The Republican tax cuts won't trickle down, CEO writes in scathing op-ed

CEO of La Colombe does not like the GOP tax cuts
(Image credit: Neilson Barnard/Getty/ New York Culinary Experience)

One of the major arguments Republicans are making as they push through their tax overhaul is that the working and middle classes will benefit because companies will use their tax-cut windfall to invest in employees and capital investments that will boost suppliers and construction companies. Maybe, but "many economists are skeptical that the tax savings will transform business decisions," The New York Times reports, and a recent survey of CEOs found that companies were more likely to reward investors than workers. This appeared to come as a surprise to Gary Cohn, President Trump's top economic adviser. It's not a surprise to Todd Carmichael, co-founder and CEO of La Colombe Coffee Roasters in Philadelphia.

"I can tell you what no other CEO wants to tell you," Carmichael writes in an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "A half-trillion dollars of corporate tax giveaways proposed by the GOP aren't going to do a thing for the middle class, or create a single job. Because what every CEO knows but won't tell you is this: A tax break for their company simply means a fatter bottom line. Not jobs. Not investment." CEOs have "a powerful fiduciary duty to return all profits to shareholders — not to the employees, or the suppliers, or the community and certainly not to the unemployed or left behind," he explained. "Profit goes to shareholders (and the CEO) and not to the employees."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.