"The stock market is now at levels that rival only those before the 1929 crash and the collapse of the dotcom bubble at the beginning of this century."
US Treasury
Secretary Mnuchin to Congress: Pass tax cuts or markets will tank
By Nick
Beams
21 October 2017
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has blurted out the dirty
secret of the current Wall Street stock market boom—that it is based entirely
on the funneling of money to the corporations and the very wealthy.
In an extraordinary interview
with Politico on Wednesday, published on the eve of a Senate
vote aimed at pushing forward the Trump administration’s tax cut agenda and
also the 30th anniversary of the 1987 market plunge, Mnuchin warned that the
stock market would likely tank if the tax “reform” was not passed.
“There is no question that the rally in the stock market has baked
into it reasonably high expectations of us getting tax cuts and tax reform
done,” he said. “To the extent that we get the tax deal done, the stock market
will go up higher. But there’s no question in my mind that if we don’t get it
done, you’re going to see a reversal of a significant amount of the gains.”
Under conditions where the market has
risen by about 25 percent since the election of Trump, Mnuchin’s remarks
amounted to an open threat to Congress to get the tax cuts through or be held
responsible for a major market sell-off and all that could follow. His
interview came as the Dow went over 23,000 to hit a new record closing.
According to one financial analyst cited by the Financial
Times the US stock market has been “drunk on hopes for tax
reform.”
The tax program comes in two parts. Under the proposal for a
“competitive tax rate” it will slash corporate taxes to 20 percent from their
present level of 35 percent and enable giant corporations such as Apple and
Google, which have parked some $3 trillion overseas to evade tax payments, to
bring their money back to the US.
Goldman Sachs has calculated that if the Trump measures are
enacted, the S&P 500 index of earnings per share will rise by 12 percent.
The schedule of personal income tax cuts, packaged as a boon to
the middle class, will overwhelmingly benefit the very wealthy, with estimates
that as much as 80 percent of the cuts will go to the top one percent of
society, providing them with additional income averaging $1.4 million.
On top of this, the plan seeks to
eliminate all inheritance taxes, which begin at $5.5 million for an individual
and $11 million for a couple. This open handout to the very wealthy is being
touted by the administration as a question of “fairness”—a claim repeated by
Mnuchin in his Politico interview.
Mnuchin somewhat departed from previous
claims by the administration that the income tax cuts would be directed to
middle-income earners and not to the rich, telling Politico it
was inevitable that as the wealthy paid the most tax, they would get the
greatest benefit from any across-the-board reduction.
Apart from making crystal clear the emptiness of the Trump
administration’s claims to defend the interests of working Americans, the
interview underscored the parasitic character of the present stock market boom.
It is not based on any real growth in the economy, but rather on measures that
ensure that all economic gains flow into the coffers of the corporations and
the super-wealthy elite.
In the lead-up to the presidential election, Trump described the
rise in the stock market as a bubble, essentially based on “free money”
resulting from the ultra-low interest rates set by the Fed. Since then he has
posted more than 30 tweets claiming that the rise in the markets is a measure
of the success of his policies.
The prospect of tax cuts is not the only factor that has fuelled
by the markets since the inauguration. Another is the prospect of wholesale
financial and economic deregulation to ensure increased profit-making.
But Trump cannot claim all the credit
for the rise in the wealth of the
corporate-financial elite. The rise in
the markets goes back to 2009 and the
coming to power of Obama.
for the rise in the wealth of the
corporate-financial elite. The rise in
the markets goes back to 2009 and the
coming to power of Obama.
After reaching its low point in March 2009 following the 2008
financial crisis, the market has risen by around 300 percent, boosted by the
bailouts to the banks and financial corporations, the restructuring of labour
markets, starting with the auto companies, to impose a low-wage regime, and the
provision of trillions of dollars for financial speculation through the
policies of the Fed.
The rise in the markets has benefited not only from the policies
of the federal government and its agencies. A crucial role has been played by
the trade union bureaucracy, stretching back over decades, in suppressing and
betraying the struggles of workers, leading to a major decline in the labour
share of national income and the stagnation and outright decline of real wage
levels.
The “justification” for the Trump measures is provided by the
invocation of the bankrupt theory of “supply side” economics, first put forward
in the 1980s by the Reagan administration as the rationale for its tax cuts.
Under this “theory”—the free market justification for corporate plundering of
public resources—tax cuts boost the economy, leading to higher growth, which
then pays for the initial reduction in tax revenues.
But independent analysis of the Trump tax plan during the election
estimated that it would add an additional $7 trillion to the federal debt in
the first decade and $21 trillion by 2036. In other words, in the midst of
mounting
health problems caused largely by poverty,
decaying infrastructure, worsening social
services and a myriad of other crises, vital
areas of social need will be further starved of
resources on the grounds that “there is no
money.”
health problems caused largely by poverty,
decaying infrastructure, worsening social
services and a myriad of other crises, vital
areas of social need will be further starved of
resources on the grounds that “there is no
money.”
However, there is one area that will not suffer cuts—spending on
the military, as the US seeks to maintain its global position against its
rivals and to accelerate the build-up of a police state at home, in preparation
for social convulsions that will result from another major economic and
financial crisis.
While it is not possible for forecast when such a crisis will
strike, all the objective conditions for its eruption are being put in place.
The stock market is now at levels that rival only those before the 1929 crash
and the collapse of the dotcom bubble at the beginning of this century.
Senate passes resolution
setting stage for $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich
By
Gabriel Black
21 October 2017
Late on Thursday night, the United States Senate passed a budget
resolution that paves the way for legislation slashing taxes on corporations
and the wealthy, and sets a figure of $1.5 trillion for the amount that will be
funneled by the US Treasury into the pockets of the super-rich.
The budget resolution does not have legal effect and is not signed
into law by President Trump. Instead, it sets the procedural terms for upcoming
tax and budget legislation. The main, if not the only purpose, was to permit tax
cuts to be enacted under a procedure known as “reconciliation,” in which
filibusters are barred and legislation will require only a bare 51 votes to
pass—50 senators and the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Mike Pence.
The vote was split on party lines, 51 to 49, with all 48 Democrats
opposing it, joined by only one Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, who wanted
even bigger budget and tax cuts than proposed by the Republican leadership. The
House approved its own version of the budget resolution on October 5, including
provisions for greater cuts in social spending and requiring the tax cut to be
entirely offset by spending cuts. It is expected that the House will now
approve the Senate resolution, since the Senate figure permitting tax cuts that
add $1.5 trillion to the deficit is far more lucrative for the big financial
interests that are the driving force of the legislative action.
Neither the Trump White House nor the Republican congressional
leadership have released the full details of their tax cut plan, but it will
include a huge cut in the corporate tax rate, from the present 35 percent
(which most companies avoid through accounting gimmicks) to 20 percent or even
lower, the abolition of the estate tax, and other cuts in taxation on the
wealthy. There will be tiny cuts in taxes for many middle income families,
although some will actually have to pay more. There will be no benefit for the
47 percent of the population whose earnings are so low that they pay payroll
taxes but no income taxes.
The budget resolution is something of a misnomer, since the
spending levels it sets out for the next 10 years have no legal significance
and will be altered, in whole or in part, when actual appropriations bills are
passed by the Republican-controlled Congress. But the language and the figures
set down in the bill demonstrate the intentions of political establishment as a
whole: to usher in a new wave of draconian cuts to essential services that tens
of millions of Americans rely on.
The resolution overall calls for $5 trillion worth of cuts over
the course of ten years, $1.5 trillion more than what Trump called for this
May. Were the budget from 2017 to be extended over the course of the next 10
years that would amount to a whopping 13.7 percent reduction in federal
spending.
A large part of the budget cuts would come
from Medicaid, $1
trillion, and Medicare,
$473 billion. Much of the remaining $3.5
trillion in
cuts is unspecified. However,
Trump’s earlier partial budget gives an insight
on a list of possible cuts:
·
The Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as Food Stamps, could be cut by
roughly $200 billion over a decade—that is a quarter of its budget. The program
currently serves 44 million people and was already cut back during the Obama
Administration.
·
Social Security’s Supplemental
Security income program, which provides cash benefits to the poor and disabled,
could be cut by $72 billion over the decade.
·
Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF), otherwise known as Welfare, could be cut by $272 billion over
the decade.
·
Federal employees could have
their cost-of-living adjustment eliminated and be forced to pay for more of
their retirement, eliminating $63 billion.
·
The Air Traffic Control system
could be privatized for $70 billion.
·
The Environmental Protection
Agency would be cut by about 32 percent.
·
Funding for the arts, medical
research and science would be cut by billions. This could include the National
Cancer Institute, the National Science Foundation, the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
These sorts of devastating cuts could push destitute and already
penniless people into their graves. It would not be an exaggeration to say that
large sections of the country would descend into third-world conditions.
What will not be cut is the military. The only item in the budget
that will receive a significant increase is the military, which will be boosted
by tens of billions of dollars each year.
Senator John McCain, who initially opposed the resolution,
demanding that military spending be increased higher, gave his support to the
final version. He said, “For too long, draconian budget cuts to the military
have crippled readiness and put the lives of our service members in danger.”
McCain does not care about the lives of
American soldiers. He, and
the military-
intelligence complex he speaks for, cares
about the geopolitical
supremacy of the
United States as its economic power declines
and it prepares
to fight its foreign rivals. Only
a warmonger could cheer on the rise in
defense spending while basic social services of
the country are gutted in the
most draconian
budget in American history.
The Democratic Party, for its part, protested the bill by
suggesting several amendments, such as preventing tax cuts for anyone above
$250,000 a year in income, banning cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, and banning
any tax increases for middle-income families. All of these were voted down.
The Democratic Party’s opposition to the Republican bill is of a
tactical, not principled, character. The Obama administration reached a series
of agreements on budget cuts and tax cuts with congressional Republicans,
though not as deep. The Democrats are not opposed to tax cuts or spending cuts,
but seek to preserve their shredded credibility as the party of the “middle
class.”
Senate Minority leader Charles Schumer, the favorite senator of
Wall Street, postured as an opponent of economic inequality, which he said
would be made worse by the Republican tax cut plan. “Our economy suffers from
massive inequality—which is growing—a concentration of wealth at the very apex
of our country’s elite,” he said. “The rich are doing well in America. God
bless them, I’m glad they are. And American corporations are recording record
high profits—just look at the stock market, which reflects that. God bless them
too, we hope they do well. But middle class incomes have not risen with the
rise in corporate profits or record levels of wealth concentrated among the
wealthiest families.”
As Schumer’s language indicates, the Democratic Party celebrates
wealth no less than the Republicans. But it voices the concerns of sections of
the ruling elite that mass social anger, demonstrated in the initial public
protests following Trump’s inauguration, will emerge explosively, and
materialize as an organized social movement in American politics. They are
afraid of the American
working class becoming an organized,
conscious, force in
US politics—a
development that would challenge the two-
party system and the
financial aristocracy’s
grip on society.
FROM THE FIRST DAY OF HIS FIRST
TERM, BARACK OBAMA AND ERIC HOLDER HAD COMMENCED BUILDING A MUSLIM-STYLE
DICTATORSHIP FUNDED BY CRONY BANKSTERS AND MEXICO.
OPERATION OBOMB:
DESTABALIZE AMERICA TO LAY
GROUNDS FOR A MUSLIM-STYLE DICTATORSHIP
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/08/seth-barron-obama-and-building-of.html
“Obama’s
new home in Washington has been described as the “nerve center” of the
anti-Trump opposition. Former attorney general Eric Holder has said
that Obama is “ready to roll” and has aligned himself with the
“resistance.” Former high-level Obama campaign staffers now work with a
variety of groups organizing direct action against Trump’s initiatives.
“Resistance School,” for example, features lectures by former campaign
executive Sara El-Amine, author of the Obama Organizing .”
“The cost
of the Dream Act is far bigger than the Democrats or their media allies admit.
Instead of covering 690,000 younger illegals now enrolled in former President
Barack Obama’s 2012 “DACA” amnesty, the Dream Act would legalize at least 3.3 million
illegals,
according to a pro-immigration group, the Migration Policy Institute.”
TWITTER TRUMPER trades WALL for tax cuts for the super
rich…. But he doesn’t pay taxes!!!
TRUMP: For more tax cuts for the rich, NO (REAL) WALL,
NO E-VERIFY, NO LEGAL NEED APPLY and NO ENFORCEMENT!
CHICAGO: THE FACE OF A NATION IN SHAMBLES
CHICAGO’S BLACK GANG LAND…. Is what happens when
bankster Rahm Emanuel and his corrupt Obama party turned the city under!
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERISM destroyed a TRILLION DOLLARS
in home equity… and they’re still plundering us!
Barack Obama created
more debt for the middle class than any president in US
history, and also
had the only huge QE programs: $4.2 Trillion.
OXFAM reported that during Obama’s
terms, 95% of the wealth created went to the top 1% of the world’s wealthy.
TRUMP OFFERS VICTIMS OF HARVEY AND IRMA $15 BILLION or
about HALF of what California hands their Mexican welfare state!
IS IT YET TIME TO REBUILD AMERICAN AND END THE
BUILDING AND REBUILDING OF MUSLIM DICTATORSHIPS OVER THERE?
THE WATERS ROSE AND CIVIL WAR II COMMENCED.
HOUSTON: ONLY THE POOR DROWN IN THIS COUNTRY!
THE HOUSTON FLOOD -
CRONY CAPITALIST LICK THEIR LIPS OVER REBUILDING.... FIRST, LIKE
KATRINA, CUT WAGES AND INVITE HORDES MORE ILLEGALS IN TO WORK CHEAP!
"Like
Katrina, Hurricane Harvey has lifted the lid on the ugly
reality of American society, exposing colossal levels of social
inequality, pervasive poverty and ruling class criminality."
reality of American society, exposing colossal levels of social
inequality, pervasive poverty and ruling class criminality."
"The reason why these warnings have been
ignored is not hard to fathom. They have been resolutely opposed by
corporate interests, including the real estate industry, Wall Street and
Big Oil. Their ability, operating through bribed politicians of both
parties, to veto and block elementary measures to protect the American
people, exemplifies the complete subordination of all social needs
under capitalism to the selfish drive of a corporate-financial oligarchy
to accumulate ever greater levels of personal wealth and profit."
TWITTER TRUMPER’S PROMISE TO DEMS & MEXICO: NO (real) WALL, NO
E-VERIFY and NO ENFORCEMENT of DACA
WHILE THE SWAMP KEEPER TWITTER TRUMPER SERVES THE SUPER RICH…. The
wall remains a joke on Legals and HUNDREDS OF STORES across America’s OPEN
BORDERS are being shuttered by the hundreds!
WALL STREET TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: DIE YOUNG…
your company pension dies with you!
OPOID AND ALCOHOL ADDICTION KILLS OF MIDDLE
AMERICA
SOARING
POVERTY AND DRUG ADDICTION UNDER OBAMA
"These
figures present a scathing indictment of the social order that prevails in
America, the world’s wealthiest country, whose government proclaims itself to
be the globe’s leading democracy. They are just one manifestation of the human
toll taken by the vast and all-pervasive inequality and mass poverty.
AMERICA UNRAVELS:
Millions of children go hungry as the super- rich gorge themselves and ILLEGALS SUCK IN BILLIONS IN WELFARE!
"The top 10 percent of Americans now own roughly
three-quarters of all household wealth."
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/08/america-unravels-millions-of-children.html
"While telling workers there is “not enough money” for wage increases, or to fund social programs, both parties hailed the recent construction of the U.S.S. Gerald Ford, a massive aircraft carrier that cost $13 billion to build, stuffing the pockets of numerous contractors and war profiteers."
JAMES WALSH
THE OBAMA HISPANICAZATION of AMERICA
How the Democrat party
surrendered America to Mexico:
“The
watchdogs at Judicial Watch discovered documents that reveal how the Obama
administration's close coordination with the Mexican government entices
Mexicans to hop over the fence and on to the American dole.” Washington
Times
SOARING POVERTY AND DRUG ADDICTION UNDER
OBAMA
"These figures present a scathing
indictment of the social order that prevails in America, the world’s wealthiest
country, whose government proclaims itself to be the globe’s leading democracy.
They are just one manifestation of the human toll taken by the vast and
all-pervasive inequality and mass poverty.
MEXICO: AMERICA’S DRUG DEALER!
OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS to serve the
filthy rich
The same period has seen a massive growth of social inequality,
with income and wealth concentrated at the very top of American society to an
extent not seen since the 1920s.
“This study follows reports released over
the past several months documenting rising mortality rates among US workers due
to drug addiction and suicide, high rates of infant mortality, an overall
leveling off of life expectancy, and a growing gap between the life expectancy
of the bottom rung of income earners compared to those at the top.”
THE LA
RAZA PLAN: California’s final surrender to fly the Mexican flag within 4 years.
"The
American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction
of Mexico without firing a single shot." -- - EXCELSIOR --- national
newspaper of Mexico
THE
UNIDIOSus MAP OF LA RAZA-OCCUPIED AMERICA
They claim all of North
America for Mexico!
(WARNING! THE BELOW LINK
IS GRAPHIC ON MEXICAN HATRED OF LEGALS)
THE BIGGEST MISTAKE TRUMP EVER DID IN IS LIFE IS
NOT PROSECUTE HILLARY CLINTON!
THE LIFE OF HILLARY CLINTON: AMORAL PSYCHOPATH
and GLOBAL
LOOTER OF THE POOR….. But she served Obama’s
crony bank$ter$ well!
THE DIRTY DEALS of DIRTY HILLARY….. looting
anything that moves!
WHEN HARRIS WAS
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MEXIFORNIA, SHE
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