Robert Reich

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Robert Reich’s writes at robertreich.substack.com. His latest book is “THE SYSTEM: Who Rigged It, How To Fix It.” He is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written 17 other books, including the best sellers “Aftershock,”“The Work of Nations,” “Beyond Outrage,” and “The Common Good.” He is a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, founder of Inequality Media, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentaries “Inequality For All,” streaming on YouTube, and “Saving Capitalism,” now streaming on Netflix.
Updated: 4 hours 7 min ago

How We Take Back the Supreme CourtWhere do you see yourself in...

Thu, 10/17/2024 - 10:03


How We Take Back the Supreme Court

Where do you see yourself in 2060? What about your kids or grandkids? Will Donald Trump be affecting your life even then?

Here’s why he might be.

This November, the future of the Supreme Court is on the ballot.

Trump appointed three justices in his first term — more than any president since Ronald Reagan. And thanks to them, Trump was able to get rid of Roe v. Wade, affirmative action, and gun safety laws — even after he left office.

If Trump is reelected, 76-year-old Justice Clarence Thomas and 74-year-old Justice Samuel Alito could retire, giving Trump a chance to appoint a fourth and fifth justice. That’s five out of nine justices. Trump would be the first president in more than a half century to appoint a majority of the Supreme Court.

And not just a “conservative” majority — but a MAGA majority that would work in lockstep with an authoritarian president.

Several other justices are also getting up there. Chief Justice John Roberts will turn 70 in 2025, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor will be 71. So it’s possible that Trump could even appoint a sixth (or even a seventh) justice.

If Trump sticks with appointing justices in their 40s, as he did with Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, his justices could dominate the court past the year 2060 — or longer if he appoints even younger justices.

In the court’s latest term, the extremists now dominating the bench made it harder to combat racial gerrymandering. They limited the power of federal agencies to implement health, safety, and environmental regulations. They ruled that homeless people can be punished for being homeless. They gave the greenlight for state and local politicians to accept bribes for past actions. And I didn’t even mention how the court granted presidents the power of kings by giving them broad immunity from prosecution.

All of this because one man, Donald Trump, was elected in 2016. If he’s reelected in 2024, just imagine the damage a MAGA supermajority Supreme Court could unleash.

Your remaining reproductive freedoms, marriage equality, gun reform, climate change policy, and what’s left of the Voting Rights Act…

Wherever you imagine yourself and your family forty years from now, you will still be feeling the effects of this year’s election.

How Trump Killed Every Business He TouchedTrump’s entire...

Wed, 10/16/2024 - 12:49


How Trump Killed Every Business He Touched

Trump’s entire candidacy is based on a lie.

TRUMP: I’m really a good businessman. I’m so good at business.

Not true. Trump is a business failure. Almost every business he’s touched, he’s driven into the ground.

RUBIO: You ever heard of Trump Steaks?

TRUMP: Trump Steaks are the greatest steaks, and I mean that in every sense of the word!

RUBIO: You ever heard of Trump Vodka?

TRUMP: It’s a smooth vodka. It’s a great-tasting vodka.

RUBIO: All of these companies that he’s ruined!

It’s true! Trump had a failed board game…

TRUMP: My new game is Trump the Game.

…a failed bicycle race called the “Tour de Trump”

TRUMP: I think this is an event that can be tremendous in the future. And it can really rival the Tour de France.

…a failed football team.

TRUMP: It’s gonna stay strong. It’s gonna stay strong for a long time.

Trump decided it was a good idea to start a mortgage company in 2006.

TRUMP: It’s a great time to start a mortgage company.

That failed in less than two years. Let’s see, what else was there?

JOHN OLIVER: Trump Magazine, which folded, Trump World Magazine, which also folded…

ROMNEY: Whatever happened to Trump Airlines?

Oh! That was a good one! One of his planes had a crash landing within the first two months, which he insisted was “the most beautiful landing you’ve ever seen.” The business failed within three years.

Trump has even managed to bankrupt multiple casinos. How do you lose money running a casino?

There’s an old joke that the easiest way to make a small fortune is to start with a large one. And that’s exactly what Trump did. Multiple analyses show that if Trump had simply invested his multi-million-dollar inheritance in an index fund and didn’t touch it, he’d be a lot richer than he is now. Think about that. His entire life’s work has been less successful than if he’d done nothing.

And when he was president, Trump ran the country like he ran his failed businesses. He added $8.4 trillion to the national debt — largely through his tax cuts for the rich and big corporations.

Trump has managed to survive every one of his business failures by leaving other people on the hook — leaving workers unpaid and shafting his investors.

The whole idea that Trump is good at business was a carefully-crafted illusion — concocted for a reality TV show. And like a lot of reality TV shows, we’ve come to learn it was all show, and no reality.

The only business Trump has been successful at is conning people. Now he’s trying to do it again. Don’t fall for it.

Trump’s Tax Scam: Why Nothing Trickled Down The Trump tax cuts...

Mon, 10/14/2024 - 09:41


Trump’s Tax Scam: Why Nothing Trickled Down 

The Trump tax cuts were a YUGE scam.

But this November we have a chance to end this trickle-down hoax once and for all.

Donald Trump’s biggest legislative achievement (if you want to even call it that) was the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The law permanently slashed corporate taxes and temporarily cut income tax rates mostly for rich individuals through the year 2025. The results were worse than I could have imagined.

Trump and his officials claimed the tax cuts would lead to corporations hiring more workers and would “very conservatively” lead to a $4,000 boost in household incomes.

What actually happened in the years since?

In AT&T’s case, the company saw its overall federal tax bill drop by 81%. It spent 31 times more on dividends and stock buybacks to enrich wealthy shareholders than it paid it in taxes. Meanwhile, it slashed over 40,000 jobs.

That was par for the course with Trump’s tax cuts.

Like AT&T, America’s biggest corporations didn’t use their tax savings to increase productivity or reward workers. Instead, they increased their stock buybacks and dividends.

Many of them, including AT&T, even ended up paying their executives more in some years than what they paid Uncle Sam.    

Those executives (along with other high earners) then got to keep more of their earnings because Trump’s tax cuts for individuals were heavily skewed toward the rich. The lowest earners? They got squat.

And many middle-income families saw their taxes go up.

And those supposed $4,000 raises, did you get one?

The bottom line is that Trump’s tax law fueled a massive transfer of wealth into the hands of the rich and powerful. Corporate profits have skyrocketed. U.S. billionaire wealth has more than DOUBLED since 2018.

The tax cuts have also added $2 trillion to the national debt so far, but that hasn’t stopped Trump and the so-called “party of fiscal responsibility” from doubling down on renewing them.

If Trump is reelected and Republicans take control of Congress, they’re planning to renew the expiring tax cuts for individuals that primarily benefited the rich. This would cost $4.6 trillion over the next decade, more than double the cost of the original tax cuts.

Trump has also threatened to lower the corporate tax rate even further from 21% to 15% — which would cost another $1 trillion.

It’s trickle-down economics on steroids.

All of this would cause the federal deficit and debt to soar — which Republicans will then use as an excuse to cut spending on government programs the rest of us rely on.

But the Democrats have their own tax plan. We can make it a reality this November. What would it do? Just the opposite of Trump’s tax plan.

ONE: It would increase taxes on wealthy individuals with incomes in excess of $400,000 a year, while cutting taxes for lower-income Americans.

TWO: It would make billionaires pay at least 25 percent of their incomes in taxes, still leaving them with plenty left over.

THREE: It would raise the corporate income tax to 28 percent, which is about what it was in 1990.

LASTLY, it would quadruple the tax on stock buybacks to get corporations to invest more of their earnings in workers’ wages and productivity instead of windfalls for investors.

So the real choice is between the Republicans’ plan to make the rich much richer, and the Democrats’ plan to make the rich pay their fair share and provide what Americans need.

Which do you want?

5 Ways Trump Would Blow up the EconomyIf Donald Trump wins in...

Tue, 10/08/2024 - 08:45


5 Ways Trump Would Blow up the Economy

If Donald Trump wins in November, he’ll make inflation explode.

That’s what 16 Nobel-winning economists are telling us. Here are 5 ways Trump has proposed blowing up the U.S. economy.

#1: Trump’s crazy tariff plan

Trump seems genuinely confused about what tariffs are and who pays tariffs.

Tariffs are not paid by the other country. They’re paid by the American importer, with the cost typically passed onto American consumers, as even Fox Business pundits have to admit.

Now, targeted tariffs on specific products can give American-made goods an edge over imports, but there’s no strategy behind the tidal wave of tariffs Trump is proposing.

He’s talking about making you pay a 60% or more tax on everything imported from China and a 10% tax on everything imported from anywhere else. This would cost the average family an estimated $2,500 extra per year.

And this is a regressive tax, taking a higher percentage of the paychecks of the working class and the poor than out of the incomes of the wealthy.

#2 Trump’s monopoly plans

If you’ve watched our other videos, you know corporate consolidation is one of the biggest drivers of inflation. When there are fewer competitors, corporations can raise prices without worrying about losing customers to a cheaper competitor. Trump and the MAGA team want to make this worse.

Project 2025 specifically seeks to fast-track airline mergers.

And as part of Trump’s efforts to solicit campaign donations from Big Oil executives, he’s suggested fast-tracking oil mergers. This would let them pump up your gas prices.

And speaking of gas prices, let’s talk about…

#3 Trump’s energy price hikes

Trump’s promising to kill the Biden-Harris administration’s clean energy incentives and fuel efficiency standards. This means you’ll be spending more on fuel because your car will need more gas and your appliances will use more electricity.

#4 Trump would make your money worthless — I’m sorry, worth less.

The American economy is strong right now compared to other nations’, so the American dollar is worth more vs. the Euro, the Yen, or other major currencies. At a moment when Americans are worried about how far their dollar goes, most people would call that a good thing.

But Trump and his economic advisers are reportedly so obsessed with trade deficits that they’re looking for ways to devalue the dollar.

This might help big corporations that export products but it would also raise import prices and overheat a U.S. economy already running hot.

#5 Trump’s deportation plan.

Trump would decimate the American workforce — and he’s bragging about it.

Putting aside the horrific moral consequences, this would make the whole economy collapse.

There are more than a million undocumented laborers in construction, over a million undocumented farm workers, and about a million undocumented food service workers. What do you think will happen to the price of food and housing if these workers are suddenly deported? Prices will explode.

Trump has no understanding of the economy. That’s why he’s driven so many businesses into the ground. He’s even driven casinos into the ground. How do you lose money running a casino?

But since Trump doesn’t understand the economy, listen to the people who do — the 16 Nobel economists who say Trump’s economic plans would be an inflation bomb.