Photo: newsweek.com
The latest reports show that Corporate Executives, and Congressional GOP Leaders misrepresented to us the benefits of the Tax Cut Bill – capital spending has gone down, wages have stagnated and stock buybacks have hit $1 trillion. So much for stimulating the economy, raising wages and making capital improvements.
The latest report from the Richmond Federal Reserve shows capital expenditures falling:
Sources: Federal Reserve – Richmond, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Shot – 5/23/18
Other regions in the US show similar falloffs. While some jobs and regions are showing increases in wages in our Heartland they were lagging and still lag at 2 % wage growth vs 8% nationally:
Sources: US Bureau of Economic Analysis, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Shot – 5/22/18
Today, corporate executives are doing a good job of juicing the price of their company stock with stock buyback funds that could be invested in increasing productivity, raising worker wages, reducing the price of their products and services or increasing job and career training. Corporate stock buybacks have hit a new all-time high with repatriated funds from overseas at steep tax discounts and tax bill operating income reductions to $1 trillion!
Sources: Standard and Poors, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Shot – 5/22/18
Donors told our elected representatives ‘not to call’ unless they got a tax bill done – which of course 80 % of the benefits went to them not the people. The top 1 % wealthy class has control of the key levers of government – our elected representatives by providing hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions which corrupt their representation of us.
Next Steps:
We need to win back control of Congress to set the right priorities for taxes that are fair for all not just a gift to the rich.
In congressional primaries across the country many women and progressives are winning in districts where Democrats did not run or corporate controlled Democrats held seats for years. In Pennsylvania, seven women won primaries from the suburbs of Philadelphia to the rural conservative regions of the southwest. Democrats are focusing on small donor funding to bring representative power back to the people.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Shot – 5/23/18
Plus, Democrats are beating the GOP in the funding race by appealing to the people again, some are renouncing PACs as Sen. Kamala Harris of California has done, others will follow. The mid-term election is crucial to win back the House and maybe the Senate and put an end to the oligarchy running our government.