WASHINGTON, D.C. – Here is a recap of recent articles mentioning the work of Americans for Tax Fairness.
The Hill: Doubts shadow GOP push for tax cuts 2.0, 9/6/18
“I really don’t get the politics of this other than that [Republicans are] trying to appeal to a narrow set of donors or they’re trying to rewrite history,” said Frank Clemente, executive director of the liberal group Americans for Tax Fairness. “People don’t like their tax plan now because it favors the rich and corporations.” Clemente added that he expects there will be a grass-roots effort attacking a second round of tax cuts and said it will pose political problems for vulnerable House Republicans in blue states.
The Chicago Crusader (Op-ed): Labor Day Over, Time to Start Combatting GOP’s War on Workers, by Jesse Jackson, 9/4/18
Meanwhile, according to Americans for Tax Fairness, just 4% of American workers has seen any bonuses or raises connected to the Republican tax law—and the total payout is less than 1% of what investors got from those stock buybacks. Average wages, adjusted for inflation, have actually gone down over the past year.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (PA) (Editorial): Why it’s an unhappy Labor Day for many workers, 9/3/18
Meanwhile, President Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut – like previous massive tax cuts – has failed to trickle down to average workers in a meaningful way, and many of his policies are hurting American workers. Just 4 percent of workers at Fortune 500 companies received a bonus or wage increase as a result of the tax cut, according to an analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness, an advocacy group dedicated to tax reform.
Arizona Republic (Column): Federal workers shafted for Labor Day…and we’re next, 9/3/18
Except a study by Americans for Tax Fairness found that it didn’t quite work out that way. Among Fortune 500 companies the group found that only 4.3 percent of workers would receive a one-time bonus or wage increase tied to the cuts. And the corporations were spending 101 times as much on stock buybacks as on bonuses or wages.
Los Angeles Times (Column): The economy may be booming, but nearly half of Americans can’t make ends meet 8/31/18
Trump pledged his $1.5 trillion in tax cuts would boost average paychecks by as much as $9,000 a year as businesses shared their tax savings with employees. In reality, corporations received 11 times more in tax cuts then they doled out in one-time bonuses or modest wage hikes, according to the advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness.
Jackson Sun (Tennessee, part of the USA Today network) The Labor Day Score on Trump-Republican Tax Cuts: $280,000 for rich lawmakers, pennies for working class Americans, 8/31/18
By Kayla Kitson (ATF staff)
Tracking by Americans for Tax Fairness shows that only about 400 out of America’s 5.9 million employers have announced any wage increases or one-time bonuses related to the tax cuts. That’s about 0.007 percent. In fact, real wages have actually declined since last year after accounting for higher gas prices, prescription drug prices, and other rising costs.
New York Times: Beware Rich People Who Say They Want to Change the World, 8/24/18
Walmart has long been accused of underpaying workers. Americans for Tax Fairness, an advocacy group, famously accused the company of costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year because it “pays its employees so little that many of them rely on food stamps, health care and other taxpayer-funded programs.”
The Columbian (Vancouver, WA) (Editorial): Debt Debacle: Candidates Herrera Beutler, Long aim to resolve deficit, provide prosperous future, 8/24/18
An analysis of Fortune 500 companies by Americans for Tax Fairness found that companies spent 37 times more on buybacks than they did on bonuses or increased wages for employees.
Bloomberg: Here’s What May Happen to Your Taxes if Democrats Take the House, 8/23/18
The math is complicated if Democrats want to fully fund the government, plug the revenue lost by the tax law and create new programs, said Frank Clemente, executive director at Americans for Tax Fairness. “If you add all those things up, it will be trillions of dollars,” Clemente said. “I’m not sure anything lends itself to a bumper sticker.”
Politico-Morning Tax: Throw on Them Brakes, 8/20/18
The Job Creators Network, which has organized a bus tour in support of the tax law, has started meeting some protesters who believe what they call the “Tax Scam” was nothing more than a giveaway to the rich…The liberal Americans for Tax Fairness told Morning Tax that around 40 protesters from related grassroots groups showed up to the JCN event last week in Rep. Tom Reed’s district in upstate New York, while around 35 rallied a day later and a couple hours away at a stop in Sherburne, N.Y., for Rep. Claudia Tenney.
Finger Lakes Times (N.Y) : The great tax cut debate plays out at Tom Reed’s office, 8/15/2018
The Americans for Tax Fairness disputes the tax benefit claims, issuing a press release to the Finger Lakes Times that runs counter to the Job Creators Network and Reed. It said “83 percent of the tax cuts in the new law will go to the wealthiest 1 percent once it’s fully implemented, according to the Tax Policy Center. Their share is so high because so much of the tax cuts benefit corporations, and most stock is owned by the wealthy.” The organization said the tax cuts cost $1.9 trillion, which is being added to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget.
The Hill: GOP tax law isn’t just about taxes – it’s undermining American health care 8/9/18
By Frank Clemente and Margarida Jorge
Frank Clemente is executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness. Margarida Jorge is co-director of Health Care for America Now!
USA Today: The Rust Belt is done with Donald Trump’s gold-plated populism, 8/7/18
Under his tax law, businesses received nine times more in cuts than what they gave their workers and spent 37 more times more on stock buybacks than on bonuses since the reforms became law, according to an April analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness.
Kansas City Star (Editorial): Is Charles Koch joking about funding Democratic candidates, 7/31/18
Americans for Tax Fairness, which opposed the Trump cuts, estimated that “Charles Koch and David Koch and/or Koch Industries could save between $1 billion and $1.4 billion combined in income taxes each year from the Trump tax law — and that doesn’t even count how much the brothers might save in taxes on offshore profits or how much their heirs will benefit from weakening the estate tax.”
Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) is a diverse campaign of more than 420 national, state and local endorsing organizations united in support of a fair tax system that works for all Americans. Based in Washington, D.C., ATF was established to help make the economy work for all — with adequate levels of investment in critical areas that create and sustain jobs.
Contact:
Dennis Bailey
Director of Communications
Americans for Tax Fairness
dbailey@americansfortaxfairness.org
202-733-3444