Letter to the Editor: Sherrod Brown Ignores Significant Overall Drop in Unemployment Rate Since Passage of President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Dear Ohio Star,

Isn’t it interesting that individuals of both major political parties have developed the ability to take a true fact, and interpret it to meet their political need, even when that need is contrary to that true fact? On Wednesday, August 22nd, The Cincinnati Enquirer published a guest column by Ohio’s Senior Senator, Sherrod Brown.

This column has a number of examples of the point made above. His initial complaint is that a pharmacy worker or restaurant cook or cashier or janitor in Ohio will see an average tax cut of $33 a month, someone making more than $830,000 a year will “rake in” $5,300 a month in tax cuts.

He fails to mention that the tax cut percentage for each category is approximately the same. He also fails to mention that most taxpayers in the $830,000 category are investors. They often invest that $5,300 in the companies that employ the workers mentioned above.

Later in the column the Senator claims that 80 percent of the benefits will go to the millionaires by the end of the decade. He ignores the following announcements by corporations employing Ohio Workers:

“Walmart, The Biggest Employer In Ohio, Announced That Because Of The Tax Reform, They Were Raising Their Minimum Wage To $11.00 An Hour, And Employees Would Be Getting Bonuses Up To $1,000.” “Fifth Third Bancorp Also Announced More Than 13,500 Employees Would Get Bonuses.” ($1,000 was specified).  “Cincinnati-Based Western & Southern Financial Group, Citing Tax Reform, Announced Employee Bonuses Of Up To $2,000 For Full-Time Employees and $1,000 For Part-Time Employees.” “Bruns General Contracting, Of Tipp City, OH, Said That Due To Anticipated Savings From The Tax Reform Bill They Will Be Investing In New Equipment and Vehicles, And Strengthening Employee Retirement Benefits.” “Jim Wolf, The Owner Of Wolf Metals, Said That After Passage Of The Tax Reform Bill It Was A “No Brainer” To Invest In $500,000 Of New Equipment.” The list of similar announcements is almost endless, but is ignored by the “crumbs” Senator and his Party of Envy.

The Senator chooses to ignore the significant, overall drop in the unemployment rate since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act went into effect. Can he not connect the historically low unemployment rates in the African-American and Hispanic communities to the capital made available by this bill? These are historically key constituencies of his Party, how can he fail to recognize the benefits of the act to those constituencies? Could this increase in employment be attributed to the investment of those monthly $5,300 tax cut “rake-ins” by those rich people?

In trying to convince the reader that the tax reform bill was strictly a corporate hand-out, appears the claim that “House Speaker Paul Ryan admitted the plan was to come up after Medicare and Social Security to pay for it, saying ‘We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and deficit.’”

Later the column mentions “our greatest asset: the American Worker.” Are these the same American Workers that found their 40 hour a week full-time jobs reduced to 29 hours a week part-time jobs under the Affordable Care Act?

Senator, is it not time for the voters to allow you to spend more time with your family? Isn’t almost 40 years of elective office enough for any individual?

Sincerely,

Jim C.
Bethel, Ohio

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