The Big MAGA Murder Bill is not enough, because Republican greed is a bottomless pit. Now several conservative organizations and Republican lawmakers are preparing to ask The Cheeto for another major tax cut - this time, potentially without congressional approval. Via the Washington Post:
Trump’s tax and immigration law is projected to add more than $4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, broadly reducing tax rates while cutting spending on Medicaid and clean energy subsidies. The legislation is the culmination of years of advocacy on the right, making permanent many of the 2017 tax cuts Trump approved during his first term, and it represents one of the most expensive new laws in decades.
With that victory newly secured, conservative groups - including Americans for Tax Reform, led by anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist - are already asking the Trump administration to get behind another cut, which would drastically reduce what investors pay on their capital gains.
You remember Grover "Let's drown government in the bathtub" Norquist. As part of the Republican drive to further strip the federal government and sell it for parts, they will never stop. It's never enough, you see.
The plan rests on changing how the Treasury Department calculates those taxes.
Currently, an investor who bought stock for $1,000 in 1980 and sold it for $10,000 today would owe capital gains taxes on the increase in value of $9,000. But under the proposal pitched by Norquist and others, the calculation would start by adjusting up the value of the original purchase to account for inflation - which would reduce the amount of gain that’s taxable after selling the stock.
Although a 1992 Justice Department opinion found that such a change would require an act of Congress, Norquist and other conservatives want the Treasury Department to execute such a policy unilaterally if necessary, providing a major windfall for people selling stocks, art, businesses, homes and other assets.
One GOP senator told the Post he had spoken with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about reviving the idea. Mike "Jesus" Johnson has also been pitched on supporting such a plan in recent weeks, as advocates try to build congressional support. Because it's what Jesus would want!
