Drew Sheneman leads off by confronting the notion that lowering taxes will encourage reinvestment in a business.
It seems like utter nonsense, but it's at least a debatable economic theory.
As long as we leave out logic, history and human nature.
What is not debatable is the fakery of speeches from Dear Leader declaring that companies which have announced year-end bonuses are doing so as a result of his tax package.
The idea that major corporations could make such a move in the few days since the legislation was passed is either ignorance of how things work or a deliberate lie. Even if -- a huge "if" -- the company could make such a rapid decision, the bookkeeping required would make it impossible to process within such a short time.
Granted, someone could say, "Let's make arrangements for a bonus, but don't announce it until we see how the tax package fares in Congress."
But they wouldn't.
Worse than Dear Leader's self-serving, transparent bullshit are the rightwing cartoons that back him up.
Whether a cartoonist is deliberately lying about this stuff or is too lazy to do a little homework or is simply a damn fool makes no difference: It's still spreading misinformation.
Speaking of which, I haven't been able to verify that Eisenhower actually said this quote that is going around the Internet, so I'll pass it along not as verified history but as obvious wisdom.
Taxes are paid on profits. If you want to reduce your taxes, reduce your profits.
Whether or not General Eisenhower ever said so, it makes no goddam sense to pay taxes on profits and then turn around and spend your profits on something that's deductible.
Whether you are taxed at 90% or 9%, the goal remains to reduce your tax burden by claiming as many business expenses as possible up front.
Any damn fool knows that.
In fact, one quote I can verify is that, when Candidate Trump was accused by Candidate Clinton of not having paid federal taxes, he said, "That makes me smart" and then, moments later, denied having said what a nationwide audience had heard him say.
DANA BASH: My question for you is, first of all, it sounds like you admitted that you hadn’t paid federal taxes and that, that was smart. Is that what you meant to say?
TRUMP: No, I didn’t say that at all. I mean if they say I didn’t, I mean it doesn’t matter. I will say this, I hate the way our government spends our taxes because they are wasting our money. They don’t know what they’re doing. They’re running it so poorly. Whether it’s spent in Iraq or wherever they’re spending it, they are wasting our money. So I do hate the way our government spends our money.
I don't know whether to distrust him because he doesn't understand how the economy works or because he is a pathological liar.
What I do know is that maximizing business expenses is how a business reduces its taxable income and that, if you're going to lose the money anyway, you'd do better to "lose" it by expanding your business than by simply forking it over to the government.
The idea that, if you hand over less to the government, you'd spend your own resulting income on jobs and expansion rather than on polo ponies and trips to fancy golf clubs in Florida is nonsense.
Whether Eisenhower said it or not.
I'm willing to debate counterintuitive, counter-historical economic theory.
Only don't tell me that major corporations make major elective spending decisions in a matter of days.
Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.
How the Other Half Lives
I said yesterday that Agnes and Trout live in a world of matter-of-fact poverty, and today's strip underlines the idea.
These little girls play it for comedy, but it's too real in the three-dimensional world, where we have backtracked on the mission of LBJ and Bobby Kennedy to level the playing field for the next generation.
It reminds me of a time in the summer of '68 when a buddy and I hitched into Chicago for a concert and were dropped off on an edge of town that meant walking through some mean streets to get to the Loop.
The sidewalks were crumbling, the storefronts were empty, anything within reach was vandalized. It wasn't scary -- long hair would usually get you through neighborhoods controlled by the Panthers or the Blackstone Rangers -- but it was infinitely depressing.
Up ahead, we saw a crowd gathering on the sidewalk and, as we drew nearer, a flashing light on top of a vehicle. When we got there, we found an animal control van and a shepherd mix being put in the back while some very young black kids cried and their mother comforted them.
"It's okay," she said. "He's just going to jail for a few days."
I didn't say it was a funny story. It might be funny in Agnes. A lot of things are funny in cartoons that you'd never want to see in real life.
But this is indeed the perspective we offer more and more little kids so that the fat cat in Sheneman's cartoon can enjoy his untaxed profits.
And so ...
I'm not sure exactly when that stroll through the get-toe happened, but it was just a few weeks before the streets of Chicago were filled with people chanting "The Whole World Is Watching."
We can't count on Mayor Daley hosting a nationally televised display of what's going on these days, but we can ask cartoonists to shine that spotlight, and we can reward them when they do.
I'm on record as not thinking much of awards, but here's a contest that might be worth entering -- hat tip to Cartoon Movement -- and here's a list of others, provided by the AAEC.
Some of the prizes even include the words "Pay to the order of ..."
Hey, even Robin Hood had to feed his Merry Men.
On behalf of my fellow Canadians...
More popcorn, anyone?
Posted by: sean martin | 12/27/2017 at 09:16 AM
I don't check your blog enough.
Posted by: Trevor M | 12/27/2017 at 02:06 PM
With the likes of Ryan or McConnell, the question of ignorance versus malice has some meaning, because they have credibility. With the Incredible Trump, though, it's really not a fallacy to assume that isn't dichotomous... you can certainly distrust him because he doesn't understand AND because he's a pathological liar. There's evidence enough for both. And really, if you do give him the benefit and assume ignorance over malice, then to have that much ignorance is effectively evil anyways given the position he holds and the damage it can do.
Posted by: Brent | 12/27/2017 at 06:50 PM
Dear Leader's announcement over the weekend that he personally was responsible for bringing back "Merry Christmas" was my personal favorite. Wonder when the tape will surface where he declares he groped the Virgin Mary ?
Posted by: Mary McNeil | 12/27/2017 at 07:32 PM
That doesn't seem to be attribution the tax explanation to Eisenhower, Eisenhower is just there to represent the time Republicans presumably yearn for, when
America was Great.
Posted by: Fruitbat | 12/27/2017 at 10:23 PM
Hmm ... you might be right, Fruitbat. As I said, wisdom whether a quote or not.
Posted by: Mike Peterson | 12/28/2017 at 03:38 AM