The National Association of Business Economics' (NABE) quarterly business conditions poll found that while some companies reported increased investments due to lower corporate taxes, 84 percent of respondents said they did not change hiring or investment plans.
Kevin Swift, NABE President and chief economist at the American Chemistry Council, said:
"Fewer firms increased capital spending compared to the October survey responses, but the cutback appeared to be concentrated more in structures than in information and communication technology investments."
According to Bloomberg, instead of the higher wages the GOP guaranteed, actual average hourly compensation fell in the first quarter after the tax law was passed.
An indication of how effective the tax breaks are is how much businesses are spending, because, theoretically, when corporations have more money, so do their workers.
But that is not the case.
Instead, stock buybacks appear to be soaring. Since the tax cuts passed, businesses have been using their additional capital to pay off shareholders not employeesto the tune of more than $700 billion.
CEOs are actually coming right out and admitting they will not increase employee pay.
Troy Taylor, CEO of Florida's Coca-Cola franchise, for example, said at the Dallas Fed:
"It's [increasing employees' salaries] just not going to happen. Absolutely not in my business."
Not only are CEOs brazen enough to concede their greed; they are overtly working to "reduce their work forces further."
The tax overhaul will add $1.5 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.
By 2049, consistently high deficits will force public federal debt to 93 percent of the economy, the highest level since just after World War Two.
Former President Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary Jack Lew argues the tax cuts could "leave us broke," and he fears how the deep cuts to social safety programs could blight our country for decades.
He said in a Bloomberg interview:
"I fear that the next shoe to drop is going to be an attack on the most vulnerable in our society. How are we going to pay for the deficit caused by the tax cut? You're going to see proposals to cut health insurance from poor people, to take basic food support away from poor people, to attack Medicare and Social Security. One could not have made up a more cynical strategy."
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