Fox News’ “business block” today began with a full-out cheering section for Donald Trump to cut corporate and personal taxes and, while he’s at it, one pundit demanded cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Host Dagen McDowell began the first "Cost of Freedom" show by “asking” if Trump should “slash” both personal and corporate taxes “at the same time.”
Guest Gary B. Smith said, “It should be number one priority.” Smith argued that cutting personal taxes is about “fairness,” as in, “Let the individual keep their money and better spend it, rather than on the Solyndras and on the Amtraks and all the other silly government projects out there.” Apparently, if you want to take a train as public transportation, you should just wait for a billionaire to build a private one and hope that it stops near you and has an affordable fare.
Not that anyone on the panel complained. McDowell enthused, “If you cut individual taxes, in addition to corporate taxes, that flows to small corporations, small companies who are taxed at those very individual rates.”
McDowell continued, “Why not do both? Why not do corporate and individual and just tackle it? To quote President Obama in reference to President Trump, what did Obama say? ‘I won.’ Well, not only did Donald Trump win, but the Republicans won. So why not use your political capital?”
Jessica Tarlov, “Democratic strategist,” didn’t point out that Trump’s tax cuts favor the ultra-rich. Instead, she signaled that she’s on board the Trump train, just with a different schedule. She argued we should “pace through this and do the corporate tax cut first and then go to personal income taxes.” She added that the money that will (supposedly) be repatriated would be “kind of a sweetener to Democrats who could use some money for infrastructure.”
“You should go for it if he can,” Tarlov added. “It is important to keep some Democrat friends.” It wasn’t until later that she pointed out that Trump’s plan “is appraised at adding $5.3 trillion to the debt.” According to the Tax Policy Center, Trump’s plan would reduce revenues by almost $10 trillion over the first decade and “increase the national debt by nearly 80 percent of gross domestic product by 2036, offsetting some or all of the incentive effects of the tax cuts.”
“Why not do all three and cut the federal gas tax?” guest Jonas Max Ferris said. But he did note that corporations do not actually pay the corporate tax rate.
Smith, the Amtrak hater, chimed in to call infrastructure spending “a boondoggle.” He seemed to think the same of our social safety nets. “Why can’t we cut things like Social Security? Why can’t we cut the billions wasted in Medicare?” he asked.
Watch it above, from the November 19, 2016 Bulls & Bears.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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