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| A/O Global Intelligence Weekly: VICTORY and the New Direction For America |
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This week is a tremendous victory for American Opportunity as the AO/FCF Growth Code finally saw sunlight in Washington, as the U.S. Congress passed the first serious tax reform package since President Reagan's tax reform bill in 1986.
Yet because of a nearly eight year running campaign of advocacy, American Opportunity can claim what has to be the most historic victory we have ever seen as an organization -- the implementation of our common sense economic policies as law.
Few organizations can claim likewise.
Of course, the Growth Code as proposed went much farther and was more bold than what Capitol Hill will transmit to the White House in time for Christmas. As a result, it will be the American Opportunity Growth Code -- in a very real sense -- that will become the defining issue of 2018.
It is a policy we ought to defend loudly and clearly in 2018. Tax cuts that spur the economy? Or the return to the dark days of low growth, low wages, and diminished opportunities?
What is at stake here is our American commitment to economic growth and a stronger, more vibrant future with better jobs, higher wages, legitimate opportunities for young people, especially in the African-American community where unemployment for young blacks hovers at an outrageous 21%.
This initiative would not be and has not been possible in previous years, nor would it have been possible without President Trump keeping the heat on in moving the country towards this new direction.
For decades, the American left has been satisfied with slow growth, and during the Obama era, the political left in this country has treated economic contraction as the new normal. Our benchmark here at American Opportunity has always been 3.2% growth. Without that rate of growth, the economy simply isn't recovering from the twin effects of population growth plus inflation. Over the last decade growth has been 2% or less -- effectively a contracting U.S. economy. That is frankly not a "normal" that we should condemn the
The bill delivers benefits for everyone -- and when we say that this is a bill creates tax relief and economic prosperity for all Americans across the board? This bill doubles the standard deduction to $24,000 for a married couple. Child care credits double from $1,000 to $2,000. Corporate income taxes being dropped to 21% invite over $15 trillion dollars of overseas capital back into the United States without threat of double taxation.
For farmers and other large landowners? The estate tax exemption doubles to $22 million, which is great news for family businesses and family farms. As a principle of basic fairness, much of this money has already been taxed once before while the rest is taxed two or even three times over. In short, what's earned is yours -- not the property of the government.
Coming back to the corporate tax rates again, this bill drops the rate from the highest in the world to a much more competitive 21%, creating the incentives for corporations to invest in infrastructure and create more money for America's working class. This is preciselythe sort of investment that produces jobs and higher wages as corporations must bid up wages to get and keep workers. As they create wealth, more wages are paid -- creating a virtuous feedback loop to counteract the vicious cycle created in no small part by the Obama administration.
Naturally, there are still improvements to be made. More importantly, these gains must be defended.
But first we have to educate the American people that this new direction is right and the so-called "resistance" of fading socialists and left-wing academic shills are wrong. Otherwise they will take us back in 2018 to doom America's future with slow growth and economies that emphasize scarcity over prosperity.
We must reset the terms of the national debate. American Opportunity could not be happier to see our policies finally enacted after nearly eight years of advocacy -- and we will do our part to inform and advocate.
More after the jump. . .
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