You Get A Pittance - The Top 1% Gets Billions In Tax Breaks

 The first stimulus bill was tilted toward the corporations and large businesses, leaving many small businesses out in the cold and giving most Americans $1200. The second stimulus is even stingier for most people -- giving them only $600 this time. But the rich will once again score big. There are $200 billion in tax breaks in the bill -- with $120 billion going to the top 1%.

Here's how former Labor Secretary Robert Reich describes the unfair stimulus bill:

Hidden in the bill combining Covid relief and government spending is a cool $200 billion in tax breaks. An estimated $120 billion of those tax breaks will go to the richest 1 percent of Americans. 

Those giveaways include:

—A $2.5 billion break for racecar tracks

—A $6.3 billion write-off for business meals, i.e. the “three-martini lunch” deduction

—A new provision under the Paycheck Protection Program that allows forgiven loans to also be tax deductible, giving businesses the ability to “double dip” into the program

The bill also creates an independent commission to oversee horse racing, at the behest of Mitch McConnell. 

There’s no question about it: This pandemic has both revealed and exacerbated our already staggering economic inequality. 

Republicans didn’t blink twice when they handed out $6.3 billion in tax breaks to their wealthy corporate backers, but when it came to getting direct relief to struggling Americans $600 was the best they could do. Their priorities couldn’t be clearer.