Chart of the Day: Corporate Profits Are Up, Corporate Taxes Are Down

Politico reports on the impact of the Republican tax cut:

Federal tax payments by big businesses are falling much faster than anticipated in the wake of Republicans’ tax cuts, providing ammunition to Democrats who are calling for corporate tax increases. The U.S. Treasury saw a 31 percent drop in corporate tax revenues last year, almost twice the decline official budget forecasters had predicted. Receipts were projected to rebound sharply this year, but so far they’ve only continued to fall, down by almost 9 percent or $11 billion.

This practically begs for a chart, doesn’t it? I’m here to help. The chart below shows corporate profits before and after the Republican tax cut, compared to corporate tax receipts (through May) before and after the tax cut. As you can see, President Trump signed the tax cut into law on December 22, 2017, and it was a very merry Christmas indeed for his big business pals.

Profits are up, taxes are down. And why are corporate taxes down? Because Republicans lowered their tax rate. Duh. You’d think that after 40 years there wouldn’t be anyone left in America who still believes that lowering tax rates will increase tax revenue. But the Republican Party seems to have an endless supply of marks for its con game on behalf of the rich.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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