WASHINGTON ― Republicans insist their tax cut bill will benefit workers, though the legislation has few provisions that directly benefit people with modest incomes in the long run.
Instead, the core of the bill is a huge cut to corporate taxes, bringing the top rate down from 35 to 20 percent. Republicans say workers will be better off if corporate executives and shareholders have more money.
“If they’re making money, they invest that money, they create more opportunities, more jobs, more research,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told HuffPost.
A number of top CEOs, however, have signaled they plan to reward their investors instead.
Instead of hiring more workers or increasing wages, executives from major companies including Cisco Systems, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, Amgen and Honeywell have said they plan to use the windfall from the corporate tax cut to first increase stock dividends or to buy back shares.
“We’ll be able to get much more aggressive on the share buyback” after the tax cut is passed into law, Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer said in an earnings call earlier this month. Stock buybacks increase the value of shares held by investors ― a group that typically includes corporate executives, who are among the corporate tax cut’s biggest proponents.
Instead, the core of the bill is a huge cut to corporate taxes, bringing the top rate down from 35 to 20 percent. Republicans say workers will be better off if corporate executives and shareholders have more money.
“If they’re making money, they invest that money, they create more opportunities, more jobs, more research,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told HuffPost.
A number of top CEOs, however, have signaled they plan to reward their investors instead.
Instead of hiring more workers or increasing wages, executives from major companies including Cisco Systems, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, Amgen and Honeywell have said they plan to use the windfall from the corporate tax cut to first increase stock dividends or to buy back shares.
“We’ll be able to get much more aggressive on the share buyback” after the tax cut is passed into law, Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer said in an earnings call earlier this month. Stock buybacks increase the value of shares held by investors ― a group that typically includes corporate executives, who are among the corporate tax cut’s biggest proponents.
