Corporations could invest that money in new ventures, new factories and new jobs. But precious few will. Here is what Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan said he would do with the extra cash: increase dividends and share buybacks. When corporations buy back shares, stock value rises and CEO pay with it.
During a forum for CEOs in November, a Wall Street Journal editor asked how many would invest their tax breaks. Almost no one raised a hand. Corporations already are hauling in record profits, and they're not investing. They're handing the cash to the already-rich -- shareholders and corporate executives. Just like Republicans did in their tax bill.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on your troubles will be out of sight
Well, if you're rich, that is. Troubles are just starting for the rest of us.
That's because this tax bill is worse than NAFTA in promoting offshoring. As it is now, corporations are charged the 35 percent tax rate on profits whether they are made at U.S. factories or overseas plants. But the new tax bill virtually eliminates the charge on overseas operations. The result is that a corporation will pay four times more taxes if it locates its big new factory in the United States than if it puts the plant overseas. That creates a perverse incentive to move even more jobs offshore.
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
And a Happy New Year.
Hope that New Year doesn't include a pink slip because your CEO decides to ship your factory to China.
But there's likely to be some bad news anyway. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has said he intends to "reform" Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security next year to help pay down that $1.45 trillion he just added to the national debt with his tax breaks for the rich and corporations.
Republican "reform" always means pain for working people -- like raising the age at which a worker would qualify to collect Social Security and Medicare. And like cutting Medicaid funding so grandma can't stay in the nursing home and the kid next door can't get into treatment for heroin addiction.
The GOP really is the Grinch that stole Christmas. Republicans filched it and handed it to the wealthiest 1 percent -- that is households worth at least $26.4 million. Unlike the Dr. Seuss story, this Grinch isn't going to find a heart or the spirit of Christmas future or whatever it takes to stop robbing workers and the poor.
You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch
You're the king of sinful sots
Your heart's a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots, Mr. Grinch
Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful
Assortment of rubbish imaginable mangled up in tangled up knots!
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