Thursday Trump Dump – Special Tax Cut Edition

It's a firm belief of most Republican leaders that a big tax cut for rich people will lead to a much better economy in ways that will benefit the lower and middle class. In fact, it will be so good for the lower and middle class that it's okay to raise their taxes to pay for the big tax cut for rich people. It almost never seems to work out that way but when it fails, the usual response is to deny the failure and say, "Well, everyone knows it works so let's do more of it!"

  • The "Great Kansas Experiment" has failed so totally and disastrously that the Republican-controlled legislature has given up on the plan and passed tax increases over the objection of Governor Sam Brownback. This whole thing was his doing but no matter how far reality has failed him, he will go to his grave insisting it was a smashing success. Someone needs to explain to this man what the word "experiment" means.
  • Meanwhile, we're close to trying much the same thing on a national level. Study after study has resulted in projections of tax increases for the poor and middle class, huge windfalls for the rich, soaring deficits and massive cuts to social services like health care…
  • …but Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin insists it will be great for the country and that he has studies that show it will reduce the deficit by $1 Trillion. He just doesn't seem to be able to produce these studies. There are those who say there is no such study and there never was one.
  • But enough Republicans — even "maverick" John McCain — say they're ready to vote for the tax bill so it'll probably pass…
  • …even though they don't really know what's in it
  • …and even though the public is overwhelmingly against this plan
  • …because members of the "donor class" (i.e., really rich people, the ones who'll benefit from it) are demanding it.
  • Some architects of this bill are even arguing that the key to making sure it works is to guarantee everyone that it will never be reversed and that it must be permanent. In other words, when it fails and it gets repealed, its failure will be the fault of the repealers.

And Donald Trump is dying to sign this bill.  Has it occurred to anyone that the reason this man is adamant about not releasing his taxes is not because he doesn't want us to see that he has received so much of his wealth from Russia but because he doesn't want us to be able to track how much richer he gets while in office?