With the Wuhan coronavirus wreaking havoc to the U.S. economy, the Trump White House put together a $2 trillion relief package that was needlessly derailed by politics, thanks to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. You remember the theatrics. Senate Democrats and Republicans had a bipartisan package after working through the week and weekend. On March 21, it was pretty much a done deal and then Pelosi, who had taken the week off, decided to announce that House Democrats would put forward their own relief bill, killing the Senate package. The markets tanked, which is what Democrats wanted to do. The House relief bill was trash, loaded with left-wing goodies and voting rights provisions that had nothing to do with helping American businesses and workers afflicted by the Wuhan virus outbreak. And after all of this, the package that was passed was not all that much different from the one that was unnecessarily nuked by sore-loser Democrats who still cannot get over the 2016 election.
Pelosi is still trying to play politics during this crisis. Yet, while she does that, she's also trying to give the core of the Democratic Party relief as well: millionaires. Yeah, only a moron believes that the Democratic Party is the party of the working man, the working poor, or the little guy. A large slice of the House Democratic majority hail from California, Massachusetts, and New York—that's where a lot of rich Democrats live. You have to give these "poor" people relief, right? For a party that bashes the rich, Trump and GOP for not being for working families, the Democratic Party sure likes to make maneuvers to ensure millionaires can collect their benefits too (via NYT):
“More than half the benefits of such an effort would go to millionaires.” https://t.co/kZuQOZBKgn
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) March 31, 2020
If you support eliminating the SALT Cap -- a $620 billion tax cut of which:
— Brian Riedl ?? (@Brian_Riedl) March 31, 2020
--56% would go to the richest top 1%, and
--96% to the richest 20%,
Then you deserve to be mocked every time you yell "tax the rich" ever again. https://t.co/SA2fJcQIjC
As lawmakers prepare for another round of fiscal stimulus to address economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested the next package include a retroactive rollback of a tax change that hurt high earners in states like New York and California.
A full rollback of the limit on the state and local tax deduction, or SALT, would provide a quick cash infusion in the form of increased tax rebates to an estimated 13 million American households — nearly all of which earn at least $100,000 a year.
[…]
In the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats wielded the SALT limits in House campaigns against Republicans in wealthy blue-state suburbs of cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Democrats voted last year to repeal the cap, but the effort died in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Republicans called the effort hypocritical, saying that it would primarily benefit wealthy households in high-tax states. Democrats had roundly denounced the 2017 law, which included rate cuts for businesses and individuals, as a handout to the rich. But the SALT deduction overwhelmingly benefits high earners.
The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated last year that a full repeal of the SALT limit for 2019 alone would reduce federal revenues by about $77 billion. Americans earning $1 million a year or more would collectively reap $40 billion of those benefits. Most of the rest would go to households earning $200,000 or more.
That is a contrast with the bill Mr. Trump signed on Friday, which began to phase out direct payments for households earning $150,000 or more.
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Oh, yes, we have limousine liberals going for a joy ride here. Also, you can totally see why a supporter of Bernie Sanders wouldn't vote for anyone else but him in an election, because, if you're a die-hard progressive revolutionary, why would you back anyone who votes for a SALT rollback? You can also bet that if this is taken for a spin and makes its way to the Senate, Sanders will and should block it if he is truly a left-wing revolutionary. Who is hurting more? Small businesses and workers impacted by the Wuhan outbreak…or millionaires? Do they really need their projected $40 billion in benefits now? Do they?
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