Trump finance secretary/supervillain Steve Mnuchin
says he wants to unilaterally allow Americans to factor in inflation
when calculating capital gains; the move would cost the US government
$100 billion and 97% of that would go to the top 10% of US earners (66%
would go to the 0.1% of US earners).
Trump and Mnuchin say they can do this without Congressional approval,
based on cherry-picked legal opinions that contradict earlier Republican
presidential findings – Bush I’s legal team concluded that it would be
illegal for the President to pull a stunt like this.
However, if they manage it, it means that President Elizabeth Warren
will have broad latitude to raise taxes on the super-rich in 2020, even
if Congressional Republicans object. Trump and his looters are obviously
betting that they’ll hold onto power indefinitely (or they’ll take
their money and go into hiding in a Caribbean tax-haven with no
extradition treaty).
America’s deficit skyrocketed this year after Trump’s earlier tax-cuts for the super-rich resulted in a massive shortfall in expected tax revenues.
