The GOP's tax cuts for corporations and the rich have not led to higher wages. In fact, wages are actually down 0.2 percent across the board according to the Labor Department and they're about to take another hit.
Trump announced this morning that he plans to unilaterally cancel a pay raise for civilian employees of the federal government scheduled to take effect in January.
From CNBC:
In doing away with the 2.1 percent across-the-board pay increase that was scheduled to take effect in January, Trump said he was working "put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course."
Scrapping the raises will save more than $25 billion, Trump said.
"I have determined that for 2019, both across the board pay increases and locality pay increases will be set at zero," the president said in a letter addressed to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-WI, and released by the White House. "These alternative pay plan decisions will not materially affect our ability to attract and retain a well qualified Federal workforce."
$25 billion is a lot of money, but it's also inconsequential compared to the cost of the GOP's $1.5 trillion tax cut. The federal deficit is projected to surpass $1 trillion in fiscal year 2019 which begins on October 1st. We're going to cross the trillion dollar threshold months before any civilian employee of the government was scheduled to receive a pay raise.
Unlike corporations and rich shareholders afforded a windfall by the GOP's tax cuts, employees of the federal government are mostly middle class people who will immediately spend their higher wages and inject it directly back into the economy.
The rich aren't doing that. Business investment is stagnant and private sector wages are down. They're going to sit on their pile of money, just like they always do, and when the next recession hits they're going to buy every piece of property they can get their hands on.
Meanwhile, Trump is about to spend $12 billion on a bailout for the agricultural industry because of a trade war that he initiated.