SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
"The bonuses aren't coming out of tax savings that don't hit until next year. They never had to cut labor to the bone," wrote journalist David Dayen. (Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr/cc)
Corporate America Denounced for 'Shameless' Pandering by Issuing Paltry Worker Perks After Winning Permanent Tax Cuts Worth Countless Billions
Critics say attempt by major companies to attribute worker wage boosts to a tax bill that hasn't even been signed into law is clear effort to "flatter" Trump
Dec 21, 2017
It has only been about 24 hours since Republicans in Congress passed their $1.5 trillion tax bill, and major corporations have already launched what critics are calling "shameless" PR campaigns aimed at winning President Donald Trump's favor and convincing the public that the massive windfall they're about to receive will end up in the pockets of workers.
Some major media outlets were quick to buy into the hype, despite the fact that corporate CEOs have stated publicly that extra profits will go toward further enriching shareholders, not helping workers.
In a story on Wednesday, USA Today declared that "some of the cash windfall from corporate tax cuts is already trickling down to Main Street workers," even though Trump has yet to sign the bill into law.
Trump, for his part, took to Twitter Thursday to triumphantly claim that major companies "are already making big payments to workers" thanks to the Republican tax plan, which reduces the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.
Analysts were quick to call these pronouncements into question.
Vox's Matt Yglesias pointed out that Wells Fargo--one of the first companies to claim it will boost wages because of the tax bill--had already detailed plans to raise worker pay in September, before the tax bill was even close to passage.
AT&T--which is currently battling the Trump Justice Department over its proposed merger with Time Warner--was the first company to tout its plan to "pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000" non-management workers following the tax bill's passage on Wednesday. The problem with AT&T's announcement, as Katie McDonough of Splinter News notes, is that it appears the raise will come as a result of union negotiations, not Wednesday's tax vote.
"It sure looks like AT&T is spinning a union victory into a Trump talking point," McDonough writes.
And there's another possible reason AT&T is lavishing praise on the GOP tax bill. The company "may believe that flattering the child-brained president--and publicly playing up the success of his single legislative accomplishment--will help dispel objections to their merger," McDonough writes. An AT&T spokesperson has denied that the merger dispute was a factor in the company's decision.
The massive corporate flood of announcements that kicked off Wednesday "is just the start of PR campaigns applying already-announced or determined actions to the tax bill," notes journalist David Dayen.
Highlighting the fact that the announce wage hikes amount to "pennies in a tip jar" compared to the tens of billions in stock buybacks companies are planning as a result of the GOP's tax cuts, Dayen noted that the pay increases "shows these companies had the cash all along."
"The bonuses aren't coming out of tax savings that don't hit until next year," Dayen concluded. "They never had to cut labor to the bone."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
It has only been about 24 hours since Republicans in Congress passed their $1.5 trillion tax bill, and major corporations have already launched what critics are calling "shameless" PR campaigns aimed at winning President Donald Trump's favor and convincing the public that the massive windfall they're about to receive will end up in the pockets of workers.
Some major media outlets were quick to buy into the hype, despite the fact that corporate CEOs have stated publicly that extra profits will go toward further enriching shareholders, not helping workers.
In a story on Wednesday, USA Today declared that "some of the cash windfall from corporate tax cuts is already trickling down to Main Street workers," even though Trump has yet to sign the bill into law.
Trump, for his part, took to Twitter Thursday to triumphantly claim that major companies "are already making big payments to workers" thanks to the Republican tax plan, which reduces the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.
Analysts were quick to call these pronouncements into question.
Vox's Matt Yglesias pointed out that Wells Fargo--one of the first companies to claim it will boost wages because of the tax bill--had already detailed plans to raise worker pay in September, before the tax bill was even close to passage.
AT&T--which is currently battling the Trump Justice Department over its proposed merger with Time Warner--was the first company to tout its plan to "pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000" non-management workers following the tax bill's passage on Wednesday. The problem with AT&T's announcement, as Katie McDonough of Splinter News notes, is that it appears the raise will come as a result of union negotiations, not Wednesday's tax vote.
"It sure looks like AT&T is spinning a union victory into a Trump talking point," McDonough writes.
And there's another possible reason AT&T is lavishing praise on the GOP tax bill. The company "may believe that flattering the child-brained president--and publicly playing up the success of his single legislative accomplishment--will help dispel objections to their merger," McDonough writes. An AT&T spokesperson has denied that the merger dispute was a factor in the company's decision.
The massive corporate flood of announcements that kicked off Wednesday "is just the start of PR campaigns applying already-announced or determined actions to the tax bill," notes journalist David Dayen.
Highlighting the fact that the announce wage hikes amount to "pennies in a tip jar" compared to the tens of billions in stock buybacks companies are planning as a result of the GOP's tax cuts, Dayen noted that the pay increases "shows these companies had the cash all along."
"The bonuses aren't coming out of tax savings that don't hit until next year," Dayen concluded. "They never had to cut labor to the bone."
It has only been about 24 hours since Republicans in Congress passed their $1.5 trillion tax bill, and major corporations have already launched what critics are calling "shameless" PR campaigns aimed at winning President Donald Trump's favor and convincing the public that the massive windfall they're about to receive will end up in the pockets of workers.
Some major media outlets were quick to buy into the hype, despite the fact that corporate CEOs have stated publicly that extra profits will go toward further enriching shareholders, not helping workers.
In a story on Wednesday, USA Today declared that "some of the cash windfall from corporate tax cuts is already trickling down to Main Street workers," even though Trump has yet to sign the bill into law.
Trump, for his part, took to Twitter Thursday to triumphantly claim that major companies "are already making big payments to workers" thanks to the Republican tax plan, which reduces the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.
Analysts were quick to call these pronouncements into question.
Vox's Matt Yglesias pointed out that Wells Fargo--one of the first companies to claim it will boost wages because of the tax bill--had already detailed plans to raise worker pay in September, before the tax bill was even close to passage.
AT&T--which is currently battling the Trump Justice Department over its proposed merger with Time Warner--was the first company to tout its plan to "pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000" non-management workers following the tax bill's passage on Wednesday. The problem with AT&T's announcement, as Katie McDonough of Splinter News notes, is that it appears the raise will come as a result of union negotiations, not Wednesday's tax vote.
"It sure looks like AT&T is spinning a union victory into a Trump talking point," McDonough writes.
And there's another possible reason AT&T is lavishing praise on the GOP tax bill. The company "may believe that flattering the child-brained president--and publicly playing up the success of his single legislative accomplishment--will help dispel objections to their merger," McDonough writes. An AT&T spokesperson has denied that the merger dispute was a factor in the company's decision.
The massive corporate flood of announcements that kicked off Wednesday "is just the start of PR campaigns applying already-announced or determined actions to the tax bill," notes journalist David Dayen.
Highlighting the fact that the announce wage hikes amount to "pennies in a tip jar" compared to the tens of billions in stock buybacks companies are planning as a result of the GOP's tax cuts, Dayen noted that the pay increases "shows these companies had the cash all along."
"The bonuses aren't coming out of tax savings that don't hit until next year," Dayen concluded. "They never had to cut labor to the bone."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.