2017 Apr 27^th

Morning Joe’s two anchors, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, have had a spat serious enough so that neither appeared on their program this morning. I am amazed it took this long. Joe plays the alpha male to the point of absurdity and seems totally unaware of how obnoxious he is. If anyone else is talking, including his co-host, Joe will interrupt with some utterly trivial comment and expect the attention to come to him. I’m surprised Mika was willing to put up with his boorishness as long as she did. Those who watch the program tolerate Joe so they can listen to his guests. His guests are usually worth it.

We have two big items of information from the administration: The first of these was the long-awaited and much-ballyhooed tax cut. This appeared as a one-sheet handout, indented, triple spaced in spots, and containing just seven numbers. For the typical taxpayer there will be far fewer deductions, but charitable contributions and mortgage interest payments remain deductible. However the citizen does get a doubling of the standard deduction to 24,000 dollars. For the really, really  big net worth folks the Estate Tax is abolished. (This feature will save the Trump fortune from the tax-man and is worth billion to his heirs. Hey, why shouldn’t the boss get a little something here?)

This tax reduction plan like others before it will likely push up the national debt. The very notion of increasing the debt was once a non-starter for conservatives, not any more. But we are told these tax cuts…and there are others will be offset by the huge economic growth that will follow. Standing at the podium Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin told his audience that these cuts will pay for themselves by increasing economic growth to over 4 percent. The best economic growth we’ve seen in years couldn’t sustain 3 percent. Larry Sommers, a previous treasury secretary thoroughly trashed the plan. Here is a comment about it from Budget Director Mick Mulvaney as he wipes egg from his face:

“The Trump administration intended for its initial tax plan to be vague and that assessing its long-term impact is difficult right now.” Apparently not for Mnuchin.

There are lots of goodies for the wealthy in this package. The top tax rate, now 39.6 percent drops to 35 percent, and if he can get rid of the ACA there would be an additional drop of 3.8 percent that applies to investment income over 250 thousand a year for a couple.

The 15 percent business tax rate could open a huge loophole for people to receive business income through a limited liability company or other pass-through entity instead of as wages. Depending on how the law is drafted, that could enable some people to pay that low 15 percent rate on their earnings instead of an individual income rate up to 35 percent. People who already receive their income through investment vehicles wouldn’t have to change anything for a windfall.

Hey, is Trump a great guy or what?