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Trump Economic Policy Tag

When President Trump signed the tax bill into law, Democrats, particularly in blue states with high state income taxes, wailed.  The Nation declared the new tax law "a deliberate attack on blue states," and New York governor Andrew Cuomo called it an "attack only on blue states" and "economic civil war." Among the attacks they perceive is the new law's $10,000 maximum for all state and local deductions.  Oddly, the left is howling because this is, as Vox points out, "effectively raising taxes on wealthy people." Setting aside the fact that taxing the rich has been the leftist mantra for decades and became particularly shrill during the Obama administration, blue states are now actively looking for ways to get around this and other measures in the new tax law.

At a town hall meeting in 2016, then President Obama said of manufacturing: "Some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come back." With that in mind, it's very interesting to learn that manufacturing in the United States is up. Way up.

Prior to the Brexit vote, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) lent fuel to the "remain" proponents' "Project Fear" by predicting economic gloom for the UK should voters choose "leave."  Their doom and gloom report assured the world that leaving the EU would plunge the UK into economic decline. Indeed, the Bank of England predicted, incorrectly as it's turned out, that a UK vote to leave the EU would lead to recession.  This didn't happen, and as I noted in 2016, the UK has no problem reaching trade agreements on its own.  Unfettered by the EU albatross, the UK economy is now expected—by the CEBR no less—to flourish.

The House of Representatives has passed the tax reform bill again sincethe Senate stripped two provisions in the bill because it violated Senate rules and removed the title of the bill. The Senate passed the revised bill late last night, 51-48, and sent it back to the House. The House passed the revised bill 224-201. Now the bill heads to President Donald Trump.

ABC News suspended Brian Ross for his incorrect report last Friday about former Trump adviser Michael Flynn. Ross is currently enjoying a four week long suspension without pay. Now the network has decided he won't cover stories related to President Donald Trump.

Do not trust anti-Trump mainstream media reports based on anonymous sources. That's something we have learned time and again as the motive and pressure to generate headlines on supposed Russia campaign collusion is enormous. It's not just a matter of bad faith, although there's plenty of that. It's competition, and the desire to break news that will dominate news cycles.

SURPRISE! You didn't think the GOP tax reform bill would go off without a hitch, right? Because we all know that the government needs to keep spending so they can't cut too many taxes. The House Ways and Means Committee had a markup session on Monday and reports have emerged that multinational companies like Apple and Ford could possibly pay a 20% tax on any payments they make to offshore affiliates.

Despite numerous natural disasters, October added 261,000 jobs, below the expected 310,000, and unemployment is at 4.1%, which is the lowest in 17 years. From CNBC:
"Today's report, albeit a little bit mixed, is still a relatively decent number. It still points towards the positive trend that we've seen in payroll growth over the last several months and the last couple of years actually," said Tony Bedikian, head of global markets at Citizens Bank. "In general, the economy is moving along, though a little softer than many market participants anticipated."

Despite two massive hurricanes, the GDP, which is the measure of goods and services produced in America, grew to 3% in the third quarter. Experts estimated a growth of only 2.5% because of the natural disasters, but the "increase in inventory investment and a smaller trade deficit" helped offset the slow spending after the hurricanes. The White House economists have also said that if the proposed changes to corporate taxes go through the GDP could jump between 3 and 5 percent in a few years.

Senate Republicans released its 2018 budget, which includes terms to allow the lawmakers to push through tax reform through budget reconciliation. This would protect them from a Democratic Filibuster. The plan gives tax writers until November 13 to submit tax reform plans.

Obamacare repeal. Tax reform. Obamacare repeal. Now back top tax reform! President Donald Trump's administration and the GOP in Congress have released a framework for possible tax reform. The framework somewhat mirrors what Trump released in April: slashed corporate tax rate and three tax brackets. The Republicans hope this plan will finally give them a victory after too many failures to repeal Obamacare.

We all know that besides healthcare, tax reform is one of the bigger ideas on President Donald Trump's agenda. His administration has been screaming tax cuts while the left cries over lost "revenue." But instead of cutting spending like any sane person would do when caught in a tight budget, the lawmakers have been looking for ways to make up the lost money. Targeting a person's 401(k) has been floated around. A possible change includes taxing the earnings before a person places the money into the retirement fund. This has some worried because it could change your tax bracket once you retire and encourage people not to save as much as they usually do.

As Congress is scheduled to return from recess next week, President Donald Trump traveled to Missouri on Wednesday to encourage Congress to tackle tax reform and actually get the job done...unlike the ordeal with Obamacare. From Yahoo! News:
“I don’t want to be disappointed by Congress, do you understand me,” Trump said, pointing into a crowd that included much of the state’s GOP Congressional delegation. “Do you understand?” “I think Congress is going to make a comeback,” the president added. “I hope so.”

With Congress's recess about to end, eyes have turned to tax reform. But in a surprise twist, the White House has decided not to write its own tax reform plan, according to President Donald Trump's head economic aide. From The Financial Times:
“The ‘big six’ have been meeting and have come up with an outline . . . and we have a good skeleton that we have agreed,” Mr Cohn said in a reference to the lawmakers, himself and Mr Mnuchin. “Now it is Chairman Brady’s time to get the [House] ways and means committee together to put flesh and bone on it, and they will do it next week when the House comes back into session.”

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) spoke to CNBC today about financial situations that Congress will face once lawmakers return from their recess. In the interview, Ryan expressed the same views on the debt ceiling as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY):
 the Wisconsin Republican told CNBC from a Boeing factory in Washington state, where he was promoting tax reform.

While everyone is talking about statues or President Donald Trump taking a glance at the eclipse, America has some serious issues to address once Congress returns from its recess. This includes the debt ceiling. Last month, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged Congress to raise the debt ceiling to prevent the government from running out of money to pay its bills. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) provided some comfort to Mnuchin by assuring him there's a "zero chance" Congress will not raise the debt ceiling.