On Tax Day, Still 'No Evidence' Trump Tax Cuts Are Trickling Down to Workers

Wall Street banks, pharmaceutical companies, and corporate CEOs have a lot to celebrate on Tax Day thanks to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

The vast majority of workers, not so much.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, most U.S. workers have seen little to no benefit from the GOP's $1.5 trillion Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

"Trump promised that corporations would use their tax cuts to give working families a $4,000 pay raise. It's Tax Day 2019... Did you get that $4,000?"
--Americans for Tax Fairness

"It's Tax Day again, and there's still no reason to believe the Republicans' corporate tax cuts are doing anything for working people," Hunter Blair, a budget researcher with EPI, wrote in an analysis Monday. "With a year's worth of data in, the story remains the same--there's no evidence the corporate tax cuts in the TCJA have trickled down to workers."

"The TCJA is set to exacerbate decades of rising economic inequality," said Blair. "The bill blew apart the individual and corporate tax codes with egregious new loopholes tailor made for the rich and big corporations."

"And the data offers no reason to think any of this will start trickling down to typical workers," Blair added.

Lawrence Mishel, a distinguished fellow at EPI, added in a blog post Monday that the average worker bonus in 2018 "was just $0.01 higher than in 2017."

"This is not what the tax cutters promised, or bragged about soon after the tax bill passed," wrote Mishel. "They claimed that their bill would raise the wages of rank-and-file workers, with congressional Republicans and members of the Trump administration promising raises of many thousands of dollars within 10 years."

"The White House contention that corporate tax cut-inspired widespread provision of bonuses that led to greater paychecks through bonuses or wage increases for workers is not supported by the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data," Mishel concluded.

EPI's assessment of the tax law comes as Trump is set to embark on a week-long tour to tout his signature legislative achievement, which polls show is still extremely unpopular.

"As Americans rush Monday to finish up their own taxes, their judgment on Trump's beloved tax cut bill is pretty clear: Most really don't like it," Politico reported Monday. "A Pew Research Center survey conducted last month found that 36 percent of Americans approve of the tax cut law while 49 percent disapprove. Even the number of Republicans who strongly approve of the law dipped in the latest Pew survey."

"One reason many Americans don't feel the tax cut: The most dramatic benefit was aimed at slashing the corporate tax rate," Politico added.

As Common Dreams reported last Thursday, the number of big companies that paid nothing in federal taxes doubled in 2018 thanks to the tax law, which slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

On Twitter, progressive advocacy groups used Tax Day to highlight the extent to which the Republican law has rewarded the ultra-rich and massive corporations, while leaving most workers with crumbs.

According to a Hill-HarrisX poll released Monday, just 18 percent of Americans say they are paying less in taxes under Trump's law.

Patriotic Millionaires--a group of rich Americans that launched a campaign last week calling for higher taxes on the wealthy--added, "If you're curious where the promised $4,000 raise from the GOP tax cut went, look no further than the bank accounts of the wealthiest Americans."

"It wasn't a middle class tax cut," the group concluded, "it was a scam."