Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Kochs Spend Big To Show Millennials Why Tax Reform Is Great [VIDEO]

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Robert Donachie Capitol Hill and Health Care Reporter
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The Millennial-focused arm of Charles and David Koch’s libertarian network is launching an ad campaign to sell young Americans on the benefits of the 2017 GOP tax reform bill.

Generation Opportunity, a Millennial-focused Koch-backed organization, is spending under a million on the ad. The group wants it to not only spark young folks’ interest in tax reform but hopefully entice them to reach out to their representatives and ask that they make the tax reforms “permanent.”

“Have you compared your most recent paycheck to one from January,” the video asks viewers. “You really should. Odds are, you may notice a little extra money.”

WATCH: 

The new ad is part of the Kochs’ plan to spend $20 million selling the benefits the bill will provide American households and individual income earners. Koch officials told The Daily Caller News Foundation at the network’s Palms Springs, Calif., January seminar that pushing tax reform was a key priority for the network in 2018.

“The new tax reform law is creating more opportunities, driving up wages and allowing young Americans to keep more of what we earn each paycheck. At a time when our generation faces many unique financial challenges, having more money to save, spend or invest in our future is exactly what we need,” Generation Opportunity Policy Director David Barnes said in a statement. “Our ad campaign gives young people the opportunity to see how this law is improving their financial well-being and expanding economic opportunity for future generations.”

The bill President Donald Trump signed into law in December 2017 is an amalgamation of the previously passed House and Senate bills.

Instead of shrinking the number of tax brackets from seven down to four, as Trump campaigned for in 2016, the bill included seven brackets with stratified rates for income earners. The lowest income earners will pay 10 percent and the highest income earners will pay 37 percent. All of the tax breaks for individuals expire in 2026.

The bill doubles the standard deduction, which could be a political boost for Republicans in 2018 since most taxpayers take advantage of that feature. Those who itemize their deductions, like taxpayers in New York and California, could see their overall tax bill rise.

Republican tax cuts are expected to grow the economy over the next two years, leadership has repeatedly claimed. Real GDP will expand 3.3 percent in 2018 and 2.4 percent in 2019. Starting in 2020, those gains are expected to taper off. The CBO expects real GDP to grow 1.8 percent in 2020, continuing at an average annual rate of 1.7 percent from 2020-2026.

While the deficit remains a concern, the tax bill has shown and is expected to avail some other net-benefits for the American people. Hundreds of corporations and small businesses announced bonuses and wage increases following the bill’s signing last December, although many have decried the moves as simply a public relations stunt. Americans filed their final tax returns under the old tax code Tuesday, kicking off the first litmus test for voters and politicians as to how effective the tax cuts will end up being.

Tax cuts are also expected to bring nearly $2 trillion in capital held overseas back to the United States, according to a United Nations Conference on Trade and Developments report.

The U.N. expects the Republican tax law could lead to the repatriation of roughly $2 trillion in funds American multinationals are holding overseas. U.N. analysts attribute their predictions to the dramatic cut to the U.S. corporate tax rate that took effect on Jan. 1, 2018.

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