know about the unfolding debate. So what’s a pass-through? Pass-throughs are basically all the businesses that aren’t corporations. There are millions of them, and they include everything from law firms to hedge funds to your neighborhood dry cleaner. They include sole proprietorships (where one person owns a business), partnerships (joint ventures between at least two people) and limited liability companies and S corporations (both of which combine elements of corporations and partnerships). They’re called pass-throughs because their income passes through to the owners’ individual tax returns, where it’s taxed at ordinary income tax rates, rather than being filed on a separate business return like a corporation.”

Trump’s Sells Tax Plan With Lies

Trump sells tax plan with false claims. NYT:“At a Wednesday afternoon rally in Missouri, President Trump played up what he called the ‘biggest tax cuts in history’ and boasted about economic growth ‘in a nonbraggadocious way.’ ‘In fact, they’re going to say Trump is the opposite of an exaggerator,’ he said of his rosy projections, in a speech full of exaggerations and falsehoods. He inaccurately suggested the plan wouldn’t help the wealthy… Referring to Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, the president said: ‘I keep hearing Schumer, ‘This is for the wealthy!’ If it is, my friends don’t know about it.’ That is not supported by most analyses of the tax plans being considered in Congress. Under the Senate plan, every income level would receive a tax cut in 2019, but people earning $20,000 to $30,000 annually would face a tax increase the next year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. By 2027, most people making under $75,000 each year would see a tax increase, while those making more would continue to receive a tax cut… Under the House plan, every income group would see tax cuts through 2027, but the richest one-fifth of Americans would receive 56 percent to almost 75 percent of the cuts, according to the Tax Policy Center.”

Dems Threaten Shutdown Over DACA

Top Democrat ratchets up government shutdown fight over ‘dreamers’. WaPo:“A top Senate Democrat said Wednesday that he will vote against any spending bill in the coming weeks if Congress has failed to address the fate of young immigrants — raising the stakes in a looming showdown with the White House and Republicans over a potential government shutdown. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking Senate Democrat and a lead negotiator on spending matters, said he is encouraging his colleagues to join him in blocking spending legislation if the legal status of “dreamers” isn’t resolved. President Trump announced in September that he will end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in early March, putting hundreds of thousands of dreamers — immigrants brought to the United States as children — at risk of deportation early next year.”

More from OurFuture.org:

GOP Goes for Win on Taxes, Consequences be Damned. Leo Gerard:“An entire year of legislative defeats has grated on the GOP. Their promised Affordable Care Act repeal failed – again and again and again. Their Muslim ban was, well, banned by the courts. And now, in the waning days of November, their infrastructure bill, big beautiful border wall and brand new NAFTA are all missing. Republicans have lost so much, they’re downright desperate for a win. And that’s why they’re pushing a tax scam supported by a mere 25 percent of Americans.”

GOP Takes War On Learning Into Senate Tax Plan, States. Jeff Bryant:“As the Republican-controlled Congress advances tax plans that slash public education, a new report reveals how state and local government officials, especially where GOP leadership dominates, are butchering school funding.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action. more »