Even Most Businesses Are Worried About Trump Ruining The Economy

Legislating Legislation by Nancy Ohanian

Everybody's picking apart Trump's eye-popping tax giveaway to the wealthy-- except for lobbyists. They are happy campers. As Think Progress put it yesterday, "Trump's signature tax bill drains the country's money right into Wall Street's pockets." The plan is designed to benefit wealthy business owners and powerful corporations that have spent, in some cases, millions of dollars lobbying for its own interests and filling the campaign coffers of the very people who crafted the bill. The centerpiece of the plan is a series of tax cuts for corporations that will likely mean less funding for the government to do its job and more money in the hands of the wealthy corporate interests who bankrolled their various campaigns. Most Americans-- and by a wide margin-- think corporations and the wealthy don't deserve the tax cuts and that they're already not paying their fair share.

Yesterday, the American Federation of Teachers and Hedge Clippers campaign explored a very different perspective. They released a report that looks at the corporate 10K forms that companies file with the SEC to inform investors or potential investors on their businesses that have posted since Trump turned his popular vote loss into a win in November. The 10k's found that when corporations have to be honest with their investors about what the Trump administration means for them and their sector of the economy-- the majority view is that Trump Regime policies are just plain bad for business. Business is great for the burgeoning lobbyist "industry" in DC though, just not for real industries.

In their legal filings with the government,  when American corporations are required to tell the truth to their investors about the Trump administration, they are overwhelmingly negative and skeptical.

Overall, the data showed a consistent trend-- corporate America is wracked with uncertainty and fear over President Trump’s economic agenda.

Specifically, the results indicated that

• Half of all companies said Trump was bad for business, and eight out of ten companies were negative or neutral.
• 193 (50.80%) of 380 companies viewed the Trump Administration as a negative force on their business
• 134 (35.26%) companies viewed the Administration neutrally, and
• Only 53 (13.95%) companies indicated that the Trump Administration’s policies would benefit their business.

The largest consensus we found in SEC 10K reports is that Trump is creating fear and uncertainty in the business community, with more than half of companies describing the Trump Administration as a direct threat to their business success and predicting devastating effects on the future of their profitability.

This list was dominated by healthcare and pharmaceutical companies; comprising 27% of the list, who were largely anticipating damaging consequences to their business due to Trump administration’s plans to undermine and repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

The list includes companies like Healthcare Corp, a family owned business providing care for senior citizens in South Carolina, indicated that their business could face adverse effects due to the administration’s planned changes to Medicaid coverage and repeals to the Affordable Care Act.

Several other healthcare service providers (such as Healthsouth Corp), medical equipment producers, (such as Corindus Vascular Robotics and Insulet), and medical research companies (such as Juno Therapeutics), have also expressed concern about the negative impact repeal efforts would have on their ability to provide healthcare services to their customers.

  Diffusion Pharmaceuticals, producer of drugs that target treatment-resistant cancers, seemed to question whether President Trump’s attacks on companies on Twitter and other public forums might impact their supply chain, writing that it was “uncertain what impact the election of Donald Trump as President will have on our third-party suppliers in light of his public statements.”  In their SEC filings, ViewRay, Inc, which produces MRI-guided radiation therapy machines, pondered the detrimental effects of a possible ACA repeal and cautioned that “[a]n under-staffed FDA could result in delays in FDA’s responsiveness or in its ability to review submissions or applications, issue regulations or guidance, or implement or enforce regulatory requirements in a timely fashion or at all.”

Some financial and real estate companies also see their investments as threatened by the political and economic uncertainty surrounding Trump’s Administration and his inconsistent policy decisions.

The only industries solidly backing Trump in their truth-telling filings with the SEC are:

Big banks, which are looking at a $27 billion windfall from Trump’s planned deregulation.

Fossil-fuel firms, who’ve filled the Trump campaign coffers this year to help push elimination of regulations and rules that protect the environment.

Two industries, banks, and fossil energy, held a friendly view of Trump. Nineteen percent of positive expectations came from coal and oil companies, and 17% came from banks.

Many of these companies are relying on President Trump’s efforts to scale back environmental protections and climate change regulations.

Such companies include American Midstream Partners, a pipeline company that is closely connected to the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, and Peabody Energy Corp and Arch Coal, the two largest coal companies and polluters in the country.

Some private equity firms, bank holding companies, and financial institutions see the election of Trump as a loosening of Obama era regulations such as the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which increased regulation of banks deemed ‘too big to fail,’ curtailed predatory mortgages, and limited the speculative investment capabilities of financial institutions.

Firms such as Banc of California, which has seen massive resignations after an SEC investigation into insider trading and connection to fraud, support President Trump’s lax attitude towards banks. Multiple other banks expressed similar views in their reporting, supporting Trump’s attempts to roll bank “burdensome regulations” meant to protect consumers.

In fact, financial service companies used their resources to make sure these policies would come to light. Federated Investors Inc. donated over $400,000 to Republican Committees during the election, while Prudential Financial Inc., Genworth Financial Inc., and AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co., donated a combined total of $500,000 to a variety of Republican groups during the 2016 election cycle.

They conclude their report by reminding people that "While Trump ran on a platform to help the working class, his policies have largely focused on destabilizing the economic programs put in by the Obama administration and crafting policies that greatly benefit a few donors."