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Trump tax bill intended to help his wealthy buddies in real estate: Analyst

Wednesday, 20 December 2017 7:33 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 20 December 2017 7:33 PM ]

The newly passed GOP tax bill in the Republican controlled Congress is meant to help big business, especially in the real estate sector, says Scott Rickard a former American intelligence linguist.

In an interview with Press TV on Wednesday, Rickard called US President Donald Trump a “real estate mobster-in-chief” and said just like former President Harry Truman, Trump is influenced and surrounded by special interests and mafia.

“Looks like the real estate mobster-in-chief, also known as Donald Trump, is going to help out his buddies in the real estate business.”

The House of Representative on Wednesday approved the massive Republican plan to overhaul the tax code, clearing the bill’s final hurdle in Congress and sending it to Trump to be signed into law.

The House vote comes after the Senate approved an identical measure early Wednesday morning, with all Democrats opposed and all Republicans present in support.

Under the tax proposal, the top rate of income tax will drop from 39.6 percent to 37 percent, in a move that will intensify criticism of the deal as overly generous to the wealthy and big business.

PressTV-Senate Republicans approve sweeping tax overhaul

The Republican-led Senate has passed a sweeping overhaul of the US tax code, with all Democrats united in opposition.

In a tweet, Trump cheered the bill’s passage, saying, “The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill. Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare) Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote.”

Wealthy business owners, such Trump, stand to gain from a provision in the Republican tax bill that creates a valuable deduction for owners of pass-through businesses, Democrats and some tax experts say.

“The president will try to tell the American people that his great political victory is a win for working people, but they see all the benefits going to his type of businesses: real estate pass-throughs,” Democratic Senator Jack Reed said on the Senate floor.

“This seems ideally suited for commercial property businesses, where there aren’t a lot of workers, but there is a lot of valuable property around,” said Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank.

The tax overhaul is likely to drive income disparities even wider in the US, through generous tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest Americans, according to a massive new study on global inequality.

The rise of income inequality in the United States is “largely due to massive educational inequalities, combined with a tax system that grew less progressive,” according to the 2018 World Inequality Report, written by a team of leading international economists including Thomas Piketty.

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