GOP tax bill benefits top one percent says Houston business owner

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Roughly 1,400 miles from Capitol Hill and the current tax reform fight, you will find Rusk Elatassi's car repair shop on Westheimer.

It's the kind of business that Republicans claim will likely reap at least trickle down benefit from a monster corporate tax cut.

For his part, Elatassi is highly skeptical the companies from whom he buys tires, oil and parts will share their windfall by cutting prices.

 "In reality we see that the tax cuts are just pocketed by the wealthiest in this country and it doesn't actually trickle down as it's supposed to do, in theory, to the folks that it's supposed to help," said Elatassi.

As for the tax bill's price tag and its $1.5 trillion addition to the national debt, Elatassi says it's a hefty gamble when our kids could be left with an unpaid tab.

"It's custom tailored to obviously benefit the people at the top one percent of the tax bracket. It's so obvious that you don't have to be a genius or an accountant to figure that out," said Elatassi.

Fox 26 talked to accountant Ed Gardner anyway.

"We are going to find out that about 90 percent of the people are going to pay a little less tax now," said Edward Gardner, a Houston CPA.

But Gardner says that will change with the benefit for most Americans gradually disappearing over the next decade.

The claim in Washington is that the corporations for whom these employees toil will likely share their "permanent" tax relief by raising worker wages.

While Ed Gardner isn't making any predictions, he has watched carefully over the years just how humans handle cash.

"There's people on both sides of the street that feel when you got more money in your bank account you might not be real easy to let go of it," said Gardner.

Today the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that increased economic growth due to the anticipated Republican tax cut would offset only a third of the measure's $1.5 trillion cost.