Psaki: ‘Unfair and Absurd’ To Say Companies Would Raise Prices in Response to Tax Increases

[Weatherman2020]

Really?
What did Biden disrupt?

Ignoramus.
An indefinite “pause on new oil and natural gas leases on public lands”

Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad | The White House

The United States and the world face a profound climate crisis. We have a narrow moment to pursue action at home and abroad in order to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of that crisis and to seize the opportunity that tackling climate change presents. Domestic action must go hand in hand...

www.whitehouse.gov

 

[Weatherman2020]

We'd rather get paid well for the money we make them through our labor, than to tax them later. Pay employees well, they wouldn't need the govt programs or higher tax rates on them.

Hilarious. Poor pay must be why millions risk their lives to illegally enter the US.

Because they know being ‘poor’ in America means your iPhone is a model 6.

 

[Weatherman2020]

I see Covid wreaking supply chain havoc and scarcity. Look at the 70 or more container ships waiting to be processed at the port of LA. I wonder if improved infrastructure could increase efficiency and resiliency to such circumstances in the future?

Good point! Is that why the government has LA port not working 7/24?

 

[Hutch Starskey]

Good point! Is that why the government has LA port not working 7/24?

?

 

[Weatherman2020]

?

So you’re ignorant that the government refuses to have the port operating 7/24 like it normally does.
Figures.

 

[AzogtheDefiler]

The middle class is where income is actually reported. They have little opportunity to hide income.

The wealthy know better than to report income and they have an army of lawyers and accountants to hide it.

Most of our nations wealth (almost 2/3) resides with our wealthiest 5 percent

View attachment 545146

Our wealthiest also pay what 87% of all the taxes? Why punish success?

 

[Hutch Starskey]

So you’re ignorant that the government refuses to have the port operating 7/24 like it normally does.
Figures.

It’s not the govt. There aren’t enough workers or truck drivers to maintain 24 hr operations.
Just another reason why you unbearable twats need to get vaxxed.

 

[Care4all]

Hilarious. Poor pay must be why millions risk their lives to illegally enter the US.

Because they know being ‘poor’ in America means your iPhone is a model 6.

Soooo, that's what you want for the American middle class? Really?

The middle class decades ago, were families who earned enough to pay all of their bills for cars, homes, food, kids colleges, phone, miscellaneous, and pay in to savings for retirement and safety net, and have money left over to take the family for a vacation twice a year.

Today, the economic experts say it takes $120,000 a year to be middle class like that, for a family of 4.

 

[Dragonlady]

Some did lower cost, but there were various other options available. Some gave employees pay increases or bonuses while still others provided shareholders the benefit of a bigger dividend. The tax decrease provided companies the opportunity to pay down debt or buy back stock having affect of increasing the value to shareholders. I suspect that going in the opposite direction companies will find it much easier to pass along costs rather than going to employees, shareholders and banks with hat in hand asking for that money back.

Corporations have been awash in cash since W cut taxes. They had no need for the tax cuts to pay down debt or invest in expansion. American corporations already had more cash than they needed BEFORE Trump cut taxes.

More Than 50 Major U.S. Corporations—Including Nike And FedEx—Paid No Federal Taxes Last Year

26 companies, reporting a combined $77 billion in pretax income over Trump's first three years in office, didn't pay any federal income tax during that time.

www.forbes.com

KEY FACTS: HOW CORPORATIONS ARE SPENDING THEIR TRUMP TAX CUTS - Americans For Tax Fairness

Claims that corporations are sharing a big slice of their huge Trump tax cuts with employees through bonuses and wage hikes are mostly hype, the “Trump Tax Cut Truths” website of Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) has determined. Following are key facts gleaned from the data.All data are estimates...

americansfortaxfairness.org

Fewer than 2% of American workers got a one-time bonus averaging $1000. Wages rose by 1.6% on average. Barely enough to cover inflation, in 2018. Since then the wage gap between rich and poor has accelerated at its fastest rate in history.

State of Working America Wages 2019: A story of slow, uneven, and unequal wage growth over the last 40 years

Rising wage inequality and slow and uneven hourly wage growth for the vast majority of workers have been defining features of the U.S. labor market for the last four decades, despite steady (if too slow) productivity growth. In only 10 of the last 40 years did most workers see any consistent...

www.epi.org

The tax cut was used primarily for share buy-backs, not increased dividends. And increased dividends do nothing to help the workers at all. Dividends pay the shareholders - 80% of whom are the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the USA. The tax cut allowed these corporations to buy back the shares of smaller minority shareholders in the corporations, further concentrating the wealth of the nation in the top 10% of Americans, and reducing public participation in the markets.

2018 saw the highest level of stock buy-backs in American history. 2019 saw that record shattered. Buy-backs do NOTHING for the workers, but they do increase the value of the remaining shares. Even Warren Buffet, who actively opposes buy-backs as counter-productive, bought back Berkshire Hathaway shares because he had too damn much cash from the tax cuts, and nowhere to realistically invest it.

The whole point of the 2017 tax cuts were to increase job creation and to help the workers, according to President Trump. Everybody was going to get a $4000 raise from the tax cuts. He lied.

Why Stock Buybacks Are Dangerous for the Economy

Even as the United States continues to experience its longest economic expansion since World War II, concern is growing that soaring corporate debt will make the economy susceptible to a contraction that could get out of control. The root cause of this concern is the trillions of dollars that...

hbr.org

Companies Buying Back Their Stock At Pre-Pandemic Levels—A Sign Of Economic Optimism

Companies in the U.S. are sitting on a mountain of cash and eager to buy back shares

www.forbes.com

Company stock buybacks are on track to hit a record $1 trillion amid ongoing economic recovery

Leading the charge in share repurchases is Apple's $90 billion stock buyback program announced earlier this year.

markets.businessinsider.com

 

[Independent thinker]

The right always had the mentality that if we don’t pamper the wealthy, they will leave us

And the left have always had the mentality of taking away from the rich and giving to the poor, instead of letting the rich keep what they've got and raising up the poor. It is not a zero sum game. You don't have to take away from the rich and give to the poor. And, income inequality is misrepresented by the left. The poor's standard of living ALWAYS rises. The poor are much better off today than they were 25, 50, 75, 100 and more years ago. The poor are NOT getting poorer. They are getting richer and richer.

 

[Dragonlady]

And the left have always had the mentality of taking away from the rich and giving to the poor, instead of letting the rich keep what they've got and raising up the poor. It is not a zero sum game. You don't have to take away from the rich and give to the poor. And, income inequality is misrepresented by the left. The poor's standard of living ALWAYS rises. The poor are much better off today than they were 25, 50, 75, 100 and more years ago. The poor are NOT getting poorer. They are getting richer and richer.

What a ridiculous comment. The rich have NEVER "raised up the poor". The rich aren't "keeping what they've got", they're taking 80% of all of the wealth and income in the USA. They're taking all of the money generated by all of the working people, and their workers - the people who actually earned every dollar being passed to them, are left with barely enough to live on.

The New Deal tax code rewarded the workers and contributed to the rise of the American middle class, making the US economy the richest in the first world. The Reagan tax code has siphoned all of that wealth away from the American middle class and transferred it to the wealthiest people in the USA. It created the greatest transfer of wealth in American history - from the worker and middle class to the top.

Incomes Grew After Past Tax Cuts, but Guess Whose (Published 2017)

While the well-to-do did even better than before, average income for Americans on the bottom half of the scale actually shrank under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

www.nytimes.com

If people were actually "paid what they earn", the workers would be getting all of the income they generate. The nation's most profitable companies would be the ones paying the highest wages. Instead, McDonald's, Walmart and the other highest earning corporations in American, are earning those monster profits on the backs on the lowest paid workers in America.

If a company is booking record profits, and yet the bulk of their work force is dependent on government handouts, like Walmart and McDonalds, this is not a sustainable economic model. Pay the workers a living wage first. Even worse, the top executives of both companies are paid 8 figure salaries. Executive pay has grown by 1000% while worker pay has grown 12% - not even enough to cover inflation.

Exorbitant CEO pay is a major contributor to rising inequality that we could safely do away with. CEOs are getting more because of their power to set pay, not because they are increasing productivity or possess specific, high-demand skills. This escalation of CEO compensation, and of executive compensation more generally, has fueled the growth of top 1.0% and top 0.1% incomes, leaving less of the fruits of economic growth for ordinary workers and widening the gap between very high earners and the bottom 90%. The economy would suffer no harm if CEOs were paid less (or taxed more).

CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978: Typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time

The latest report in EPI’s annual series analyzing current and long-term trends in CEO compensation.

www.epi.org

 

[Weatherman2020]

Soooo, that's what you want for the American middle class? Really?

The middle class decades ago, were families who earned enough to pay all of their bills for cars, homes, food, kids colleges, phone, miscellaneous, and pay in to savings for retirement and safety net, and have money left over to take the family for a vacation twice a year.

Today, the economic experts say it takes $120,000 a year to be middle class like that, for a family of 4.

I grew up in poverty, albeit America’s version.
Retired a multi-millionaire in my 50’s.

God Bless America.

 

[Weatherman2020]

Still waiting 12 years for Republicans to agree to a minimum wage increase

Still waiting to hear how Democrats can shred our healthcare system without one Republican and yet you have had the majority now.

 

[Weatherman2020]

What a ridiculous comment. The rich have NEVER "raised up the poor". The rich aren't "keeping what they've got", they're taking 80% of all of the wealth and income in the USA. They're taking all of the money generated by all of the working people, and their workers - the people who actually earned every dollar being passed to them, are left with barely enough to live on.

The New Deal tax code rewarded the workers and contributed to the rise of the American middle class, making the US economy the richest in the first world. The Reagan tax code has siphoned all of that wealth away from the American middle class and transferred it to the wealthiest people in the USA. It created the greatest transfer of wealth in American history - from the worker and middle class to the top.

Incomes Grew After Past Tax Cuts, but Guess Whose (Published 2017)

While the well-to-do did even better than before, average income for Americans on the bottom half of the scale actually shrank under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

www.nytimes.com

If people were actually "paid what they earn", the workers would be getting all of the income they generate. The nation's most profitable companies would be the ones paying the highest wages. Instead, McDonald's, Walmart and the other highest earning corporations in American, are earning those monster profits on the backs on the lowest paid workers in America.

If a company is booking record profits, and yet the bulk of their work force is dependent on government handouts, like Walmart and McDonalds, this is not a sustainable economic model. Pay the workers a living wage first. Even worse, the top executives of both companies are paid 8 figure salaries. Executive pay has grown by 1000% while worker pay has grown 12% - not even enough to cover inflation.

CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978: Typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time

The latest report in EPI’s annual series analyzing current and long-term trends in CEO compensation.

www.epi.org

How did I get from poverty to being a multimillionaire?

Oh yeah. Rich people provided that money I earned.
But I enjoy you Leftards calling JFK a liar.

 

[elektra]

Nahhh.....

They are already in China, manufacturing goods... And pocketed the most of those savings in CEO and upper management salaries!

And we thank Bill Clinton and the Democrats for that.

 

[rightwinger]

Still waiting to hear how Democrats can shred our healthcare system without one Republican and yet you have had the majority now.

Still waiting for the Trump Healthcare Plan that is cheaper and better than Obamacare…..

Any day now, any day

 

[Blues Man]

Obviously not if the expenditure costs less than the tax. See charitable contributions.

You don't buy something for a business to get a tax write off especially large purchases because those have to be depreciated.

And even donations to charity don't reduce taxes that much.

 

[elektra]

Still waiting for the Trump Healthcare Plan that is cheaper and better than Obamacare…..

Any day now, any day

Republicans don't look to government for healthcare.

 

[Dragonlady]

I grew up in poverty, albeit America’s version.
Retired a multi-millionaire in my 50’s.

God Bless America.

Congratulations and good for you, but you're one of millions. I grew up poor after my father died when I was eleven, and while I didn't retire a multi-millionaire, I'm happy and quite comfortable with where I ended up in my retirement.

In 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected, you had a 20% chance of working your way out of poverty. Thanks to Republican economic policies, today, a child born into poverty has a 2% chance of doing what you accomplished. If you had grown up in the 80's, you'd still be working for slave wages, and/or paying off college debt.

 

[Hutch Starskey]

You don't buy something for a business to get a tax write off especially large purchases because those have to be depreciated.

And even donations to charity don't reduce taxes that much.

That’s not at all what I posted.