Two Remarkably Similar Men
After purposefully crippling and dismantling the federal government by leaving important positions unfilled, trying and failing to hire morons like Sam Clovis and appointing cancerous tumors like Scott Pruitt to destroy the agencies they are given charge of, the Trump administration is now on the verge of realizing their signature plan - a massive tax cut for corporations, millionaires and billionaires. You know, the ones who are actually struggling in this economy.
This is all deliberate and nefarious. If you’re a middle class American who believes that the government doesn’t work, you’re more inclined to starve it in the hopes that the modest $500 less you pay in taxes will be worthwhile since you hate the DMV, you hated Obamacare, and what does the EPA do anyway? Yeah, well now it literally does nothing. Or it just pays for Scott’s expensive ass private jet charters, and his $20K secure phone booth.
The Republican tax plan is one big Harvey Weinstein move, and most Americans are the ones being assaulted under it. Harvey claimed he’d help his victims with their careers if he got something out of it, if they resisted - he sometimes forced himself onto them. Republicans in a similar way claim you’ll get tax relief, but all they’ll be doing is hurting you, and taking away programs designed to help you once they’re done.
I’m not minimizing the impact of rampant sexual assault, and if this example shocked you, it's meant to show you the gruesome long term devastating outcomes of Trump’s agenda. Harvey Weinstein lured young women into committing sexual acts for him under false pretenses. It was disgusting. So is passing tax reform under the pretense that average Americans will benefit from them just so corporations and millionaires can make more money.
Taxation without representation is theft - and in this sense the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans are about to pull off the heist of the century.
That’s precisely what will happen with this Tax Cut, just like it did back in the Reagan era, and just like it did under Bush. Look at the rapid change in income gains and how drastically it changed for the 1% in the past 3 decades. This doesn’t absolve Obama either btw.
The two key highlights of the GOP tax plan are:
Cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent.
Ending the estate tax by 2024, which currently only impacts 0.2% of Americans - those worth over $5 Million - it would also kick the estate tax up to $11.2 million.
All of these cuts mean much less revenue going into federal coffers that fund social programs,healthcare, repair highways and bridges, provide disaster relief, Pell grants, fund Homeland security - basically everything we need but also know is in a state of disrepair.
So how will we pay for any of that if we’re already short of funds even BEFORE these tax cuts go into effect?
“I’m here to say that the business tax cuts is going to pay for itself. Growth in the future will help us pay for tax cuts. “
This is Reaganomics, it’s Trickle Down bullshit - that’s the whole idea behind tax cuts where the wealthy will get back more of their money and in turn magically invest it into businesses and job growth. Even though this is what has happened to the American middle class since these policies took effect.
But tax cuts for business growth is such a popular idea it even got FedEx and UPS to coauthor a supportive op-ed on it. Here’s what they had to say.
“We need a lower rate, we’re okay to take loopholes out// We really believe it generates jobs, it stimulates the economy”
“Tax cuts will generate jobs!!!!” is all we hear from guys like David who got paid almost 14 million dollars last year, except TYT’s investigative reporters have uncovered that UPS and FedEx are sinking millions of dollars into automation and drones. So tax cuts are coming for these companies, only so they can continue to find ways to automate, invest in research that will eliminate jobs and leave lower income Americans out on the street.
Meanwhile, if you’re already sick - or have family members dealing with cancer or fentanyl addiction - you can look forward to not receiving any help from the government since these fat tax cuts will put a $1.5 trillion dollar dent in the budget.
What do you think these “populist leaders” will go after next, these supposed deficit hawk Republicans, when their bottom-up wealth redistribution program is simply too costly? Trump has already tried his best to repeal Obamacare just to give the wealthy a tax cut, he’s going to do it again - because big government sucks right? And our debt is an incredible problem…
“...The highest-ranking military officer in the country was asked what the greatest threat was to our national security. And you all know what he replied; the debt. The debt. Eighteen trillion dollars and growing at this point...”
Yeah, so if the debt is our greatest threat to national security and it’s because we’re engaging in wasteful spending, please explain to me how your private jets fit in that neat little narrative, Tom Price?
This man is the walking example of Republican hypocrisy surrounding spending and the budget. Tom Price is a “budget hawk”, he dreams about taking away social services. Tom’s worth over $14 million dollars, some of that wealth he accumulated through insider trading while in congress. Tom was rewarded for all that by being appointed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services with the sole purpose of dismantling healthcare. But before accomplishing his lifelong dream of letting poor people die of cancer, Tom was caught flying around in private jets, costing taxpayers $1million. Peak irony.
So yeah, no one really gives a sh*t about the budget, especially when it’s assholes like Tom Price getting a neat little tax cut.
And the GOP talking point (aside from lies) is that the middle class in some instances may get a modest tax cut - but, as I’m sure the CBO will point out very quickly - they will also have to pay more for services that will now be either eliminated or privatized.
And it’s not like we have to search far and wide to see these identical policies destroying lives.
Let’s look at Kansas as a cautionary tale, where Governor Sam Brownback passed the largest income tax cut in state history, yet the massive growth he promised never materialized, so now the state's public schools, transportation and other public services have been left in the lurch, having to make up the shortfall. Meanwhile Brownback is planning to take his 25% approval rating and skip town for a cushy job in the Trump Administration, (abusers love other abusers) just like an NCAA coach who commits a bunch of recruiting violations, wins a championship and then gets the hell out of Dodge to take a coaching job in the pros before the hammer comes down on the school and all the recruits he leaves behind holding the bag to face the punishment.
But hey I guess it’s a bonus for kids in neighboring Oklahoma who, after similar tax cuts gouged public school budgets, only go to school for 4 days out of the week, right?
When you starve out social services or end federal programs, you inevitably have to sell them off to the private sector. At which point you find that public education suffers, infrastructure suffers, your wages suffer. And so you get even angrier - and assume it’s because Mexicans are taking your jobs - or because you think Democrats are focusing too much on social issues, when in fact it’s the same people who lied to you from the jump stealing the modest remainder of your nest egg - so they can fly off to a nice little island in their private jets. They earned it!!!
Don’t let Republicans pass a single tax cut for the wealthy. If you’re angry about the shitty hand you’ve been dealt. Speak up. It’s the only way we can keep the Harvey Weinsteins in the Republican Party from continuing to get away with it.