The Republican Senators, without any votes from the Democrat Senators, recently passed tax reform.

The media lied to the public maintaining that there was no tax savings that would ever get to the employees. They told their audience that it was really a tax increase. They were trying to derail the tax reform.

Tax reform was passed, regardless of the lies and no support from the Democrats.

A large number of companies have passed on some of their tax savings to their employees. In addition, they are investing in plant and equipment with their tax savings.

Here is a short list of companies you may recognize:

Wells Fargo: Increased their minimum wage rate to $15 per hour, and increased their charitable giving 40 percent to $400 million.

Fifth Third Bankcorp: Increased the minimum wage to $15 per hour and 13,500 employees will get $1,000 bonus.

AT&T: 200,000 employees will get a $1,000 bonus.

Boeing: Spending $300 million on their workers.

Comcast: 100,000 of their workers will get a $1,000 bonus — executives receive no bonuses.

14 percent of CEOs plan large capital investments in the United States to be funded by the reduction in tax rates. It is estimated that over $400 billion of profits are stashed overseas by many international companies because our tax rate of 35 percent was one of the highest rates in the world.

All these numbers are easy to ignore if you believe that “trickle down economics” doesn’t work.

I don’t want to confuse you with the facts, but here is a local company that might be more convincing because they are a local company. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina this February announced how it plans to invest $50 million thanks in part due to the tax law savings.

This is a quote:

“Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) today announced that it is investing an additional $50 million into North Carolina community health initiatives this year, funded partially with $40 million in tax savings generated through the recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Additional tax law savings from this year will be invested into new consumer-facing technologies designed to improve the customer experience and help them navigate the health care system.

Blue Cross NC will use the remaining tax law savings to provide $1,000 bonuses to all non-officer employees of the company.”

Now that’s how “trickle down” economics works.

Richard Day, Tryon