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THE VIEW FROM HERE - Yes, history repeats itself. Perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that fools, like leopards, do not change their spots. On December 28, 2017, this column wrote about Pelosi’s Disinformation . This 2017 column explained how the Trump 2017 Tax Bill was the goal of almost all economists. As the article noted, Obama and Geithner had refused to rectify the worldwide tax system on American corporations, which was keeping billions of dollars’ worth of manufacturing outside the United States.
The absurd US worldwide tax policy insisted that America double tax American corporations and then subject them to higher tax rates than other places like Europe. Trump’s 2017 Tax Bill merely abolished this absurd system so that American corporate tax was comparable to Europe’s, e.g. 20% to 22%, and American corporations could repatriate their off-shore profits without any double taxation. Since the American rate was 35%, when one added the foreign taxes, the total tax was about 57% on American corporate profits.
“Repatriate” means the corporate overseas profits can be deposited into US banks and used in the United States to build more US factories here and provide more jobs here. That way American workers benefited somewhat form some jobs having moved over seas. By abolishing the worldwide basis to tax American corporations, all foreign profits could be used in the US and bolster the US economy. Leaving the American rate at 35% was counterproductive since the foreign rate would still be so much lower (20%-22%). Thus, to have a level playing field, the Trump 2017 tax bill lowered the American rate to 20%-22%. That is exactly what Dems had been promoting for years, but Pelosi opposed.
In Other Words
1) The corporation pays less to produce his goods outside the USA where manufacturing costs are much less, e.g., China, Mexico, and Canada.
2) Other countries levy low taxes only on the goods which are produced in their own country, while Obama who insisted on taxing American corporations on their worldwide profits. The only way to escape the exorbitant American tax system (57% on foreign produced goods) was for corporations to keep their money overseas.
3) By moving production overseas, American corporations got lower production costs and lower taxes, while American workers lost jobs when their factories closed. Those US corporations which stayed in the US were at a competitive disadvantage as USA production costs and taxes (35%) were higher.
Trump’s 2017 tax bill did what every sane economists had been saying: “Stop taxing American corporations on their worldwide profits and reduce American taxes comparable to the rest of the world.”
Here’s Nancy Pelosi’s Evil
“How Pelosi Handed Power to the Ultra Right Wing, In her obsession to keep Americans ignorant and angry and not allow a single Democrat to support the GOP tax bill, the moderate GOP had no choice but to cater to the lunatic, tea bagger wing of their party. If the Dems had admitted that they too wanted to change the tax system, the GOP would have been freed from their Know-Nothing faction. Seventy to a hundred Dem votes in the House and 35 to 40 Democratic votes in the Senate would have deprived the right wing of its power.” Pelosi’s Disinformation.
America could have avoided the bad features of the final 2017 Trump Tax bill by endorsing all the Democrats’ tax policy to end the US’s Worldwide Tax Policy. Then, the GOP would not have needed a single Alt Right Freedom Caucus Vote. Pelosi’s not allowing a single Dem vote, she left Trump and the moderate GOP no choice except to give into the Alt Right. Today’s Americans conveniently forget that in 2017 (1) Trump was not 100% Alt Right, and (2) the GOP leadership hated the Freedom Caucus and favored the traditional US governance, which was Centrist. Pelosi, however, wanted to drive the GOP into the arms of the GOP extremists on the belief that the worse the country fared under Trump, the more people would love the Dems. Not only did Pelosi’s plan lose the White house, but lost the Supreme Court, the House and the Senate. Today, only 37% of Americans favor the GOP party, but only 30% favor the Dems. Yet, the Dems insist on sticking with Pelosi who is running for another term.
What Could the Dems Have Gotten back in 2017
1) The Dems could have demanded that any savings from shipping American manufacturing overseas be share[d] with the workers whose factories closed. Instead, Obama gave $15 Trillion to Wall Street and let the Rust Belt go bankrupt.
2) The Dems could have demanded that the income cap on Social Security contributions by the wealthy be removed. After the first $176,100.00 of income, a person pays no more social security contributions, which are 6.2% of earned income. Percentage-wise, moderately wealthy Americans’s social security contributions constantly decrease. The person whose income is $176,100.00 pays $10,918.00 (6.2%), but the person with $750,000.00 of income pays only 1.46% of his income for Social Security contribution. Thanks to Pelosi, a Wall Street executive’s social security contributions are percentage-wise much less than a school teacher’s, a fireman’s, a police officer’s, or anyone who get minimum wage.
These are only two of the great benefits which the GOP would have supported in return for Pelosi’s allowing the Dems to support Trump’s tax bill, but Pelosi’s was and still is 100% invested in a polarized society where the Woke and the MAGA never ever cooperate. Had the Dems supported Trump’s 2017 Tax bill, the Dems could have significantly benefited Americans, but instead, the GOP was forced to reduce income taxes on the super wealthy to gain the Freedom Caucus support. In addition, Trump loves winning and if he was a winner with the Centrist government, he would have shunned the extremists. To this day, the Dems are lying through their teeth when deny the benefits of ending the Worldwide Income basis for corporate taxes. Pelosi placed the welfare of Americans last and her polarization of America first. How’s that working out?
Why Is Trump Destroying All That Was Good in His 2017 Tax Bill?
Tariffs on goods manufactured overseas by American corporations are the opposite of the 2017 tax bill. What lunatic “taxes” American corporations in the form of tariffs and then forces American consumers pay that “tax.” (Tariffs are a type of tax.) As the last Citywatch article explained, Trump is a “fucking moron” who is “dumb as shit.” See Trump, The Moron
Balance of Trade – a Sign of Mental Illness
Trump’s conflating Balance of Trade with tariffs is beyond moronic stupidity. Unless one examines the value which American consumers realize when they buy something, one has no way to know if they paid a fair price. Basically, Americans buy foreign produced goods because they are superior in quality and lower in cost than domestically produced goods. Hence, consumers get more bang for their buck; they get more value for their dollars. In other words, foreign manufactured goods are gifts to America. Rather than paying $3,000 for a TV, Americans who pay only $1,000 for a new TV, have save $2,000.00 with which they can invest in their children’s college tuition and hence avoid huge student debt.
There are some situations were tariffs make sense; (1) the foreign country is subsidizing production so that it can drive American producers out of business, (2) national security requires that we be able to manufacture certain products. None of Trump’s tariffs are based on these needs.
The present nightmare of Trump’s 2025 tax bill has been caused 100% by Nancy Pelosi’s and her evil of preventing America from being a Centrist nation where people cooperate, but instead we are trapped between two evil extremes – Wokeism and MAGA. But for Nancy Pelosi’s Identity Politics, Hillary never would have called Rust Belt Whites “Deplorables” and Hillary would have won the 2016 election. But for Pelosi’s sabotaging the first and second Trump impeachments, Trump would be politically dead. But for Pelosi’s insisting in May 2021 that Biden drop his centrist approach and go full Woke 24/7, Americans would have stuck with Biden. Of course, there is the complicating factor that Biden was not mentally up to being President, but Pelosi made certain he got the nomination and then forced him to quit the race. Then, Pelosi insisted that Kamala Harris go 1,000% Woke which guaranteed her loss and America’s continued polarization. Pelosi is the definition of a political evil.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected])
