DENVER -- President Donald Trump signed the tax cut bill in front of reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.
In Trump’s first major legislative victory, the House and Senate passed the tax measure into law earlier this week, delivering Trump his first major legislative victory of his first year in office.
“I think to think about this bill we have to think about it as a tax cut, not tax reform,” Carol Hedges of the Colorado Fiscal Institute told Anne Trujillo on this week’s Politics Unplugged. “It’s been sold on making it simpler and I don’t think that’s actually what happened. I think what we’re seeing is that 50 percent of the tax cut benefit in Colorado is going to go to the top five percent of income earners.”
Hedges says that while everyone will likely see some change in their taxes, those changes will likely be countered with dramatic reductions in federal programs like school lunches and long-term care for the elderly.
University of Denver finance professor Mac Clouse says it’s hard to overlook the benefit of the plan to businesses.
“It’s good for businesses and if it’s good for businesses it’s good for employment, incomes, things like that,” Clouse said during the discussion. “I don’t think we need to worry too much about the fact that while the decrease in the corporate tax rate is permanent, but they say the individual tax rate is not permanent. Between now and 2025 a lot of things can happen.”
Politics Unplugged airs Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Denver7.