To the extent the Republican Party has
any economic platform at all,
it's trickle-down economics.
Now, unfortunately for the G.O.P.,
it's based on three giant myths.
It's time to debunk them, once and for all.
Tax cuts for corporations and the rich
create more and better jobs.
Wrong.
Corporations used Trump's giant tax cut
to buy back shares of their own stock
and boost share prices.
From 2017 to 2018, stock buybacks
increased by a staggering 50%.
Lowe's spent $10 billion on stock buybacks in 2018,
and then fired thousands of workers
with no notice or severance.
Walmart and AT&T also laid off thousands of workers,
and contrary to the claim
that the tax cut would boost wages
—"Around a $4,000 pay raise."—
a recent analysis found that
in the year after the Trump tax cut,
wages increased by about the same as they did before it,
and then slowed.
Tax cuts for rich individuals don't trickle down either;
the rich simply get richer.
Two years before Ronald Reagan's first tax cut,
the richest 1% of Americans
owned less than 23% of the nation's wealth.
A decade later, after two rounds of tax cuts for the rich,
they owned over 28%.
By 2019, after more tax cuts for the rich
by George W. Bush and Donald Trump,
people at the top owned almost 35% of America's wealth.
Meanwhile, average wealth barely budged for the middle class
and went negative for the bottom 10%.
It gets worse.
During the pandemic alone, America's 664 billionaires
added $1.3 trillion to their collective wealth,
and now own over $4 trillion.
That's almost double the wealth of the bottom half
—165 million Americans—
but nothing has trickled down.
Even before the pandemic, wages stagnated.
Tax cuts for corporations and the rich
spur more economic growth.
Baloney!
Not even Ronald Reagan's surging economic growth rate
was driven by tax cuts;
it was driven by low interest rates,
and humongous government spending.
George W. Bush promised his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts
would pay for themselves
—remember that?—
by spurring economic growth.
Well, that didn't happen.
A 2017 study led by one of Bush's former chief economists
found that the tax cuts had no significant effect on growth.
In fact, growth declined, slowing to just 2.8%
from over 3% during the Clinton years.
The economic expansion under Bush
was one of the weakest expansions since World War II.
Donald Trump claimed his tax cut
would be like rocket fuel for the economy, and
would spur annual growth of 3%.
After its first year, in fact, growth declined.
Finally, a recent study analyzing tax data
spanning 50 years from 18 advanced economies
found that tax cuts for the rich only benefited the rich,
and had no effect on job creation, or economic growth.
I, for one, am shocked.
Deregulation spurs economic growth.
Well, that's just more rubbish.
The cost savings from deregulation
go to corporate executives and major investors,
while the costs and risks land on the rest of us.
Trump's Environmental Protection Agency
rolled back regulations on everything
from clean air and water standards
to dangerous chemicals in products,
benefiting chemical and fossil fuel executives and investors
while forcing everyone else
to deal with polluted air and toxins.
His Labor Department loosened child labor laws
and scaled back the number of workers
eligible for overtime pay.
Companies raked in savings, while workers were exploited.
And with the help of Congress,
he rolled back banking regulations
put in place after the 2008 financial crisis
to the benefit of rich Wall Streeters,
and the detriment of everyone else.
Don't forget Ronald Reagan's deregulatory agenda
allowed for-profit healthcare companies to flourish,
contributing to the out-of-control healthcare costs
we are now saddled with today.
And remember deregulation of the financial sector
was a major cause of the 2008 crash,
as it allowed banks to make risky bets.
In other words, the Republican trickle-down claim
that deregulation helps us all is baloney.
Regulations that protect you and me
from being harmed or fleeced or shafted,
injured or sickened by corporate profits and services
are worth the cost.
So don't fall for trickle-down nonsense.
Making big corporations and the rich even richer
through tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks
doesn't make the rest of us any better off.
It just makes big corporations and the rich
even
richer!