Sugar plum fairies
by Tom Sullivan
Mar-a-Lago entrance. Photo by tommietheturtle from Palm Beach, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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To no one’s surprise, the Republicans’ tax overhaul, won’t pay for itself, says the Joint Committee on Taxation’s new report. Released hours after the president had signed the bill into law, the committee’s summary is blunt:
The bill will cost in excess of $1 trillion over 10 years, a reduction in the committee’s initial $1.46 trillion estimate for the tax measure. At a hastily arranged signing ceremony in the Oval Office with only the press present, the sitting president promised the tax cuts would be “fantastic for the economy.”
Must. Do. What. TV. Says.
The signing came unexpectedly:
Trump told the press that he initially planned to sign the bill in early January at a “big formal ceremony,” but changed his mind after watching TV this morning. “I watched the news this morning they were all saying, ‘Will he keep his promise? Will he sign it by Christmas.’ And I called downstairs and I said, get it ready, we have to sign it now,” Trump said.
Bypassing the “big formal ceremony” will be a sore disappointment to Republican leaders who won’t get their moment of triumph memorialized by photos with the president. Suckers. Trump handed out their ceremonial pens to the press instead.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t just the TV that prompted the snap signing. The JCT report was on its way, Plum Line’s Greg Sargent suggests in a tweet:
Perfect:
1) Trump signs bill likely saving himself/family tens of millions of dollars
2) Leaves town
3) JCT analysis finds GOP vow of explosive econ growth paying for tax cuts is $1 trillion sham
4) Trump is already in Mar-a-Lago
5) Twitter Trumpkins think *they’ve* won
They’ll have visions of sugar-plums dancing in their heads. The one-percent, anyway. The rest will be dreaming of gazillions of new jobs spawned by yet another GOP tax cut that will pay for itself. During the bill signing, a rambling president told reporters his bill had received a thumbs-up from Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots:
Trump mentioned to reporters during the signing in the Oval Office that he received a call Thursday night from his “friend” and fellow billionaire, who he said praised the legislation.
“He said this tax bill is incredible,” the president said. “He owns the New England Patriots, but, he’s in the paper business, too. And he said based on this tax bill that he just wanted to let me know that he’s going to a buy a big plant in the great state of North Carolina, and he’s going to build a tremendous paper mill there — or paper products plant.”
Asked by the Boston Business Journal to confirm the president’s claim, Kraft spokesperson Stacey James avoided mention of any building plans:
“In terms of Mr. Kraft’s own business interests, he is always exploring opportunities locally, nationally and internationally,” James said. “The Kraft Group currently does business in 95 countries and owns manufacturing facilities in 14 states, including North Carolina.”
Kraft may have plans he means to keep on the down-low, but the likelihood is the president was engaging in more of his trademarked puffery.
This place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere.
When dealing with Donald Trump, it is always best to watch your wallet. Dana Milbank reports on how his tax plan treats Puerto Rico as a foreign country, hitting businesses there with a 12.5 percent tax on income from intellectual property. The move gives pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers there incentive to move off-island:
You might recognize this pattern, even if you don’t care about Puerto Rico and the suffering of the more than 3 million Americans there. Trump comes in with razzle-dazzle and self-congratulation, promising great things to come. Then, when the cameras are off, comes the quiet collapse.
The prototype is the Trump Taj Mahal Atlantic City. In April 1990, it opened with much fanfare as the world’s largest casino-hotel complex. Six months later, it defaulted on payments. Nine months after that, it filed for bankruptcy.
It is the Trump playbook, write Jonathan C. Lipson and Andrea Monroe of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law in USA Today: Buy extravagantly today, and leave someone else to foot the bill tomorrow.
The Palm Beach Post’s Christine Stapleton and Lawrence Mower published a report Thursday detailing yet again the risk anyone takes in making deals with Donald Trump.
The pair explore Trump’s creative use of preservation easements for avoiding paying taxes:
Congress created the charitable deduction in 1969 as an incentive to conserve land and preserve historic buildings, but by the 2000s, it became widely abused by the wealthy. In such easements, owners donate control of property, be it land or historic features, to a nonprofit, reducing an estate’s value.
Before the Internal Revenue Service cracked down on them, easements were on the agency’s list of “Dirty Dozen Tax Scams.”
The lengthy article details how Trump cut a deal in the early 1990s with the Palm Beach town council to “donate” an easement that would preserve the historic Mar-a-Lago property in exchange for approval to open it as a private club. The easement would allow the cash-strapped Trump to write off $5.7 million in estimated value from is income taxes:
But Trump’s promise couldn’t be in writing, Trump attorney Rampell told the council, according to meeting minutes and transcripts. If the council insisted Trump’s commitment be in writing, his donation might be disqualified by the IRS as a charitable contribution.
The final quid-pro-quo arrangement gave the real estate magnate his tax deduction in exchange for donating the easement to the National Trust. The arrangement requires the property to be open to the public. Of course, Trump found a way around that:
For one day a year, up to 100 members of the public must be allowed on the grounds of the estate for “viewing and study.” On one other day, Trump must allow up to 20 members of the public into the mansion “for the purpose of viewing and studying the historic and architectural characteristics of the property.”
So who are the lucky ones standing in long lines to get a glimpse within the lavish estate?
Socialites who pay up to $1,000 for tickets to charity galas. Friends of members and small groups invited in for weddings, lectures and luncheons.
David Frum explains in a piece in Esquire detailing rot in conservatism, “The problem with the devil’s bargain is that the devil never delivers … That’s the point of the story.”
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