As Republicans rushed through the most significant corporate tax cut in decades this week, they forgot the No. 1 rule of Business: Don’t give away your product for free. In an interview with the "Today" show, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that he is positive the Republican tax bill will encourage CEOs to reinvest in their workers by opening new factories and giving employees a raise. In other words, Paul Ryan is a sucker.

There is no evidence that corporate tax cuts will result in a stronger economy and plenty of evidence it won’t. Some of this evidence comes from the mouths of the CEOs themselves, many of whom have said they have no plans to raise wages or reinvest their new fortunes.

According to The Hill, CEOs from Coca-Cola, Pfizer, and Cisco will be handing over their latest windfall directly to shareholders. Not to mention that historically, this type of policy has not worked. Just a few years ago, Kansas tried something similar and when the economy tanked, the state ended up having to cut social programs and infrastructure plans to avoid bankruptcy.

Corporations aren't naturally generous

Why would companies share this new money with their workers? They have zero incentive to do so now that Republicans have given them everything they want with no punishment for non-compliance. This tax bill isn’t a fiscally smart way to improve America’s economy; it's giving your kid money and hoping he’ll buy carrots and a turkey wrap even though he has a history of spending lunch money on hot Cheetos and Adderall.

Paul Ryan apparently doesn’t understand this, but he’s probably the type of guy that tips the waitress before he receives his meal. That was a joke. Paul Ryan doesn’t offer gratuities to servants as he believes their reward is just being in his presence.

It’s worth noting, that per CNBC, many American corporations are currently experiencing record profits.

In fact, back in August, President Trump bragged on Twitter about record corporate profits and attributed the gains to his presidency. Putting aside how asinine it is to further reward corporations with a massive tax cut despite sky-high profits, if these businesses were going to reinvest in American workers they could have already done so without a tax bill that will add trillions to the deficit.

Yet another poor decision

This foolish decision by Republicans shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. The GOP has a history of making poor economic choices that cost America money. Take climate change for example. While much of the industrialized world is accelerating their economies by investing in green energy that provides good paying jobs and a cleaner overall earth, Trump and the rest of the GOP are trying to resurrect the dying coal industry. And just a few weeks before a gigantic hurricane caused record flooding in Houston last August, Trump eliminated an Obama era rule requiring all new infrastructure to address climate change before building. According to a study by the Government Accountability Office, this provision would have saved taxpayers four dollars per every one dollar spent.

So why is the party of business so awful at business? The tendency to accept misinformation while flat-out denying provable facts is partly to blame. For example, evidence proving immigrants are actually a massive benefit to our economy often takes a backseat to false beliefs that immigrants are nothing more than crime committing job stealers. Of course, the other, more cynical option, is that Republicans aren’t bad at business; they just don’t care about people who legitimately need their help or the global consequences of their actions. So which one is it Republicans? Are you terrible at business, or just terrible people?
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