CONTACT:
Carter Dougherty
carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org
(202) 251-6700

Wall Street Makes Bank on Trump: 2017 in Review

Washington, DC – On Tuesday, the Take on Wall Street campaign released Wall Street Makes Bank on Trump: 2017 in Review, a report outlining the tax and deregulatory giveaways that Wall Street has enjoyed — and has lined up next-  under the Trump administration and the Republican Congress.

“The biggest winners in the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency are painfully clear,” said Porter McConnell, the Take on Wall Street campaign manager. “The new tax code is a massive gift to Wall Street, and the American people will be paying for it for years in more potholes, fewer teachers, and rising rents.”

The report includes facts about lobbying spending that hit $2 billion in the last election cycle, and continues unabated, Wall Street executives in the Trump administration and regulatory agencies, tax cut windfalls for the finance industry, and a deregulatory free-for-all. It also includes a case study of how Wells Fargo’s outrageous conduct somehow earned it the distinction of being the biggest winner from the Trump-Republican tax bill.

Key Elements:

• The finance industry has spent nearly twice the amount of any other industry on campaign contributions in the 2017-2018 electoral cycle so far. Instead of “draining the swamp,” the Trump administration filled top positions in the White House with former Goldman Sachs insiders.  
• Since October, the House Financial Services Committee has passed over 50 bills that either benefit Wall Street directly or weaken consumer or investor protections, putting families and communities at risk and paving the way for future Wall Street windfalls.
• JPMorgan and Wells Fargo’s tax cuts will total $7 billion this year alone. Private equity fund managers stand to rake in $19 billion over 10 years just from the carried interest loophole remaining intact.
• Four out of 5 analysts expect companies to pass the tax gifts along to investors as stock buybacks and dividends. Only 1 in 5 expect companies to raise wages. The top six Wall Street banks together actually cut 8,000 jobs in the last six months of 2017.
• Wall Street’s corporate income tax cuts alone would fund 300,000 elementary school teachers, or 6,000 teachers per state for 10 years.

###