Do you remember a movie where the plot hinged on the fact that everything that was happening was because of script writing? The hero (perhaps the heroine) of the movie saved everyone by writing more and more outrageous events into the script.
That is Trump’s world view. He believes it because for his entire life it has been reinforced.
Every once in a while, you see something that gives you a feeling that everything may just end up okay. In a just and rational universe, anyway.
I just stumbled upon this article from a few months ago. In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that the man profiled in the article is a friend of mine. In fact, he’s the person whose link is in my sig. I’m not stumping for him, nor am I soliciting donations. But it’s nice to see these islands of rationality in the ocean of embarrassment that Trump has created.
Wells Fargo CEO explains why the tax bill is going to be good for him and his ilk.
This is going to sound “concern troll-y” as fuck, but I do worry the Democrats may come out of this ultimately looking like the boys and girls who cried Wolf. Right now they have won the PR war, as polling indicates this bill is extremely unpopular.
And if I were asked by a pollster, I’d say I was agin’ it, because I’m just against Republican stuff on general principle, and I do hate how much of a deficit-busting giveaway to the 1% it is.
Buuuut…if I had a magic button I could press to stop the bill from passing, I would be very, well, hard-pressed to press it. :o My family is right about at the national median for household income (grossing in the $50-55K range), we have four kids, and we don’t itemize. So while we obviously won’t get the huge windfall a billionaire will, it’s going to net us, what, three grand a year at least? Maybe even four or five Gs? When you’re living paycheck to paycheck like we are, that’s a lot of dough!
What I hope happens is like what happened with the Bush tax cuts: a Democratic regime comes in in 2021, and the cuts for the one percent (or maybe ten percent) are rolled back, while the cuts for families like mine are preserved–and the tax code actually ultimately becomes more progressive.
But I do worry that Democrats are making a lot of claims about this bill *only *benefiting the rich, and even increasing taxes on middle income people, that are going to be proved wrong fairly soon, and less ardent partisans than I may react differently than I do.
Nikki Haley: “The US will be TAKING NAMES when the UN vote goes down on the Jerusalem decision!”
Huh. Maybe the Nikkster hasn’t quite got the “hang” of this “diplomacy” stuff yet?
This is the great salesmanship snowjob Republicans pull all the time, though, by talking about how “your taxes will go down” instead of talking about the value citizens are getting now versus before. I’m in a similar situation as you where I’ll probably get a few thousand dollars back (at least initially), but at what cost? I like more money in my pocket, too, but you really have to hate your fellow Americans to think that taking money and benefits from the needy to help the less needy (not to mention outright rich who benefit the most) is a good thing to do.
And you will likely be affected directly in future years, as Ryan and/or his successors suddenly notice that massive deficit and declare they must radically cut back Medicare and Social Security, in order to shrink that deficit. The one that they themselves created.
If Paul Ryan notices the deficit that means Democrats are back in power.
I’m pretty sure that’s the plan. Create a massive deficit, scream about it, cut Medicare and Social Security.
That, or when Democrats get back in power, raise taxes to fix the mess, scream about that.
Most likely, a combination of the two.
I’m not going to become (or vote) Republican. I’m just saying, if a hardcore Dem like me has trouble hating this free money I will be getting, it is a potentially troublesome sign that the public opinion against this bill may flip, and low information voters may feel the Democrats misled them.
Republicans always have an easier time with the parts of their agenda involving tax cuts or deregulation. People like free money, and it takes a lot more work for Democrats to recreate regulatory entities from scratch than it does to zero out their budgets.
As I understand it, though, there are upper-middle class people who do itemize and will pay more. It’s strange that the GOP has neglected this group that used to be their base.
In other news, I check the Steyer impeachment petition website every few days. On the last two visits, it ticked over with a few new signers, maybe 15 per minute.
I checked it awhile ago… that thing was turning over like a fuel pump after an oil embargo. Or maybe like the National Debt Clock. (Ok; maybe not that fast. Nothing else moves that quick.)
Steyer Need to Impeach Petition
Perhaps this abomination of a tax bill has focused some minds. Steyer is going to have four million signatures very soon, I think.
It’s a good start.
Don’t be so negative. I think Ambassador Haley has made a commendable resolution for 2018 with her goal of learning the names of some of the other countries in the UN.
I’m going to be paying more. And then when the deficit blows up and the Republicans roll out phase two of slashing services, my autistic daughter is going to be SOL.
I truly believe in a progressive tax. And I wouldn’t mind increased taxes to improve education, infrastructure, services. But bugger me with a fish fork that a) cut corporate taxes so that shareholders (including a high % of foreign money) will get more dividends, and b) 1% take it to the bank.
Slackerinc, it’s highly likely that this slash and burn tactic is going to cost you a lot more in the long run.
***All ***of the other countries in the UN.
And Vladimir Putin will be shoving his fist right up our collective asses - well actually he’s already doing that. I guess he’ll just shove it up a bit further.
I too have a daughter with autism, as well as a son with autism. And my wife as a special education teacher is affected professionally by the GOP agenda.
But here’s the thing: they don’t need a tax cut to cut programs we consider important. They will do that regardless. Hopefully only for another year or so. But stopping this tax cut won’t change that.
And my main point was not anything like “yay, GOP!” It was that I think Democrats politically are in danger of looking like they cried Wolf. Because they are saying it only benefits the rich and raises everyone else’s taxes. That’s not true, and it’s going to soon be apparent that it’s not true.
At first I thought the ploy was going to be to adjust the tax tables early in 2018, giving everyone more in their paycheck. Then it would be after the midterms when they actually did their taxes and discovered that the reason they’re been getting big refunds all these years was the deductions, so no refund.
But the bill has been modified enough that everyone will see a little extra. But the problem- and where the Dems should be taking their talking points - is that we are giving everyone a “raise” using borrowed money. And that credit card bill is going to come due. Trump is essentially using the full faith and credit of the US government to take out a big loan and give all his friends a big Christmas present. And give everyone else a little stocking stuffer. Because that’s the first step in the classic long con. Just like Trump University was. The con artisr borrows some money so he can make the scam pay off the first few times. Then he convinces the same marks to let him double down on his strategy. Like he hooked them into his scam university by selling cheap teaser courses and promising that the real get rich secrets would be made yours during the next, more expensive course. But the next course is just a sales pitch for the next course…on and on like one of those Russian nesting dolls. Its the same scam.
I think we should be wary of taking the deficit hawk position. Paul Krugman has said this was a big mistake among Clintonites, and I am inclined to agree with him. As long as we can borrow so cheap, deficits aren’t the worst thing.
Again, the best case scenario is I see it is getting Democrats in there to jack taxes back up on the rich, but leave them reduced on everyone else.
Are low-information voters going to notice? One of the complaints I occasionally hear from Democrats about Obama is that when he cut payroll taxes, nobody really connected the few extra bucks on each paycheck to anything the government had done, unlike when Bush sent out the rebate checks in 2001. The feeling is that unless it looks like this, people won’t give the government credit.
I would posit that when all these “free ponies, and more for corporations and rich people than the rest” comes due, then the slash and burn tactics will be much worse to the programs that support people like our kids.
Secondly, read anything by Paul Krugman recently on this rape and pillage tax plan. Adding $1.5T in a low inflation environment isn’t as bad as 10%+ but the bill is going to come due, and when it does our kids will suffer disproportionately. YMMV.
