Trump-GOP Tax Cut and Reform Law: Capitalism or Socialism — Don't Ask the GOP

Cabal in Charge of it All

To a conservative, socialism means “getting something for nothing.” Yet this is what Trump promotes for the wealthy. Source the Guardian.

“America will never be a socialist country,” Trump declared in his State of the Union address. Someone should alert him to the fact that America is now a hotbed of socialism. But it is socialism for the rich. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism.

The 2017 GOP-only tax cut-reform law: Capitalism or Socialism???

Those cuts saved banks saved some $21 billion and most went into massive bonuses for bank executives.

But, more than 4,000 lower-level bank employees got a big dose of harsh capitalism. They lost their jobs.

Last year, Wall Street’s bonus pool was $31.4 billion. Take away the hidden subsidy and the bonus pool disappears.

GM has got more than $600 million in federal contracts, plus $500 million in tax breaks. Some of this has gone into the pockets of GM executives. Chairman and CEO Mary Barra raked in almost $22 million in total compensation in 2017 alone.

Yet, GM is planning to lay off more than 14,000 workers and close three assembly plants and two component factories in North America by the end of 2019.

When he was in business, Trump perfected the art of using bankruptcy to shield himself from the consequences of bad decisions – socialism for the rich at its worst – while leaving employees twisting in the wind. 

Now, all over America, executives who run their companies into the ground are getting gold-plated exit packages while their workers get pink slips.

·       Sears is doling out $25 million to the executives who stripped its remaining assets and drove it into bankruptcy, but has no money for the thousands of workers it laid off.

·       As Pacific Gas and Electric hurtles toward bankruptcy, the person who was in charge when the deadly infernos roared through northern California last year (caused in part by PG&E’s faulty equipment) has departed with a cash severance package of $2.5 million. The PG&E executive in charge of gas operations when records were allegedly falsified left in 2017 with $6.9 million. 

·       Equifax’s Richard Smith retired in 2017 with an $18 million pension in the wake of a security breach that exposed the personal information of 145 million consumers to hackers.

·       Wells Fargo’s Carrie Tolstedt departed with a $125 million exit package after being in charge of the unit that opened more than 2 million unauthorized customer accounts.

GOP defines socialism as a society in which no one is held accountable, and no one has to work for what they receive. Yet that’s exactly the society Trump and the Republicans are promoting for the rich.

Most Americans are subject to an increasingly harsh and arbitrary capitalism in which they’re working harder but getting nowhere, and have less security than ever.

Reich concludes with this: If you want to call this socialism, fine. I call it fair.

Absolutely related and a must read here from Esquire.

The picture below and those seen the extensive article say is all – they all are ... well, see caption below;

In it for the Money and Not Much Else

My 2 cents: Super articles from a very smart man and very excellent reporting.

– I can’t add to or take away anything from either piece. Both are worth reading and bookmarking for sure.

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