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By Jonathan C. Lipson and Andrea Monroe
Dec. 21, 2017
This week, Congress passed the bill formerly known as the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” with the support of 278 House and Senate Republicans. At any other time, it would be hard to imagine that congressional Republicans could support major tax legislation drafted in such haste and with so little regard for distributional consequences. It is even harder to imagine that Republican deficit hawks would support such a fiscally reckless and unprincipled bill. Yet almost every Republican member of Congress did precisely that, taking a lesson from President Trump’s playbook: Buy extravagantly today, and leave someone else to foot the bill tomorrow. If this sounds familiar, it should: this is how the president ran his infamous Atlantic City casinos through a record four bankruptcies. We know how that story ended — Trump’s casinos were shuttered after years of losses. While the United States cannot, technically, declare bankruptcy, the GOP tax bill promises to saddle the nation with unsustainable debt based on implausible promises. While his casinos performed worse, on average, than their Atlantic City competitors — losing 40% more jobs and a third more revenue between 1997 and 2010 — Trump did exceedingly well for himself, bragging to the New York Times that “the money I took out of [Atlantic City] was incredible.”
Trump could not have put his casinos through so many bankruptcies without creditor support. In order to gain that support, he made extravagant and unsubstantiated promises about the wealth and jobs the reorganized casinos would create. None of those promises came true. The same can be said about the GOP tax bill. Congressional Republicans would certainly deny that they are modeling their tax legislation on Trump’s business failures. Yet, the resemblance to his mismanagement of the casinos — his only other real experience with large, public organizations — is unavoidable: run up huge debts based on implausible promises in order to benefit the few at the expense of the many. If Trump’s bankruptcy past is prologue, Republicans will eventually try to distance themselves from the future pain caused by their rushed and deeply misguided effort at tax reform. But the GOP tax bill’s passage means that the 278 congressional Republicans who supported this irresponsible tax legislation are all bankrupt Trumpists now.
Trump's pathetic bankruptcy past shows through in GOP's fantasyland tax bill
It will take a long, long time, to pay off the obligations the GOP has now saddled America with.
Trump's pathetic bankruptcy past shows through in GOP's fantasyland tax bill
It will take a long, long time, to pay off the obligations the GOP has now saddled America with.
That being said trying to tie this to Trump's business failures is pure silliness. Not even sure we know the assumptions the CBO used to calculate the fiscal impact of this bill.
That being said trying to tie this to Trump's business failures is pure silliness.
I'm wondering how a few chapter 11's out of hundreds of businesses is a pathetic record.
It wasn't the GOP that bloated the debt by 8 trillion, so spare us the false outrage. How long do you think it'll take us to pay off the 8 trillion Obama added? Or have you bothered to give it a second thought?
It's political opportunism wrapped as false outrage.
It is a bit of hyperbole. But it is also true that fiscal conservatism does not exist within the White House nor among the 115th Congress.
Spend. Spend. Spend. Let some other generation pay for our "win".
I have always said that NEITHER party cares about the deficits. The only difference is what they want to spend the money on.
That being said trying to tie this to Trump's business failures is pure silliness. Not even sure we know the assumptions the CBO used to calculate the fiscal impact of this bill.
It is a bit of hyperbole. But it is also true that fiscal conservatism does not exist within the White House nor among the 115th Congress.
Spend. Spend. Spend. Let some other generation pay for our "win".
Really? Clinton got us a budget surplus that was going to pay off our entire federal debt by 2012 (until Bush 43 pissed it away). Obama inherited an epic economic s**t sandwich and was still able to cut the deficit in half.
The Republicans, on the other hand, well...y'all just voted for a tax cut (overwhelmingly benefiting the rich) that will cost taxpayers at least $1.5T...and even that figure's on the assumption that we'll have wonderful, tremendously bigly growth. Oh, and let's not forget Dick Cheney's quip: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter".
Could it be that maybe, just maybe the Democrats have become the fiscally-conservative party, while the Republicans have tossed all sense of economic conservatism out the window? 'Cause that's sure what the numbers seem to show.
I have little interest debating whether the Clinton surplus was sustainable. As much of the revenue from the capital gains due to the dot com bubble went away with the subsequent crash. Nor do I care to discuss Bush I or II as I thought they were both morons and did not vote for either.
Funny when we talk about how most of the new tax plan will help the rich. If you watch CNBC the rich are complaining that they will pay more under this plan. The hosts live in NY or NJ, hence will get whacked with the elimination of SALT.
All this being said, I read nothing of substance worthy of debate. Find a suitable right wing hack to go back forth with.
Tell us then exactly how Obama "bloated the debt by 8 trillion."
Trump prolly gonna file Chapter 1929 for merca B4 he leaves office .....................
Trump's pathetic bankruptcy past shows through in GOP's fantasyland tax bill
It will take a long, long time, to pay off the obligations the GOP has now saddled America with.
How long will it take to pay off the $10 trillion that Obama added?
The fairest method is to measure the debt incurred by Obama's specific policies. The Congressional Budget Office does this for every program. The CBO found that Obama's largest contribution to the debt was the Obama tax cuts, which were an extension of the Bush tax cuts.
They added $858 billion to the debt in 2011 and 2012.
Tell us then exactly how Obama "bloated the debt by 8 trillion."
Here's a hint: There's a thing called subtraction. You should try it some time. Take the national debt on 1/20/2017, then SUBTRACT the national debt on 1/20/2009 and get back to us.
From your link:
That's very true.
There was never an Obama tax cut; it was always the Bush tax cut.
Trump's pathetic bankruptcy past shows through in GOP's fantasyland tax bill
It will take a long, long time, to pay off the obligations the GOP has now saddled America with.
And now we must label bankers as the most stupid people on earth.....right?
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