Pharmaceutical Imports Soar After Trump’s Tax Cuts

TCJA Side Effects

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 added an estimated $2.289 trillion to the national debt over ten years,

It also led to greater income inequality, higher healthcare costs, and a higher trade deficit.

The TCJA was supposed to increase US investment and repatriate corporate cash held overseas but it had the opposite impact according to Brad Setser at Follow the Money.

The U.S. trade deficit in pharmaceuticals is one track to go from just over $50 billion dollars at the end of 2016 to close to $100 billion by the end this year.

This reality has fairly obvious implications for U.S. tax policy—the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act created a clear incentive to shift profits offshore, and the related provisions of the tax code clearly need to evolve. There is the formal incentive created by the tax treatment of intangible assets, but even more important is the opportunity, with enough tax engineering and actual production abroad, to shift the profit on U.S. sales of pharmaceuticals out of the 21 percent tax bracket.

The problem is bad tax policy that encourages capital flight and tax gains.

No Debt Concerns Until November

It’s safe to say the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lead to the creation of very few jobs while swelling the deficit and national debt.

Republicans will not be concerned about deficits or the debt until. they no longer hold the White House. 

That’s coming right up.

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21 Comments
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Jdog1
Jdog1
5 years ago

TDS is a treatable physiological condition. I would suggest getting some help before November so you do not have a complete mental breakdown when Trump wins another 4 years…….

Jdog1
Jdog1
5 years ago

Really Mish? A CFR article? I guess the fact that you are a full blown globalist, is supported by your support of this globalist article…

WildBull
WildBull
5 years ago

So, the globalist weenies won. Too many traitors in Congress.

Augustthegreat
Augustthegreat
5 years ago

Many trumptards do not use their brains, and think they are the chosen ones I

magoomba
magoomba
5 years ago

The big med/pharma/edu/insuro cartels plan to control the world.

Stuki
Stuki
5 years ago
Reply to  magoomba

Everybody wants to rule the world, as the song goes.

But only disarmed, childish, gullible, pliant little dupes, are naive and stupid enough to be ruled.

Casual_Observer
Casual_Observer
5 years ago

I fail to understand why people continue to vote against their own economic interest. We knew before that TCJA wouldn’t work and would only swell the deficit and allow more companies to get richer. If you think Amazon paying no taxes is a good thing, then you have to believe that deficits and debt don’t matter.

Zardoz
Zardoz
5 years ago

To make others suffer, and thereby honor the teachings of Jesus.

Stuki
Stuki
5 years ago

“If you think Amazon paying no taxes is a good thing, then you have to believe that deficits and debt don’t matter.”

No you don’t.

All tax on activity, whether sales or “income,” is nothing more a massive spying and theft racket. Noone, whether a “corporation” nor individuals nor non-profits nor anything at al, should pay taxes based on what they do. Even if for no other reason, then at least since what they do, is no business of any even remotely civilized and legitimate government to spy sufficiently on to have any clue about.

If you want to fund a legitimate government, charged with having a monopoly on protecting private property; you tax property. Since that is what government provides the service of protecting. As well as something which requires no spying.

Do that, default on all debt, dump The Fed and go back to Gold at $20/oz, and you have no deficit, AND no tax on Amazon. Both at the same time. As well as at least a shot at having a country more worthwhile than Venezuela. Don’t, and you won’t.

Webej
Webej
5 years ago

Mish: Will Maven preserve the accounts?

Mish
Mish
5 years ago
Reply to  Webej

Yes

timbers
timbers
5 years ago

Reminder: So called “Free Trade” agreements like NAFTA in fact are not free trade at all. They are UNfree Trade. Example: NAFTA includes rules requiring local governments in Mexico to hold down wages of foreign firms and block union formation. It’s estimated Mexican wages have been lowered by NAFTA. This is exact opposite of what we were told NAFTA would do.

TimeToTest
TimeToTest
5 years ago

It’s funny to think things are R or D.

They realized this year they could print to infinity. There is one party. The Green($) Party.

I wonder if there is a chart that correlates fake news to the rise in the national debt. News is all about emotion now. Emotional people are not rational.

The medial field is the biggest scam that has ever existed.

Zardoz
Zardoz
5 years ago
Reply to  TimeToTest

One party is literally trying to ratf**ck our democracy, deprive us of the right to vote, and install a birthright dictatorship by a family of morons. One party’s platform is “whatever the wanna be dictator says”

Until they’re gone, nothing else matters.

Stuki
Stuki
5 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz

And the other party is more of exactly the same.

While “our” “democracy” makes Iran’s Theocracy seem positively enlightened.

Call_Me
Call_Me
5 years ago
Reply to  TimeToTest

It was known all along that printing ability was unbounded. What was recently discovered was how little it cost to approach infinity without having the general population seek to overthrow the system.

No interest income on ‘savings’, double digit CC rates…no way they’ll tolerate that!

JCPatriot
JCPatriot
5 years ago

So if a pharmaceutical trade deficit is bad, aren’t other trade deficits bad, too? Finally, Mish recognizes that globalist policies don’t work, and he will immediately stop supporting big-government political candidates that could care less about the average American citizen! NOT!

Stuki
Stuki
5 years ago
Reply to  JCPatriot

High tax policies don’t work. Won’t work. Can’t work. MumboJumbolist, hobgoblinist nor “Globalist” whatever, has nothing to do with any of it. If you steal people’s stuff, people go somewhere safer from theft. If you don’t want them to leave, stop stealing from them. Bloody weird how that works….

Sechel
Sechel
5 years ago

The bill was probably written by lobbyists. the point of the bill wsa to increase donations to the RNC not really to fix anything

Mish
Mish
5 years ago
Reply to  Sechel

yes

Solon
Solon
5 years ago
Reply to  Sechel

You have succinctly iterated the point of all legislation.

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