Donald Trump’s tax plan is historically unpopular. Nevertheless, Republicans are on the precipice of passing the first major restructuring of the American tax code in thirty years thanks to one-party control of Congress and a relative lack of public outrage. The president will likely end his first year in office with a major tax cut for corporations as his only domestic achievement — and at least one host on his favorite television channel is not impressed.
“Yes, I love the idea of lower corporate taxes,” Fox Business Network host Trish Regan said of the Republican plan on her show last week, “but I really do not like what they’re doing on the individual side.” The normally pro-Trump pundit who regularly guest-hosts on Fox News explained that savings that businesses will see would be offset by individual taxpayers. “My concern here is it’s going to hurt the individual. And so, effectively, individuals are carrying the water for these corporations — they get that great tax cut on the corporate side, but people are not gonna get it on the individual side.”
The Republican plan cuts the corporate tax rate nearly in half. In order to pay for the permanent 21 percent corporate tax rate without increasing the deficit after 10 years, per Senate rules, Republicans allowed the tax cuts on individuals to expire.
Noting that while campaigning the president promised a tax cut for the working and middle-class Americans who supported him, Regan blasted the bill. “I don’t think it’s gonna be much of a Christmas present, it’s more like getting coal in your stocking because your tax bill is gonna go up.”
She continued her pointed assault against the bill on Monday, as the last reluctant Republicans in the Senate lined up in support of the final legislation. (Republicans leaders say they are confident they will be able to get the bill passed in both chambers and on Trump’s desk by Wednesday.)
“The president keeps touting this as the biggest tax cut ever,” Regan said. “And it’s also great for a lot of fat cat private equity investors, and there is something wrong with that.”
Despite his impassioned campaign pledge to get rid of the "carried interest" loophole that allows wealthy private equity fund managers to claim a lower capital gains rate on much of their income from investments, Trump’s tax bill does nothing of the sort.
“The president promised to fix this, remember?” Regan posed to her Fox Business viewers.
Regan then went off on Trump’s Finance Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who explained to her in a Dec. 10 interview that the “carried interest” loophole was not eliminated as promised because “it is a complicated issue. It’s not that much money.”
An astounded Regan then asked a question that would normally be unspeakable on Trump-era Fox stations: “I’m beginning to wonder if our country is ungovernable?”
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