Today could be the day that Republicans pass their “massive” tax reform. A reform, that by any other name, would be just an old fashion tax cut and give away. A give away, not to all but to the Republican friends who have bank rolled so many of the elected officials. Why isn’t this done deal since Republicans control both Houses of Congress and the Presidency as well?
There are ideological reasons. For example, the fiscal hawks are really between a rock and hard place since this “tax reform” will send probably $1.5 trillion or more to the already $20 trillion Federal Debt. Archival TV footage will show these same Senators and Representatives who vote for this tax bill, full throatily denouncing government spending because (sob, sob), “we are leaving our mess for future generations to deal with”. Never the less, ideology only goes so far, especially when there are millions involved in campaign donations.
Other ideologues want to ensure the right type of corporations get the right amount of tax cuts. Large, globally competing corporations have a different sense of what a globally competitive tax code might look like than a group of doctors, lawyers, or small town manufacturers would. Of course there is nothing in the “tax reform” legislation that requires corporations to reinvest these windfall profits, or to hire more workers, or to increase the pay of anyone. If you believe the free market will produce these wondrous results I have a bridge you might be interested in too.
The overall process the GOP has employed could be described as obfuscate and distract.
The creation of the specific House and Senate versions has been done in secret, without public hearings, and with no solicitation of public ideas. In addition the bill drafting process has been done hastily to minimize any time to discover the full ramifications and even less time to inform Americans of who gets what and who loses what.
For example, today it was reported that the House bill would classify student grants such as that received in scholarships for graduate work, as income and fully taxable at the total estimated value of a graduate program. The result would be that students might become responsible for paying taxes as if they were earning $80,000 a year when in fact they earn far, far less if anything. It would appear that Republicans do not think anyone other than the already wealthy should have access to higher education. Hmmm.
The more clever and sinister part of the obfuscation and distraction strategy goes to the hands of the President. President Trump may be the modern master of distraction, either by intent or by sheer incompetence. The President has opened one issue after another (such as defense of Judge Roy Moore, attacks on the New York Times and Washington Post, and retweets of racist and hateful British tweets dignifying what others have refuted with the Presidential stamp. The impact is when the news media chooses to cover this outrageous behavior, by default the media dilutes the time/space for fuller coverage of the tax reform debate.
Pundits predict that the Senate vote is still too close to call and the votes may not be there. On the other hand, any Republicans not voting for this tax bill can expect a far right challenge in their next election.
It might take a lot of courage for some GOP members to vote no on this bill. but Ironically, I wonder whether Republicans realize the tidal wave of anger which will come next year, should the bill be passed, and Republicans are forced to reduce farm subsidies, Medicare and Medicaid, and Social Security to stop the Federal Debt hemorrhaging?