Well, it looks like Trump & the GOP Congress are finally on the precipice of a legislative achievement. The fact of the matter is their discredited dogma of trickle down just does not work, so this bill isn’t so much to help the American people as it is to help themselves, showing their base they can actually do something. That something has very questionable benefits, as it will have some benefits to drive economic growth but a lot more impetus to drive up deficits. As John Kasich explained today, driving up deficits as this tax plan obviously does actually serves to stymie economic growth. So the growth spurred by the Trump tax cuts are offset by increased budget deficits. And it also looks like millions will be knocked off healthcare. America badly needs something which can boost inclusive growth, lifting the working class struggling to make ends meet to a brighter future. Knowing what we know, it’s no wonder the public’s unfavorability towards this bill is double the favorability. This tax bill falls way, way, way short of the well-thought-out comprehensive/transformational legislation that we need, something new & bold which could really get to the heart of our economic malaise & actually do some good.
When I say economic malaise, the top half on the economic ladder think the economy is doing great, while the bottom half has fallen through the cracks. That’s the whole problem, we’re a nation divided into the haves & have-nots more than at any time in our lifetimes, with the growing income inequality being worse here than in other developed countries. As the continuing economic challenge now going on for decades, the problem is so acute & glaringly obvious, our DC leadership have been derelict in their duties. They’ve failed miserably in coming up with viable ideas for addressing this chronic structural issue that sees roughly half the population living paycheck-to-paycheck. For them the American Dream is little more than a pipe dream & our current economic system has failed them, but they lack a voice in DC & there’s no sense of urgency among the “swamp” bureaucrats to find real solutions. In a nation producing such enormous wealth as these United States, it’s nothing short of an inhumane moral outrage we have failed to design a system giving the bottom 50% access to more productive/rewarding careers. It’s the one overriding economic issue DC leaders should primarily focus on, but instead we get this tax bill, which most assuredly isn’t the answer.
In the related articles below, we start with links to particular economic challenges before getting to the group for the Trump tax cuts. Here’s an excerpt followed by two graphs from the article How America’s inequality is sending the Dow soaring, which is really quite eye-popping on the uneven nature of our economic growth & the disturbing escalating trends on the wide income divides:
But American workers won’t put up with any more business cycles that yield them few gains, he says. “This is the last time they can get away with it, because the backlash is going to be huge.” In the end, the trend toward inequality amounts to capitalist suicide, Spriggs argues. Companies need demand, which requires rising wages so that workers can afford goods and services. “Businesses can’t create themselves, they respond to general growth in income,” he said. “Inequality chokes off business development.”
Moving down the list of links below are some indicting articles that expose the pervasive issue of abject poverty in such a wealthy nation as ours. I’m not smart enough to propose how to fix the problem, but I am smart enough to know something is seriously amiss. These paragraphs are taken from the article headlined Trump turning U.S. into world champion of extreme inequality (the link itself is a Guardian article saying America-UN-extreme-poverty-Trump-Republicans), which these two sections below should have DC leaders & American voters paying heed. The article concludes we can fix this with the proper priorities & political will. That can’t come about through more welfare programs, but rather finding a smart way to fundamentally fix the economic system itself:
“American exceptionalism was a constant theme in my conversations,” he writes. “But instead of realizing its founders’ admirable commitments, today’s United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights. As a result, contrasts between private wealth and public squalor abound.” In his most stark message, Alston warns that the Republicans’ declared intent to slash crucial welfare programs next year in order to pay for some of the $1.5tn tax cuts could cost American lives. “The consequences for an already overstretched and inadequate system of social protection are likely to be fatal for many programs, and possibly also for those who rely upon them,” he writes. Alston’s piercing findings present the Trump administration with a challenge. The charge that the US president is actively seeking to harm millions of Americans may be difficult to ignore, given that the report carries the imprimatur of the UN human rights council in Geneva.
In a report packed with depressing evidence, the UN rapporteur tries to give a positive spin to his findings, saying that with the wealth that abounds in the US the country is in a position to solve its poverty and inequality crisis. “The persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power. With political will, it could readily be eliminated.” In a phrase that might reverberate around Capitol Hill and the White House, Alston concludes: “The American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion since the US now has the lowest rate of social mobility of any of the rich countries.”
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