GOP tax scam a total fail: It 'doesn't do any of what they promised'

Wages are falling, Wall Street tycoons are swimming in profits from stock buybacks, and the federal deficit is exploding. Every way you slice it, the Republican tax scam is failing spectacularly, falling far short of the blustering promises of Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

When Republicans jammed through the tax scam on a party-line vote, Trump promised it would be “rocket fuel” for the economy, helping families across the nation. Ryan promised tax cuts for everyone. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin vowed the bill would pay for itself.

All lies.

Months after the bill was signed into law, it is abundantly clear, as the New York Times notes, that it “doesn’t do any of what they promised.”

Wages are falling, after adjusting for inflation, since the tax scam became law. “The idea that the tax cuts were going to line workers’ pockets was always a mirage,” says the New York Times.

The uber-wealthy? They are making out like bandits. Rich corporations are plowing tax breaks into record-setting levels of stock buybacks, expected to top $1 trillion this year, according to the Times. Buybacks increase the price of stocks, and many corporate executives who are compensated with those very same stocks are enjoying a Trump Bump in their bottom line.

Trump promised the tax scam would focus on “folks who work in the mailrooms and the machine shops of America — the plumbers, the carpenters, the cops, the teachers, the truck drivers, the pipe fitters.” But in reality, corporate CEOs and Wall Street investors are coming out on top, while workers are being left behind.

While the wealthy are enjoying even more excesses, the tax scam caused America’s deficit to explode. Mnuchin and Ryan promised the tax scam wouldn’t add to the deficit, but that’s just flat wrong. Both the deficit and national debt are growing “at a stunning pace,” according to the Times. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows the tax scam is on pace to add nearly $2 trillion to the deficit.

The tax scam is such a disaster that Republicans don’t even want to campaign on it. In the recent special election in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, Republicans abandoned speaking about the tax bill, instead focusing on ugly anti-immigrant rhetoric to rile up their far-right base.

It’s the same story across the country, with Republicans talking less and less about their failed economic policies, turning to racist ads about immigration instead.

After being busted for so many lies, no wonder Republicans are ignoring their one legislative “accomplishment” and would rather talk about anything else on the campaign trail.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.