Treasury Department Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his department is currently reviewing whether it can give out a $100 billion tax cut to the wealthy without congressional approval, according to The New York Times.
The Treasury Department is looking at adjusting capital gains taxes — primarily paid by the uber wealthy — to account for inflation, Mnuchin told the Times. The measure was not included in the $1.5 trillion tax cut Congress passed and Trump signed into law last year. This tax cut would benefit the top 10 percent of earners in the U.S., according to the Times.
Mnuchin said he had not yet determined if his department had the jurisdiction to act without Congress.
“If it can’t get done through a legislation process, we will look at what tools at Treasury we have to do it on our own and we’ll consider that,” Mnuchin told the Times. “We are studying that internally, and we are also studying the economic costs and the impact on growth.”
Read the Times’ full piece here.
Has any government anywhere ever indexed capital gains on equities or bonds to inflation? That’s really a game changer in the US. Lots of bonds would be pretty much tax free. And the bond market is huge compared to the stock market.
They have now dropped all pretense that “tax cuts” = good for the economy or good for creating jobs. It’s almost as if they are racing to give Trump one undeniable record to hold among all presidents - The first one to Bankrupt the United States.
Why don’t they just reinstate a Medieval style feudal society and get it over with already.
Will Mitch and Paul take the opportunity to assert the power of the co-equal branch of government that they lead and slap this down with a veto-proof majority? Nah, I didn’t think so either. Have we gotten any concerned looks and/or a sternly worded press release yet?
An unvoted-on hundred-billion dollar tax cut on capital gains. The Democrats are playing bongo drums and drinking tequila right now in sheer joy that they’re even thinking about it. There’s not a single mainstream commentator who wouldn’t react to this with disgusted contempt. This is a pure mob-style bust-out where you take everything of value from a business and then burn it the fuck down for the insurance money. No difference whatsoever. Just astonishing brazenness.