Since
the Dark Ages of the Reagan administration that opened Pandora's box
to unleash the destructive forces of neoliberalism and financial
capitalism, the US social state has suffered multiple hits to the
point that is barely alive in our days.
While
working class wages remained almost flat for decades, the social
state has been almost eliminated and the American families were being forced
into a vicious circle of increased debt to cover even their basic
needs.
The main
cause of this ugly situation was always the continuous tax breaks in
favor of the wealthy elite. Plutocracy was getting richer not only
directly through tax cuts, but also by making business and
speculation in economic areas that were traditionally provided
publicly in previous decades: health, education, housing.
As
people were fed up with the classic bipartisan politicians, fully
aligned with the neoliberal establishment, Donald Trump came as an
unpleasant gift for the elites to fulfill their goals, which,
basically, are 'business as usual': more tax cuts, more for-profit
wars, further deregulation in every level, total destruction of the
social state.
Many
argue that everyone will be benefited from the recent disastrous
more-tax-cuts-for-the-plutocracy bill passed by Trump administration.
In reality, Donnie and his wealthy friends tricked again the working
class with a small piece of cheese in the bait. Except that the tax
cuts are enormous for the elite compared to those for the working
class, the total implications for the vast majority of the Americans
will be more than serious.
Aaron
Maté of the Real
News speaks with William K. Black to uncover the
ugly truth behind the bill:
As Maté
says:
So, this
corporate tax rate now is going down to 21%, and that's permanent.
But yet, with these bonuses from say ATT and Comcast of a thousand
dollars to their employees, those aren't recurring bonuses. They're a
one-time bonus of one thousand dollars. So, the employees get one
thousand dollars once. These companies get a massive cut to 21% for
life.
Black
continues:
It's
actually of course worse than that. You're quite right in what you've
said, except that two things have to be kept in mind.
One,
these companies were going to do it anyway. They were going to raise
wages for this small segment, for example, in Wells Fargo's case,
because they had operational needs to do that anyway. So this has
nothing to do with the Trump tax cut. It is pure theater.
And
second, not only are the corporate tax cuts permanent, but if the
logic is tax competition, the United States needs to cut its
corporate tax rate to compete with Ireland and such. Well, what are
Ireland and other nations going to do that are in competition with us
if we slash our corporate tax rate? They're going to cut their
corporate tax rate as well, and there are a number of countries
already beginning that process.
And
then, the logic is going to be, we need to make further cuts in
our corporate tax rate, and of course this "logic"
inexorably leads you to have zero corporate tax rate, which is what
their real goal is. And by the way, they are open behind the scenes
in terms of conservative economists that that's exactly what they
want to produce.
Zero
corporate tax rate equals definite death of the social state. Instead
of going forward, the American society slips into another dark age of
corporate Feudalism. That's why Bernie Sanders fought so fiercely
against the latest tax bill. As Bernie states:
This is
why the Koch brothers are spending so much money to see this
legislation passed. Their family will benefit to the tune of some 30
billion dollars. So, spending a few hundred million dollars to elect
people like Senator Cruz is pocket change if your family is gonna get
30 billion.
We had a
young lady coming up here talking about the cost of college. I think
it makes a lot more sense for us to make public colleges and
universities tuition-free and lower student debt rather than give the
Walton family up to 50 billion dollars in tax breaks.
So, dear
Americans: unless you fight for a radical political change in your
country, get ready to say goodbye to what is left from your social
state!
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