"Just amazing," said one economic analyst. "Really hard to get your head around. But it's true."
If the Senate Republicans' latest version of their tax overhaul bill passes, foreign investors will receive a financial benefit nearly three times larger than all U.S. taxpayers combined, according to a new analysis released Saturday.
In its updated analysis, the non-partisan Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) found that while U.S. households would receive $8 billion in net benefits from the plan, wealthy overseas investors would capture an astonishing $22 billion.
"By 2027," the anlysis states, "foreign investors would benefit more than American households overall under the bill as written. While some households would pay more and others would pay less, in 2027 the average net effect for U.S. households would be a tax cut of $8 billion, which is much smaller than the $22 billion benefit to foreign investors."
As Seth Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, explained, "The reason that foreign investors are the biggest winners is that they own about 1/3 of the shares of U.S. corporations." And because the plan drops the corporate tax rate from 35% down to just 20%, he added: "Corporations are getting a huge tax cut, paid for by tax increases on Americans, and by fewer Americans [with] health insurance."
At the same time, the new ITEP analysis shows that low- and middle-income taxpayers will see tax increases while high-income earners receive massive tax cuts:
Needless to say, the findings didn't go over well with many:
Another unAmerican nugget in the #GOPTaxScam is that foreign investors, through their nearly 1/3 corp. ownership, will get the largest slice of tax breaks paid by you and me, the American taxpayers. Your money paid to foreigners... #maga ?! BS! #TrumpChumps you've been played. https://t.co/lNM9Fn5rPm
— SeanyBoy (@SeanyBoy_sd) November 18, 2017
You did not promise American people tax bill that puts up to 1/3 of tax cut in the pockets of foreign investors. #GOPTaxScam
— CatherineLewers (@PeaGreenCorner) November 16, 2017
In fact, under the Senate GOP bill, the tax cut for foreign investors is almost three times as big as the net benefits for all American households, rich and poor. Just amazing. Really hard to get your head around. But it's true.
— Seth Hanlon (@SethHanlon) November 18, 2017
This article was originally published on Commondreams.org