The Perfect Spell: Voodoo Economics with a Trickle Down Twist

Republicans believe that the tax cuts in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) will spur
economic growth that Government revenues will increase. Will it?

“What happens when you reduce taxes and you incentivize and increase the incentives for
investment is people invest, they make money and they pay more taxes, and government revenue goes up,” said Senator majority leader John Thune. In a social-media post last month President Trump wrote that passage of OBBB will triple or even quintuple CBO’s forecast of 1.8% growth, which did not allow for the effects of OBBB.

These Republican expectations are based on the scientifically proven interaction of Trickle
Down prosperity and the theory of Advanced Voodoo Economics.

Johnson André, The Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), holds advanced
degrees in both economics and Voodoo from Université d’État d’Haïti. He explained, “When mixed, Voodoo and Trickle Down, both individually complex, form a plethora of emergent behaviors at the subatomic level involving the interactions and transformations of the tiny particles driven by the Strong Nuclear Force and the Weak Nuclear Force, which immediately spur economic growth. Though conclusively proven many times, Neanderthal Democrats still deny the verified effects of Voodoo Trickle Down.”

In fact, none of the four tax cuts since 1979 fulfilled the vaunted promise of paying for themselves. The tax cuts of 1981, 2001, 2002, and 2017 increased the deficits and the national debt. while rewarding the rich 1% and screwing the lower 90%. In 1979 the marginal tax rate was 70% and the top 1% pocketed 7% of total income. By 2023,
after these four tax cuts, the top marginal tax rate was 37% and the top 1% grabbed 21 % total income.

Republicans counter that the tax cuts saved the economy from looming economic collapses
prompted by incompetent prior Democrat administrations. “Were it not for Voodoo Trickle Down, America would have suffered calamitous depressions in 1982, 2002, 2004, and 2018 due to the self-inflicted economic carnage precipitated by presidents Carter, Clinton, and Obama,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson.

“Given the economic disaster that Trump inherited from Biden, only the double dose of Voodoo Trickle Down in OBBB can save us. Fortunately, America’s rich 1% have plenty to trickle, and have the 90% of the population to trickle onto. It is God’s plan! Voodoo, Drip, Drip, Voodoo, Trickle, Trickle, Voodoo, Dribble, Dribble,” Speaker Johnson chanted.

However, the nascent MAMA wing (Make America Monarchical Again), lead by OMB Director
Russell Vought, ignores Voodoo Trickle Down, believing that natural law alone will
increase income inequality. “When debating Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump said that not paying taxes ‘makes me smart.’ He was right. The rich are smarter than you. That is why they have more money than you. That is why they pay less tax than you,” Vought explained.

“We would all be better off if the smart rich paid no tax. Under the French monarchies, the first and second estates were never taxed. The bourgeoise and the poor paid for everything. This equitable and productive system made France the greatest county in the world, until 1789.”

Vought has a point. If you are a full-rate taxpayer today, you are a certifiable fool. To survive in this Brave New World, I offer some tax-avoidance tips for this new era:

1. Get into real estate. People in real estate never pay tax. They write on form 1099, “I am in
   real estate. Therefore, I owe no tax as determined in Voleur, Goniff, et al v. Commissioner,
   506 U.S. e1468 (1963)”
2. Learn about pass-through income. Obtain a glut of pass-through income that, under OBBB,
   qualifies for a QBI deduction of up to 20%.
3. Become a Hedge Fund or Private Equity Partner. Have most of your eight-figure income
   taxed at 20%.
4. Increase the value of your estate to $30 million. Under OBBB you will pay no estate tax.
   Current law taxes estates over $20 million, which amounts to 0.08% of all estates. While only eight persons out 10,000 will benefit from this change, they are the ones who need it badly as their estates are worth $30 million or more. Republicans justified prior estate tax cuts as the savior of family farms. (When pressed, they were unable to identify one family farm that had been saved by raising the estate tax limit.) For OBBB, they dropped this rationalization, opting for the need to increase funding for America’s hard-working tricklers.
5. In 2020 the IRS audited only 0.2% of filers with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 and 0.4% between $200,000 and $500,000. By June 26, 2025 the Trump administration has reduced the IRS headcount by 26%. from 102,113 to 75,702 employees. Calculate the
   risk/reward equation when preparing your 1099.
6. As a corporate CFO, I gleaned three rules of taxation: a) The IRS will demand that that you give them either money or documents. b) The more documents you give them, the less taxes you must give them. c) If you give them enough documents, you will not need to give them any money.