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    There ain't no such thing as a free lunch -- unless you're Donald Trump

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory
    December 22, 2020

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory

    Buried near the end of the 5,593-page law granting new coronavirus relief is a special interest tax favor of the kind that Republican saint Ronald Reagan cut in half when he waged war on the "three-martini lunch"—code for living it up thanks to our tax code.

    This new special interest tax break benefit is worth a lot more to business owners than the long-delayed and miserly $600 or smaller checks for most people, the latest evidence of how much the Trump administration and Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, favor business over people.

    The new law doubles the tax deduction for most business meals from 50% to 100%.

    'It just doesn't seem right for a wage earner carrying his tuna fish sandwich to work to subsidize exorbitant business lunches at luxury restaurants.' —President Ronald Reagan

    Ever since Reagan's 1986 Tax Reform Act, as a general rule Section 274 of our tax code allowed only a 50% deduction for meals while traveling on business, meeting with customers, partners or associates or attending a business seminar. Employees got fully reimbursed, but their employers could only deduct half, which prompted personnel policies restricting how much all but the most highly paid workers could expense for meals while on company business.

    This new favor benefits most businesses, but few as much as Donald Trump, who will enjoy a double benefit. The change was introduced at the last minute at the insistence of the Trump White House so there has been no public hearing or even public debate about its merits.

    Three Benefits

    The 12 lines of revised tax law on Page 4,956 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 provide these tax benefits:

    1. Businesses with a lot of employers on the road or many meetings can deduct the full cost of such meals, the equivalent of a slight tax rate cut.
    2. Sole owners, like Trump, who bear the full burden of spending by their enterprises, will feel concentrated benefits. Had the provision been in effect during the last decade it would have saved me thousands of dollars in income taxes because of extensive global travel for my investigations and lectures.
    3. Restaurant owners benefit because businesses will be more liberal in expense allowance spending.

    That third point matters because as many as 85% of small, individually owned restaurants may go broke cue to COVID-19 shutdowns, restaurant industry advocates say. But these mom-and-pop operations will benefit far less overall than the kind of expensive dining establishments favored by corporate executives, sales executives and other highly paid workers dining out on the company dollar.

    Trump as the owner of golf, hotel and restaurant businesses will benefit every time he or his employees wine and dine a customer, vendor or potential customer because he will get to deduct the entire cost of meals instead of just half.

    Then he benefits again when others spend money dining at his golf resorts, hotel and restaurants because full deductibility should result in more spending on meals.

    But wait, there's more.

    This complete deductibility of business meals will continue from New Year's Day until the end of 2023. The pandemic is likely to be history sometime in 2022, making clear that this tax break is not targeted at the beleaguered restaurant industry but at a return to the era of the three-martini lunch.

    Reagan's Tax Policy Killed

    Republicans voted to level the playing field when it comes to restaurant meals in 1986. That's when Reagan championed a tax code that actually raised levies on business and reduced deductions for extravagances. Trump, who often claims Reagan's mantle, consistently promotes tax policies that would infuriate The Gipper.

    Reagan said this during a June 7, 1985 meeting with economics writers at the White House:

    "Why not find smarter ways to put our money to work than investing so heavily in executive lunches? It just doesn't seem right for a wage earner carrying his tuna fish sandwich to work to subsidize exorbitant business lunches at luxury restaurants. We'd still allow for legitimate expenses, but to those who complain they can't live quite so high off the corporate account, we can only ask: Why not brown-bag it once in a while?"

    Ever since business lobbyists have been gutting the many level-the-playing field provisions in the 1986 tax law Reagan championed, loading up on favors for themselves and thus shifting the burden onto working Americans, including the massive borrowing required under Trump's 2017 tax law to shower tax savings on the richest among us.

    Also, under the 2017 tax law that Trump signed, his only significant legislative achievement, more than a fifth of taxpayers lost the ability to deduct their mortgage interest, their state income, and local property taxes and other tax breaks that mostly affected married couples with three or more children, especially among the upper-middle class.

    This year only about one in ten taxpayers, and perhaps as few as one in twenty, will itemize deductions. But those who own their own businesses – from people operating on the scale of Donald Trump to freelance graphic artists – will get benefits because under Trump the tax code has become more favorable to the self-employed and business owners and less so for employees.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Enjoy good journalism?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

    We need your support in this difficult time. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.

    Value Raw Story?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.


    Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
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    Survey: Should Donald Trump be prosecuted after he leaves office?

    Biden allows Dr. Fauci to finally speak the truth about the science of COVID-19

    Agence France-Presse
    January 21, 2021

    In his first White House briefing as President Joe Biden's top advisor on Covid-19, Anthony Fauci said it was "liberating" that he could focus on science without fear of repercussion now that Donald Trump had left office.

    The top infectious disease scientist was briefing reporters Thursday on the state of the US outbreak that has claimed more than 408,000 lives.

    Asked to compare his experience under the previous administration to the new one, the 80-year-old responded a little coyly at first, saying he wasn't sure he could "extrapolate" based on first impressions.

    "But one of the things that was very clear as recently as about 15 minutes ago, when I was with the president, is that one of the things that we're going to do is to be completely transparent, open and honest.

    "If things go wrong, not point fingers but to correct them and to make everything we do be based on science and evidence."

    Toward the end of Thursday's briefing, Fauci was asked by another reporter to expand on his "jokes" about the differences in the management styles between the two leaders.

    "I was very serious about it, I wasn't joking," he said, laughing.

    "Obviously I don't want to be going back over history, but it was very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that -- that really was uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact."

    He added he took no pleasure in having to contradict the president and that "it was really something that you didn't feel that you could actually say something, and there wouldn't be any repercussions about it."

    "The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know. What the evidence, what the science is, and know that's it -- let the science speak -- it is somewhat of a liberating feeling."

    Fauci's honest takes on America's failures to get to grips with its epidemic brought him into conflict with Trump, who repeatedly declared premature victory over the virus, equivocated on mask use and lockdowns, and pushed unfounded miracle cures.

    Trump eventually banished the respected scientist from the White House and took to attacking him on Twitter.

    Daily Show mocks QAnon Congresswoman for the ‘GOP Unity and Healing Act of 2021’

    Sarah K. Burris
    January 21, 2021

    "The Daily Show" strikes again. New QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was ridiculed by the Trevor Noah show on Twitter Thursday after she filed impeachment charges against President Joe Biden citing a conspiracy theory.

    Greene, relied on an internet belief that as vice president, Biden blackmailed Ukraine, saying that if they didn't fire their corrupt prosecutor that they wouldn't get much needed international aid. The policy wasn't Biden's idea or even his decision, it was an issue that the global community faced and a stance by the administration. Biden was the enforcer.

    Greene, who's never served in elected office was ridiculed online for embarrassing herself and the GOP. The Daily Show noted that the impeachment must be part of the Republican Party's attempt at unity and healing.

    Ah this must be the GOP Unity and Healing Act of 2021 https://t.co/eGtE81O45E
    — The Daily Show (@The Daily Show)1611263764.0

    Women would live with both Trump and Epstein — at the same time: report

    Sarah K. Burris
    January 21, 2021

    An excerpt from American Kompromat by Craig Unger, out Jan. 26, details the "epic bromance" between President Donald Trump and accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Vanity Fair reported.

    Describing how Trump became friends of Epstein through his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, the story explains that Epstein and Trump would frequently share young women.

    "Trump was often the center of Maxwell's attention, and women who entered Trump's orbit sometimes ended up being associated with both Trump and Epstein, spending part of their time living in a Trump Tower condo and part in Florida, at Mar-a-Lago or one of Epstein's homes."

    The book also quoted a September 2016 deposition that Epstein was forced to give. He was asked if he ever socialized with Trump in the presence of girls under the age of 18. Epstein took the Fifth.

    "Trump Model Management allegedly indulged in many of the dubious practices that MC2 did, such as violating immigration laws and illegally employing young foreign girls," the book says. "Three former Trump models, all noncitizens of the U.S., told Mother Jones in 2016 that Trump Model Management profited by using foreign models who came to the United States on tourist visas that did not allow them to work here. And two of the former models said that Trump's agency suggested they lie on customs forms about where they planned to live. All of which meant they were perpetually scared of getting caught and pretty much at the mercy of the agency."

    The book notes that it's ironic given Trump's immigration stance. To be fair, Epstein and Trump's relationship being ignored by his voters is also ironic given the conspiracy theories his supporters perpetuate about Democrats and underage sex crimes. Perhaps if Epstein operated in the basement of a pizza parlor.

    Epstein even claimed to have introduced Trump to Melania, who ultimately became the first lady. Neither has confirmed or denied the relationship.

    The men had a falling out when Epstein tried to buy a mansion in Palm Beach and Trump decided that he wanted it. Trump outbid Epstein over and over, ultimately paying $125 million for the property. He never even stayed in it and later sold it at a loss to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for a reported $96 million in 2008.

    Read the excerpt of the book at Vanity Fair and it will be on sale Jan. 26.

     
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