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Trump Tariffs Are Bad For Economy

By Rocco J. Polidoro

An economics professor at Temple University in the late 1970s taught us that the Economy is relative to each person differently. He said if your neighbor is unemployed and struggling then that’s a Recession. But if you are unemployed and struggling then that’s a Depression. Trump supporters are over-looking his divisiveness and his polarization in our Country by focusing on just the Economy. They say the Economy is doing great, so they are all looking the other way. But is the Economy really doing great ? The stock market is doing well and its been doing well for almost the past 9 years. However if you are not invested in the stock market, are you doing well ? And yes the unemployment rate is low but if you are unemployed, retired or disabled, is that low rate helping you ?

Trump supporters think that the lower tax rates are helping every one. Economist estimate that the average worker is saving about $1200 a year under the new tax law. But here’s the rest of the story. According to a Bank of America economist, gas & oil prices are up about 30% this year. And that is eating up about 25% of those tax savings. The Trump tariff war is driving up costs on many products for Americans such as cars, motorcycles, washing machines and other appliances. And these product increases are eating up some of the tax savings too. An economist at Forbes said that with the deregulation of banking rules, interest rates on mortgages, car loans, equity loans and credit cards are rising and these increases will be eating up some of those tax savings.

And its no surprise that deregulations in the financial industry are driving up costs for Americans. The financial industry donated a lot of money to Trump and republican lawmakers, and we now have to pay for that. So when this year is finally over, some economist believe that we will probably be paying more in these added costs than what we were saving with the tax rate reductions.

Finally the US Bureau of Economic Analysis recently reported that the US trade deficit increased by another $22 Billion, a 7% increase in August alone. The Trump tariff war is actually making the trade deficit worse. And this will mean that American farmers and factory workers will see reductions in their productivity as time goes on. So when Trump supporters say that the Economy is doing well, its a smoke screen and not a complete picture of the whole Economy.

Mr. Polidoro is a resident of Springfield

Trump Tariffs Are Bad For Economy

Un-investable Would Have Been Result Of Wolf Policy

By David N. Taylor

Even after two decades in Harrisburg, the cynicism of some politicians can still surprise me.

This afternoon, Governor Tom Wolf will hold a bill signing ceremony for Senate Bill 1056, now Act 72 of 2018. Even as we express our gratitude to Sen. Michelle Brooks (R-Mercer), Rep. Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon), and all of our legislative allies, Act 72 became necessary ONLY due to the actions of Governor Wolf and his Department of Revenue.

In the quiet of the Friday before Christmas, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue published a policy change covering depreciation of capital investments, disallowing all depreciation on assets subject to 100 percent federal bonus depreciation. Furthermore, cost recovery of the asset would only be allowed at the time the asset would be sold or otherwise disposed of. For many manufacturers, this would never happen. Simply put, the tax policy changes enacted unilaterally by the Wolf Administration made Pennsylvania un-investable.

At the time, a Revenue spokesman wrote in an email that the new policy is needed to spare the General Fund from lower collections. Under the change, Pennsylvania businesses would have overpaid hundreds of millions in taxes, endured greater administrative burdens by having separate state and federal compliance records, and been an outlier among states with this new policy, forfeiting capital investments the federal changes were designed to encourage. Manufacturers, which are inherently capital-intensive, would have been particularly hard hit.

Even worse, the policy change issued by Governor Wolf’s Department of Revenue was made retroactive to the start of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Any business that was bringing home earnings from overseas, as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was designed to encourage, would never consider Pennsylvania as a place for investment and expansion under this rule. Because of this, we will never know how much business investment Pennsylvania missed out on from December 23, 2017 through the legislative fix signed on June 28, 2018.

Senator Brooks and Representative Ryan were both champions in their respective chambers to fix this harmful rule-making by Governor Wolf’s Department of Revenue. We thank them for their hard work in explaining this complex tax issue to their colleagues and implementing a legislative remedy. Governor Wolf, who was Ed Rendell’s Secretary of Revenue, deserves no credit for solving a problem he caused.

President & CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association

 

Un-investable Would Have Been Result Of Wolf Policy