That trickle you feel down your leg may not be your wealth accruing

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Republicans are continuing to tout their recent windfall handout to wealthy Americans as a “middle class tax cut.” Faux-president Donald Trump – as expected – talked about it in his State of the Union last night, as well as bragging (again) about the rise in the stock market during his presidency.

"The great news for Americans: 401(k) retirement, pension, and college savings accounts have gone through the roof. And just as I promised the American people from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history. Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small businesses to lower tax rates for hard-working Americans."

That’s what he said, but here are some real facts:   

A post-SOTU panelist who happens to be a Republican said last night that 44% of Americans don't have $400 available in case of emergency, and 67% don't have $1,000 in a savings account. The small increases many of them will realize from the tax bill will do little to improve their overall, long-term financial condition, not to mention that these savings are temporary and will expire in seven years while corporate tax breaks are permanent.

As to the stock market, it’s reported that of those people earning $25,000 a year or less, only 8% own stocks. “Meanwhile,” according to CNN Money, “88% of those making more than $1 million are in the market, which explains why the rising stock market tracks with increasing levels of (income) inequality.”

On average across the United States, only 18.7% of taxpayers directly own stocks, not including investments made by their employers into retirement plans. Access to employer-sponsored retirement plans leans heavily toward higher income white people (what a shock!) and away from blacks and Latinos, and, of course, favors older people rather than the young.

Trump also likes to brag that because of tax reform, American companies are handing out bonuses, hiring more people and expanding their businesses. Some are, that’s true. But consider the reality of the situation:

* With regard to bonuses, an employee who is underpaid may enjoy a $1,000 windfall that he can apply to his mortgage or make a couple of car payments or even celebrate by buying a boat or a big-screen TV, but when that money is gone, he’s still an underpaid employee.

* On the hiring front, if Walmart announces plans to hire several thousand people and Sam’s Club closes 63 stores, putting thousands of others out of work, is that really a net gain?

* And business expansion? Trump loves to talk about Apple’s plan to invest $350 billion in America, and hire another 20,000 workers.” Truth is, Apple does plan to make a much smaller investment, but the greater number represents company sales over the next five years. In other words, most of the money Apple will be “contributing to the economy” will be money it earns by selling stuff to you and me. Ask yourself who benefits most from that? Also, for every company that Trump brags about, there are others he ignores, like Harley-Davidson shutting down its Kansas City plant and cutting 800 jobs, or Carrier laying off more of the workers whose jobs Trump had promised to save.

Look, I’m no accountant or economist, and financial reporting has never been my strong suit, so I have to depend on others to explain to me what’s going on, especially when the person throwing out the economic statistics is a pathological liar who claims to be a business genius but has proven throughout his bankruptcy-tainted career to be anything but. For that reason, there’s not much more I can write about this subject.

I have, however, accrued some knowledge over the course of 68 years by watching my own financial condition rise and fall, and while I consider myself fortunate that as of today I do have access to $400 should I need it in an emergency and I do have $1,000 in a savings account, I consider that to be a temporary situation that could very easily change.

Unlike the Republican Party, I also worry about those millions of Americans who don’t have money to live on, let alone a savings account or a fall-back plan if things go any further south. So please don’t try to tell me this "middle class tax cut" is ever going to trickle down to them, because I'm not as stupid as the people who still support Donald Trump.

If anything trickles down on these people, it isn’t going to be a pile of gold.