You were told by Donald Trump that his historic corporate tax cuts would boost workers wages. They did not. Costs went up, your wages didn't. The rich got richer. You got punked.
The GDP is at 4.1%. Is that remarkable? Couldn't you just jump for joy? Many Republican Senators and Congressmen think you should.
The much lower corporate tax rates being enjoyed by our employers now are not tied to employee profit sharing, so the benefits stay on the top floor with the CEO, but isn't it nice to know the already rich are now making out like gangbusters thanks to that billionaire champion of the common man Donald Trump?
More likely, if you're an average working-class or middle-class American, you are married with kids who are now moving in their 30s and who have never owned homes. Your kids are unlikely to own cars that are newer than 2009.
They will probably have at least $140,000 in college bills each, not accounting for interest. They probably work one and a half jobs just to make repayments and just get by. And without the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) they probably would have no health insurance to speak of at all.
GDP means little or nothing to such people, and they're the real America, and their well being (or lack thereof) isn't reflected in these airy economic abstractions.
Working Americans have had to absorb every hit, including the frozen minimum wage, the Trump era rollbacks on predatory lenders, the Trump era rollbacks on public education and the rising health care costs making it a service for the privileged and no one else.
And even if you do have employer-based health insurance, you will still have to pay outrageous out of pocket costs and deductibles. Unless you’re a public employee like a congressman or senator, then you benefit from a government-negotiated group plan with zero out of pocket costs. So that's Obamacare for Republican leaders and the cold winds of the free market for the likes of you. Funny, huh?
You must find it funny, I mean you voted for it, bub.
Republicans have controlled both chambers for nine years now. If Democrats had control they would be working toward affordable public college options, raising the minimum wage, and moving towards a Medicare-for-all type of system. That is, toward economic policies to raise up the middle class, not corporate profit margins.
Hard-working older folks too must see the humor in their predicament because they keep voting for the party that works to ensure it. Seniors that have worked their whole lives and can't afford their rent now because their Social Security payments are peanuts in today's world at least have the reassurance of knowing they have made America great again.
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Or at least I assume this is what they tell themselves as they watch the all the red ink surround them. They will have hours of fun in the future trying to choose between paying for medications or the gas bill.
But even the slowest learners must have noticed by now that health care costs keep exploding as wages remain stagnant. That's a recipe for real, literal pain.
Trump said his massive tax cut for the rich would increase workers wages by $4,000 per family, but official government data just released shows real wages have decreased by 0.4% over the last year.
Trump tax bill
That's why Republican leaders always want to talk about the stock market and not wages. The GDP is rising but our wages are not. That's profoundly serious. Something is seriously broken. It comes down to corporate power. Our corporations are not sharing the benefits or the increased wealth. They're lining their own pockets and retreating behind their gated compounds.
Take a survey of all your friends right now. Ask them if their take-home pay has increased? Ask them if it has even increased in line with the increase in recent gasoline costs? Ask them if they have less or more disposable income now?
Because the hard truth is that Trump's tax cut for the rich hasn't done anything for American workers. It's a total bust. It hasn't even benefited Trump's core supporters out there in "real America," never mind others.
You don't “feel” better off because you are not better off.
You were told by Trump that the historic corporate tax cuts would boost workers wages. They did not. Costs went up, but your wages didn't. The already rich got even richer.
You got punked.
What do you reckon? Let us know in the comments section, below.
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