Fox's Cavuto questions Rep. Brady - He dodges and weaves

[Martinius]

Because you brought it upNo, I'm being intellectually rigorous about it. If anyone says anything I know to be factually incorrect, I'll usually say something.

Very True. And our friend Saucy is using a report from a biased private lobbying group. A report that uses a lot of estimates, assumptions and guesses.

There are a couple of interesting items in the report. They assume an AVERAGE wage for all illegal immigrants of $10/hour. Yet, as Saucy says, these workers are sending money back to their families. Wow! How do they do it? The report also says that tax collections would improve if we gave illegals amnesty and made them legal. But, they say, they would then be eligible for Social Security. Tell me, how much SS income will accrue to someone who works at a $10/hour job for 15 or 20 years? Right, not much. And likely offset by payroll taxes and other taxes the government will collect.

To try to un-derail this thread, think about what would happen if these people were suddenly gone. One California farmer was purchasing more automated equipment, expecting to lose most of his migrant workers. He knows that he won't find Americans to work for those wages, so he either has to automate or pay the workers he can find a lot more. Either way, HIS COSTS go up, along with prices we pay for his product. And if Trump gets his way, American farmers will not be able to grow some of the stuff we now import, and what they can produce will be more limited, raising prices even more. Avocados at $4 each, anyone? $5000 more for your next car?

Maybe Trump wants the rest of America to join him in filing bankruptcy.

 

[Martinius]

Well whatever. You guys have all the answers so it doesn't matter what I say. Good day to you all.

Thanks, you too. We don't have all the answers, but we have more good questions, like a lot of people (congress people, business people, economists, tax experts), many more than Trump apparently can think of.

 

[Martinius]

Hey, here is a question. In my day, most of us teenagers worked. Part time jobs, summer employment. Today, other than a few who are lifeguards at the country clubs in the summer, that seems to be history. So who fills those jobs that even unskilled kids won't take?

 

[Armoured]

Hey, here is a question. In my day, most of us teenagers worked. Part time jobs, summer employment. Today, other than a few who are lifeguards at the country clubs in the summer, that seems to be history. So who fills those jobs that even unskilled kids won't take?

Whenever I hear the "DEY TERK ER JERBS!" complaint, I am always curious to know how many of the complainants would actually want, or even accept as a last resort, the sorts of jobs for the sorts of pay and conditions that illegal residents tend to work in?

 

[Saucy]

It's not an easy topic to talk about. I have a huge heart for people. I don't want Trump to rip families apart or anything like that. And a lot of the illegals probably deserve citizenship for what they give back to the country. So, it's not so cut and dry.

At the same time, I know guys with two college degrees and flipping burgers because they can't find work. We have a $20 trillion deficit. There's Americans who can't find a place to live, get a decent job, is forced to pay a fine because they can't afford healthcare. We're not taking care of our own infrastructure, our vets, our homeless, and our poor.

I live in/near Flint, MI and it angers me that Obama gave a parting shot of $121 million to the Palestinians when our governor had to pull teeth to get any funding at all. And the people of Flint STILL don't have clean water. We simply are strapped, but paying over $100 billion a year to take care of illegals.

There has to be some kind of line in the sand here. What common ground can we find?

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

You don't think Donald Trump might know a bit more about business than Cavuto? If it's one area perhaps we could trust the guy in is business sense?

I think Cavuto knows, if he pays a 20 percent tax hike on taxes . American business won't be able to afford it. And will look else where. Or go with out. The poor won't be able to afford food. Every one would complain if they had a 20 percent hike on groceries.

 

[AvgJoe]

I think Cavuto knows, if he pays a 20 percent tax hike on taxes . American business won't be able to afford it. And will look else where. Or go with out. The poor won't be able to afford food. Every one would complain if they had a 20 percent hike on groceries.

It could/would be even worse than that. Take Walmart for example, the low price leader, for the last 5 years has had an average profit margin of 3.3%~~~> Wal-Mart Stores Profit Margin (Quarterly) (WMT) .

Take the $100 sale, I used earlier, as an example. A $100 Walmart product - $70 product cost = $30 - $26.70 expenses = $3.30 (3.3% profit margin). Under current tax law, Walmart's tax bill on that sale will be $1.16 ($3.3 x .35 tax rate = $1.16). Under the new law, their tax bill on that sale will be $20 ($100 x .2 tax rate = $20). Do you see that Walmart's tax burden just went up be 1,624%? Can you see why Brady doesn't want to talk about this?

For Walmart to cover the new tax burden and maintain a 3.3% profit margin, the cost of this item will go up by 26%, so the new price will be $126. How many of us are going to be in a better position if the border adjustment import tax passes?

 

[AvgJoe]

Now the really bad part, the border adjustment import tax. If you import a product into the US and sell it in the US, then you pay the new 20% tax on the total price of that sale. Let's use a $100 product as an example, which the company paid $70 for, has $20 in expenses and the remaining $10 is their profit. Under current tax law, only the profit is taxed, so we have $10 x .35 (35% tax rate) = $3.50 tax bill. Under the new law the total amount of the sale is taxed, there are no deductions for your cost and expenses, so $100 x .2 (20% tax rate) = $20 tax bill.

As you can see, under the new tax law, this company's tax bill just went up by 471%, plus their tax bill is now twice as much as their profit on the sale. Now think about, all of the Walmart & Target stores, all of the 90% of clothes and shoes (that are made overseas) stores, all of the smartphone/electronics stores and all of the other countless businesses that import their products, where are they going to come up with the money to pay for this??? The ONLY place they can, from you and me, the consumer. Just in the example above, the company would have to raise their price, by 20.6%, just to break even with their new tax burden. Imagine going to your favorite store and the price of everything has risen by 20+%. If this border adjustment import tax passes, Americans will pay, dearly, and the government will receive a tax windfall.

I'm sorry, the first example I gave of the border adjusted import tax, quoted above, was wrong. The increase in product cost is much worse than I calculated. In that example, I failed to maintain the same profit margin, when determining the price increase percentage needed to cover the new tax increase. So, in the quoted example, for the company to break even with their new tax burden and maintain their current profit margin, the company would have to raise their price by 28.5%, so that $100 item now costs $128.50 thanks to the border adjusted import tax that the Republicans want to pass.

 

[KCfromNC]

Hey, here is a question. In my day, most of us teenagers worked. Part time jobs, summer employment. Today, other than a few who are lifeguards at the country clubs in the summer, that seems to be history. So who fills those jobs that even unskilled kids won't take?

Humanities postdocs?

 

[Martinius]

Whenever I hear the "DEY TERK ER JERBS!" complaint, I am always curious to know how many of the complainants would actually want, or even accept as a last resort, the sorts of jobs for the sorts of pay and conditions that illegal residents tend to work in?

You just gave me an idea. I know a guy who runs a lawn cutting and landscaping service. Most of his employees are Hispanic ( legal or illegal, I don't know). If Trump gets his way, my friend may lose workers. Being a retiree, I can offer my services running a lawn mower or weed wacker this summer. He may have to pay me a little more than he paid his current guys, but we will do it under the table; cash in an envelope each week. No reporting or payroll taxes for him, no income tax for me. A win-win situation.

 

[Hank77]

Well, corporate taxes are different than border tariffs, and are calculated entirely differently. When you buy something, does the seller normally pay the sales tax? Does the hotel or restaurant cover the taxes that appear on your bill? Me either.

I didn't do a good job of explaining myself.
What I was trying to say is that a border tariff would lower the profits on imported goods but a decrease in the corp. taxes on those profits from 35% to 15% would off set a major portion of that loss.

I was thinking it would be more like a VAT on imports and not on exports, a simple consumption tax that by the time it reached the consumer it may not be 20% but more like 7% and anything made in the US would not include this tax. But it isn't maybe or maybe....
I've been trying to find articles with details, but I'm not having much luck.
Trump Is Right: 'Border Adjustment' Tax Is Complicated

 

[Hank77]

You just gave me an idea. I know a guy who runs a lawn cutting and landscaping service. Most of his employees are Hispanic ( legal or illegal, I don't know). If Trump gets his way, my friend may lose workers. Being a retiree, I can offer my services running a lawn mower or weed wacker this summer. He may have to pay me a little more than he paid his current guys, but we will do it under the table; cash in an envelope each week. No reporting or payroll taxes for him, no income tax for me. A win-win situation.

LOL That is one of the reasons some of the Rep. have pushed for a federal sales tax (consumption tax), so they can get those taxes when you spend that under the table income.

 

[Martinius]

LOL That is one of the reasons some of the Rep. have pushed for a federal sales tax (consumption tax), so they can get those taxes when you spend that under the table income.

Actually, that may not be a bad idea. It would be harder to avoid that tax, I would think.

 

[Hank77]

Actually, that may not be a bad idea. It would be harder to avoid that tax, I would think.

They were calling for 10% and reimbursements to lower income people. What I didn't like about it is that they could just increase it with a congressional bill. You might as well just hand them a blank check.
Also, I didn't like that it would apply to home sales. That would mean a home buyer would be paying mortgage interest on that added 10%.
I'm used to voting on sales tax and property tax increases where you know where that money will be spent.

 

[Martinius]

They were calling for 10% and reimbursements to lower income people. What I didn't like about it is that they could just increase it with a congressional bill. You might as well just hand them a blank check.
Also, I didn't like that it would apply to home sales. That would mean a home buyer would be paying mortgage interest on that added 10%.
I'm used to voting on sales tax and property tax increases where you know where that money will be spent.

I would not like it to apply to home sales. And I was thinking more in the range of one percent or less. Most states are already taxing sales, some for big amounts.

 

[Martinius]

I would not like it to apply to home sales. And I was thinking more in the range of one percent or less. Most states are already taxing sales, some for big amounts.

 

[Hank77]

I would not like it to apply to home sales. And I was thinking more in the range of one percent or less. Most states are already taxing sales, some for big amounts.

It would have replaced the federal income tax for everyone, except corporations if I remember correctly.

 

[Martinius]

It would have replaced the federal income tax for everyone, except corporations if I remember correctly.

Okay, no income tax. The problem with that is there would be fewer ways for the rich fat cats to avoid paying their taxes. It wouldn't fly.