November 7, 2017

Penn Wharton: Republican Tax Plan Would Do Almost Nothing to Boost GDP

The Penn Wharton Business Model has analyzed the Republican Tax plan and reports back that it will have the following effect on GDP:

What’s that? The chart is too small and you can’t see the difference? No worries: your eyes are fine. The problem is that there virtually is no difference. PWBM figures that by 2027 GDP would be .58 percent higher than it would be under current law. That’s a difference of .05 percent per year. And that’s with dynamic pixie dust included.

In other words, GDP growth over the past couple of decades has averaged about 2.3 percent per year. The Republican tax plan would increase that to…2.35 percent. This is not exactly the supercharged 3 percent economy Donald Trump promised us.

And it gets worse after 2027. Thanks to the $5 trillion in extra debt the tax cut generates, the economy would lose even this tiny amount of extra growth and maybe even grow slower than it would under current law. Between 2017 and 2040, the total net effect of the Republican plan is basically zero.

But a bunch of rich people would be a lot richer. Mission Accomplished!

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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