Free Republic

One of the Left's favorite anti-tax reform tactics involved loudly griping about how the law's corporate tax cuts were permanent (there's a good economic argument for that, of course), whereas the tax cuts for individuals and families are set to expire -- which is where the misleading "tax increase" talking point comes from. Those taxes would only increase if Congress allows them to, and based on recent history and the tough political dynamics, the likelihood of reversing all or most of the recently-enacted tax reductions is slim to none. Nevertheless, Democrats carried on as if Republicans were deliberately targeting...

There's a growing disconnect between the economic benefits spinning off the Republican tax cuts and the poll numbers. Is the public going sour of them? Or is this just more wishful thinking on the part of Democrats and the liberal press? Just the past week saw three more examples of the tax cuts' benefits. Item 1: Kroger announced that it was accelerating wage hikes, increasing the company's 401(k) match, enhancing benefits, and expanding employee discounts. All, it said, thanks to the Republican tax reforms. Kroger joins more than 500 other companies who've extended bonuses, wage hikes, or improved benefits to...

Step one: Scream that the GOP tax reform bill would be a "massive attack" on the middle class.  Step two: Concede that actually yes, nearly all middle income earners would get a tax break under the bill.  Step three: Call for its repeal anyway, effectively demanding a tax increase -- a "massive attack," one might even say -- on middle class Americans and US businesses.  It sounds like Bernie Sanders has picked up the same tax hike hymnal from which Nancy Pelosi was singing last week: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called Monday for the Republican tax law to be repealed...

When the Congressional Budget Office released its updated budget forecast, everyone focused on the deficit number. But buried in the report was the CBO's tacit admission that it vastly overestimated the cost of the Trump tax cuts, because it didn't account for the strong economic growth they would generate. Among the many details in the report, the one reporters focused on was the CBO's forecast that the federal deficit would top $1 trillion in 2020, two years earlier than the CBO had previously said. And, naturally, most news accounts blamed the tax cuts. "U.S. budget deficit to balloon on Republican...

Democrat representative and DNC vice chairman Keith Ellison could be forgiven if he thought he would be tossed softball questions by MSNBC's Steve Kornacki (substituting on Kasie DC) on Sunday night. However, even on MSNBC liberals will occasionally (but rarely) be hit with hardballs. Such was the case when Kornacki kept asking Ellison over and over if the Democrats would support the repeal of middle class tax cuts in the current law passed by Congress last December. Ellison kept trying to dodge the question by attempting to only talk about repealing the tax cuts for the rich but, unfortunately for him,...

You've got to be incorrigibly in opposition to reality if you want the American people to somehow believe that tax cuts are bad for us, Obamacare bends the cost of health care downward, and higher salaries and more jobs are just terrible. A new Rasmussen tracking poll shows that President Trump's approval has risen to 50%, with 49% stating some degree of disapproval, meaning that more Americans approve of President Trump than disapprove. This is a first, and it knocks another leg out from under the argument that President Trump is disastrous. So all the Beltway chatter about "chaos" in...

For a nation accustomed to instant gratification, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a winner.Before President Donald Trump even signed the bill, companies were announcing employee pay raises, bonuses, and increased investments to grow their businesses and bring operations back from overseas.Among the first out of the gate was AT&T, which said it would give $1,000 bonuses to more than 200,000 nonmanagement employees and make an additional $1 billion investment in the United States. Boeing put $100 million toward training, education, and other workforce development. Walmart expanded paid parental leave and boosted starting wages to $11 an hour.Then in...

A majority of Americans is not yet seeing President Trump's tax cuts reflected in their paychecks, according to a new poll. A CNBC All-America Economic Survey finds 52 percent of respondents say they haven't seen a change. Just 32 percent of respondents report taking home more money due to the tax cuts, which Trump signed into law late last year. Of that percentage, 38 percent say the extra pay they helps them a "great deal" or a "fair amount." Another 40 percent say the extra pay helps "some" or "just a little" and 22 percent report that the extra pay...

Tax Cuts: The latest monthly Treasury report on taxes and spending shows that gross tax receipts in February were $1.4 billion higher than the year before. Weren't the Republican tax cuts supposed to explode the deficit? X According to the report, the government took in $238.2 billion in taxes in February. The year before, tax revenues were $236.8 billion. For fiscal year 2018, which started last October, taxes are up $50.5 billion compared with the same months last year, and are at a record high level for this five-month span. The report does show that net receipts were lower in...

President Trump again brings up a "phase two" of tax cuts. The GOP law passed in December permanently chops taxes for corporations and temporarily reduces the tax rate for most individuals. Trump wants a 'phase two' of tax cuts Trump wants a 'phase two' of tax cuts 18 Hours Ago | 00:44 President Donald Trump said again Monday he wants a "phase two" of tax cuts on top of the law Republicans passed in December. Speaking as the World Series champion Houston Astros visited the White House, Trump asked Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, whether he planned to cut taxes further....

Nancy Pelosi hasn't exactly been in clover since she disdainfully sniffed that $1,000 worker bonuses were just " crumbs " following the Republican passage of tax cuts. She was so against those that she screeched that " people are going to die !" if the tax cuts dared pass in Congress. After the tax cuts did, just as in Aesop's tale of the fox and the grapes, she called the resulting unexpected bonuses "crumbs." Apparently, the fallout has been so bad on that she's backtracked on her remarks, putting out this tweet, which was noticed by Fox News: Certainly we...

A New York Times analysis of how the recently enacted tax reform law could affect a hypothetical couple's taxes was corrected to admit their taxes would actually go down, not up. In the story from late February, the Times collaborated with TurboTax vice president Bob Meighan to lay out how the Republican-backed tax overhaul would affect "Samuel and Felicity Taxpayer," an imaginary couple from suburban New York that makes $183,911 a year. Samuel is a self-employed engineering consultant, and Felicity is as an employee of a design firm. The "bottom line" of their analysis: "The family would owe $3,896 more...

American consumers are the most confident they’ve been since 2000. The Conference Board says its consumer confidence index rose to 130.8 in February, highest since November 2000 and up from 124.3 in January. The business research group’s index measures consumers’ assessment of current conditions and their outlook for the next six months. They feel better about today’s economy than they have since March 2001. Their outlook also improved. Tax cuts passed into law last year are starting to show up in workers’ paychecks. “As people slowly absorb the details of the tax reform package, opinion polls suggest that it is...

How out of touch is the Democratic Party? This out of touch: The Washington Post reports that Democrats expected the Trump tax cut to be unpopular and are surprised to find that voters like seeing more money in their pay checks. Post reporter Erica Warner writes: Democrats predicted a political backlash for ­Republicans in December when the GOP pushed through a deeply unpopular tax cut that added more than $1 trillion to the federal deficit and disproportionately helped the wealthy. But at the outset of the 2018 campaign season, Democrats’ early optimism appears less well founded here [in Indiana], where...

During his short time in office, President Donald Trump has taken several steps that have generated robust economic growth, including signing historic tax cuts that have already led to bigger paychecks for American workers. But to ensure that Americans can keep enjoying the benefits of this popular tax cut, the administration needs to fight rising gas prices.The challenge is a familiar one. For example, in 2011, Americans’ savings from a payroll tax cut were largely negated by rising gas prices. Similarly, an analysis by the non-partisan organization Securing America’s Future Energy found that although former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts...

Starting in late 2017, Boeing executives discussed plans to conceal employee bonuses or cancel them altogether in order to keep President Trump from getting credit, following the passage of the Republican tax-reform bill. On a series of conference calls led by Boeing’s Senior Vice President of Communications Phil Musser, Musser proposed and lobbied for canceling bonuses out of fear that the company may contribute to President Trump’s rising approval rating. Before Musser worked as a high level Boeing’s communications staffer in Washington, his employment history included public and media relations work for Mitt Romney’s 2012 Presidential Campaign and The Freedom...

This is about as clean a political win as you're going to see these days, so Republicans are absolutely right to be pressing their advantage. They've earned it. They withstood weeks of withering and punishing demagoguery from Democrats and much of the press -- which also happened to be highly inaccurate and laughably hyperbolic -- and ultimately stuck together to pass a controversial and unpopular bill. The legislation would hurt the middle class and bring about the apocalypse, Democrats argued. Republicans countered that their plan would actually benefit the vast majority of American taxpayers and help US businesses. The...

(Image via J.M. Smucker Company) The J.R. Smucker company announced last week that 5000 employees will be receiving $1000 bonuses as a result of the Republican tax plan. They also plan to add $20 million to the employee pension program and donate an additional $1 million to charity. "We had a strong third quarter, with sales growth for key brands in every business and strong earnings per share growth fueled by the benefits of U.S. income tax reform and ongoing cost discipline," said Mark Smucker, chief executive officer, in a press release. "These results reflect our commitment to delivering...

It’s happened. We saw this coming. In fact, unlike Obamacare, it was almost guaranteed to happen: the GOP bill is becoming more popular . It’s now split 44/44 percent supporting and opposing the legislation. That’s a 21-point jump from December when it was signed into law by President Donald J. Trump. The polling was dismal on the bill then, but Republicans held firm and passed it via reconciliation. Not a single Democrat voted for the bill; a bill that provides middle and working class tax relief. It was even asked back then: what will Democrats do when his tax...

Variety reported on Monday about Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger hosting a fundraiser next week for six vulnerable Democrat senators. Although the story did point out the irony of Disney pushing for the tax cuts that every one of the senators voted against, it skipped the more controversial detail that the senators would be receiving money from a fundraiser hosted by an executive who pushed for replacing American Disney employees with H1B visa foreign workers.  First let us go to the irony of a tax cut supporting company supporting senators who all opposed that tax cut in Bob Iger to...