Falling investment revives attacks against Trump’s tax cuts – By Niv Elis (The Hill) / Nov 10 2019
The GOP tax law passed in 2017 was supposed to super charge the economy, but the lack of major impact is spurring critics to renew their attacks against the signature measure from President Trump.
Republicans said the tax law would help the economy through several avenues, including by sending business investment soaring. But just 15 months after it took effect, business investment has actually been contracting, falling 1 percent and 3 percent in the past two quarters.
Republicans who supported the tax law are blaming Trump’s trade war with China as the reason why it failed to have the intended impact.
Critics, however, say it reflects a broader misjudgment about how the tax law was structured.
“Donald Trump and Republicans justified their massive giveaway to wealthy multinational corporations by claiming that it would boost investment and the benefits would trickle down to workers,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.
“Two years later, none of their promises have been fulfilled. Investment is flat and workers have not seen the wage increases they were promised,” he added.
Slashing the corporate tax rate and restructuring the tax code, supporters said, would incentivize businesses to invest their money back into the U.S. economy, buying up equipment, buildings and software to accommodate more workers and make them more productive
Lowering income taxes, they argued, would also leave Americans with more money to spend, providing an economic stimulus.
Continue to article: https://thehill.com/policy/finance/469708-falling-investment-revives-attacks-against-trumps-tax-cuts
