Just prior to the April 15 filing deadline, House Republicans passed a budget plan with tax cuts that would “give away trillions of dollars to the richest people in our country,” according to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who added, “they want to pay for it by taking food away from hungry children and letting people die from a lack of healthcare coverage.”
She cited “$880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and at least $230 billion in cuts to food assistance programs.”
Of course, taxes are the least of the worries for America’s oligarchs. In 2021 ProPublica reported how Amazon’s Jeff Bezos paid not a penny in income taxes in either 2007 or 2011 and that Trump’s good buddy Elon Musk skunked the country in 2018.
Trump’s loyalty to his wealthy buddies surfaced again last week when CNBC reported, “Tax attorneys say IRS has become a ‘zombie’ as agency cuts staff and halts audits of the wealthy.”
Making the rich richer is core Trump policy.
As a point of reference, while some economists have classified Trump’s tariff seesaw as evidence of economic incompetence, other people have theorized an ulterior motive.
Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group wealth management consultants said, “This is how you sabotage the world’s economic engine while claiming to supercharge it. Trump is blowing up the post-war system that made the U.S. and the world more prosperous, and he’s doing it with reckless confidence.”
Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, initially said the tariffs amounted to “the most massive tax increase in its history,” estimating a cost of $7,000 per household. “And this tax hike will primarily hit moderate and middle-income families. Trump’s taxes go easy on the rich, who spend a smaller share of their income on imported goods.”
Is it good news that last week Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear lowered the estimated tariff tax impact on American families from $7,000 to $4,700 a year?
“That’s months upon months upon months of groceries,” Beshear posted on social media. “That’s months upon months of rent. That might be your entire annual deductible if you’ve got private health insurance coverage. No family will be able to get through that without being severely impacted and for those that are struggling to pay bills at the end of the month, it’s enough to put you under.”
Earlier, Paul Krugman, a Nobel prize winner in economics posted, “Anyone sounding the all-clear on tariffs, or Trump economic policy in general, should be kept away from sharp objects and banned from operating heavy machinery.”
Trump may very well be all those things, but others see a more venal angle to the tariff turmoil that has tumbled the stock market and left the world economy teetering on the brink of a depression.
After Trump’s tariffs initiated sell-offs and his “pause” provided momentary stability [though the downward trend continues] Chris Cuomo wondered if this yo-yoing had another cause.
“Why does it seem that some got so rich on this volatility?” Cuomo asked.
“For instance,” he said, “how did Newsmax – a struggling mouthpiece media company – go from a $14 stock to $260, and then crash back down? You don’t think people got paid on that deal? What if even part of all these maneuvers – this schizo-strategy – isn’t really about deals for us? Not all of us, or even the middle class, but about helping just a select few?”
That’s a strong insinuation, close to an accusation of insider trading.
So, an April 9 video clip showed Trump in his oval office with billionaires Charles Schwab and Roger Penske.
“He made two-and-a-half billion today,” Trump bragged, just hours after announcing the pause, “and he made $900 million. That’s not bad.”
Similar windfalls reported by congressional loyalists also added to the speculation that Trump’s Terrible Really Bad Tariffs involved deliberate manipulations, with favored folks finding fabulous funds having been foretold future plans.
You have to commend Trump working class loyalists. They are so devoted that they willingly sacrifice their own well-being to pay for the infrastructure for Trump and his oligarchs. Now that they see Trump’s promises of lower prices “on Day One” were just campaign lies, they can absorb the costs as his policies line the pockets of his pals. [No, no. Our convicted-felon-in-chief surely wouldn’t be playing the market himself.]
