January 08, 2018 09:35 AM UTC

Slamming the media, Coffman says stock market would have crashed if not for GOP tax cuts

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

In an appearance on KNUS 710-AM’s Jimmy Sengenberger Show Saturday, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman said recent U.S. economic growth came “in anticipation of tax cuts,” and without passage of the Republican tax bill, “the market would have tanked” and the U.S economy “wouldn’t be at 3.2 percent growth.”

Coffman delivered these comments as he slammed portrayals of the tax bill in the “mainstream media,” including in a Denver Post editorial and apparently in the Aurora Sentinel.

Coffman at 11 min 30 sec here: “I think the Denver Post did an editorial where they said, ‘Why do corporations need this tax cut because we are at 3.2 percent growth?’ Well, we wouldn’t be at 3.2 percent growth. Again, the market would have tanked. The growth has been in anticipation of tax cuts. I am looking forward to wage growth. I am looking forward to job growth.”

U.S. economic growth and stock market increases started prior to Trump’s election victory, with a stock market bump last year. The most common explanation isn’t the tax cut but that the U. S. economy is growing along with the global economy. 

In mentioning The Post, Coffman, who did not return an email for comment, appears to be referencing a Dec. 18 editorial, headlined, “Colorado lawmakers should oppose the dismal Trump tax plan,” which argued, in part, that “if corporations wished to invest in employee wages and job creation, they would be doing so now.”

Denver Post: Unable even to stay within the generous and arbitrary cap of adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, Republicans turned to accounting lies to pay for an overly aggressive 21 percent corporate tax rate. To save money on paper, the bill would sunset key tax credits for the middle class and lower-income Americans, meaning that those income categories would be hit hard with tax increases in coming years, or, should their cuts be extended down the road, that the bill spends far more than it purports to.

The American economy would be better served with tax cuts focused on the middle class. Corporate America sits flush on record amounts of cash. If corporations wished to invest in employee wages and job creation, they would be doing so now. Gross Domestic Product grew by 3.3 percent in the third quarter, unemployment rests at its lowest point in a decade and earnings reports continue to fuel a bull market.

The last-minute decision to reduce the tax rate for the highest earners gives the impression that the plan is mostly a sham meant to give a Christmas gift to GOP donors.

Coffman isn’t just upset with The Denver Post editorial board’s view on the tax bill but with the entire “mainstream media’s depiction of it,” including his “local newspaper,” which is presumably the Aurora Sentinel.

Coffman at 3 min 30 sec: “I’m very disappointed with the mainstream media’s depiction of it. I’m just kind of surprised at that. I think it was absolutely essential that it passed. We can quibble with some of the details, but all in all it’s going to be good for the economy, good for the country.”

When my local newspaper said we were cutting taxes on the wealthy to increase taxes on the middle class. You know, I’m going to meet with that particular writer and say, ‘Show me a middle class family in this in this congressional district that is going to have their taxes increase…This is great.”

Most independent analyses have concluded that the tax bill will add over a trillion dollars to the U.S. deficit over the next decade.

Asked about this on air by Sengenberger, Coffman said that estimates by the Congressional Budget Office and others are based on recent years of sluggish growth. An economy stimulated by the tax cuts will produce “great growth” and revenue that will fend off deficits, Coffman said.