Why Are You Even Here? The Surprising Attitudes of Some Expats in Thailand

[snoop1130]

Warren Buffett, Larry Fink criticize Trump tax plan

By David Morgan

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's tax reform plan came under new criticism on Tuesday from two towering Wall Street figures, including billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who called into question a Republican drive to slash the U.S. corporate rate.

 

With the White House and top Republicans in Congress already on the defensive over claims the plan would not cut taxes for many middle-class Americans, Buffett and BlackRock Inc <BLK.N> Chief Executive Larry Fink suggested in separate interviews that the corporate rate may not have to be cut as deeply as proposed.

 

"We have a lot of businesses... I don't think any of them are non-competitive in the world because of the corporate tax rate," Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc <BRKa.N>, told CNBC.

 

Fink said a corporate rate as high as 27 percent could satisfy U.S. businesses' need for tax relief, while avoiding an increase in the federal deficit.

 

"What is being proposed is a pretty large expansion of our deficits," Fink told Bloomberg TV.

 

The Republican tax plan unveiled last month calls for slashing the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from the current level of 35 percent, which many multinationals already avoid paying by taking advantage of abundant tax loopholes.

 

The plan contains up to $6 trillion in tax cuts, according to independent analysts, which Trump and top Republicans say they would offset by eliminating loopholes, deductions and tax breaks and boosting annual economic growth.

 

Hungry for legislative victory after repeated failures in their push to overturn Obamacare, many Republicans are now willing to accept a tax plan that raises the federal deficit, a fact that bothers some deficit hawks.

 

"I feel like in some ways, since Election Day, we've moved into a party atmosphere. And that concerns me," said Republican Senator Bob Corker, who has vowed not to vote for a tax bill that increases the deficit.

 

Republicans also insist that cutting the corporate tax rate to 20 percent will help workers by increasing jobs and raising salaries, though this claim is disputed by Democrats.

 

Senator Ron Wyden, the top Senate Democrat on tax policy, accused the Trump administration on Tuesday of removing a research paper from the U.S. Treasury's website that showed workers would benefit only marginally from a corporate rate cut.

 

"Apparently that mainstream economic analysis had to be purged because it basically didn't jibe with the Trump team's patter," Wyden said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing.

 

A Treasury spokeswoman said the document was a dated analysis from the Obama administration that "does not represent our current thinking and analysis."

 

An analyst who testified at the Senate hearing said only about 20 percent of the benefits of a corporate tax cut would directly help workers.

 

Buffett and Fink also criticized other Republican tax initiatives. Buffett said a proposal to repeal the estate tax would be "a terrible mistake" that would benefit the wealthiest Americans unnecessarily. Fink predicted tax legislation would not pass if it includes a proposal to eliminate a popular deduction for state and local tax payments.

 

"I don't believe we're going to get tax reform if there is the elimination of deductibility of state and local taxes," he said.

 

Eliminating the state and local tax deduction would raise about one-quarter of the $4 trillion in revenues that some Republicans say they need to prevent tax cuts from creating a massive increase in the federal budget deficit.

 

But eliminating that deduction is already opposed by Republican lawmakers from high-tax states such as New York and California, who say it helps their state governments pay for social programs, including public education.

 

House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady discussed the state and local tax deduction at dinner on Monday evening with about a dozen other House Republicans, including some New York lawmakers. At least one came away predicting there would be a compromise.

 

"We kicked around six or eight or 10 different types of options," Republican Representative Chris Collins, a staunch Trump ally from New York, told reporters.

 

(Reporting by David Morgan, additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York and Richard Cowan and Patricia Zengerle in Washington; editing by Dan Grebler and Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-4

[Elkski]

Those estates were created knowing the rules.  To change it now yo benefit estates over 5 million is nothing short of paying back big donors and looking after the new ( drained swamp ) billionaire politicians own interests

[ilostmypassword]

3 minutes ago, Elkski said:

Those estates were created knowing the rules.  To change it now yo benefit estates over 5 million is nothing short of paying back big donors and looking after the new ( drained swamp ) billionaire politicians own interests

I might go and dig it up but no less a personage than Thomas Jefferson warned against allowing individuals to accumulate too much wealth lest America create its own nobility which could buy up government and thumb their noses at the law.

[Srikcir]

Trump has ditched "Tax Reform" for "Tax Cuts."

Say goodbye to the idea of revenue neutrality and “distributional neutrality."

Say hello to another massive federal deficit.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/how-republicans-ditched-tax-reform-for-tax-cuts

Tax reform is hard and Tax cuts are easy. Trump wants a win no matter his campaign promises (sound familiar?) and he has "a hand in the till."

 

[Jingthing]

trump says his tax plan won't benefit him personally

Believe me, he says.

Just how stupid are Americans?
Obviously very stupid to elect the clown potus, but are there NO limits?

[Elkski]

8 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

I might go and dig it up but no less a personage than Thomas Jefferson warned against allowing individuals to accumulate too much wealth lest America create its own nobility which could buy up government and thumb their noses at the law.

Yes, I'm aware of this.   I think people who are born with a silver spoon in their mouths are a real problem.   My ex wife and I worked real hard in life.  We sent our children to a good private school and I met many trust fund parents there.  I am afraid their children lowered my children's ambition and gave them this entitlement mentality.  I also met many trust funders on the ski slopes.  They don't contribute much to society.  

[mrwebb8825]

Wouldn't it make more sense to eliminate the estate tax for all holdings worth $1m or less and then make it taxed at .5% per million with a cap at 20%?

Seems this would give a break to the less fortunate without an undue burden on those that can afford it.

The highest state property taxes are just under 2% so shouldn't cause much of a stir.

[attrayant]

trump says his tax plan won't benefit him personally
Believe me, he says.

And refuses to release his tax return so we'll never know just how he's affected.

[mike324]

no Trump supporters here voicing support for Trump here? would like to hear your opinions 

 

Trump cuts budgets all across the board health, education,social, environmental just to make up for the shortfalls of increasing the military budget and enriching those millionaires. No flaw logic here?

Edited October 9, 2017 by mike324

[Srikcir]

On 10/7/2017 at 4:18 PM, attrayant said:

 

And refuses to release his tax return so we'll never know just how he's affected.

 

Not precisely but he will save a huge tax bill:

President Trump could cut his tax bills by more than $1.1 billion, including saving tens of millions of dollars in a single year, under his proposed tax changes.

His 2005 tax return showed he paid additional tax of $31 million solely due to ATM. Now he proposes to repeal the ATM.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/28/us/politics/trump-tax-benefit.html

Meanwhile low-income families will see their annual incomes increase by an average of less than 1%. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-tax-reform-poorest-families-richest-americans-tax-policy-center-analysis-a7987871.html

Likely to be wiped out by higher healthcare costs, etc.

[ilostmypassword]

On 10/7/2017 at 1:35 PM, mrwebb8825 said:

Wouldn't it make more sense to eliminate the estate tax for all holdings worth $1m or less and then make it taxed at .5% per million with a cap at 20%?

Seems this would give a break to the less fortunate without an undue burden on those that can afford it.

The highest state property taxes are just under 2% so shouldn't cause much of a stir.

Good news! Actually, there is no estate tax for individual estates valued at less than 5.5 million. And for a couple, that would mean the could leave an estate worth 11 million and not have the estate taxed. Only the amount in excess of 5.5 or 11 million is taxed. I believe the estate taxes are actually drawn applies to about .2 percent of all estates in the USA.

In fact, the Founding Fathers of the USA were very much in support of a very severe estate tax and very much against huge inequality in wealth that would result from untaxed inheritance fearing that it would lead to the equivalent in the USA of an entrenched nobility.

https://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2010/10/estate_tax_and_founding_fathers

[attrayant]

Patriotic millionaires explain why they don't need a tax cut.  As if we really needed their explanation, but there it is anyway.  Says one millionaire:

 

Quote

The republicans are going to give me a huge tax cut.  You know what I'm going to do with the money?  I'm going to put in the stock market and that way, I'll continue to be rich and everyone else will continue to be poor.

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2017 by attrayant

[boomerangutang]

On 10/5/2017 at 2:40 PM, ilostmypassword said:

I might go and dig it up but no less a personage than Thomas Jefferson warned against allowing individuals to accumulate too much wealth lest America create its own nobility which could buy up government and thumb their noses at the law.

Jefferson was a wise man - the opposite of Trump.