Well, it looks like the tax bill passed. Now, the GOP has finally evidently succeeded in giving their beloved leader, Donald Trump, his first major legislative success for his first year in the White House.
Yet, the tax bill was voted along party lines, and it was shoved in through the Senate without a single Senator being allowed to read the entirety of it, by Mitch McConnell's own admission!
Believe me, I wish I was kidding. It seems reminiscent of the PATRIOT Act, although the urgency here was just for political points for the Republican party, and not some national emergency after an event like September 11th. Just like with the bailout, as well, for that matter.
The full bill was first printed (not published) mere hours before it went on the floor of the Senate, and there was obviously no time for anyone to read everything that was in it. That was by design, just like the PATRIOT Act and the bailout, as well.
It truly is staggering that something that affects all Americans would be passed through Congress in such a manner, but these are little political tricks that most people who are paying attention are already familiar with, particularly from Republicans.
Now, we have Trump's tax bill, soon to be the law of the land. Tax write offs for private jets, massive tax cuts and benefits for the most fortunate among us, and for the corporations that increasingly rule over all of our lives, and continue to pollute the planet. Yes, they are being rewarded for all of this bad behavior, much like the man in the Oval Office.
Trump's America. Some man of the people. The con artist up to his old tricks, only now doing it to the entire country.
Americans have learned nothing from their own history. To begin with, electing a clown like Trump to the highest office suggests that Americans do not take their own arguments of exceptionalism and high standards seriously. When you only keep up with politics enough to focus on who will give you tax breaks (almost always particularly benefiting the rich, like this one), then we as a nation collectively deserve what we are going to get. I feel bad for the people who will suffer who are not the problem, and who were paying attention. But to those who voted for imbecile after imbecile into high office, and then act surprised when things turn badly, they deserve it. Especially since we came so close to an economic disaster not all that long ago, and most people should have understood the lessons from then, too.
Again, I am not a Democrat. But at least some of their ideas have changed. Not all for the better, either. By and large, they have come to embrace the privileges of the elites and corporate supremacy in this country, which is not a positive thing, and it is self-serving. The difference is the degree to which they accept it, but they clearly accept it. However, Democrats also came to change their opinions on other things, as well. Some more positive changes have been a slow, increasing acceptance of the type of single-payer healthcare system that Bernie Sanders champions bringing to the country. Democrats were largely opposed to gay marriage a decade and change ago, but now, almost all of them are for it. And most Democrats seem at least open to the legalization of marijuana. There may be other things that I am forgetting to put here, as I am kind of rushing, but the gist is that for all of their faults, Democrats have at least started to change their positions on things, reflecting a more modern view, presumably.
Republicans, with very few exceptions that essentially serve as window dressing, have continually pined for the same thing all of my life. Those things are tax cuts (especially for the rich) and deregulation. They act like these are easily the most logical and wonderful things, but they have both served as modern day Trojan horses that have absolutely ruined the country! And since they have no imagination, they keep aiming for more of these, even as the problems stemming from these things continues to grow into epidemic proportions. Should I remind anyone at this point that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing, and expect a different result? Let's move on from this limited and limiting way of thinking. It has brought us from being the envy of the world with the highest standard of living, to being more economically and politically polarized than ever before, and with the entire world now laughing at us as a legitimate basket case!
Imagine taking more than $300 billion from older and sicker people who need health insurance, and giving that $300 billion to big corporations and wealthy people as a tax cut. That's the GOP plan.
~ Robert Reich
Only we won't have to imagine it any longer. We'll all be living it. Thanks, Trump! And thanks, Congressional Republicans!
And a special thank you to all of those 60 million voters who made this kind of elitism in America possible! I certainly could not have been done without you.
Here are some thoughts by Senator Bernie Sanders - the man who should now be President - on this bill, and the trickle-down economic theories that it champions:
When Ronald Reagan slashed taxes for the rich in 1981, economic growth went down by 1.9 percent the following year and the unemployment rate increased from 7.5% to 10.8%. The 1981 tax cut was so successful, Mr. President, that Reagan had to increase taxes 11 times after that.
After George W. Bush cut taxes for the wealthy and large corporations, we lost nearly 500,000 private sector jobs, the national debt almost doubled, poverty increased, and median income went down.
After right-wing Republicans in Kansas cut taxes for the wealthy, revenue declined so much they had to make savage cuts in education, health care, transportation, and infrastructure.
In other words, trickle-down economics failed miserably in Kansas. It failed under the Reagan administration, and it failed under the administration of George W. Bush. It is a fraudulent theory cooked up by think tanks funded by the wealthy.
~ Senator Bernie Sanders
And these are only the recent examples, which includes the so-called Great Recession in 2008-09. The big one, of course, was the Great Depression, which was also the result of trickle-down economics catering to the wealthiest Americans and corporations. The arguments sound great, if they were true. That is why so many Americans stubbornly stick to their belief that it just might work, this time, much like Charlie Brown keeps thinking that this time, he will kick that damn football. But it never works. Ever. The rich keep that money, these days in offshore accounts, and it does not trickle down to the rest of us. The greedy grow greedier and greedier. Just look at our current president! Have you ever seen anyone so damn narcissistic and selfish in your life? For most people, old age brings some perspective and wisdom, but these are terms that clearly do not apply to the clown prince of orange, as evidenced by his inane tweets.
And oh, by the way, did you notice that these tax cuts just happen to benefit him, even though he claims otherwise?
Mitch McConnell Just Admitted That No One Is Allowed To Read The Tax Cut Bill Until After It Passes By Jason Easley, , Dec 1st, 2017:
Tax bill: Trump victory as Senate backs tax overhaul by BBC News America, December 2, 2017:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42205181
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