By Clay Jones
Donald Trump and the Republicans finally have a legislative victory. It’s one that may feel less victorious come November 2018, which isn’t that far away.
Republicans gave corporations, billionaires, and their heirs a huge tax break. Eighty-three percent of this tax bill goes toward the top one percent. People who did not need a tax cut got a huge tax cut. Regular people got one too and it’ll average eighty bucks a month for them. Of course, this expires for the middle class in ten years but remains permanent for corporations.
When President Obama came into office, he gave middle-class Americans a larger tax break than the one Trump just gave them. Only three Republicans voted for that which was part of the financial bailout which saved, not just this nation, but probably the entire planet from a financial meltdown. How did voters respond to an increase in their bank accounts? They took control of Congress away from the Democratic Party and gave it to the Republicans.
Each and every one of those Republicans along with your nutjob right-wing friends on Facebook are touting this tax cut for the middle class while they attacked Obama for it years ago. Go figure. I believe every single Republican who voted for this thing and attended that self-congratulatory celebration today be required to have Donald Trump campaign for them during next year’s midterm elections. They own this.
They should own this because they rammed it through Congress, and they want it to take effect basically next week. Obamacare had over 75 hearings and parts of the legislation took years to be implemented. This tax scam didn’t have any hearings or testimony from experts.
Republicans rammed this bill through while ignoring CHIP, a health insurance program that’s about to run out of money and leave over two million children without coverage. This bill strips away the individual mandate in Obamacare which will also leave millions without coverage and increase costs for others that will probably be more than $80 a month. It also raises taxes on Puerto Rico companies (as though they were foreign, not American) which will drive them back to the mainland thus causing thousands on the island to lose jobs. And, let’s not forget about the deficit.
This bill will also cost you more money if you live in more liberal states like New York and California as it decreases how much you can deduct from local taxes.
This tax cut is expected to increase the deficit by over one trillion dollars. Some believe it’ll be four trillion. Republicans didn’t care about deficits during the Bush administration, and only complained about them when they blamed Obama for Bush’s deficit.
Republicans believe this will create jobs, though tax cuts for the rich and corporations have never created jobs. Companies don’t hire more people because they have more money. They hire people when demand increases. What they will do with this is buy back stock in their own companies, thus increasing the value and making their shareholders even richer. It’s not going to help anyone on assembly lines. A few companies claim they’re going to give their workers a bonus because of this tax bill. Watch what they do in the near future. They’ll be buying their own stock.
The three richest senators are Democrats, and they each voted against this. On the other side, a lot of the Republicans are millionaires. The Democrats, like Mark Warner who is the richest Senator, voted against giving himself a tax cut. Republicans voted to increase their own pocketbook. Trump claims this actually hurts him, but he’s lying unless he’s not really a rich guy.
And, if you’re not angry enough that Donald Trump, his kids, and many of the Republicans who voted for this gets a huge tax cut, then think about private jets. Private jet owners also get a tax cut.
