As Trump Declares 'Americans Are Winning' on Tax Day, Common Good Faces 'Grim Future' Thanks to GOP

"Tax reform should have helped working families get ahead, not tilted the playing field further in favor of the wealthy and well-connected."



While President Donald Trump used Tax Day as an opportunity to declare that ordinary Americans are now "winning" thanks to his deeply unpopular corporate-friendly law, a new report published Tuesday refuted Trump's rosy depiction of the U.S. economy under his leadership and found that—thanks to the Trump-GOP tax cuts for wealthy—healthcare, education, and other necessary public services face a "grim future."

Conducted by Americans for Tax Fairness (AFT) in partnership with Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the new analysis shows that Trump and the Republican Party are moving to make up for the nearly $2 trillion crater their tax law is expected to blow in the federal deficit by pursuing crippling cuts to programs that millions of Americans rely on for survival.

"The Congressional Budget Office now reports that the tax cuts will add $1.9 trillion to the deficit—nearly one-third more than the $1.5 trillion estimated when the tax law was approved in December," the report notes. "This is close to the $1.7 trillion cut to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security disability programs, SNAP, and more proposed in Trump's budget."

Clearly depicting the Trump administration's priorities, one chart included in the report places the Trump's proposed cuts to safety net programs alongside just a fraction of the GOP tax law's rewards for the wealthiest Americans:



As safety net programs come under attack by Republican legislation, the White House budget, and Trump executive orders, AFT and HCAN note that the overwhelming majority of the tax law's benefits will go straight to the very top of the income distribution.

"When the new tax law is fully phased in, 83 percent of the tax cuts will go to the wealthiest one percent," the analysis notes, laying waste once more to Trump's insistence that the tax law was primarily aimed at helping working- and middle-class Americans. "The richest one percent will get a tax cut of $55,190, on average [in 2019]. The bottom 60 percent will get a tax cut of $440—about a dollar a day."

"America's working families are, as usual, getting the short end of the stick from the new Trump-GOP tax law," ATF executive director Frank Clemente said in a statement on Tuesday. "Tax reform should have helped working families get ahead, not tilted the playing field further in favor of the wealthy and well-connected."

The new report by ATF and HCAN comes as polling data continues to show that most Americans are not buying the Trump administration's claim that the tax law was crafted with their interests in mind.

According to Gallup, just 39 percent of Americans approve of the tax cuts, despite the best efforts of right-wing big money groups to boost the law's popularity with expensive ad buys.

As Republicans struggle mightily to convince the public that corporate tax cuts are good for them ahead of the 2018 midterms, progressives are looking to use the tax law's unpopularity against the GOP.

In a Tax Day email to supporters on Tuesday, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) demanded the repeal of Trump's tax cuts for the rich and suggested that the extra revenue be used to fund infrastructure, education, healthcare, and other public priorities.

"It's time to end tax breaks for the Koch brothers, wealthy CEOs and big corporations that shift profits offshore and outsource jobs. It's time to end tax breaks for Big Pharma and greedy health insurance corporations. It's time to close loopholes that benefit the richest 1 percent and Wall Street," Ellison wrote. "Together, let's demand that our elected leaders put working families, children, and older Americans before wealthy campaign contributors and Wall Street."

By Jake Johnson