Tax Cuts...Again?

The Trump Administration is proposing another Republican tax cut. And those tax cuts, like the Regan and Bush tax cuts before them, are slated to disproportionately aid the wealthy. Not withstanding Gary Cohn's lie that the wealthy won't benefit from the Trump Tax Plan () the Trump tax cuts appear to give:

• 50% of the net tax cuts to the top 1% of households, those that earn over $700,000 annually
• 30% of the net tax cuts to the top 0.1% of households, those that earn over $3.8 million annually

(based on an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities).

The plan has some special benefits for special households:

• Pass-through income would get a special 25% rate. Pass through income is income from partnerships, S corporations, and sole proprietorships that business owners claim as their personal income. This includes hedge funds, real estate developers and law firms exempt from corporate tax rates and taxes on dividends. 79% of the benefits of this tax cut would flow to filers with income over $1 million.The 400 households with the top income would each receive a cut of $5.5 million.
• Only the wealthiest 0.2% of estates pay the estate tax. The first $5.9 million ($11 million for a couple) is already exempt from taxation. 
• Most economists conclude that cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% would mainly benefit stockholders, who would receive stock buy-backs and dividends, rather than workers receiving wage increases or consumers receiving lower prices.
• The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) was designed to ensure that the wealthiest individuals that benefitted from inordinate deductions would have to pay a minimum amount of taxes. Ending the AMT (rather than updating its provisions) will allow the wealthy to game the system and avoid taxes.

In total, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimate that the top 1% of households would receive 50% of the tax cuts or about $150,000 each, while the top 0.1% of households would receive 30% of the tax cuts or about $800,000 per year.

Perhaps Gary Cohn thinks that you need to be above the top 0.1% to be wealthy, i.e. make more than $3.8 million per year? What would you expect from a former Goldman Sachs exec?