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tax cuts
GOP Showered Big Corporations With Tax Breaks. They Returned the Favor With Campaign Cash
"Republicans in Congress sold out many of their own constituents to help corporations get even richer," said the campaign director of Unrig Our Economy.
Jul 03, 2026
Major American corporations that benefited from tax cuts enacted last year by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are donating to the campaigns of GOP lawmakers who made the windfall possible.
A report published Friday by Unrig Our Economy spotlights seven House Republicans who voted for the sprawling and unpopular GOP budget package, which extended tax breaks for corporations and wealthy Americans while inflicting unprecedented cuts on Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance—with disastrous consequences for millions of low-income families across the country.
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), one of the lawmakers featured in the new report, has received campaign donations from corporate PACs representing 3M, Amazon, Walmart, AT&T, and other companies that collectively received billions of dollars in tax breaks from the Republican law, which restored a provision allowing businesses to immediately write off new investments.
Amazon saw its US income taxes fall by more than half last year due to the GOP law, even as the company's profits grew. Unrig Our Economy noted that Amazon, whose PAC donated thousands to the Republicans spotlighted in the new report, has an effective federal tax rate of 1.37% following enactment of the budget law.
Miller-Meeks, who has received at least $57,000 in donations from the PACs of companies that benefited from the 2025 law, issued a statement Thursday bragging about supporting "the largest tax cuts in American history," not mentioning that the benefits will disproportionately flow to profitable corporations and the richest people in the country.
"Thanks to the Republican tax law, corporations are receiving tax breaks, House Republicans are getting campaign cash, and working families are getting stuck with the bill," the report states.
Another Republican lawmaker featured in the report, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania, received $2,500 in campaign donations from the PAC of FirstEnergy, which reaped $500 million in depreciation deductions thanks to the GOP tax law.
"Bresnahan voted to give FirstEnergy hundreds of millions in tax breaks even after the company raised utility prices for his constituents," Unrig Our Economy's report observes.
The report also points out that Bresnahan "owned stock in every single one" of the companies who contributed PAC money to his campaign following passage of the Republican budget package last summer.
"This comes after Bresnahan has already faced scrutiny for dumping stock in Medicaid providers and selling off bonds in Pennsylvania hospitals before voting to slash Medicaid and put rural hospitals at risk," the report notes.
Leor Tal, Unrig Our Economy's campaign director, said in a statement that "one year ago, House Republicans ripped away healthcare and food assistance from millions of Americans, so that corporations could get massive tax breaks."
"Now, many of those companies are dishing out PAC money to the Republicans listed in this report," said Tal. "Republicans in Congress sold out many of their own constituents to help corporations get even richer. It’s time that House Republicans step up, do the right thing, and start fighting for working Americans—not giant corporations."
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Trump Continues to Falsely Claim He Eliminated Taxes on Social Security
The mainstream media need to highlight this deception.
May 05, 2026
At a campaign-like rally at The Villages, a retirement community near Orlando, Florida, President Donald Trump continued his campaign of deception about his record on Social Security. As he has many times in the last several months, Trump falsely claimed that his “One Big Beautiful Bill” eliminated taxes. This time however Trump took his campaign of deception to a higher level. The background for Trump included the words “Golden Age for Your Golden Years” and “No Tax on Social Security.”
Unfortunately, many in the mainstream media simply ignore Trump’s continued falsehoods on Social Security. Let’s look at the facts. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” did not eliminate taxes on Social Security. Indeed, the legislative process, “reconciliation,” which the Republicans used to pass the legislation, prohibits these types of changes in Social Security.
Rather than eliminate taxes on Social Security, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” according to CNN included some temporary tax cuts for certain Social Security beneficiaries:
Instead [of eliminating taxes on Social Security], the legislation will provide senior citizens with a $6,000 boost to their standard deduction from 2025 through 2028. The benefit will start to phase out for individuals with incomes of more than $75,000 and married couples with incomes of more than $150,000.Trump, GOP lawmakers, and administration officials have repeatedly claimed the package eliminates taxes on Social Security benefits. But that is not in the legislation, and the enhanced deduction would not be available to everyone who receives monthly payments from the agency—like people who elect to start receiving benefits at 62 but who are not yet 65.
The Bipartisan Policy Center points out that the Social Security changes in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” will not help lower-income older Americans:
The additional $6,000 tax deduction for seniors will not benefit households with taxable income below the enhanced standard deduction. Because Social Security benefits—a major source of income for older Americans—are not counted in taxable income (see below) for approximately half of beneficiaries (and only partially counted in taxable income for the other half), the increased standard deduction in OBBB means that many older Americans with low income will not receive any benefit from the additional deduction.
While the benefits of the Social Security changes in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” have been grossly overestimated, not nearly enough attention has been focused on the damage it did to the Social Security program. The fact is that the bill increased Social Security’s fiscal problems. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reported last year that:
The Social Security and Medicare Trustees estimated in their 2025 annual reports on the programs that the retirement and hospital trust funds will become insolvent in 2033—only eight years from today. We estimate the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) would accelerate Social Security and Medicare insolvency by a year, to 2032. That’s when today’s 60-year-olds reach the full retirement age and when today’s youngest retirees turn 69.
Social Security can be a difficult topic to cover. However, it is the federal program that impacts the most Americans. Literally millions of Americans depend on the program. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), “Among Social Security beneficiaries age 65 and older, 39% of men and 44% of women receive 50% or more of their income from Social Security. and 12% of men and 15% of women rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income.”
I understand the mainstream media’s reluctance to continually report on Trump’s continued falsehoods about Social Security. However, the media has an obligation to call out Trump when he gets it wrong on Social Security. Millions of older Americans and their families are counting on the media to hold Trump accountable. As citizens, we have an obligation to hold our elected officials accountable as well.
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Not a Penny More for ICE, Wars, or Billionaires—Fund Communities Instead
Immigrant families want what all families want: safety, health, and opportunities. The federal budget puts these at risk for our families—and yours, too.
Apr 22, 2026
Like all parents, I want the best for my children and my family. But sometimes policymakers make that more difficult.
My family is among the millions hurt by the federal government's cuts to essential services and healthcare. Due to laws passed by congressional Republicans, my children and I have lost our healthcare.
At the same time, we’ve been criminalized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), even though members of my family are US citizens and we are law-abiding. We’ve learned that doesn’t matter—especially if your skin is brown and you speak a language other than English.
We live in the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. Our city has a critical, locally funded assistance program called DC HealthCare Alliance. Both of our children have autism, and they’ve been receiving necessary care through the Health Services for Children with Special Needs (HSCSN) program.
We all need to be united as human beings—no matter where we were born or what language we speak. Human rights, not cruel partisan politics, are our common thread.
These programs are vital for their care—since I have to stay home with them, we count on my husband’s modest income to make ends meet. I also have an eye disease, and coverage through the DC Healthcare Alliance is essential for my glasses and treatment.
But due to the cuts in the GOP’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” and Congress’ drastic cuts to DC’s annual budget, I received a letter stating that my autistic children’s access to 24/7 emergency care has been cut, among other restrictions. I also received notification that I am no longer eligible for medical assistance from the Health Alliance.
This is warfare on our livelihoods. And for what?
We simply want what all families want—love, safety, health, and opportunities for our kids. Yet my taxpayer dollars—and yours—are being taken away from support for families and communities and put straight into the pockets of billionaires and ICE. Those masked ICE agents then prowl our schools, hospitals, and churches; break into our cars and homes without a judicial warrant; and use our small children as bait to abduct us.
The US hides the truth about how countries in Latin America become destabilized. Throughout the 1980s, the US government aided state terrorists in killing our people and installing thugs beholden to corporate interests instead of the well-being of their people. Yet now we see the same thing here in a country where many of us sought refuge.
I have not stood by while all these harms are being done to my family and neighbors—I’ve become a community leader. With the training from organizations like Spaces in Action and Popular Democracy, I host fundraisers to help house, feed, and clothe families who are too scared to leave their homes to work. We make homegoods to raise money to keep our children healthy.
We all need to be united as human beings—no matter where we were born or what language we speak. Human rights, not cruel partisan politics, are our common thread.
As the administration and their allies in Congress demand yet more money for ICE, my community stands with the courageous people of Minneapolis and all others who’ve stood up for the neighbors in the face of these cruel attacks. We stand with the families of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and all the innocents who have suffered and died at the hands of ICE.
Join us in calling for not a penny more to ICE, or billionaires, or illegal wars. Instead, invest our taxpayer dollars in our families, communities, and common humanity.
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This Tax Season Proved 'No Tax on Tips' Was Never for Workers
Cutting taxes on some tips for some workers is not a solution. Raising wages—and ending the subminimum wage—is.
Apr 18, 2026
During the election, Donald Trump boasted about lowering taxes for working Americans with his “no tax on tips” plan. This tax season, millions of Americans found out it was a scam.
You have to earn money for tax cuts to affect you. A tax deduction only helps if you owe taxes—and most tipped workers earn so little that they barely do. Two-thirds of tipped workers will not even earn enough to benefit. Zero minus zero is still zero. The vast majority of these tax cuts go to the wealthiest taxpayers.
For the workers this policy was supposed to help, the results are already clear.
Take Sherie Cummings, who has poured drinks on the Las Vegas Strip for 20 years. Sherie and her husband, also a bartender, earned $60,000 in tips last year. They expected the full deduction the president promised. They got $25,000 of it. The cap.
Thirteen million tipped workers do not need a tax deduction. They need a raise.
For private jet buyers, the same law delivered something different. Full write-offs on aircraft worth $5 to $10 million. And that write-off is permanent. The tips deduction expires in 2028. The Tax Policy Center projects that 60% of the savings from this law will flow to the top fifth of households—those earning more than $217,000 a year. The wealthiest will save millions. Sherie Cummings is putting her refund into savings because she is afraid of what comes next.
For working people, the real problem was never the tax code. It is wages. The federal subminimum wage for tipped workers has been $2.13 an hour since 1991. It was locked there permanently in 1996 by the National Restaurant Association—what we call “the other NRA.” They spent $2.9 million on federal lobbying in 2020 alone to make sure it stayed there. Which is why tipped workers earn a median income of $15,198 a year. Thirty-seven percent of the national median. Which is why they rely on food stamps at nearly double the rate of other workers. And because workers depend on tips from customers to survive, they put up with what no one should have to. Seventy-one percent of women in the industry report sexual harassment. In subminimum wage states, the rate is double what it is in states that require a full minimum wage with tips on top.
Seven states already require a full minimum wage with tips on top: California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Minnesota, Montana, Alaska. It is called One Fair Wage. The restaurant lobby warns that tips would disappear, that restaurants would close, that jobs would vanish. These are scare tactics. The seven states prove them wrong. Tips are the same or higher. Restaurant employment grows faster. Small business growth rates match or beat subminimum wage states.
And restaurant workers have organized and fought for years and won One Fair Wage in Washington, DC, Chicago, and Michigan. The restaurant lobby has fought to block and roll back these wins—in Michigan, they are still trying. But workers keep going. And even where implementation is partial, the numbers are in. DC set an all-time restaurant employment record. Tips grew. Chicago saw more than 850 new restaurant licenses and the fastest pay growth in the country.
Cutting taxes on some tips for some workers is not a solution. Raising wages—and ending the subminimum wage—is. That is why more than 100 labor, community, and civil rights organizations have come together as the Living Wage For All coalition. The fight: Raise the minimum wage to meet the cost of living and end all subminimum wages. In every state. For every worker. Campaigns are active in eight states. Workers have already won. And they will keep winning.
Thirteen million tipped workers do not need a tax deduction. They need a raise. Every shift. Every paycheck. Every year.
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It's No Accident That Trump's Iran War Steals Money From Healthcare and Education
Trump is currently asking for a $1.5 trillion military budget—a 64% increase in military spending since last year—which provides the budgetary pressure needed to justify gutting necessary programs that have been on the books for decades.
Apr 16, 2026
Ronald Reagan’s budget director, David Stockman, spoke candidly years ago about why Republicans like tax cuts so much. In his 1986 book, The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed, he confided that tax cuts served the purpose of creating budget deficits that could then be used to justify spending cuts on government programs. Typically, administrations only cut spending for a program if it’s no longer necessary, and the resultant surplus may then be used as a tax cut to stimulate the economy. However, Stockman turned this on its head by using the tax cuts to create a budgetary crisis that would then require cuts in spending regardless of whether the programs were necessary or not.
In other words, Stockman used tax cuts to create a revenue problem that the Reagan administration could then mask as a spending problem. This is known as “starving the beast.” The administration starves the beast—important government services—of important tax revenues in order to slash government spending.
Stockman himself admitted the failure of this strategy since budget deficits during the Reagan administration did not bring down public spending in a meaningful way. This failure, however, didn’t stop the next generation of conservatives from making it a key part of their larger political project. In 2001 and 2003, for instance, George W. Bush pushed through massive tax cuts meant to impose a “fiscal straitjacket” on Congress. This then prompted Bush’s Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 to gut government programs.
Republican lawmakers attempted this again after they took control of the House of Representatives during the Obama administration in 2010. At the time, the US economy was struggling through the Great Recession, which congressional Republicans blamed on government profligacy and “out of control spending.” Not only did they hold the debt ceiling hostage to prevent future spending, but they urged more tax cuts to stimulate the economy. In general, starving the beast has become a more common, and outright underhanded, stratagem by which lawmakers have gone about cutting federal spending.
What happens when conservative lawmakers want to cut more government spending in healthcare or education? Will they manufacture a national security crisis to justify cuts in those social programs?
This strategy has also functioned as a form of class politics: Wealthy elites are often the main beneficiaries of the tax cuts financed by cuts in social services on which the average American is more likely to depend. For instance, Reagan’s 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act slashed top marginal tax rates from 70% to 50%, a rate that only the top 2% of Americans paid (those rates dropped even further to 28% in 1986). This cut was largely paid for with reductions in Aid to Families with Dependent Children, food stamps, Medicaid funding, student loans, and other social services. The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 served the same agenda. According to research by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the richest 20% received 65% of the benefits of those tax cuts, while the top 5% received 38%. Spending was then cut under the Deficit Reduction Act by targeting Medicaid, Medicare, the Migrant and Season Farmworkers Program, literacy programs, and others.
The American public is now far more aware of who has, and who has not, benefited from cuts in taxes and spending, and public opinion makes it harder for lawmakers to starve the beast. New polling shows that only 19% of Americans support the idea of cutting taxes on the wealthy, while 58% say the wealthy should be paying more (this number rises to 63% when asked about large businesses and corporations). At the same time, the majority of Americans want the government to maintain spending on the kinds of programs that are usually targeted, such as Medicaid and food stamps, medical and cancer research, federal childcare programs, or the arts in public schools. In other words, Republican lawmakers are going to have a harder time gutting these programs by further cutting top marginal tax rates.
That is why they are finding new ways to starve the beast. The latest strategy has been to leverage the heavy cost of national security issues.
Nowhere is this more evident than through the US and Israel’s joint war with Iran. The bombing of Iran has proven to be even more expensive than the initial stages of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with the daily burn rate averaging around $1-2 billion a day. Shortly after launching the war in late February, President Donald Trump sought an additional $200 billion from Congress to fund it. The GOP is now using that price tag to plan massive cuts to important government programs.
In early April, for instance, Republicans proposed a reconciliation bill they claim would save $30 billion but would also drive up the out-of-pocket premium costs and increase the number of people without health insurance. Later that week, Trump candidly spoke of his intentions to slash government spending against the backdrop of a budgetary crisis caused by the war:
We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people, we’re fighting wars […] Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal [level]. We have to take care of one thing: military protection—we have to guard the country. But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place, you have to let states take care of them.
Trump’s claim that the United States can’t afford these programs are patently false. Programs like Medicare and Medicaid are planned spending that are not responsible for budget deficits.
However, the president’s comments make sense when contextualized against his longer-term plans to rein in federal spending. Through the creation of DOGE, Trump attempted to usher in an era of “government efficiency,” which included sharp reductions in several programs including Medicare and Medicaid. Although technically still operational, DOGE is largely seen as a failure as it never achieved its goal of major spending cuts (in fact, government spending increased 6% in 2025).
The Iran war can complete the job that DOGE couldn’t. Trump is currently asking for a $1.5 trillion military budget—a 64% increase in military spending since last year—which provides the budgetary pressure needed to justify gutting necessary programs that have been on the books for decades. In doing so, Trump is essentially reviving the starve-the-beast strategy by fitting it into a large military project.
Although the strategy to starve the beast has changed, the class politics remains the same. Those affected will be those most reliant on programs designed to provide healthcare, education, and food. However, in this case the consequence are no longer restricted to the American taxpayer. The increase in military expenditures will be used to inflict harm upon vulnerable populations abroad. The strikes in Iran have already killed thousands of people and displaced over a million civilians.
The horrifying reality is that this carries the very real danger of becoming a common finance strategy. What happens when conservative lawmakers want to cut more government spending in healthcare or education? Will they manufacture a national security crisis to justify cuts in those social programs? Trump’s war in Iran establishes just such a dangerous precedent. For this reason, the American people must realize that their livelihood at home requires placing greater controls on what a president can do abroad.
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Big Military Spending; Lower Taxes—Trump Budgets Like Reagan and Bush
His latest spending proposals build on his history of overseeing significant reductions in taxes and dramatic increases in defense spending, in line with core conservative goals.
Apr 07, 2026
Since Donald Trump first broke onto the national political scene, there has been a serious debate among Republicans regarding his commitment to conservative principles. His style was, in a word, flamboyant. His morality was questionable. And his behavior and language were outrageous. None of these behaviors could be identified with the staid “buttoned down” behaviors on display in conservative circles.
In recent decades, Republicans have latched onto a range of social issues like gay marriage, transgender rights, and abortion, or cultural matters like xenophobia and opposition to affirmative action. None of these issues, however, were central to textbook conservatism, which historically has been encapsulated in the mantra “lower taxes, smaller government” and the insistence that the principal role of government ought to be “securing the national defense.” Despite not being cut from the same mold as Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan, President Trump has proven his bona fides on advancing these core conservative goals. Mimicking the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, President Trump in his first and second terms has coupled significant reductions in taxes with dramatic increases in defense spending either to expand the Pentagon’s already bloated budget or to underwrite foreign wars fought by us or allies.
This week’s rollout of Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 looks like a conservative’s dream come true. He is asking for a $500 billion increase in the defense department’s budget, amounting to the largest increase (44%) and the largest overall military budget since World War II. This 2027 increase is on top of the $350 billion supplement requested for 2026, presumably to offset the increased costs resulting from the US-Israel war on Iran.
The 2027 budget request also includes increases for Veterans Affairs and the Justice Department (to cover the costs of immigration prosecutions). But the 2027 budget also makes cuts in 10 other government agencies, with sharp reductions for the State Department and international programs; renewable energy projects; research grants in healthcare; and a number of social, educational, and medical programs. When asked by reporters about the impact of these reductions specifically on Medicare, Medicaid, and daycare programs, the president replied: “We’re fighting wars. It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things.”
Because mainstream Democrats have shied away from criticizing past and present wars and excessive defense spending, they’ve allowed Republicans to use the issue of budget deficits to play innocent and instead attack Democrats as “big spenders” who are recklessly spending the US into a hole.
What makes this problematic is that these dramatic increases in defense spending have been coupled with a sharp reduction in revenues resulting from Trump’s signature legislation—the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—that passed last year. That bill included reductions in taxes totaling $4.5 trillion over the next 10 years. In other words, “lower taxes, smaller government” and a singular focus on defense spending—the conservatives’ dream budget.
Two additional benefits to Republicans result from this pairing of decreases in revenues and increases in defense spending. On the one hand, it sharply increases budget deficits, which Republicans have effectively used to call for more spending cuts to social welfare spending. Because mainstream Democrats have shied away from criticizing past and present wars and excessive defense spending, they’ve allowed Republicans to use the issue of budget deficits to play innocent and instead attack Democrats as “big spenders” who are recklessly spending the US into a hole. In reality, however, it was Ronald Reagan’s irresponsible massive tax cuts and huge increases in military spending that caused the budget deficits of the 1980s. And while during the 2012 election Republicans made an issue of the growing national debt, no one pointed out that it was George W. Bush’s tax cuts and the war in Iraq that rang up a bill of trillions of dollars with no new revenues raised to offset the outlays for the war and its aftermath. To date, that war has cost over $7 trillion. Now Trump is following in the footsteps of Reagan and George W. Bush.
There is still another way, that Trump, like Reagan, will try to exploit the crisis created by a skewed budget to his advantage. This week, when reporters asked the president about his budget proposal’s impact on daycare programs, Medicaid, and Medicaid (which will experience cuts or strains), he replied:
(We can’t) send any money for daycare because theUnited States can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We’re fighting wars. It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do that on a state basis.
By recklessly reducing the federal government’s revenues and then forcing cuts in needed social programs to make way for increased defense spending, Trump, like Reagan, is forcing the financial cost of daycare, Medicaid, education, etc., down to the state level. Then when Democratic governors are forced to raise taxes to cover these increased costs, Republicans will pounce, criticizing them for raising taxes.
If this president’s policies over the last decade haven’t convinced the conservative elite that he's really one of them or voters that he’s not the radical populist his rhetoric made him out to be, then his 2027 budget should be all the convincing they need.
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President Trump: Give Back the Money and Stop Grabbing More
The White House and Congress can and should provide relief to American families who bore the costs of these illegal tariffs. The administration has the responsibility to design such relief. You took the money illegally; now you should return it.
Feb 23, 2026
President Donald Trump, you took funds from the American people that were never yours to take. Give them back, and end the abuse of power.
Friday, the Supreme Court confirmed what many of us argued from the beginning: Your sweeping tariffs were an unlawful overreach of executive power. The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the authority to set tariffs. Yet you invoked emergency powers you do not have, in response to a supposed national emergency that does not exist. This was a power grab, and the court said so.
President Trump, your tariff regime was illegal, unfair, and detrimental to the American people. You also grossly misrepresented the facts to the American people by claiming that foreign countries were paying. They were not. American families paid.
Over the past year, roughly $140 billion in tariff revenue was collected at US ports. Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Kiel Institute, and other independent research institutions reached the same conclusion, that the burden of the tariffs fell overwhelmingly on American importers, businesses, and consumers. Foreign exporters barely reduced their prices, so the tariffs were passed on to Americans and have shown up as higher prices for consumers and businesses.
President Trump, you asked Americans to believe that you stood with working people. Instead, you imposed illegal taxes on them and gave large tax cuts to the richest Americans.
During the past year, on average, American households paid roughly $1,000 or more. For families living paycheck to paycheck, that is not abstract. That is rent stretched to the breaking point. That is groceries rising in price while wages fail to keep up. The working-class Americans who believed your promises were the ones who bore the cost of this power grab.
Each claim you made in favor of the tariffs was unsound and proven to be so. You said that the tariffs would slash the trade deficit. This was wrong because the US trade deficits reflect the low US saving rate, and especially the large US budget deficits. In fact, the US goods deficit in 2025 was $1.241 trillion, worse than the 2024 deficit of $1.215 trillion. You said that you would restore manufacturing jobs. Yet employment in manufacturing in January 2026 was 12.590 million, compared with 12.673 million in January 2025, a decline of 83,000 jobs year over year.
At the same time, you championed and extended tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the wealthiest households and large corporations. Independent studies have repeatedly shown that the largest permanent gains from those tax cuts flowed to the top of the income ladder. Your administration’s approach has effectively given tax relief for the rich, covered in part by regressive tariffs hitting the working class and poor. And much of your tax cuts are paid for by red ink, debts pushed into the future, that will be borne by today’s young people in later years.
Working families have paid more at the checkout counter. Wealthy households have received large tax cuts. And young Americans have been burdened with more debts.
And now comes insult added to injury. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made clear the administration’s position. Speaking at the Economic Club of Dallas, he said, “I got a feeling the American people won’t see it,” referring to the prospect of tariff refund checks. He instead dismissed refunds as “the ultimate corporate welfare,” arguing that any repayments would go to importers rather than consumers.
The White House and Congress can and should provide relief to American families who bore the costs of these illegal tariffs. The administration has the responsibility to design such relief. You took the money illegally; now you should return it.
Astoundingly, in response to the Supreme Court decision, you have just announced a new across-the-board 15% tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act, this time supposedly justified on emergency balance-of-payments grounds. Section 122 might possibly give you the temporary authority, for up to 150 days, to impose such a tariff in response to serious balance-of-payments difficulties. Here too, your authority is doubtful because the US is not in a balance-of-payments crisis. Yet even should the courts find that you have the authority, you should not use it.
A 15% across-the-board tariff will simply continue the same regressive tax on the American people that you illegally implemented with the claim of emergency powers. It would once again mean higher prices on food, clothing, electronics, building materials, and countless everyday essentials. It would once again fall hardest on working families who spend the largest share of their income on such goods.
An unlawful regressive tax cannot be remedied by replacing it with a possibly lawful and temporary regressive tax. It’s quite possible that the 15% tariff will be struck down too.
The United States needs real tax reform. Our tax code has become a distorted mess, shaped over decades by presidents of both parties to favor capital over labor, wealth over work, and obscurity over fairness. The tax code needs progressivity. It needs to close loopholes that allow the wealthiest Americans and multinational corporations to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, especially in an era when eleven Silicon Valley centibillionaires have $2.6 trillion in personal wealth.
Working Americans are not props in a political narrative. They are parents choosing between medical care and rent. They are families who were told someone else would pay, only to discover the higher prices in their own shopping carts.
President Trump, you asked Americans to believe that you stood with working people. Instead, you imposed illegal taxes on them and gave large tax cuts to the richest Americans. Now your Treasury secretary says the government will keep the money you took, and you have promised to continue to take this money in a different way.
Return the $140 billion that was taken under unlawful authority. Do not impose a new 15% tax on American households. Fix the tax code honestly and transparently through Congress.
The Constitution demands accountability. Justice demands restitution of the funds and an end to your tariff grab. The American people deserve better.
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Trump-GOP Law Slashes Amazon's Tax Bill by 87% as Company Fires 30,000 Workers, Profits Soar
"Congress made a choice: cut assistance for the most vulnerable to double down on a tax code already favoring dominant firms," said one progressive think tank.
Feb 06, 2026
The tax law that congressional Republicans and US President Donald Trump enacted last summer has proved to be a massive boon for Amazon, slashing the corporate behemoth's 2025 tax bill even as its profits surged and it moved ahead with mass layoffs that have cost 30,000 workers their jobs since October.
Citing a new securities filing, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Amazon's "current US taxes, an accounting measure of taxes incurred last year, declined to $1.2 billion from $9 billion" while the company's "pretax US profit increased by 44.5%, to $89.5 billion. On a cash basis, the company paid $2.8 billion in federal income taxes last year after paying more than $7 billion in each of the prior two years."
The 87% decline in Amazon's federal tax bill for 2025 was largely attributable to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's corporate-friendly depreciation tax breaks.
The new securities filing comes just days after Amazon confirmed it axed 16,000 corporate jobs as part of what's believed to be a sweeping effort to replace workers with robots and artificial intelligence models in the coming years.
The Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank, noted that the tax benefits that Amazon and other giant corporations are raking in "didn't come free."
"The same law slashed Medicaid and the [Affordable Care Act] and is now exacerbating our medical debt crisis," the organization wrote on social media. "Congress made a choice: cut assistance for the most vulnerable to double down on a tax code already favoring dominant firms."
In a statement on Friday, Amazon—founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos—said its dramatically lower tax bill "reflects... changes by Congress" purportedly aimed at encouraging "greater investment in the American economy, its innovation, and its workers."
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) noted Friday that Amazon is one of four companies that "have now disclosed that they collectively received $51 billion in federal tax breaks in 2025, much of that likely from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that was signed into law by Trump over the summer."
"The annual financial reports recently released by Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla disclose that these corporations collectively reported $315 billion in US profits for 2025, and collectively paid just 4.9% of that amount in federal corporate income taxes—with Tesla paying exactly zero," wrote ITEP's Matthew Gardner. "That amounts to a collective tax savings of $51 billion last year for these four giant multinational corporations, versus what they would have paid if they paid the full 21% federal corporate income tax rate."
" Tax cuts pushed through by the Trump administration last year and in 2017 have made it possible for the fastest-growing companies in the world to pay record-low federal income tax rates on their income," Gardner added. "The tax avoidance of these four companies alone blew a $51 billion hole in the federal budget last year, and this is likely just the tip of the iceberg."
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Trump Delivered 22% Boost to Billionaire Wealth in 2025, But Catastrophe for Working Class
"After a year in office, Trump and the GOP majority betrayed their promises to working people, instead serving billionaire elites and wealthy corporations," said the executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness.
Jan 20, 2026
The first year of President Donald Trump's second White House term made abundantly clear who he and his Republican allies in Congress serve—and who they don't.
That's the argument of a report published Tuesday by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) marking the one-year anniversary of the start of the second Trump administration, which has so far delivered big for the billionaire class while shafting the working class.
"While American families struggle to pay the bills due to higher tariffs and cuts in public benefits, Trump’s billionaire cronies have never been wealthier," said ATF, noting that "billionaires bet big on Trump and Republicans in the 2024 elections, with just 30 MAGA billionaire families spending $1.4 billion to influence the outcome."
"Their investment seems to be paying off rapidly, with this clique’s collective wealth growing by $408 billion in 2025, an increase of 37.5% from the year prior," the group continued. "Billionaires across the country saw their collective wealth reach a record high of $8.2 trillion in the first year of the second Trump regime. Their total wealth increased from $6.7 billion, a 22% increase in 2025."
In the summer of 2025, Trump and congressional Republicans passed sprawling legislation extending massive tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, fueling their wealth surge. ATF noted Tuesday that "the top 1% of households alone will get $1 trillion from this tax package."
Meanwhile, in the same legislation, Trump and the GOP's launched an unprecedented assault on Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance with cuts that are expected to leave millions without health insurance and food aid in the coming years and inflict significant damage on healthcare systems across the country.
The ATF report also points to the Trump-GOP refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that lapsed at the end of 2025, sending health insurance premiums skyrocketing for millions of people nationwide.
"After a year in office, Trump and the GOP majority betrayed their promises to working people, instead serving billionaire elites and wealthy corporations," David Kass, ATF's executive director, said in a statement. "Trump promised lower prices but enacted chaotic tariffs that spiked consumer costs, and also cut billions from SNAP and Medicaid while ballooning the deficit. He eliminated ACA tax credits, making healthcare unaffordable for millions—all to fund trillions in tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy and large corporations."
"With an affordability crisis and historic income inequality," Kass added, "Americans for Tax Fairness will oppose this administration's regressive economic policy."
Entering year two of Trump's second White House term, Republicans are signaling that they have no intention of changing course. Last week, the Republican Study Committee released its priorities for a possible second reconciliation bill—a list that includes repeal of the estate tax, a move that would benefit a small sliver of rich Americans.
"After a year of broken promises around affordability and control of government, this is what House Republicans have come up with: legislation that further enriches the richest of the rich at the expense of working Americans” Leor Tal, campaign director of the progressive advocacy coalition Unrig Our Economy.
“After the Republican tax law made the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in history," said Tal, "Republicans should stop raising costs on working families and, instead, focus on helping their constituents afford basic items like groceries and stop stripping even more Americans of vital services."
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How Billionaires of Conscience Can Use Their Wealth to Take Down Trump
The Super Rich are sitting on trillions of dollars of “dead money.” It only takes a few dozen of them to save the Republic with “live money” comprising a fraction of 1% of their assets.
Dec 31, 2025
There are reportedly about 900 billionaires (probably more) in the US About 5% can be described as enlightened people who know the importance of contributing to organizations that advance justice. They are also appalled by the Trump dictatorship and are not placated simply because he gave them tax cuts, deregulation, and maybe corporate welfare. On their minds is the well-being and freedoms of millions of their fellow Americans, whose lives are being cruelly and viciously wrecked by President Donald Trump, as he destroys the federal civil service.
I’ve talked with some of these very rich people (VRP) and heard them say they want to get engaged, so appalled are they by the lawless, egomaniacal, self-enriching, violent plutocrat Trump and his dump. Trump and COMPANY are only going to get MUCH WORSE. What follows are some suggestions on how the VRPs can get underway.
1. Sponsor a massive day of protest demanding the impeachment or resignation of Tyrant Trump. More will turn out than did the 7 million Americans marching in hundreds of communities under the “No Kings” banner. A growing majority of people already want this to happen.
With skilled management and verification, these marchers can be asked to take out their iPhones and contribute what they can to create strong local groups that resist Trump’s ongoing wreckage of our basic social safety net; our regulatory health, safety, and economic protections; and our voting rights against Trumpian planned interference in the 2026 elections. Even with just an average of a $10 contribution, at least $100 million would be raised on the protest day to give Americans daily organized power to focus on the White House’s outlawry, violent actions, and thievery. People organizing where they live, work, and raise their families is the first step to reclaiming our democracy.
2. Sponsor a group to counter Trump’s shattering of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), firing thousands of staff responding to calls by middle-class taxpayers, and hundreds of highly skilled accountants and lawyers working on many cases of giant tax evasions by big corporations and the super rich. Many of these cases have been dropped, and the already starved IRS budget was cut sharply by the Trumpsters.
This project can be ably assisted by seven outspoken former IRS directors from both parties who have already testified and written open letters warning that the shoe will heavily drop next year, with tens of billions of uncollected dollars adding to the federal deficit and, worse, longer delays for taxpayers’ inquiries. (See, "More Tax Breaks For the Wealthy" by Jesse Drucker, New York Times, November 10, 2025).
3. Take on the further shredding of our preparedness toward climate violence and “not if, but when” pandemics (see, The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics by Dr. Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker). This should be an easy one to organize and fund with advocates by the VRP. Trump is boosting oil, gas, and coal (the sources of omnicidal greenhouse gases) while crazily doing whatever he can to depress or stop commercial solar energy and wind energy projects. The project would have the public health and scientific professions as well as the solar industry behind it.
4. This White House project is bold because the VRP know they would be assailed by Tyrant Trump. But the case against his extortion of companies, law firms, and universities, forcing them to engage in bribery if they comply with his unlawful demands, is powerfully grounded. Trump—the Bully-in-Chief—likes to dish out the slander and libel, calling for the impeachment of any judge ruling against his misrule, and naming other critical law enforcers as “deranged,” “crazy,” “communist,” “crooked,” “low IQ,” and more. A drive to counter these slurs and hurl some back at Trump would drive this thin-skinned Fuhrer to more self-immolating performances, further lowering his dropping polls.
5. A broad-ranging counterforce can cover the largest shutdown of federal agencies and programs in American history. Vastly immobilized from their congressionally mandated missions are the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Education, and the US Agency for International Development. The latter’s illegal abolition is already costing many lives lost overseas, endangering millions of children and adults who are without medicines, food supplements, shelter, and safe drinking water. All kinds of other mandated missions have been cut at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, NOAA (weather research and forecasting), US Department of Agriculture, assistance to people with disabilities, Meals on Wheels, Head Start, AmeriCorps, Medicaid, and food programs for tens of millions of Americans, and much more.
6. There are very-rich corporate and plaintiff tort lawyers who could address the slumber of the 50-state Bar Associations and the American Bar Association. They are supposed to be the First Responders to the destruction of the Rule of Law and our Constitution by the Rule of Raw Power criminal attacks by the Trump regime. Recall Trump’s 2019 declaration, “With Article II, I can do whatever I want as President,” which he is exhibiting every day with his brazen, boasting serial violations and blatant racism.
Waking up the legal profession would receive support from both lawyers who see themselves as Republicans or Democrats. They just need jump-start leadership—as the lessons of reformist history demonstrate time and time again. (See our letter to the Bar Associations.)
7. Finally, a prostrate GOP-dominated Congress is facilitating or enabling, contrary to their sworn vows to uphold the Constitution and the faithful execution of the laws, the deepening fascist state driven by the White House’s seizure of authority exclusively given to Congress by our Founding Fathers. This project would activate the grassroots, which has been calling for strong action at Town Meetings nationwide.
The Super Rich are sitting on trillions of dollars of “dead money.” It only takes a few dozen of them to save the Republic with “live money” comprising a fraction of 1% of their assets. Most of them are looking over their shoulder to see who takes the first steps.
Who takes the first steps? Aristotle had the answer over 2,000 years ago. He said, “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”
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