The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was primarily about saving corporations billions, but, of course, Donald Trump and the G.O.P couldn’t sell the legislation on the slogan “Google needs more money.“ Instead, they claimed that the bill was really about the middle class, whose lives (and bank accounts) would inevitably be improved when these magnanimous companies shared the wealth not only with top executives and shareholders, but with average workers. More than a year after the passage of the historically unpopular law, the White House continues to embrace this trickle-down fantasy, declaring in a “fact sheet” released yesterday titled “American Workers Are Thriving Thanks To President Donald J. Trump’s Middle Class Tax Cuts” that the T.C.J.A. has resulted in “big bonuses.” And by big, they mean, on average, a penny.

According to the Economic Policy Institute’s Larry Mishel, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employer Costs for Employee Compensation shows that “bonuses actually fell $0.22 between December 2017 and December 2018 and the average bonus for 2018 was just $0.01 higher than in 2017.” While a number of companies made ring-kissing announcements after the bill was signed into law claiming it had allowed them to dispense modest one-time bonuses, a number of these had reportedly been in the works long before the legislation was passed. What’s more, as Mishel notes, the trend toward giving out bonuses rather than raises “started taking off four years ago,” and hasn’t exactly been great for employees, considering they’re not permanent.

While the White House continues to insist to this day that bonuses—big ones!—were handed out at companies across America all thanks to the T.C.J.A (née the Cut Cut Cut Act), it has backed away from putting an exact number on the rewards now that the actual data is out. When the administration was selling the plan, it claimed the average American family would wake up to an extra $4,000 in its pocket, and maybe even up to $9,000. Those figures were provided by Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, whose chairman, leading light Kevin Hassett, argued during the shutdown that furloughed workers should consider the (unpaid) time off a free vacation.

Anyway, enjoy that penny—don’t spend it all in one place!

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Lifting sanctions on a Russian oligarch’s metals company worked out pretty well for Mitch McConnell

Among others!