Republicans Have Bold, Fresh New Idea: More Tax Cuts On Their Way Out The Door

Also, has anyone thought of maybe cutting taxes? Especially for the rich?

The Republicans figure that since last year's Big Fat Tax Cuts for Rich Fuckwads were literally the only major legislation they've passed with Donald Trump in office, the path to electoral victory in the midterms is to pass something else that Republican voters like. Since public executions of illegal immigrants would face at least token resistance in the Senate, the White House and House leaders think maybe another big tax cut would be just the thing to help Rs keep the House, because there are literally no other ideas Republicans agree on than that tax cuts must always be bigger.

If anything, the proposal seems more like a cautionary tale about not getting high on your own supply, since in recent polling the tax cut law was actually significantly less popular than Obamacare. Republicans keep insisting that once Americans see how much the tax cuts help them, they'll fall in love with them, but that hasn't been borne out by polling -- two major polls over the summer also showed only a minority of voters approve of the cuts.

As with any analysis showing that tax cuts don't boost the economy or individual wages, the logical response for Republicans is that another round of tax cuts is needed, and maybe more after that, because taxes on the rich still exist in some form, and that's what's preventing the miracle from happening.

And so this week the House is setting to work on a new tax cut law that would make last year's individual tax cuts permanent, at a minimum, and maybe shovel a few more goodies at the rich too, to reward them for being so rich. As you may recall, in order to stay within limits Republicans passed a long time ago when they pretended to care about the deficit and debt, last year's tax cuts for individuals had to expire after a few years so the bill, on paper, wouldn't blow up the debt. So now, Republicans want to make the cuts for rich individuals permanent, just like the corporate tax rate cut was permanent, and if you pray really hard, no one will care about the debt. Or the Democrats will get elected and it'll be their problem!

Seriously, True Tax Cut Believers feel really bad about having to pretend they cared about the debt, as Politico reports , because it was SO UNFAIR to the wealthy:

Some administration officials have expressed regret about the way the individual side of the tax code turned out under the Republican tax bill. "The part of tax reform to me that was so important was really the corporate side," said Gary Cohn, the White House's former top economic adviser, at a Washington event in June. "One thing that haunts me," however, is that Republicans were not able to make the individual income-tax cuts permanent, he said.

Haunted. The man is haunted! 

Politico notes that not all Republicans are on board with the idea, particularly those from blue states who already opposed last year's cuts because it capped deductions for state and local taxes, leading to a tax increase for their constituents. Also, they don't think additional tax cuts would pass the Senate, since this time around the Senate wouldn't be operating under the reconciliation process and would have to worry about a filibuster.

But that's not really the point: There are enough Republicans who really want to be able to say their Democratic opponents "voted against tax relief for the middle class," so it's entirely possible the House will pass this stupid thing before the midterms. And maybe repeal Obamacare and go after Medicare and Social Security too, because mercy, just look at how big the DEBT is getting!

[ Politico ]

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