Republicans Slouch Toward Gomorrah With Frightful Tax Bill
In a wild and crazy Friday night and Saturday morning, Senate Republicans elected to commit certain political suicide by passing a deeply reviled tax bill.
They were still writing amendments designed to bribe reluctant members mere moments before they jammed it through on a party-line vote with zero hearings and absolutely no meaningful input from a nervous public that hasn’t even seen the text of this twisted legislation.
Who had seen it? Those who wrote it: the lobbyists. Tax reform had more than half of the lobbyists slithering around Capitol Hill this year. They had a shared goal, following the disappointing healthcare reform loss earlier this year, and that goal was to make their wealthy sponsors even more wealthy, and to set the stage for the destruction of Medicare and Social Security.
A shocking statistic: a government watchdog group, Public Citizen, found that 6,243 of the nearly 11,000 lobbyists aggressively pushed members of Congress on tax issues, The Hill reported Friday.
What does this actually mean? Well, for every member of Congress, there were approximately 11 lobbyists working on taxes. The Public Citizen’s report was released on Friday, just ahead of the expected passage of Senate Republicans’ tax bill, which would give massive tax cuts to corporations and wealthy Americans.
The report notes that 31 lobbyists who worked to rally support for tax reform were members of the Trump campaign or his presidential transition team. It also found, unsurprisingly, deep ties between lawmakers, donors, and lobbyists.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which had 100 registered lobbyists working on tax reform alone, gave nearly $200,000 to congressional Republicans during the 2016 campaign.
One of those Republicans was Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who threatened to block the Senate tax bill in committee before announcing his support for the bill on Friday.
On Wednesday, John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced he was just fine sending this diabolical, 479-page Dybbuk through the Senate. It didn’t matter to him that no one in the chamber had time to read it even once. Democratic pleas to at least postpone the vote until Monday so that our national leaders might actually skim the legislation were ignored.
How about protecting Medicaid for vulnerable Alaskans? When it came time to vigorously screw the poor, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski was totally cool with it as long as she could trash the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with oil drilling in return. Susan Collins, who was wavering Thursday, ultimately voted for this monstrous bill, all but giving the finger to the Mainers who gave her those airport standing ovations after she stopped TrumpCare. Senator Jeff Flake got on board when the White House made some meaningless promise to him that he would be part of any “conversation” about a DACA resolution later this year. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) was the only final holdout.
It’s important to note that Senate Republicans still might have “Jonestowned” themselves for nothing, as House Republicans in committee must work this last-minute monstrosity out and then put it through both chambers, again, for a final floor vote. So, they will have to endure at least another week of voters finding smoldering little pieces of coal under their tax Christmas tree, and to figure out ways to deny the obvious: that they have sold out the American people for nothing.
Make no mistake, there will be hell to pay for what happened last night, and the worst is still clearly yet to come, for the Republicans who voted for this steaming piece of excrement, and, of course, for the American people.
Mr Trump made sure the Congress had it right and they do. Mr. Trump is smart maybe the smartest president ever and he will take care of the people.
I don’t know what you’re smoking dude, but whatever it is remember Jeff Sessions is going to take it away from you.
We’ve more to worry about than just Trump although he’s a big worry and in the short run. Biggest worry for these of us under 40 is climate change.
Terrible bill and I can’t wait for the Trumpers start learning they can no longer deduct state and local, student loan interest, medical interest, and etc.
This still has to go back to committee right and a few goopers are saying with the ANWR stuff in there, they will not be voting for it in the house. It has a tiny little perk for all of us that own airplanes though so there is that nugget of goodness. Saw some dude saying yesterday they will come back in a few and go oh hey, know what, my bad, too much was given out we have to cut your Medicare, Soc sec etc etc. I swear when dems get power next the goopers had better not come back with the bullshit that we can’t have nice things because (insert whatever gooper reason here)
Hard to say if bill is frightful or not, nobody has read it. Senators got a chance to peruse 500 page document an hour before the vote. Wicked.
It’s all over the internet now, and trust me, it’s frightful. Even if the salient parts weren’t available to read, the very fact it’s a republican bill means it’s frightful.
Ssshhhhh! The next step is to privatize freedom of speech and send us all to private prisons. The only thing that won’t be private is our conversations.
Be careful. Be very careful. What it they read what you just wrote? You will go to a private prison where you will be forced to worship Donald Trump, and listen to Donald Trump’s recorded voice say “you’re fired” over and over and over again. Oh no. What did I just write?
The dirtiest bomb in this pile of “steaming excrement” is the coming attack on our social safety net. The Republicans have been trying to privatize it for decades.
Normally I groan when someone “verbs” a noun like Jonestown, but not this time. It’s a word we need.
I hope I’m around to partake in the negative hallelujah chorus of “I told you so” when the bloated corpses start to stink. In fact it’s already getting a bit smelly in Trumptown.