I & I Editorial BoardOur contributor Bob Maistros noticed something yesterday that is worth repeating again and again.
In the debate over tariffs, Maistros observed, Trump has gotten Democrats to make “an earthshaking, gobsmacking concession to common sense that cries out to be capitalized on.”
To wit: that corporate taxes aren’t paid by corporations – they are ultimately passed down to employees and customers in the form of lower wages and higher prices.
No matter what you think about Trump’s tariffs, winning this concession from Democrats must be celebrated.
See: As The PPI Meets TDS, The Left Flings Open The Door For Smarter Taxation
Let’s back up a minute and provide some context.
How many times have you heard Democrats talk about “corporate tax giveaways”? You know, things such as:
- “Trump Plans a Supersized Tax Giveaway for Corporations”
- “Trump and MAGA Republicans Want to Give Big Corporations Another Tax Handout”
- “The Republican Tax Plan Is STILL a Giveaway to Corporations”
For decades, Democrats have insisted that if you raise taxes on companies, they will just pay them out of some hidden pot of money, and a Pew study finds that 85% of Democrats say corporate taxes should be increased.
Yet, when Trump takes actions to impose tariffs — which are nothing more than a tax on imports — suddenly, Democrats are screaming bloody murder, saying that companies will simply pass those costs down to workers and customers.
Thus, the same Sen. Bernie Sanders who once called it “an outrage that many large, profitable corporations continue to pay little to nothing in federal income taxes,” is now screaming that Trump’s tariffs “are an absolute disaster that will cause unnecessary economic pain to farmers, manufacturers, and consumers in Vermont and throughout the country.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer described Trump’s lowering the corporate tax rate in 2017 – from 35% down to 21% – as “giveaways that will benefit wealthy shareholders – not middle-class wages or job creation.”
Now Schumer is claiming that by raising tariffs, Trump has “raised costs for families, crushed small businesses, and stunted investment.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi once said Trump’s 2017 tax cuts would have “ruinous consequences for workers and middle-class families” and that “hard-working people lose while the wealthiest and corporate America will be handed a multi-trillion dollar giveaway in tax breaks.”
But raise corporate taxes in the form of tariffs?
“Make no mistake,” Pelosi now shrieks, “President Trump’s senseless tariffs will drive prices higher, drain retirement savings, and push us to the brink of recession.”
What’s even more interesting is that, while Sanders, Schumer, Pelosi, and the rest of the Democratic Party are eager to raise taxes on American companies, they are decrying tariff taxes, which are paid, at least in part, by foreign companies!
Whether intentional or not, Democrats are now on record saying corporate taxes are bad for workers and families, that they inflate prices, and that they hurt the economy.
To which we say, Amen!
Now that we all agree that both tariffs and corporate taxes hurt American families, let’s start cutting them both!
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
My guess is that since the Democrats admitted the truth, their next outrage will be that corporations are allowed to deduct wages and salaries from their profits before paying taxes.
Someone mention Pelosi?
Why has she not been accused, tried and sent to jail for her colossal abuses of the Speakers office and of our constitution, initiating her two unconstitutional impeachments, her insane and unAmerican J6 Committee and her endlessly abusive arrogance, and peevish school girl behavior such as tearing up the State of the Union Address on international TV? Not too late to start her well deserved path to jail.
“Now that we all agree that both tariffs and corporate taxes hurt American families, let’s start cutting them both!”
You have absolutely no proof that tariffs hurt the economy. None. It is just an opinion some economists have based on their “theories” (most of which seem to be pulled out of their nether regions). You have no proof that tariffs create inflation. It doesn’t exist outside some “economists” opinion. And it is nothing more than an opinion because economics is not a science. And it most cases it is little more than junk-science, especially as it is being used by the media today.
Our economy seems to be doing just fine, in spite of the tariffs you keep screaming about. What roils the markets aren’t the tariffs but the lying media, that would be you in this case, and the far-left injunctions being used against everything Trump does no matter what!
Stop repeating leftist BS. You just spout the same nonsense with no proof.