Mark Sanford’s tax vote is profound hypocrisy
A perusal of U.S. Rep. Mark Stanford’s defense of his vote for the tax bill reveals that the profound hypocrisy of this self-proclaimed deficit hawk is matched by the demonstrable inaccuracy of his arguments.
He states that the bill represents more good than bad for coastal South Carolina. In truth, most of his constituents will see modest tax refunds for five years, after which they will be paying more taxes permanently.
He claims that adding over $1 trillion to the debt is not a big deal. Hey, what’s an extra trillion or two? His biggest misstatement is that this tax cut will spur significant economic growth, while every reputable economist and the Congressional Budget Office indicate a 0.8 percent growth is most likely. “Trickle down” economics has been tried before, and has always been a dismal failure.
A case could be made for lowering the business tax rate if all the other loopholes were closed (they were not). Those loopholes already result in an effective tax rate of 21 percent, and companies like GE pay no taxes whatsoever.
Moreover, these companies have no intention of using this windfall to hire more people or buy more equipment. Instead, they will buy back their stock and increase dividends to shareholders.
Sanford conveniently neglects to mention that most of the individual tax cuts will go to rich individuals like himself. It is high time to send this man back to his farm, where he can count those extra dollars at his leisure.
Kevin Kelso
Hilton Head Island
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This story was originally published December 28, 2017 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Mark Sanford’s tax vote is profound hypocrisy."