Republican tax bill is a Christmas gift for the super-rich
It looks as though congressional Republicans are going to get what they want for Christmas: a major piece of legislation to which President Trump will eagerly affix his flamboyant signature.
The massive tax reform bill that has been concocted on the fly with no hearings, no input from Democrats and scant public support now has enough Republican votes to pass the House and Senate (barring any last-minute defections from the Republican ranks). After nearly a year of legislative failures, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan are as gleeful as kids on Christmas morning. Finally, they are fulfilling a campaign pledge to slash taxes and are delivering a major hit to Obamacare as well, because the tax bill cancels the mandate that everyone buy health insurance, a key pillar of the Affordable Care Act. The GOP leadership even managed to slip a proviso into the bill that opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The thing is a veritable Christmas tree for conservatives!
Under that tree, though, pretty much all of the presents are tagged for big corporations and very wealthy Americans. For everyone else, taxes may even go up over the life of the legislation. And for the kids? Well, there is a $1.4-trillion bill waiting for them down the road, because the tax cuts are expected to add that much to the federal deficit.
Why Republicans are so happy to pass a bill that is incredibly unpopular with most Americans is a bit of a mystery. Maybe they think people will forget about what they have done by the time midterm elections roll around next November. Or, more likely, they think they can continue to spin a massive transfer of wealth to those who are already wealthy as a boost to the economy.
They may be making a safe bet. After all, about a third of Americans have proved gullible enough to believe Trump when he claims this tax bill will be a great burden to him and his billionaire buddies when, of course, the opposite is true. Add to the votes of those Trumpian true believers the ballots of those who are simply not paying attention, count on the largesse of grateful dark-money donors with even more cash to contribute, thanks to the tax bill, and rely on all the gerrymandered districts across the country that have given the GOP far greater representation that their vote totals warrant — put all that together and 2018 may not look so bad for Republicans.
Maybe that’s why McConnell and Ryan are filled with so much Christmas cheer.
Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter
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