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
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn attend an event to celebrate Congress passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act with Republican members of the House and Senate on the South Lawn of the White House December 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Massive Tax Cuts for Wealthy Friends and Corporate Raiders Complete, Cohn Calls It Quits
"Cohn leaves the White House after pushing through the #GOPTaxScam that gave 83% of tax cuts to him and his friends in the wealthiest 1%. Now that he put the richest ahead of everyone else, I guess his work is done."
Mar 06, 2018
Just over two months after the Trump administration celebrated its most notable policy achievement of President Donald Trump's term--passage of massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy--the President's chief economic advisor Gary Cohn, former head of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs, announced his resignation on Tuesday.
Reportedly over an intractable dispute over a plan by Trump to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, a policy the top aide had opposed and lobbied against, Cohn's departure is both the latest exit of a senior White House official and a development met in progressive circles with a collective, "Don't let the revolving-door hit you on the way out."
Gary Cohn took a $285 million exit bonus from Goldman Sachs when he left the bank.
Wrote a tax bill that rigged the tax system in favor of the big banks as a whole.
Let's see who his next employer is.
This is the revolving door that has plagued Washington for too long.
-- Nick Scott (@ItsNickScott) March 7, 2018
"It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform," said Cohn in a statement. He didn't mention that by 2027, when the tax cuts are full implemented, how a Tax Policy Center analysis showed that 83% of the benefits of those tax cuts will go to the top 1% wealthiest of taxpayers.
Many noted that since the passage of the tax cuts in December, Cohn likely had little incentive to stay in the White House:
\u201cGary Cohn leaves the White House after pushing through the #GOPTaxScam that gave 83% of tax cuts to him and his friends in the wealthiest 1%. Now that he put the richest ahead of everyone else, I guess his work is done. \ud83e\udd37\ud83c\udffe\u200d\u2642\ufe0f https://t.co/hbSArlQxHH\u201d— Bobby L. Rush (@Bobby L. Rush) 1520378005
Other widely-shared sentiments on Twitter included:
- "Gary Cohn is an investment banker & former president & COO of Goldman Sachs. His only goal was to pass the
#GOPTaxScam. Mission accomplished." - "After destroying the economy by pushing through
#GOPTaxScam Gary Cohn now goes back to Wall Street. Isn't our revolving door great." - "Gary Cohn pushes the tax bill through to take care of his top 1% Goldman Sachs buddies. The tariffs are an excuse - he's simply cashing out."
"It is very telling that for Cohn, a registered Democrat, the final straw in leaving was not Trump's horrifying response to the Charlottesville white supremacist uber-hate fest or endless attacks on Mexicans and Muslims, but a steel trade enforcement action involving tariffs that would be 5 percent lower than the steel trade action enacted by President George W. Bush in 2002," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch.
"That Cohn is a Democrat," she continued, "did not stop him from joining the Trump administration, but that his departure would be spurred over a trade policy dispute reveals that his years on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs apparently made his one unbending principle the defense of the corporate-managed trade policies that have outsourced millions of middle class jobs and pushed down Americans wages."
As journalists Gary Rivlin and Michael Hudson detailed for The Intercept and The Nation's Investigative Fund last fall, Cohn provided his former colleagues at Goldman, and his friends on Wall Street more broadly, "everything [they] ever wanted from the Trump administration" during his time in Trump's inner circle.
While some considered Cohn at first an unlikely choice to guide the president, Rivlin and Hudson explained how the Trump economic agenda, it turned out--from privatization schemes to massive deregulation to endless corporate giveaways and tax cuts--was "largely the Goldman agenda, one with the potential to deliver any number of gifts to the firm that made Cohn colossally rich."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. 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. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Just over two months after the Trump administration celebrated its most notable policy achievement of President Donald Trump's term--passage of massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy--the President's chief economic advisor Gary Cohn, former head of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs, announced his resignation on Tuesday.
Reportedly over an intractable dispute over a plan by Trump to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, a policy the top aide had opposed and lobbied against, Cohn's departure is both the latest exit of a senior White House official and a development met in progressive circles with a collective, "Don't let the revolving-door hit you on the way out."
Gary Cohn took a $285 million exit bonus from Goldman Sachs when he left the bank.
Wrote a tax bill that rigged the tax system in favor of the big banks as a whole.
Let's see who his next employer is.
This is the revolving door that has plagued Washington for too long.
-- Nick Scott (@ItsNickScott) March 7, 2018
"It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform," said Cohn in a statement. He didn't mention that by 2027, when the tax cuts are full implemented, how a Tax Policy Center analysis showed that 83% of the benefits of those tax cuts will go to the top 1% wealthiest of taxpayers.
Many noted that since the passage of the tax cuts in December, Cohn likely had little incentive to stay in the White House:
\u201cGary Cohn leaves the White House after pushing through the #GOPTaxScam that gave 83% of tax cuts to him and his friends in the wealthiest 1%. Now that he put the richest ahead of everyone else, I guess his work is done. \ud83e\udd37\ud83c\udffe\u200d\u2642\ufe0f https://t.co/hbSArlQxHH\u201d— Bobby L. Rush (@Bobby L. Rush) 1520378005
Other widely-shared sentiments on Twitter included:
- "Gary Cohn is an investment banker & former president & COO of Goldman Sachs. His only goal was to pass the
#GOPTaxScam. Mission accomplished." - "After destroying the economy by pushing through
#GOPTaxScam Gary Cohn now goes back to Wall Street. Isn't our revolving door great." - "Gary Cohn pushes the tax bill through to take care of his top 1% Goldman Sachs buddies. The tariffs are an excuse - he's simply cashing out."
"It is very telling that for Cohn, a registered Democrat, the final straw in leaving was not Trump's horrifying response to the Charlottesville white supremacist uber-hate fest or endless attacks on Mexicans and Muslims, but a steel trade enforcement action involving tariffs that would be 5 percent lower than the steel trade action enacted by President George W. Bush in 2002," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch.
"That Cohn is a Democrat," she continued, "did not stop him from joining the Trump administration, but that his departure would be spurred over a trade policy dispute reveals that his years on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs apparently made his one unbending principle the defense of the corporate-managed trade policies that have outsourced millions of middle class jobs and pushed down Americans wages."
As journalists Gary Rivlin and Michael Hudson detailed for The Intercept and The Nation's Investigative Fund last fall, Cohn provided his former colleagues at Goldman, and his friends on Wall Street more broadly, "everything [they] ever wanted from the Trump administration" during his time in Trump's inner circle.
While some considered Cohn at first an unlikely choice to guide the president, Rivlin and Hudson explained how the Trump economic agenda, it turned out--from privatization schemes to massive deregulation to endless corporate giveaways and tax cuts--was "largely the Goldman agenda, one with the potential to deliver any number of gifts to the firm that made Cohn colossally rich."
Just over two months after the Trump administration celebrated its most notable policy achievement of President Donald Trump's term--passage of massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy--the President's chief economic advisor Gary Cohn, former head of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs, announced his resignation on Tuesday.
Reportedly over an intractable dispute over a plan by Trump to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, a policy the top aide had opposed and lobbied against, Cohn's departure is both the latest exit of a senior White House official and a development met in progressive circles with a collective, "Don't let the revolving-door hit you on the way out."
Gary Cohn took a $285 million exit bonus from Goldman Sachs when he left the bank.
Wrote a tax bill that rigged the tax system in favor of the big banks as a whole.
Let's see who his next employer is.
This is the revolving door that has plagued Washington for too long.
-- Nick Scott (@ItsNickScott) March 7, 2018
"It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform," said Cohn in a statement. He didn't mention that by 2027, when the tax cuts are full implemented, how a Tax Policy Center analysis showed that 83% of the benefits of those tax cuts will go to the top 1% wealthiest of taxpayers.
Many noted that since the passage of the tax cuts in December, Cohn likely had little incentive to stay in the White House:
\u201cGary Cohn leaves the White House after pushing through the #GOPTaxScam that gave 83% of tax cuts to him and his friends in the wealthiest 1%. Now that he put the richest ahead of everyone else, I guess his work is done. \ud83e\udd37\ud83c\udffe\u200d\u2642\ufe0f https://t.co/hbSArlQxHH\u201d— Bobby L. Rush (@Bobby L. Rush) 1520378005
Other widely-shared sentiments on Twitter included:
- "Gary Cohn is an investment banker & former president & COO of Goldman Sachs. His only goal was to pass the
#GOPTaxScam. Mission accomplished." - "After destroying the economy by pushing through
#GOPTaxScam Gary Cohn now goes back to Wall Street. Isn't our revolving door great." - "Gary Cohn pushes the tax bill through to take care of his top 1% Goldman Sachs buddies. The tariffs are an excuse - he's simply cashing out."
"It is very telling that for Cohn, a registered Democrat, the final straw in leaving was not Trump's horrifying response to the Charlottesville white supremacist uber-hate fest or endless attacks on Mexicans and Muslims, but a steel trade enforcement action involving tariffs that would be 5 percent lower than the steel trade action enacted by President George W. Bush in 2002," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch.
"That Cohn is a Democrat," she continued, "did not stop him from joining the Trump administration, but that his departure would be spurred over a trade policy dispute reveals that his years on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs apparently made his one unbending principle the defense of the corporate-managed trade policies that have outsourced millions of middle class jobs and pushed down Americans wages."
As journalists Gary Rivlin and Michael Hudson detailed for The Intercept and The Nation's Investigative Fund last fall, Cohn provided his former colleagues at Goldman, and his friends on Wall Street more broadly, "everything [they] ever wanted from the Trump administration" during his time in Trump's inner circle.
While some considered Cohn at first an unlikely choice to guide the president, Rivlin and Hudson explained how the Trump economic agenda, it turned out--from privatization schemes to massive deregulation to endless corporate giveaways and tax cuts--was "largely the Goldman agenda, one with the potential to deliver any number of gifts to the firm that made Cohn colossally rich."
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.