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The American Independent

Trump promised $4,000 raises from his tax scam. He was off by $3,767.

The GOP tax law that Trump signed only gave workers an average raise of $233 — but their bosses were swimming in tax refunds and stock buybacks.

By Emily Singer - April 30, 2019
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Donald Trump

A new study revealed what many have known all along: The GOP tax scam lined the pockets of corporations and the wealthiest tier of Americans, while barely impacting average taxpayers.

According to a report from the Guardian and the Center for Public Integrity published on Tuesday, corporations got a massive 14% tax cut — and only spent a tiny fraction of those savings, about 6 percent, on their workers.

That amounted to workers getting an average weekly raise of $6.21 for a total yearly increase of just $233, according to the Guardian.

That’s far, far less than the $4,000 pay raise Trump promised workers they’d receive thanks to the tax law.

And $233 a year is barely enough to cover the average cost of one weekly grocery bill for a family of four.

The report comes on the heels of another report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which found that the average increase to workers’ bonuses in 2018 was one single penny.

It’s no wonder many Americans say they didn’t feel a positive impact from the tax law.

In fact, a Monmouth University poll from earlier this month found that just 34% of Americans support the tax law — with nearly half (46%) saying their tax burden was the same as it was before the law was passed, and another 28% saying their tax bills actually went up.

Rather than spend money on their employees, corporations instead spent the vast majority of the $150 billion in tax savings they received on enriching their shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks. That sort of move benefits the roughly 10% of Americans who own more than three-quarters (84%) of stocks, the Guardian notes — but not most ordinary workers.

Ultimately, the report out Tuesday shows the tax scam was a hastily crafted law that did exactly what Democrats who opposed it warned: lined the pockets of the rich while leaving millions of working-class Americans in the dust.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation. 


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