Stiglitz on the Tax Bill

Republicans’ Tax Lies Show the Rot Spreads Wide and Runs Deep - The New York Times

Republicans’ Tax Lies Show the Rot Spreads Wide and Runs Deep - The New York Times

JCT Estimates: Amended Senate Tax Bill Skewed to Top, Hurts Many Low- and Middle-Income Americans | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

JCT Estimates: Amended Senate Tax Bill Skewed to Top, Hurts Many Low- and Middle-Income Americans | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

JCT Estimates: Amended Senate Tax Bill Skewed to Top, Hurts Many Low- and Middle-Income Americans | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

JCT Estimates: Amended Senate Tax Bill Skewed to Top, Hurts Many Low- and Middle-Income Americans | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The Problem With Fake News Is That 'People Want to Consume Information That Makes Them Feel Good, Because It Reaffirms Their Worldview' @alternet

The Problem With Fake News Is That 'People Want to Consume Information That Makes Them Feel Good, Because It Reaffirms Their Worldview' @alternet: Our relationship to information is entirely emotional. A year out from Donald Trump's astonishing and disturbing presidential win, it's become clear that the absolute sea of disinformation — much of which was Russia-funded and most of which was disseminated through the internet — was critical in helping push a know-nothing reality TV star–turned-wannabe-dictator into power. With the 2018 elections less than a year away, the pressing question now is: How we stop this from happening again?



Including fake news about immigrants and immigration.

Paradise Papers - the ethics of tax havens (1/2) | DW Documentary

Trump/GOP Tax Proposal is Class War

Trump’s Tax Proposal: Class Warfare 

 – Bill Barclay

The Trump/GOP “Unified Framework” tax plan has something for everyone – if by everyone you mean the wealthy, corporate and non-corporate businesses and the alt-right.  The plan embodies both the neoliberal class warfare that believes poor people have too much money and rich people have too little money and connects with the social conservative politics that the Trump and the GOP draws upon to mobilize its supporters. 

Class Warfare: I

Some of the class warfare politics of the Trump/GOP proposals are obvious; others less so.  The proposal provides a small tax cut for households in the bottom three quintiles, ranging from about 0.5 – 1.2% of after tax income in all cases well under the $1,182/family income boost claimed by Rep. Paul Ryan.  At the upper end of the income pyramid, the story is much different.  Over half of the total tax cuts for individuals will accrue to the top 1% of households, boosting their after tax incomes by 8.5%. Of course, life can be even better: the top 0.1% households would grab an average tax cut of almost $750,000, capturing over 30% of the total tax cuts for families and individuals.  

And Trump has not neglected people like himself.  He – and others in his income and wealth sphere – will gain in three ways from the changes in the individual income tax.  First, the elimination of the alternative minimum tax (AMT): in 2005, Trump paid $38.4 million on income over $150 million – but without the AMT he would have paid only $7.1 million. 

Republican Class Warfare: The Next Generation - The New York Times

Republican Class Warfare: The Next Generation - The New York Times

Paul Krugman

The Republican Tax Plan Is A Declaration Of War On Learning

The Republican Tax Plan Is A Declaration Of War On Learning

Economics, taxes, and Trump

Considering the Cost of Lower Taxes - The New York Times

Considering the Cost of Lower Taxes - The New York Times

Republican Class Warfare: The Next Generation - The New York Times

Republican Class Warfare: The Next Generation - The New York Times



Paul Krugman

Corporate Taxes

The Right Way to Cut Corporate Taxes

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/12/opinion/corporate-tax-cuts-gop.html?

NYT Editorial

NAFTA, the Cross-Border Disaster

NAFTA, the Cross-Border Disaster

Immigration

Background for our seminar  Nov.17,2017.

Dr. Duane E. Campbell,  April 19, 2017

In spite of the economic boon for the wealthy, working people in the U.S. have yet to receive a significant improvement in their standard of living for over 30 years.  At the same time, democratic forces are once again confronted with anti immigrant campaigns- this time fostered and promoted by a President of the U.S.

As socialists, we stand with and among the US working class in opposition to the rule of the transnational corporations and their exploitation of the economy and their despoliation of our lives, our society and our environment.

We are currently experiencing a major restructuring of the global economy directed by the transnational corporations to produce profits for their corporate owners.  The impoverishment of the vast majority of people in pursuit of profits for a small minority has pushed millions to migrant in search of food, jobs, and security.  Global capitalism produces global migration.  Along with wars NAFTA  and other “Free Trade” deals each produce a new waves of migration.

Socialists support the rights of working people to organize, to form unions, and to protect their rights and to advance their interests. Unions have always been an important part of how socialists seek to make our economic justice principles come alive.  Working people- gathered together and exploited in the capitalist workplace-are well positioned to fight their common exploitation.

Current immigration laws and practices, imposed upon us all by the corporations and their control of our government, often prevent working class unity by dividing workers against each other and  by creating categories of workers with few rights to organize and  thus to protect  their own interests.

The  neoliberal capitalist economic system now being created by the relentless merging of the world's  markets also  impoverishes the majority of U.S. workers.  The average U.S. worker has experienced a decline in their real wages since 1979.  Quality industrial jobs have moved to low wage, anti union areas in the U.S. and to Mexico, China, Singapore, Vietnam,  India and other nations. At present the U.S. has no significant controls on capital flight. Indeed, the US  government subsidizes some corporations to move jobs to Honduras, El Salvador,  and  the Caribbean.

The economic restructuring of Asia, Africa, and Latin America has pushed millions to migrate to the U.S. and Europe in search of a decent standard of living.  In the two decades leading up to 2008,  the U.S. experienced a major increase in immigration matching the immigration  influx to the US  of the period from 1890-1910.  The large scale immigration was largely from Asia and Latin America. It  has changed  the ethnic and cultural make up of the labor force and the working class in many states and urban areas.

 At the same time in both Europe and the U.S., among others, we see an intensification of narrow economic nationalism and the blaming of immigrants for the economic troubles of capitalism.

U.S. economic policy (called neoliberal capitalism)  promotes the movement of capital and goods across borders to increase profits while at the same time  it increases barriers to worker mobility .  Since 2004 there has been a militarization of the US- Mexican border, a proposal to build a wall, and the significant increase in in arrests and internal enforcement threatening immigrant labor. The result is a situation in which workers on both sides of this border and around the world have been disempowered and impoverished.

 In the current climate the economic forces of global corporate capitalism (neoliberal capitalism) are unrestrained.  Corporations encourage the movement of capital, and thus jobs, to low wage areas. When workers attempt to exercise their power against these conditions via  forming unions and organizing to withhold labor, their efforts are easily undermined by repression and  the ever-looming threat of factories moving overseas.  Labor unions and even local governments lose their power to hold capital accountable and all workers are forced to accept ever worsening wages and working conditions.

 Current border enforcement makes exploitation possible by dividing the global working class into competing sectors and thus inhibiting the possibility of  building a united working class movement.

As socialists, as internationalists, we know that rather than building walls and more  prisons, what would really help workers to raise wages and improve living  conditions is much stricter enforcement of worker protection and anti-discrimination laws including the right to form democratic unions.  

Contrary to the Trump Administration narrative, immigrants create new jobs in the US by, buying homes, spending their income and paying taxes.  A legal flow of immigrants based upon workforce demand will strengthen the U.S. economy by keeping productivity high and countering the negative impacts of the aging U.S. populations.

Threats by employers who use immigration status to keep workers from organizing unions or protesting illegal conditions should be a crime.  When there's no punishment for violating labor rights, workers have no rights.  We should prohibit immigration enforcement during labor disputes or against workers who complain about illegal conditions.

The problem with our economy is not immigration; the problem is our broken immigration laws that allow business to exploit workers who lack legal status, driving down wages for all workers.  If every immigrant were allowed to participate in our system, pay their dues, and become a citizen, we could block the corporation’s exploitation and eliminate the two-tiered workforce while building a united labor movement that raises wages and living standards for all workers.

In the end, we need an immigration policy that brings people together  instead of pitting workers against each other.  We need  an immigration policy that benefits migrants, their home communities, and working people here in the U.S.  And  we need a national policy that limits U.S. military and economic interventions in other parts of the world.

As socialists we support reforms that would grant immediate permanent resident status to all current undocumented workers and their children and that would establish an expeditious and non punitive route to citizenship for these workers and their families.

As socialists, we struggle for a system that produces security, not insecurity.  We need a commitment to equality and equal status for all.  We need to make it easier for workers to organize and protect themselves through unions. All workers must have full labor rights, including the right to organize, the right to protest unjust labor conditions, the right to change employers, and the right to form unions of their choice.   We will work with immigrant rights organizations to promote family reunification, to halt deportations, to demilitarize our borders, and to help all of our children- regardless of legal status- to realize the dream of attaining a university education.

The Immigrants’ Rights Committee of DSA is working to defend the rights of all workers and working families in the U.S.  Their current project is to support the work of Cosecha in promoting a Day Without Immigrants ( Un Dia Sin Inmigrantes) https://www.lahuelga.com for May 1, 2017.  We request your support in locations around the country.  You can contact our committee at antiracism@dsausa.org

A working paper of the Immigrants’ Rights Committee of DSA. Suggestions are welcome. Please send them to campd22702@gmail.com

http://www.dsausa.org/socialists_and_immigration_dl

http://antiracismdsa.blogspot.com/2017/04/socialists-and-immigration.html

The Tax Cuts are All About Rich Republican Donors

ie. Kochs, Mercers, and moreGOP Admit Their Tax Plan Is All About Rich Donors. Common Dreams:“‘All of us realize that if we fail on taxes, that’s the end of the Republican Party’s governing majority in 2018,’ South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham told Fox News recently. In fact, ‘that’s probably the end of the Republican Party as we know it.’ If the tax giveaway doesn’t pass, adds Utah Republican Mike Lee, “We might as well pack up our tent and go home.’ The thing is, that doesn’t make any sense. Gallup polls have shown over and over that most Americans think rich people and corporations should pay more, not less. Even a majority of Republican voters worry about what this wealth grab will do to the deficit. If they were looking for a win, then, Republicans would be running against their own plan. So what gives? Well, New Jersey Republican Chris Collins recently offered a clue: ‘My donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again.'”

House Republicans have unveiled their tax plan, and you shouldn’t believe the hype.
 
They’ll tell you that high-income households won’t receive tax breaks. And that their tax plan will result in higher wages for working people. Both are false.
 
Thanks to another loophole they’ve added for so-called “pass-through” income, top 1 percent households will receive a massive tax cut. They call this a tax cut for small businesses. That’s also false. According to a recent Treasury Department report, 70 percent of “pass-through” income is claimed by the top 1 percent.
 
They’ll also claim that lower corporate tax rates will trickle-down to working people. But, across U.S. states, reductions in corporate tax rates are not associated with faster median wage growth. They result in a higher share of income going to the top 1 percent.

Stand with the EPI Policy Center and our partners in rejecting Donald Trump and Republican leaders’ tax plan that benefits corporations and the top 1 percent at the expense of working families. Write to your members of Congress today!