UPDATED: The Giant Bait and Switch (Color Me Surprised)
UPDATE: Trump just signed the bill before blowing out of town to Cheeto Lago. He didn’t get the PayGo waiver, so cuts to Medicare and other social programs should begin in early 2018. It looks like Trump, like with so many of these issues, could care less what happens to Congress, or he has some trick up his sleeve in a signing statement. This will be interesting to watch.
There’s a LOT in Trump’s tax bill to be upset about, especially after the vomit-inducing love fest at the White House Wednesday when the sucking up by Congressional Republicans got so pervasive that they actually dropped the barometric pressure in Washington. This bill is bad, horrible, unsettling, __________ (add your descriptor here). This bill is so bad that even Marketwatch, owned by the Wall Street Journal, published an editorial this week called The Four Worst Things About the Tax Bill. And here are those four things: 1) It’s Unnecessary – the economy is growing at an average 2.3% which is normal for our economy and is stable with the growth of the work force. US corporations are sitting on piles of cash already. Trump yesterday said that this tax cut will increase our grow rate from 3% to 6%, which is a blatant lie. The economy historically grows at 2 to 3% and tax cuts have little to no long term effect on the economy. 2) It’s Inefficient – We already know what’s going to happen with this windfall to corporations; they’re going to buy back stock. There will be little short term gain and virtually no long term gain, AND we’ll add over a trillion dollars to our accumulated deficit just because we can. 3) It’s Unjust – Tax cuts for corporations are permanent. The tiny tax cuts received by the majority of Americans will vaporize in 10 years. In the interim, Donald Trump and his cronies in Congress stand to put millions of dollars in their own pockets through preferential cuts to taxes on their incomes. 4) It’s corrupt – this is nothing but a shopping list for big GOP donors. It repeals the ACA mandate; it keeps the carried interest deduction for hedge fund and private equity executives; it opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development. And, as I already mentioned, it includes the #CorkerKickback, giving preferential treatment to passive income from real estate.
As you dig into the 500 page bill, it gets worse and worse, but that’s not the actual worst of it. The worst is that the drama and rush to get this bill passed was 100% Kabuki. The drive to getting this bill on the books by yearend was complete and total fabricated bullshit. After rushing the bill through, Trump is now sitting on it and won’t sign it until January. The reason? The gigantic deficit that this bill creates will trigger the Pay as You Go budget provisions enacted by Congress originally under Reagan and HW Bush which will require mandatory spending cuts including Medicare and Social Security. If the bill is signed this year, those cuts will come early 2018, which is political suicide for Republicans. The only way the mandatory cuts would not occur is if Congress passed a waiver to PayGo, but that would require 8 Democrats to cross over and vote with the GOP, and that will NEVER happen after they ran over the Dems to pass this bill before the end of the year. So, everyone just went home, and Trump is headed off to Cheeto Lago for Christmas.
So, by signing the bill in January, the mandatory spending cuts will come AFTER the mid-term elections, and most voters won’t realize they’ve been pantsed once again while they stupidly vote for the people who are doing the pantsing.
This is not a “giant Christmas present” as Trump calls it. It’s nothing but a giant bait and switch.
Bingo.
1There may still be hope to spread the word starting now about the coming cuts to Social Security and Medicare before the 2018 elections. The Trump base may not heed the warnings about PayGo cuts, but more people than ever before want to end the Republican destruction of our country. This may push that wave even higher.
2This whole thing is absolutely no surprise coming from the liar that was placed in the White House. It is to benefit him and his cronies who need no further “tax relief.” It also is to bolster that 30+% who are members of his cult – he is afraid they may come out of their comas and realize just what a piece of cow manure he is. Those die-hard followers want all the benefits this country has but don’t want to pay one red cent in taxes for pay for them. That cult doesn’t realize what has already been done to them – i.e. “you mean the ACA is Obama Care???”
As usual, the Republicans look only as far as the end of their noses when bending over backward to reward those who mightly fund their campaigns to remain in office. They could care about the future generations who will be stuck with the horrible budget deficit they are saddling our children/grandchildren with. This monstrosity will only keep them in office for a bit longer.
3That word to fill in the blank? Genocidal. I refer to all the people who are going to die due to the loss of healthcare and that especially includes the kids who are no longer covered by CHIP.
4Trump is too stupid and undisciplined to understand the Paygo cuts. If the Bill is released to him before January 1st, he will sign it and the Republicans will have to waiver.
5So, the Dems say, “Turn out the lights, Edith,” as they leave the Senate chamber today, but Mitch first gavels the session to an end, then snickers and leaves the chamber.
Trump sneaks back into DeeCee under the cover of darkness and starts firing undesirables from the FBI and DOJ. Then he appoints someone who can flush the Russia/Trump/Election/MoneyLaundering/PureEvil investigation.
He can do this because Mitch will have closed the session allowing Trump the constitutional privilege of appointing whomever he wants when the Senate is in recess.
And while there are limitations, it’s like Trump told the UN yesterday, he doesn’t care.
6EL JEFE ARE YOU WATCHING? Donnie’s signing it this morning.
7@P.P.–Thank you. I was going to say the same thing. Trump is signing it in the Oval Office without the usual fanfare and hoopla in the Rose Garden. But I’m sure his signature will be just as yuuuge and indecipherable.
8This tax bill is Paul (Hypocrite) Ryan’s dream come true. After living his entire life dependent on government benefits, contracts, and paychecks, and unable to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid head on as it would make him far to unpopular with not only the public, but his fellow Republican representatives who would be voted out of office for removing those safety nets, he puts a trap door in the tax bill.
Fast forward one or two years:
9Deficits? Where did they come from? Well… now we have to cut something from the budget because we’re fiscally responsible Republicans, remember? What we claimed to be before we gave all that money to the 1% in 2017?
Ryan admitted today that no one knows whether there will be any/enough economic good to pay for the deficits.
Hell, everyone with a brain knows we won’t see Drumpf’s beloved 6% growth with a good economy and full employment. That story has been written numerous times and 2.3% growthis steady and about the best this economy can do in the long term.
But lying pathological liars gotta lie. They can’t help themselves. one last tidbit- it appears more people want Drumpf impeached than plan to vote for him in 2020.
All of you knock yerselves out celebrating safely and come back and pick up where you left off.
10Trump wasn’t going to sign it until January, but he tweeted today that he was watching “the news” (guess which channel) and everyone was breathlessly asking if he would fulfill his promise of a big, beautiful tax cut for Christmas.
As Paul Krugman says in his piece in the NYT today, “Tax-Cut Santa actually rewards you if you’re naughty, as long as you’re naughty in the right way.”
11Kabuki theatre meets three card monte in a rolling meth lab. With Donnie signing today sans ceremony, this could be the proverbial post dated check. In the did he really sign it debate or were his fingers crossed behind his back, don’t expect clarity from Sarah Chuck-a-Load Sandbag when she stomps to the podium.
PayGo? Rules? Be prepared for the real rule: IOKIYAR The brazen blank’s are ready continue the screwing unapologetically.
12http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2017/12/another-job-vacancy.html
13The taxcuts giveaway to the koch bros came in over budget and wingnuts were in danger of losing their 50 vote passage with no Dems able to vote. The problem was with making all cuts permanent and then the deficit would be too high.
The choice was making korporate cuts or middle class cuts sunset and you know who won that argument. Hint, it wasn’t you or me, but the guys behind the tree.
14Trump may suffer dearly for his Fox TV viewing. The original logic for signing the bill in 2018 was to prevent the Pay-Go rule from coming into effect until 2019 – after the midterm elections. After watching Fox propaganda TV, Trump impulsively decided to sign the bill right away – so the Pay-Go rules come into effect in 2018… BEFORE the mid-terms.
There’s a whole lotta Trump loyalists who will start feeling the cuts in 2018. One wonder whether they’ll finally catch on to the con.
Of course, we may be fighting a war in North Korea by next year – and China will probably join in on North Korea’s side. I guess we’ll find out whether China’s “carrier-killer” ballistic missiles live up to their name.
15AT&T is giving Drumpf credit for AT&Ts decision to hand out $1000 bonuses. Problem is AT&Ts union negotiated these bonuses before Drumpf was appointed bogus potus. Drumpf never misses a chance to get credit for someone else’s hard work.
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