The founder of Home Depot explains what’s wrong with the Regulatory State:
Regulations from the previous administration would have made it impossible to start The Home Depot today. The payment structure responsible for The Home Depot—which included company shares that created 20,000 millionaires overnight when we went public—would have been illegal under the Obama Labor Department’s overtime rule. It would have barred our hardworking employees in the early days from working long hours to get the company off the ground.
And the current climate of high taxes on businesses would have further crippled The Home Depot in its infancy. The marginal tax rate of 40 percent that is levied onto our nation’s small pass-through businesses would have caused our already constrained budget to expand beyond our means.
Those taxes and regulations don’t keep big businesses from making out like tall dogs. They prevent businesses from starting.
You have more experience with large businesses than I. I’m a small business guy. That said, I suspect that “Those taxes and regulations don’t keep big businesses from making out like tall dogs because they have separate government conferred advantages” is more accurate.
That’s not a good rationale for taxes and regulation.
Pass throughs pay 40%? The business pays no tax, or very little in a pass through. Everything is paid out as income. People do pay income tax. Not sure why people who work of ra small business should be exempted from income taxes, though I know the Trump admin was looking at cutting or eliminating this. (Which would, coincidentally I am sure, benefit him greatly.) A lot of these are physician and legal groups and can’t see why they should not pay income tax.
Steve
@steve
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(Which would, coincidentally I am sure, benefit him greatly.)
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Let me get this straight. The 10 billion dollar president is likely to use his presidency to enrich himself, but the 1 to 5 million dollar president is above reproach.
The 1 to 5 million dollar president was in the Senate long enough to go from a net worth of almost nothing to a net worth of 1 to 5 million dollars, but that is just a lucky coincidence.
This same 1 to 5 million dollar president appoints a who does all he can to restore the Wall Street Banker’s bonuses, but this is just an unfortunate coincidence.
The 1 to 5 million dollar ex-president is paid $400,000 by the same Wall Street Bankers that got their bonuses back because of his Secretary of Treasury’s hard work, but this is just a coincidence.
Hopefully, somebody is keeping count of the White House silverware because the 10 billion dollar president is likely to pawn it. Meanwhile, the 1 to 5 million dollar president is now a 12.5 million dollar ex-president, and his wife is the 11.8 million dollar ex-first lady.
The combined net worth of the Obamas is less than Trump paid in taxes, and $400,000 is not even a rounding error, but President Trump is the one we need to monitor.
I am sure glad that somebody has cleared that up for me.
TB- You are obviously an astute observer of human nature. Once people have enough money, a few million, they stop trying to get more. Clearly Trump won’t care about another $50 million a year in taxes. And he certainly won’t care about the billions to be saved if he can get rid of the death tax.
Really, this was a sucky effort on your part. Trump put those bankers in his cabinet. Bush started the bailout. Any president we had would have bailed out the banks. The question I raise is whether Trump is willing to do anything other than that which will help him and his cronies/family. The 1-5 million POTUS advocated for increased taxes, which would have hurt him. You won’t see that happening with Trump. Taxes on pass throughs would especially and directly affect Trump, as I understand the way his company works. At least put in a little bit of effort to find anything remotely similar that Obama did just to financially benefit his family.
Steve
I’ve met a lot of very rich people over the years and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with a net worth over $1 mill who isn’t motivated by money. Maybe there are some and I haven’t run into them.
However, something funny happens as you begin to climb the net worth pyramid. Money is less interesting because of what it will buy and more interesting as a way of keeping score.
That’s where I think the difference between Barack Obama and Donald Trump probably is. Both are motivated by money. Obama is probably still at the level where his interest in money is mostly because of what it will buy. Trump is probably mostly just keeping score.
Cmon, steve. Pass through entities are owned by partners or members who take the income personally. C corps manage their taxes just like any other expense item, from raw materials to direct labor to items of overhead.
As for motivations of people, those seeking financial gain (and think what a high fraction of people that is; it dominates discussion and policy advocacy) is pretty independent from the size of their bank account or political philosophy. Charitable giving from Al Gore anyone?
@steve
Again, ex-president Obama is cashing in on his presidency – ‘big league’. When he appointed Geithner as Secretary of Treasury, the fat-cat Wall Street bankers were bonusless, and they were to remain so until TARP had been paid back and until they were proven to be solvent.
The payback and stress test were to be done when the government deemed it appropriate, and in this case, appropriate meant whenever the government felt like it. Upon being confirmed, Geithner went to work ending TARP. Another government bailout was established to allow the less than stellar banks to pay back TARP and pass the stress test.
At this point, the bonuses were restored, and for eight years, the fat-cats were raking in the bonus money.
I am sure that it is just a coincidence that these fat-cat being paid mind boggling bonuses for eight years just happened to give $400,000 for a speech to the ex-president who made them a shitload of money. I can only imagine what pearls of wisdom the Enlightened One was able to bestow upon them.
As to President Trump hiring these fat-cats, they might have learned a thing or two from their $400,000 investment. On the other hand, they will not be getting paid mind boggling bonuses working for the government.
As to the Bush bailouts, I would have let the system collapse. I could not make any money off of the foolishness, and I did not have any money to be lost. We have gotten nothing for all the money spent and the rules bent. Well, the Obama fat-cats made out like bandits.