One would think that Wall Street would loves them some drumpf tax cuts for gazillionaires, but it seems that not many on Sugarplum Ave. think that Mnuchin’s cocktail napkin easy money plan for the top one tenth of one percent has much chance of being enacted into law...
“At Bank of America, analysts told clients that the plan released has “a few more details” than the one-page outline circulated in April, but is “far from comprehensive,” containing “all the goodies but none of the pain,” i.e. how this thing is actually going to be paid for. Considering that “any new taxes, repeal of deductions, and loopholes, or a significant increase in the budget deficit could face stiff opposition in Congress,” the bank believes “Congress is unlikely to get significant tax legislation passed by next year, leaving our economic outlook unchanged for 2018.” At Morgan Stanley, experts put the odds of the proposed corporate tax rate actually falling to 20 percent, as the Big Six have proposed, as similar to those of Trump announcing he’s leaving Twitter, having decided it’s an unproductive, inappropriate use of his time. “Given the procedural constraints for achieving a permanent corporate tax rate reduction, and the unattractiveness of a temporary corporate rate cut, our base case is that legislation will ultimately settle closer to a 25 percent rate given the political challenges of embracing the yet unidentified pay fors required to achieve 20 percent,” the bank told clients. As for the notion that Democrats might support a plan that cuts the top individual tax rate and scraps the inheritance tax that affects only the ultra-wealthy? “Barring any significant changes, we think the idea of bipartisan tax reform that garners enough Democratic votes to clear the filibuster hurdle can be put to rest,” they said.”
On Twitter, National Review editor Rich Lowryposed the question“How can you spend months touting a middle-class tax cut and then introduce a plan that doesn’t reliably cut middle-class taxes?” At BloombergView, his colleague Ramesh Ponnuru correctly noted that “A tax reform that leaves out the middle class while cutting taxes for the rich won’t just be unbalanced. It will be unviable, too.”
Sheesh, even W and the ‘rassling coach could figure out how to cut taxes.