27 February, 2018
CESR's Niko Lusiani, Director, Human Rights in Economic Policy Program, discussed recent lopsided tax reforms in the United States and "the killing of the American Dream" on Tax Justice Network's latest podcast.
Niko refers to the current administration's tax code adjustments as "tax deforms" that will directly impact human rights and exacerbate racial, gender and income inequalities.
The majority of the new tax plan's benefits will shift wealth from the lower and middle classes to the rich and result in $1.5 trillion in debt. That debt will be financed by public programs designed to ameliorate inequality.
The podcast is also joined by Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, who recently visited the United States to investigate the country's links between growing poverty and human rights deprivations. CESR's October submission to Alston, Fiscal Impoverishment in the United States, warned that the Republican-backed tax plan would only deepen poverty and inequality within the U.S., while also enabling transnational tax abuse and therefore undermine the ability of countries around the world to invest in human rights.
Starting at 10:30, listen to the segment here.