Thursday, June 1, 2017

Chye-Ching Huang — Trump Plan: $2.5 Trillion in Program Cuts for Low- and Moderate-Income People; $2.5 Trillion on Two Tax Cuts for Corporations and Wealthy Heirs

President Trump said he was not elected to serve special interests, but instead, “the forgotten men and women of our country, and that’s what I’m doing.” His budget paints a starkly different picture, however, because it would shift trillions of dollars from struggling families to the wealthy.
The Trump budget would cut $2.5 trillion over the next decade from programs that help struggling low-and moderate-income families afford the basics and improve their upward mobility. These are the largest cuts in a President’s budget in the modern era, even when adjusted for inflation or measured as a percent of the economy.…
At the same time, the President proposes roughly $6 trillion in tax cuts (from his tax plan and from the House-passed bill, which he has endorsed, to repeal the Affordable Care Act) over the next decade.
They’re so skewed to the top that the tiny fraction of households with annual incomes above $1 million would get more than $2 trillion in tax cuts. In other words, millionaires would gain trillions from the Trump plan….
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

26 comments:

Penguin pop said...

Get ready for a race war if any of this gets through. There will be major unrest like we haven't seen in a long time. It's a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. These New Deal era programs and Nixon era welfare programs is part of what's preventing this from happening, but people will get hungry and grow desperate and then go to the rich neighborhoods and cause destruction out of desperation. I listened to some YouTube people in the black community who saw it this way and I was convinced.

3-D chess my ass.

Penguin pop said...

Ironically, a lot of the black men on the site were excited about this because they think that it means black women will actually have to get actual jobs now and the men won't be conned by them in their eyes. They were all saying that the Section 8 food stamp ride is over. I've been seeing comments like this for example:

"Trump is not playing when it comes to cutting government assistance. Black women on YouTube are getting mad at black men for wanting this and also claiming that we will suffer as well. No, the only black men that will suffer are the low down degenerate baby making black men that these women chose. The men that are living off them for free under section 8. The black men that aren't​ taking care of their kids going around from house to section 8 house creating bastards. Those men will suffer as they will not have anywhere to live and be sent to jail because the state will now start cracking down even further on child support

Men I beg of you that if you are truly a good black man then wear a condom. Think with your mind and use logic, lust and thirstiness will only get you imprisoned as you will be lock up if you can't pay. Let these women suffer so that through their sufferage they may begin to comprehend the role they play and their responsibility in protecting their wombs."

and this:

"the rebirth AND THE DESTRUCTION of all ghetto bitches..WHITE, BLACK SPANISH ASIAN.. AND IVE SEEN THEM ALL ON IT! .. TRUST ME!!"

There's way more where that came from, but you get my point.

Peter Pan said...

This is called Populism for Chumps.

Matt Franko said...

He's going to go get all of their munnie back...

Matt Franko said...

Foreigners have like $5t he is going after... getting $300b back from Saudis he inked just the other day...

Peter Pan said...

Chumps have no munnie, only chump change.

Matt Franko said...

He could be successful for quite a while running down $5t+ from the zombies...

Matt Franko said...

At some level (not ours) Trump understands the issue with the external balance...

Ryan Harris said...

People want jobs and business opportunities not programs for low incomes. I totally get the messaging here. But cutting programs that help the poor harms the poor and there has to be a better way to virtue signal GOP values.

GOP system has abundant opportunity and resources so it's hard to compare GOP policy to Dem policy. Dems intentionally impoverish large swaths of the nation, then offer charity. Record numbers of poor whites and blacks that were written off as deplorable and unemployable by Democratic elitists using social selection criteria are now rejoining the labor force in the last few months. Especially POC and those with criminal records.
Before under Dem control, the issue was presented as being a natural rate of unemployment that can't really be avoided. Automation, unwillingness to move to NYC/SF/LA meant doom. Uneducated, crime records, dropouts, etc were simply destined to food stamps, disability and section 8. Dreadful elitism.

If you create abundant opportunity so you don't have an underclass, then you can cut... but it's too early to declare victory. The Dems left maybe 6 million working age Americans out of work for elitist reasons. But only around a million have gone back, the GOP shouldn't be declaring victory until much more is done to alleviate the poverty and victims of academic elitism.


Matt Franko said...

Ryan they are assuming people back to work and that fomenting a reduction in xfers..

Matt Franko said...

Ofc that doesn't guarantee quality execution

Peter Pan said...

It's not like this budget is going to pass as is.

Penguin pop said...

True, Bob. Most of this stuff runs into political gridlock anyway, but I'm still keeping a close eye on all of this just in case it does.

Penguin pop said...

"People want jobs and business opportunities not programs for low incomes. I totally get the messaging here. But cutting programs that help the poor harms the poor and there has to be a better way to virtue signal GOP values."

I personally prefer working over just sitting there and having to deal with tons of paperwork related to food stamps, Section 8, Social Security, etc and all this nonsense about how if you even dare work even 3 days a week (24 hours), they throw a hissy fit and cut away benefits willy nilly as a means to keep people trapped in that situation for a longer period of time and with gimmicks like PASS if you're on SSI, etc. The trade-off now is having much more of the rent to pay, but the enjoyment I get from working full-time and at a decent salary for a guy like me with no children, wife or that many other people in the household makes up for the trade-off. I was just saying earlier if the party just went ahead and slash and burned everything and didn't have a real plan to actually get people into decent jobs where they could make a good living and pay for utilities, etc. and jobs where they could move up after a while, it's not going to be a pretty transition is what I'm saying.

Peter Pan said...

Message to GOP: Be careful what you wish for.

I'm a believer in strong medicine, and a dose of unadulterated GOP values might be what America needs.

Noah Way said...

It's all too easy to overlook history and blame the GOP for austerity moves like this, and as a party they do openly pursue them. But let's not forget that Democrats pursue the same agenda with less candor. Clinton's workfare and bank deregulation achieved the same effect as Trump's stated budget will if passed. Meanwhile, even if nothing is changed the balance is heavily tipped against the poor and middle class. For example, housing subsidies are available for only 15% of the people who qualify for them while large and highly profitable corporations have negative tax rates. FICA is capped at modest income, making it a regressive rather than progressive tax. Yachts benefit from tax rates applied to second homes as "investments", etc.

I was in East Berlin in 1988 before the wall came down. 1/3 of the city was still a ruin from WWII. Bread was served with lard because there was no butter available. People are highly adaptable and will adapt to privation in order to survive. The question is at what point do people stop adapting and start revolting? The militarization of police, mercenaries at natural disasters (Blackwater in New Orleans during Katrina), infiltration of civil movements (Occupy, among many others) are all clear signs that the state is preparing for an inevitable war against it's own people.

Ignacio said...

Let them eat Ayn Rand books.

Peter Pan said...

The Democrats are not in power. If they haven't been held to account for their policies in the past, it's due to their ability to soft-peddle their ideology. The GOP aren't as subtle. That they are two cheeks on the same ass is not in dispute.

Sinking the ideology is the first step towards revolt. Naturally the state is prepared to rely upon physical coercion as soon as the prevailing narrative breaks down.

Revolts tend to be led by those who have lost what they once had. Which demographic(s) in the US meet that description?

Penguin pop said...

It's pretty obvious to me the disadvantaged groups, minorities, and women are going to be the first ones to get really pissed off. Defunding Planned Parenthood will get many of the women in this country activated to do something for starters. Black turnout in the last election was less than in previous elections and take away those programs for them or significantly cut them and they will also be hitting the streets and actively revolting or attempting to revolt.

Making the GOP wet dream a reality will ironically end up being a rude awakening for them.

Penguin pop said...

I'm sure at least some of the poor whites on those programs will notice something's up and others might still drink the GOP koolaid and not care.

Matt Franko said...

If his plan is a $4k advance tax credit to 40m people, then that would be $1.6t over 10 years that the CBO can't accrue because taxes are on the left hand side... (Modified Accrual... I know this is an MMT audience but sometimes you can't dumb it down....)

Transfers are on the right hand side so CBO can accrue them hence the -2.6t projection...

Matt Franko said...

Mulvaney too stupid to explain this:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mick-mulvaney-the-day-of-the-cbo-has-probably-come-and-gone/article/2624609

Peter Pan said...

Allow the GOP to enjoy their wet dream. Don't pinch them.

I'm sure at least some of the poor whites on those programs will notice something's up and others might still drink the GOP koolaid and not care.

More would have voted for Bernie than imbibe orange-flavoured koolaid, of that I'm sure!

Peter Pan said...

Matt, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. That 4k credit has yet to be flushed out.

Matt Franko said...

It all has to be flushed out it's a budget not an appropriations.... this CBO reject writing the article here can't account for it using Modified Accrual...

It's more complicated than the typical dumbed down MMT "double entry accounting!" ...

Peter Pan said...

Did you see the exchange between Mulvaney and Sanders on repeal of the estate tax?
Modified accrual wouldn't have saved him...