Issues: Taxes

Bank of America’s chief economist refutes Trump on corporate tax cuts and wages

Today, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s chief economist confirmed that the empty promises Donald Trump and Republicans made about wasteful new tax cuts for corporations “trickling down” to the middle class in the form of higher salaries and wages are untrue, telling the Associated Press, “The bulk of the corporate tax cuts should accrue to people who hold stock in companies…Workers benefit much more from a cut in taxes on ordinary income. In other words, better to get a direct cut than a spillover from cuts to others.”

This comes as evidence mounts that, as Fortune 500 CEOs announced many times over even before the Republican tax plan was passed, and as history demonstrates, companies will use these tax cuts to pay their shareholders more – not to raise wages and salaries for workers.

“Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are struggling as they fight against the […]

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Sanders Questions: #SeatJones Edition

President Trump backed a pro-slavery, anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-Muslim sexual predator- and lost. Now it is time for him to do the right thing and urge his party to seat the elected Senator from Alabama, Democrat Doug Jones. There should be no vote on his tax bill, or any other major legislation, until that happens.

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to answer the following questions:

1. In 2010, President Trump praised Barack Obama for urging the Democratic majority in the Senate to delay voting on Obamacare until Scott Brown was sworn in, which they did. Why won’t Trump do the same now and direct Mitch McConnell delay a vote on the tax bill until Doug Jones is seated?

2. What is the President doing to commemorate the five year anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 first-graders […]

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Sanders Questions: Election Day Edition

It is Election Day in Alabama and the whole country is watching to see if President Trump’s candidate will prevail despite his rampant racist rhetoric and history of sexually abusing children. Disgustingly, but to the surprise of absolutely no one, President Trump kicked off the day by calling the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct liars (again) and sexually harassing Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Twitter. He has no shame and it is up to those in his own party and in his own Administration to speak out against this behavior.

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to answer the following questions:

1. Why is President Trump so afraid of powerful women like Senator Gillibrand?

2. Would President Trump cooperate in a congressional investigation into the dozens of sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations against him?

3. Secretary Mnuchin promised multiple times that the […]

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BREAKING: Water Remains Wet, House GOP Tax Bill Still Increases Deficit By At Least $1 Trillion

The Joint Committee on Taxation just released a new study estimating that, even using Republicans’ preferred accounting method, the House tax bill would add $1 trillion to the U.S. deficit.  This comes hours after the Treasury Department was forced to admit that Sec. Steve Mnuchin’s repeated promises were false and that the Trump-Republican tax plan would increase the U.S. deficit – not pay for itself.

“Congress’s independent tax experts have now discredited – yet again – the absurd claim that this tax windfall for the rich and corporations at the expense of the everyone else will do anything but add at least $1 trillion to our national credit card,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. “Even the Trump Administration itself can’t defend this baseless argument anymore.  The American people are rejecting this plan that sells-out the middle class with tax increases on millions of families, cuts to […]

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Sanders Questions: Women Are Watching Edition

Today, the White House doubled down on attacking three of the nineteen women who have accused President Trump of sexual misconduct as liars on a “publicity tour.” Fittingly, Trump also released a robocall in support of  child sexual predator Roy Moore on the eve of Election Day in Alabama. This administration continues to sink to new lows of disrespecting women and each and every person who enables President Trump to remain in the Oval Office should be ashamed.

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to answer the following questions:

1. How can President Trump stump for a bill that will take money away from the bottom 95% of Americans by 2027?

2. Did President Trump keep Michael Flynn on as National Security Adviser for 18 days after being warned about Flynn by the Justice Department because he was the one who directed Flynn […]

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Trump Administration tax “analysis” is built on a giant lie

Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, joined by many other nonpartisan and even Republican experts, has estimated that the Trump-Republican tax plan could not pay for itself, and that it would significantly increase the U.S. budget deficit.

Now, after suspicious delays and repeated promises from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Department has released a one-page “analysis” that concludes this deficit-busting tax proposal might pay for itself if not yet written plans for “regulatory reform, infrastructure development, and welfare reform” were also later implemented.

“This is a joke​.​  ​I​t’s like saying, ‘I could fly if I could grow wings,​’​” said American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah. “The fact that the Trump Administration had to doctor a study with fake calculations about major plans that don’t even exist yet is a glaring admission of guilt. They know their tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will […]

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Sanders Questions: Welcome To Hell Edition

The ladies of Saturday Night Live got it so right this weekend. “Welcome to hell, now we’re all in here…” and perhaps you more than some since you are literally working for a sexual predator and getting paid to lie for him every day. Between the ongoing fallout of President Trump’s endorsement of child molester Roy Moore, to Special Counsel Mueller getting closer to Trump’s finances, to contradicting statements from members of Trump’s legal team and Attorney General Sessions about whether a president can commit obstruction of justice, the White House certainly has its hands full today.

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to answer the following questions:

1. What is the White House response to court hearings today in Summer Zervos’ defamation lawsuit against President Trump for attacking her over accusations he sexually assaulted her in 2007 while filming The Apprentice?

2. […]

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House GOP Leader: Final Tax Bill Will Likely Increase Insurance Premiums

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after House Ways & Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady, who was appointed to be the House chair of the conference committee working on taxes last night, indicated that the final Trump-Republican tax plan would likely include repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which would cost 13 million Americans their healthcare coverage and raise premiums across the board:

“If Republicans add more Obamacare sabotage to their final tax bill – on top of their tax increases for millions of middle class families – people across the country will suffer from double-digit premium increases and lost coverage. Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are falling over themselves to cut taxes for millionaires and corporations at any cost, even if it means trampling the economic well-being of the middle class. Americans won’t stand for this, and they’re going to hold Republicans accountable.”

Since […]

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BREAKING: Republican Senator Admits Tax Plan Is Being Rushed To Avoid Scrutiny From The American People and Congress

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) admitted on Fox News this morning that Republicans were trying to rush the Trump tax proposal – which was written behind closed doors with thousands of special interest lobbyists – through Congress in order to stop members and the public from raising concerns about its consequences:

“Its stunning that Republicans are so brazenly admitting to using a cynical ploy to avoid public scrutiny of the disastrous Trump-Republican tax plan.  They know exploding the deficit by $1 trillion and raising taxes on 87 million middle class families in order to cut taxes for the rich and corporations sells out hardworking people, so they are intentionally keeping them in the dark.”

WATCH: 

DOOCY: What is your biggest concern?

MOORE CAPITO: Well, time is always a problem. I think the more time that goes, the more nitpicking […]

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Editorial Roundup: Tax Cuts For The Rich Edition

This week editorial boards all across the country ripped into President Trump and the Republicans for their tax plan that will crush the middle class to pay for billions in tax breaks for the super rich and explode the deficit for generations to come. Additionally, Trump took his boldest step yet to undercut the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, made a racist slur about a sitting US Senator, and was rebuked for re-tweeting hateful anti-Muslim propaganda videos.

Here’s what Americans read in their local newspapers this week:

 

11/25
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Estate Tax Repeal: ‘Donald Trump In A Stretch Limo, Not A Farmer On A Tractor’

Trump’s claim about “millions” of farms and family businesses is not even close to the truth. The Tax Policy Center at the Brookings Institution found only 80 of them among the 5,500 estates subject to the tax last year. Most fortunes are amassed, […]

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