Weekly Economic Snapshot 11/6 - 11/10

Economic Facts for This Week

• Most of the benefits of the Republican tax plan will go to wealthy households:
  • With more than half of pass-through income going to the top 1 percent, lowering the pass-through rate will be a boon to wealthy individuals.
  • Since only the wealthiest 0.2 percent of estates pay the estate tax, doubling the exemption and eventually phasing out the estate tax largely serves to help wealthy heirs with few benefits for small businesses and farmers.
  • Repealing the estate tax will result in the capital gains of many wealthy families never being taxed; among estates with over $100 million in assets, 55 percent is likely unrealized capital gains (and thus untaxed).
  • The Republican tax plan eliminates valuable deductions that American families rely on:
    • The student loan interest deduction was taken by 12.6 million filers in 2015, including 10.3 million households earning less than $100,000.
    • The medical and dental expenses deduction was taken by 8.7 million filers in 2015, including 7.2 million households earning less than $100,000.

Chart of the Week             

Post-9/11 veterans are a vital part of the workforce in industries across the economy. Many recent veterans continue serving their country after leaving the armed forces, working for the government at the federal, state, or local level. Nearly 16 percent of post-9/11 veterans work for the federal government where Republicans’ proposed budget cuts could impact wages and jobs.

ICYMI

• A new JEC Democrats report highlights the need to rebuild smarter after natural disasters. Every dollar spent by FEMA on disaster preparedness results in almost $4 in future benefits.
• In JEC Democrats’ latest podcast, The Opportunity Agenda, we spoke with tax expert Seth Hanlon about who really benefits from the Republican tax plan.
• Medicaid financing reform, like the block granting proposals of TrumpCare, would have disastrous effects on state budgets, leaving states vulnerable in future recessions and leading to large budget shortfalls with even fewer resources for states to invest in areas like infrastructure and education.

Coming This Week

• Tuesday 10:00am: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for September 2017 - https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.toc.htm
• Tuesday 3:00pm: Consumer Credit for September 2017 – https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19
• Thursday 10:00am: Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses for 2016 - https://www.bls.gov/news.release/osh.nr0.htm

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