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national debt
King Trump and the Greedy Knights of the Business Roundtable
The nation's most powerful CEOs are lining up to fund Trump, because they and their corporations want another giant tax cut and rollbacks of regulations. It's as simple as that and there's a word for it: greed.
Jun 19, 2024
The Business Roundtable is an association of more than 200 CEOs of America’s biggest corporations, their most powerful voice in Washington.
Last Wednesday, its chair, Joshua Bolten, told reporters that his group planned to drop “eight figures” while “putting its full weight behind protecting and strengthening tax reform.”
Translated: It’s going to pour money into Trump’s campaign to ensure that Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — most of which benefit big corporations and the rich — don’t expire in 2025, as scheduled.
On Thursday, Trump met at the Business Roundtable’s Washington headquarters with over 80 CEOs, including Apple’s Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, and Walmart’s Doug McMillon.
Trump reportedly promised the CEOs he’d cut corporate taxes even further and curtail business regulations if elected president.
Trump’s 2017 tax cuts reduced the rate of corporate income taxes from 35 percent to 21 percent. That has cost the nation $1.3 trillion. Those tax cuts, along with the tax cuts put in place by George W. Bush, are the primary reason the national debt is rising as a percentage of the economy.
What have corporations done with the money they’ve saved? They haven’t invested it or used it to raise wages. Nothing has trickled down to average workers.
A large portion has gone into stock buybacks. The year after the tax cut went into effect, corporations bought back a record $1 trillion of their shares of stock. Buybacks raise stock prices — and, not incidentally, CEO compensation, which is largely in shares of stock.
Making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent—as the Business Roundtable seeks—will cost $4 trillion over the next 10 years, $400 billion per year—and cause the debt to soar.
Yet the CEOs that Trump met with last week have been thriving under Biden.
Corporate profits are way up. Stocks are at near-record levels. Inflation has plummeted. Industries like energy that appeared to be at risk from Biden’s policies are doing well.
So why are these CEOs attracted to Trump, whose antics are likely to destabilize the economy?
Is it mere ideology?
Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City (a nonprofit that represents the city’s top business leaders) relates that Republican billionaires have told her “the threat to capitalism from the Democrats is more concerning than the threat to democracy from Trump.”
In my experience, CEOs of large corporations are more practical than ideological. They’re coming around to Trump because they want even more tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks—which means even more money in their own pockets.
The Business Roundtable’s motto—“More than Leaders. Leadership”—suggests a purpose higher than making its CEOs and corporations richer.
In August 2019, the Roundtable issued a highly publicized statement expressing “a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders [emphasis in original],” including a commitment to compensating all workers “fairly and providing important benefits,” as well as “supporting the communities in which we work,” and protecting the environment “by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.”
Signed by 181 CEOs of major American corporations, the statement concluded that “each of our stakeholders is essential” and committed “to deliver value to all of them.”
The statement got a lot of favorable press. But it was rubbish. At the time, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were gaining traction in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries with their criticisms of corporate America, and the CEOs of the Roundtable were worried. They needed cover.
Then, after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, many of these CEOs announced they wouldn’t provide campaign funds to Republican members of Congress who refused to certify the 2020 election.
Now, they’re lining up to fund Trump, because they and their corporations want another giant tax cut and rollbacks of regulations.
If the Business Roundtable’s CEOs were honestly committed to all their stakeholders, they wouldn’t seek massive tax cuts.
If they cared about preserving American democracy, they wouldn’t support Trump or any Republican.
The greedy cynicism of America’s corporate elite is now on full display.
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'Time to Stiffen Our Spines,' Says Elizabeth Warren of 2025 Tax Fight With GOP
"The American people are telling us that they are ready for a tax code that promotes their values, and Democrats must be ready to deliver."
Jun 17, 2024
As congressional Republicans prepare for Donald Trump's possible White House return by plotting to expand tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy that were the cornerstone of his first term in office, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday said Democrats must be ferocious opponents of another "GOP tax scam," while also providing an alternative vision.
"It's time to stiffen our spines," said Warren in social media post. "President [Joe] Biden is right: If the 2025 tax bill doesn't call on the wealthy and giant corporations to shoulder a bigger share of what it costs to run this country. Democrats should reject it outright. No more Trump tax breaks for billionaires."
As Common Dreamsreported earlier this month, Republican lawmakers are ready and eager to ram through an expanded version of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Falsely touted by Trump as a boon to working-class families, the law was a massive windfall for corporations and the rich and added trillions of dollars to the national debt.
"Democrats have good, popular ideas about taxes. All we need is courage."
"The 2025 tax fight will create a huge opportunity to break with decades of tax-cutting political orthodoxy and reshape the tax code to reflect our nation's values by raising taxes on the wealthy," Warren (D-Mass.) said during a Monday speech at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a think tank focused on economic issues.
"But let's be crystal clear: If Democrats take the coward's way out and sign our names to a half-baked deal that lets the wealthy off the hook, it will be a huge failure—and one the American people cannot afford," added Warren, who earlier this year was a lead sponsor of the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, a bill to strengthen anti-tax evasion rules.
Watch Warren's speech:
Last month, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that extending the 2017 tax cuts would add $4.6 trillion to the national debt.
An analysis published earlier this month by Brendan Duke and Will Ragland of the Center for American Progress Action Fund concluded that the GOP's proposed tax cut expansion would exceed the size of the federal K-12 budget for the current fiscal year.
Adding insult to injury, major corporations have funneled their tax cut windfalls into share buybacks, further enriching corporate executives and wealthy shareholders even as worker pay stagnates or even decreases and layoffs accelerate, as Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, noted during a Senate Budget Committee hearing last week.
Polls show Americans across the political spectrum favor raising taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals.
"The American people are telling us that they are ready for a tax code that promotes their values, and Democrats must be ready to deliver," Warren asserted during Monday's speech.
"Democrats have good, popular ideas about taxes. All we need is courage," she added. "Courage to shake off a century of running for the hills every time the subject of taxes comes up. Courage to stand up to billionaires and corporate donors. Courage to say to the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country: Pay up."
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Protect Social Security by Dumping GOP 'Death Panel,' Say 116 House Dems
"We cannot allow House Republicans to ram through their closed-door commission that is designed to fast-track cuts to the benefits hardworking Americans rely on," asserted Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr.
Jan 12, 2024
Decrying Republican plans for "ripping away Social Security from seniors behind closed doors" via a so-called fiscal commission, more than half of U.S. House Democrats on Thursday urged congressional leaders to scrap plans to fast-track the controversial panel.
Fiscal commission legislation being considered by the House Budget Committee "would create a process in which legislating would be done by a small group of individuals behind closed doors" to pass a law "that cuts benefits and calls for an up-or-down vote without hearings, and that is unamendable," 116 House Democrats led by Reps. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
The lawmakers continued:
There is no shortage of legislation that will improve the fiscal standing of the United States while directly benefiting the public. Democratic proposals include legislation that would extend Social Security's solvency for another generation while expanding benefits the American people rely on—benefits that haven't been expanded in more than 50 years. It is Congress' responsibility to conduct the oversight and recommend enhancements to solvency or cuts, and it should be done in the open and not behind closed doors.
In a statement, Larson said that "we cannot allow House Republicans to ram through their closed-door commission that is designed to fast-track cuts to the benefits hardworking Americans rely on, like Social Security."
"If they want to have debates about policy that directly impacts the lives and livelihoods of Americans families, we should have these discussions out in the open for our constituents to see and be a part of," he added.
While House Republicans claim the purpose of the proposed fiscal commission is to control the $34 trillion national debt, Democrats have expressed skepticism regarding their true intentions, noting that GOP lawmakers have dramatically increased the debt via tax cuts for corporations and rich Americans in recent years.
In November, House Republicans proposed cuts to Internal Revenue Service funding that would slash federal revenue by $27 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. A 2023 analysis by the Center for American Progress found that tax cuts approved during the George W. Bush and Trump administration have added $10 trillion to the national debt this century.
Social Security, meanwhile, does not add to the long-term federal deficit because the program is required by law to pay benefits from an internal trust fund and is prohibited from borrowing.
"Republicans are not serious about the deficit. They are not even serious about governing. They are serious about only one thing, and that is ripping away Social Security from seniors behind closed doors," said Schakowsky. "A so-called fiscal commission would fast-track cuts to vital benefits Americans rely on."
"Social Security benefits are already modest—only about $21,384 a year, yet Republicans want to put these hard-earned benefits at risk," she added. "We must expand Social Security benefits, not cut them."
"Republicans are not serious about the deficit. They are not even serious about governing. They are serious about only one thing, and that is ripping away Social Security from seniors behind closed doors."
Republican presidential candidates have openly expressed willingness to slash Social Security, a stance still viewed as the deadly "third rail" of U.S. politics. While GOP front-runner and former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have attacked rival Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, for openly advocating slashing the program and raising the retirement age, Trump told the World Economic Forum in 2020 that he would consider cutting benefits "at some point," while DeSantis said he would "revamp" Social Security.
Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.), who signed the letter, called Social Security "one of America's great success stories."
"It stands as a monument to decency and dignity, and is a birthright of hardworking Americans, yet it has been under attack," Pascrell said on the House floor Wednesday night. "The Republican Study Committee proposed slashing Social Security benefits by $718 billion and the GOP leadership wants to create a so-called 'fiscal commission'—a wolf in sheep's clothing."
Other critics have likened Republicans' proposed fiscal commission to a "death panel." The proposal is deeply unpopular, with more than 80% of U.S. voters opposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Advocates applauded House Democrats for standing against the proposal.
"They recognize it for what it is—a scheme to slash Social Security behind closed doors," Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy group Social Security Works, told Common Dreams.
"Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate should make it clear that a commission is a poison pill, something they will never accept under any circumstances," Altman continued. "Social Security and Medicare are earned benefits. They should never be negotiating chips."
"Instead of a closed door commission, the House should hold an up or down vote on the Social Security 2100 Act," she added. "This legislation increases Social Security's modest benefits and ensures the expanded benefits can be paid in full and on time for decades to come."
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)—the nation's largest federal workers' union—said in a statement that "a fiscal commission would give a small group of lawmakers and nonelected individuals enormous power to recommend cuts to Social Security and other popular programs without any ability for the public to weigh in."
"If Congress is serious about preserving Social Security, Medicare, and similar programs for future generations, then it needs to have an honest discussion about how to do that—not pawn off these decisions to a secret group behind closed doors," Kelley continued.
"With just a week before government funding runs out for various departments including Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, [Housing and Urban Development], and Transportation, Congress should focus on passing full-year funding for these and other government programs instead of trying to pawn off its tough decisions to an exclusive commission," he added.
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