3 ways Trump’s policies are helping corporations and hurting workers
President Donald Trump recently tweeted yet another boast about the allegedly thriving U.S. workforce: “Best Jobs Numbers in the history of our great Country! Many other things likewise. So why wouldn’t we win the Midterms?”
While Trump has promised and, in his words, “delivered” good jobs, in reality, his policies are not improving the economy for most people. Instead, his administration is making it easier for businesses to maintain low-wage, part-time, and temporary jobs, with little to no worker protection.
The truth is, jobs have been on the rise since the end of the recession in 2010. Current job growth is comparable to what we saw in the few years before Trump took office. There is no magic formula here. Former President Barack Obama inherited a struggling economy in 2009 and began turning it around in his first couple of years. The country is now in its 10th year of economic growth. That hasn’t stopped Trump from taking credit for much of this work. Trump continues to brag about creating good manufacturing jobs even as he passes policies that have or will hurt workers in the short and long-term.
Here are three examples of policies that Trump has argued are good for workers, when in fact, they’re good for corporations.
- The claim: the December 2017 tax bill is “very much a bill for the middle class, and for jobs.”
In December 2017, Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress delivered a major overhaul of the tax code, with Trump saying, “This is the bill right here, we’re very proud of it… I consider this very much a bill for the middle class, and for jobs. Corporations are literally going wild for this,” Of course corporations were going wild, as it reduced their corporate tax rate to its lowest point since 1939, from 35% to 21%. This tax cut has resulted in a $1.5 trillion deficit, money that could have been spent on numerous programs that could help working- and middle-class Americans, including upgrading the country’s infrastructure.
Trump promised that the new tax code would create jobs and boost wages for the middle class. Instead, major companies have used their tax cuts to increase dividends or buy back their shares. Stock buybacks hit a record high in the first two quarters of 2018, with shareholders receiving $700 billion in cash.
2) The claim: “An ever-growing maze of regulations, rules, restrictions has cost our country trillions and trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, countless American factories, and devastated many industries.”
According to Trump and his supporters, Obama-era regulations made business leaders afraid to invest capital. The Trump administration and the GOP have attempted to fix this by cutting the red tape “at a faster clip than achieved under President Ronald Reagan 36 years earlier.” Since Trump took office, there has been a significant erosion in basic worker protections in federal regulations. There is no proof that these deregulatory practices have helped the average worker. According to Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs at Public Citizen, under Trump, “regulators are focused only on boosting corporate profits, not saving lives or protecting the public by holding corporate wrongdoers accountable.” This means that both new and existing jobs will expose workers and communities to unnecessary risk and damage.
For example, the Trump administration rolled back a rule that required employers to keep accurate records of workplace injuries and illnesses, thus lowering corporate accountability for employee safety. Other deregulatory practices include delaying a rule that would protect workers from exposure to harmful silica dust, which has been linked to lung cancer, silicosis, and other diseases. About 2.3 million workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica. OSHA estimates that the ruling will save 600 people every year and prevent 900 new cases. Trump has also weakened regulations that protect farmworkers from pesticide exposure, and rolled back rules meant to protect workers exposed to beryllium from risks of chronic beryllium disease and lung cancer.
While regulations sometimes require significant investments upfront, the benefits can be seen in the long run when workers don’t get sick or injured, and equipment is safe to use. This rollback in government oversight often results in fewer workers reporting safety and environmental hazards, which increases the level of workplace instability and fear.
3) The claim: “Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.” — Trump
Since his presidential campaign, Trump has boasted that if elected, he’d drain the swamp and represent the “forgotten” workers of the United States. His rhetoric doesn’t match his policies. Instead, the laws he’s enacted and agency staff he’s appointed are helping corporations, not workers.
Although Trump claimed his tax overhaul would increase wages, the latest report puts a damper on those claims. When accounting for 2.9% in inflation, real wages have fallen. This is no accident. Temporary jobs, a lack of worker protection and benefits, and stagnant wages are the result of policies created on behalf of those with the most wealth and political power. While it didn’t start with Trump, he hasn’t tried to stop it and has joined the attack instead. Thus far, the vast majority of decisions he has made on trade (other than the tariffs), taxes, immigration, and other policy issues, have benefited multi-million and multi-billion dollar companies, including oil companies, weapons manufacturers and private prisons.
The facts don’t lie. Trump’s record is anti-worker, anti-good job and exactly the opposite of what he promised.
