Mathing

Bottom line:

Republicans intend to fuck us, and then demand that we pay for the privilege.

If they drop the stupid idea of More Money For Yacht Buyers, there'd be no "need" for cuts, and no "need" to auction off public goods - the stuff that belongs to all of us.

Tax Cut For Rich Fucks: $2,200,000,000,000

         Proposed Cuts: $2,643,800,000,000

What’s in Trump and Republicans’ giant tax and immigration bill?

How what Trump has called his “big, beautiful bill” could change the federal government and the U.S. economy.

New tax cuts. Massive spending on border security. Cuts to social safety net programs. Pullbacks on investments to fight climate change. New limits on student loans. If it becomes law, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ massive bill will reshape much of the federal government — and the U.S. economy.

GOP majorities in the House and Senate are attempting to move swiftly to reverse many of President Joe Biden’s legislative accomplishments and cement Trump’s legacy in the tax code, on the southern border and in generations-old anti-poverty benefits.

The House’s bill would devote hundreds of billions of dollars to finishing Trump’s border wall, fortifying maritime border crossings, outfitting the Defense Department and more. It would extend the tax cuts that were one of the signature legislative achievements of Trump’s first term, create new savings accounts for newborns and fulfill some — but not all — of the president’s campaign promises.

The legislation still must pass the House, where it faces stiff opposition from blue-state Republicans, and the Senate, where tax writers are eyeing their own policy changes. GOP leaders are using the budget reconciliation process to shepherd the measure, which would allow them to dodge a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and pass it on party lines. Trump on Monday broadly embraced the legislation, which he has taken to calling his “big, beautiful bill.”

Extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts

Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut taxes for individuals of nearly all income levels, concentrating most of the benefits among the wealthiest earners and corporations. The business tax cuts are permanent, but the individual portions expire at the end of the year, meaning that if Congress doesn’t act, tax rates will go up on most households. The Republican bill would extend the lower rates for individuals.

Increase the standard deduction

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the standard deduction, the baseline amount of income filers can collect tax-free. This legislation would preserve that policy and add to it for the next four years, increasing the deduction by up to $2,000 for married couples filing jointly and $1,000 for single filers, to $32,000 for couples and $16,000 for individuals.

Cuts to Medicaid

To meet budget goals, Republican plans to cut Medicaid spending could strip coverage from 8.7 million people and lead to 7.6 million more uninsured people over 10 years. The legislation calls for new requirements for beneficiaries, including co-pays for those above 100 percent of the federal poverty level and work requirements for many able-bodied, childless adults. It would also tighten eligibility verification rules and limit taxes states charge medical providers as a roundabout way of collecting more federal Medicaid dollars.

A little SALT

A group of blue-state Republicans are at loggerheads with House GOP leadership over the state and local tax deduction, which lets filers write off the amount they paid in local taxes from their federal tax bill. The 2017 tax law capped the SALT deduction at $10,000, but that limit expires at the end of the year. The Republican proposal raises that cap to $30,000, far below what those blue-state GOP lawmakers had demanded. The impasse could imperil the fate of the entire package because of House Republicans’ slim majority.


Making states pay for SNAP

The legislation would pass on more of the cost for administering SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as food stamps, to state governments, potentially forcing local officials to decide whether to cut benefits or dig into their state and municipal budgets. Twenty-eight states with higher rates of improper payments would be required to shoulder 25 percent of benefits costs in addition to 75 percent of administrative costs. Currently, states only pay half of the program’s overhead and do not contribute to benefits.

Increase the child tax credit — for some

The child tax credit is a tax break for filers with children. The Republican measure would increase the credit to $2,500 per child, from $2,000. But not every family can qualify: The legislation limits eligibility to parents or guardians with Social Security numbers, essentially requiring those people to be citizens. That would mostly exclude noncitizen parents from claiming the credit on behalf of a child who is a citizen.

A border wall, other barriers and immigration restrictions

The bill designates more than $140 billion for the Trump administration’s border and immigration crackdown. More than $50 billion of that total would go toward completing the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and other fortifications, including at maritime crossings. Roughly $45 billion would go to building and maintaining detention centers to house families of deportees, and $14 billion is marked for deportee transportation.

New taxes on colleges and universities

The legislation aggressively taxes income generated by the endowments of colleges and universities. Current law imposes a 1.4 percent tax on those institutions. This bill creates a new system that would set varying tax rates depending on the size of the endowment per enrolled student.

The proposal would give newborn babies a $1,000 “‘money account for growth and advancement,” or “MAGA account.” Parents or beneficiaries could contribute $5,000 each year to that account tax-free until the beneficiary is 31 years old. The idea mirrors a pitch from Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (New Jersey) for “baby bonds.”

No tax on tips

Trump campaigned heavily on ending taxes on tips, and now that policy is in the bill. The legislation would allow a tax deduction for the total amount of tipped income received. It contains some guardrails to prevent “highly compensated employees” from claiming their earnings as tips and specifically identifies food service, hair care, nail care, aesthetics, and body and spa treatments as applicable professions to receive eligibility for the deduction.

No tax on overtime

Another of Trump’s campaign promises, this provision would exempt overtime wages from taxes through a new deduction. The legislation wouldn’t allow deduction of overtime wages from tips or for “highly compensated employees,” and requires filers to use a Social Security number when claiming the deduction, essentially deeming noncitizens ineligible.

No tax on car loan interest

The bill would allow purchasers of American-made cars to deduct up to $10,000 in car loan interest payments for four years — an idea Trump talked about on the campaign trail and then returned to as his tariffs began to bite the auto industry. For tax filers earning more than $100,000 (or $200,000 for married couples filing jointly), the loan interest deduction would decrease by $200 for every $1,000 of additional income.

A bonus deduction for seniors

Trump promised last year to end taxes on Social Security benefits. The bill doesn’t include that provision, but it would add an extra $4,000 to the standard deduction for people over 65 years old. The policy would be in place for four years and would taper off as a recipient’s income increased.

Billions for defense, including Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’

There is roughly $150 billion in the bill for the Defense Department, spread over a number of priorities: $34 billion for the munition and defense supply chain; $33.6 billion for shipbuilding; and $20 billion for missile defense and space capabilities — that’s partially for Trump’s “Golden Dome” continental missile defense system. This spending could increase when the measure gets to the Senate: The upper chamber aims to spend more on defense than the House.

Repeal Biden student loan forgiveness

The legislation would save $295 billion over 10 years by repealing the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program and making other changes to loan repayments.

Tax credits for home schooling or private school

The bill includes up to $5 billion per year, for four years, in tax credits that benefit people who donate to organizations that help families pay for private-school tuition or home-schooling. It would create a 100 percent tax credit for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, with taxpayers fully reimbursed for their donations when they file their taxes. The program would be capped at $5 billion in the first of four years and grow modestly each subsequent year if there is sufficient demand. Under the proposal, families earning up to three times their area median income would qualify for vouchers. That’s more than $450,000 per year in Washington, D.C., or more than $270,000 in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Rescind money to fight climate change

The proposal would gut elements of Biden’s signature 2022 climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. It would eliminate a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 that consumers can receive for buying an electric vehicle. Republicans are also seeking to phase out incentives for the production of clean energy, such as wind and solar power.

New oil and gas production

The Natural Resources Committee expects to collect roughly $20 billion by mandating new oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and in protected Alaskan wildlands. There is some dispute about whether that language can stay in the bill, though, because it may run afoul of the strict rules that govern the reconciliation process in the Senate.

Auction electromagnetic spectrum

The electromagnetic spectrum is necessary for everything from wireless technologies to military communications and radars. The legislation would renew the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction off bands of spectrum that the Congressional Budget Office says could bring in $88 billion over 10 years.

Raise the debt ceiling

The debt ceiling sets the amount of money the federal government can borrow to pay for expenses already incurred. The government technically eclipsed the limit at the end of 2024, but the Treasury Department is taking “extraordinary measures” to put off the need to take on more debt. But those measures will expire sometime in August, the Treasury Department said Friday. The House bill would raise the debt limit by $4 trillion.

To Have And Have Not

• Biden's tax plan would've raised taxes on people making over about $400K.
• Republicans are busy killing the federal government in order to finance another tax cut that will not deliver much of a benefit to anyone making under about $360K.

But we told Biden to get lost because was too old, and then 60 million of us stayed home instead of voting for the black lady who wanted to make government a little bit better partner for workin' folks.

We are the stupid country.

We don’t understand that 200k isn’t rich. It’s still working class.
byu/Altruistic_Income256 inTikTokCringe

Republicans want to pretend their tax cuts are free. A new report says otherwise.

The Congressional Budget Office has bad news for the GOP.

Republicans have a trifecta, which means they’re trying to pass more expensive tax cuts that will disproportionately go to the rich.

How expensive? They’ll cost $4 trillion over the next decade and would increase upward pressure on the debt ratio by 50 percent. How disproportionate? America’s top 0.1% would get a tax cut of $278,000 while 28 million households in the bottom 80 percent would have no change in their tax bill and 14 million in the bottom 80 percent would actually have their taxes go up.

In looking for ways to extend those cuts, Republicans face two problems.

What’s different is that, this time around, much of what they’re trying to do is currently in effect but set to expire — and Republicans are not pretending the tax cuts will pay for themselves (because they don’t). Instead — and I am not making this up — they’ve just decided to say the costs don’t count. They’re free.

How did we get here? Back in 2017, Trump and congressional Republicans enacted the Trump tax cuts. Because they used a process known as budget reconciliation — the same process they’re using now — most of those cuts are set to expire at the end of 2025.

In looking for ways to extend those cuts, Republicans face two problems.

First, the tax cuts cost $4 trillion over the 10-year budget window, and Republicans can’t even get close to finding a way to pay for them, but some of them don’t feel comfortable with adding that much to the deficit. The House GOP’s proposal attempts to offset some of the extension by kicking millions of people off Medicaid and cutting food benefits down to just $1.67 per person per meal on average. Yet deficits would still increase by around $3 trillion over the decade.

The second problem is that, in order to pass a bill under reconciliation, the bill’s costs beyond the tenth year have to be fully paid for. If Republicans want to make these tax cuts permanent, they must find a way to pay for them in the long term. Given that their conference can’t even really agree on the cuts to pay for one-third of their tax bill, getting the votes for much bigger cuts would be an enormous lift.

So, now Republicans have a new strategy: pretend the tax cuts are free. Magic!

They’re claiming that, because we’ve already been incurring the costs, continuing them shouldn’t count as a new cost. Republicans endorsing this strategy include House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who says the Trump White House favors the strategy.

The CBO’s report goes on to say that extending the Trump tax cuts would harm the economy and increase consumers’ borrowing costs.

Unsurprisingly, this is an enormous gimmick. The most fundamental rule of budget scorekeeping is that all costs are always scored at some point. You can score them all up front, or you can score them again and again as you keep extending the program. But what Republicans are asking for, despite getting scored on a temporary basis in 2017 when the tax provisions were first enacted and thus getting to avoid being scored for some of the cost, is to now be scored as free to continue. That means some of the costs would never be scored. No program in the entire budget receives that treatment.

But while Republicans can pretend the costs are free, the Treasury Department will have to finance these expensive tax cuts. That means incurring new debt.

On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office released a report estimating that permanently extending the Trump tax cuts without paying for them would in fact be very costly. The national debt “would reach 214 percent of GDP in 2054, 47 percentage points higher” than if the tax cuts aren’t extended. The CBO’s report goes on to say that extending the Trump tax cuts would harm the economy and increase consumers’ borrowing costs.

For the moment, the scoring method used isn’t entirely in Republicans’ hands. The Senate parliamentarian, the chamber’s expert on procedure and precedents, advises on whether bills meet the rules for reconciliation, and she is unlikely to let Republicans pretend their tax cuts are free.

We’ll likely know the parliamentarian’s answer within the next few weeks. If, as expected, she says no, Republicans have four options: accept her ruling, fire her, ignore her or vote on whether to overrule her — which would require only a simple majority. Depending on their choice, we’ll know whether Republicans will use make-believe to protect the wealthiest Americans, or whether we’ll remain tethered to reality.

you are always 4 or 5 really bad months

away from living in a homeless camp

you are never 4 or 5 really good months

away from becoming a billionaire

What's Coming

In anticipation of the probable push for another round of tax cuts for billionaires and corporations that keep posting record profits:

COVID-19 Update

World

• New Cases:   547,338 (⬆︎ .71%)
• New Deaths:      7,986 (⬆︎ .47%)

USA

• New Cases:   183,223 (⬆︎ 1.01%)
• New Deaths:      1,414 (⬆︎   .44%)

Since 11-24, the 7-Day Rolling Average (World) has been over 10,000 dead per day.

Since 12-4, the 7-Day Rolling Average has been over 2,000 Dead Americans per day.

In another typical display of shitty politics, Washington has managed to take it all the way up to the brink before figuring out that Americans ought to have a little help once in a while.

WaPo:

Senate majority leader announces approximately $900 billion deal on emergency relief package

Senate leadership announced a bipartisan deal on an approximately $900 billion economic relief package late Sunday afternoon that would deliver emergency aid to a faltering economy and a nation besieged by surging coronavirus cases.

After months of contentious negotiations and seemingly intractable partisan gridlock, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) took to the Senate floor to say that a deal had been finalized and could be quickly approved.

The emerging stimulus package was expected to direct hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to jobless Americans, ailing businesses and other critical economic needs that have grown as the pandemic ravages the country and batters the economy.

“More help is on the way. Moments ago, in consultation with our committees, the four leaders of the Senate and House finalized an agreement. It would be another major rescue package for the American people,” McConnell said. “As our citizens continue battling this coronavirus pandemic this holiday season, they will not be fighting alone.”

Schumer then took to the floor, calling the aid package insufficient but heralding it as a critical measure to “give the new president a boost, a head start, as he prepared to right our ailing economy.”

The House and Senate on Sunday night approved a one-day extension of government funding to allow the final bill text on the relief package to be written. President Trump signed the stopgap measure, preventing a government shutdown.

The legislation includes stimulus checks for millions of Americans of up to $600 per person. The size of that benefit would be reduced for people who earned more than $75,000 in 2019 and disappear altogether for those who earned more than $99,000. The stimulus checks would provide $600 per adult and child, meaning a family of four would receive $2,400 up to a certain income.

Congress would also extend federal unemployment benefits of up to $300 per week, which could start as early as Dec. 27.

The income criteria for the stimulus checks is expected to reflect that of the first round of relief payments sent by the Treasury Department earlier this year.

- it goes on, but suffice to say the Republicans are assholes who believe nobody deserves anything they haven't inherited form their daddies, stolen from their employees, or grifted from the public.

But wait, there's more - the long-anticipated return of the 3-martini lunch.

WaPo again:

The White House also secured a ‘three martini lunch’ tax deduction in a draft of the relief package. Trump has long seized on the tax break as a way to revive the restaurant industry.

The draft language of the emergency coronavirus relief package includes a tax break for corporate meal expenses pushed by the White House and strongly denounced by some congressional Democrats, according to a summary of the deal circulating among congressional officials and officials who are familiar with the provision.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a proposal that had not yet been publicly released.

President Trump has for months talked about securing the deduction — derisively referred to as the “three-martini lunch” by critics — as a way to revive the restaurant industry badly battered by the pandemic.

But critics said it would do little to help struggling restaurants and would largely benefit business executives who do not urgently need help at this time. Some Democrats recoiled at the proposal, though it has also been denounced as ineffective by conservative tax experts as well.

Color me unsurprised. Make America Shit-Faced Again.

The Scam

This could be The Anecdote Fallacy, but the effect seems to be pretty wide-spread.

The Republican TaxScam2017® is a bust - pass it on.

A Disney Princess

Real life Disney Princess Abigail Disney talks about tax cuts and the fact that inflation and the cost of servicing our national debt are rising faster than the increases in wages and employment.

The economy is booming - but not your part of the economy.

This Disney heiress is here to tell you exactly what the 1% did with Trump’s tax cuts pic.twitter.com/k8q67yz7lU

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) October 12, 2018

SuperYachtInvestor.com

John Oliver

April 15, 2018

The ol' Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich:

We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.

Today's Buzz

Pointing up some shitty shit that's been flying under the radar.

Confirming Evidence

45* and the GOP lie. A lot. I keep thinking, eventually that's not going to come as any kind of news to anybody. And as soon as I think that, I remember the rubes will never hear anything but what The Ministry of Dis-Infotainment tells them.

WaPo:

• “The entire purpose of this is to lower middle class taxes.” — House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.)
• “Primarily, and priority number one, is middle-class Americans.” — White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
• “The theme behind this bill is to get middle-class tax relief for most people in the middle class.” — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Fox News on Tuesday

President Trump was so excited about passing his first major piece of legislation Wednesday that he blurted out that the Republican Party had misrepresented the entire bill, handing Democrats some potentially troublesome talking points for the 2018 midterm elections.

Speaking at the White House just before the House prepared to sign off on the tax-cuts bill one last time, Trump reveled extensively in his win before turning things over to Vice President Pence to heap praise upon him continuously for a few minutes. It was a thoroughly unique spectacle, even as victory dances and Trump Cabinet meetings go.

But along the way, Trump basically admitted that the GOP's talking points on the bill weren't exactly honest in two major ways.

While talking about the corporate tax rate being cut from 35 percent to 21 percent, Trump said, “That's probably the biggest factor in our plan.”

President Trump says GOP tax plan will lower tax on businesses: “That’s probably the biggest factor in this plan.” pic.twitter.com/ntTtnnD55b

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 20, 2017

Oops

This one's worth tracking:
"these companies...will start pouring into the country..." (jobs jobs jobs - and raises for everybody - yeehaw)

Trump's second admission was about the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate being repealed in the bill. Apparently eager to argue that this constituted his having cut taxes and slain Obamacare in one fell swoop (after Congress came up short on Obamacare this year), he argued that repealing the individual mandate was basically the same as repealing Obamacare.
So we have enormous corporate powers being given more money to spend on Coin-Operated Politicians, who are increasingly obliged to strip out protections of the law in order to accommodate the avarice of the American Aristocracy - at the expense of everyone else.

(And BTW - wanna talk about what happens with expanded Corporate Power, together with no ACA, together with HR 1313, proposed in March 2017, that says companies can require DNA - and health info on all family members - from all of it's employees? Wait til you see what that one costs ya.)

In the First World of Industrialized Nations:
Every country except the US has some form of Single Payer
Every country except the US has a sizable Labor Faction in government
Every country except the US has Anti-Climate Change policies in place
Every country except the US has sensible Gun Safety laws
And on and on and on

American Exceptionalism just ain't what it used to be.

TaxScam 2017

These tax cuts don't work because the numbers don't work. Because the numbers never fucking work on these things.

WaPo:

Republicans would no doubt counter that any time you reduce taxes, you increase the incentives for work. But it’s important to remember that if you’re a regular wage-earning American, this bill is as likely to increase your taxes as decrease them. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’ official scorekeeper on tax issues, every income group under $75,000 a year will on average see a tax increase by 2027. And while many of tax cuts that individuals at lower incomes might benefit from phase out over the course of the next decade, the cuts that most help corporations and the wealthy are permanent. All that is why, as Ryan Grim points out, while the bill has a net cost of $1.5 trillion, it actually cuts $6 trillion in some taxes but increases taxes in other ways by $4.5 trillion.

To be fair, the tax code already favors investments over work; Republicans merely want to reinforce and extend that characteristic. While they often lecture about the “dignity of work” when they’re proposing to take away safety net programs that aid those in need, they are doing little or nothing to change the tax code so that it does more to encourage work. Right now, wage income (i.e., money you work for) gets taxed at a higher rate than investment income (i.e., money you make when your money makes you more money). The salutary effects of labor on an individual’s spirit apparently only operate on the grubby lower classes, while the wealthy should be honored and rewarded for their ability to watch their portfolios grow.

Everything we do in government - everything we support our government for doing - is a statement of our values. And we need to dig a lot deeper into what we think we're supporting. There are no simple 10-word answers.

We deserve a closer look. We have the right to know everything that's in every bill under consideration.

When the GOP (eg) huddles in private and pushes for a vote with no hearings and no disclosure, we're being treated like serfs - like we only have the right to agree and obey. We are not being well-served.

It's dismissive and condescending and disrespectful.

There's no honor in it.

Today's GIF

TaxScam 2017 is alchemy. It doesn't work. The only way it could possibly do what they say it'll do is if it drives a solid 3% GDP growth - which is something a tax cut plan has never done. 

So the GOP must have discovered some amazing missing piece of the puzzle - a secret ingredient - and I think I know what it is.

Something Happened

Once upon a time, I thought Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was more or less a decent fellow, but something's gone horribly wrong. And I don't think it's all about my own political evolution - it seems pretty obvious that something short-circuited in that guy's head.

Grassley became one of the main peddlers of the Death Panel bullshit back when ACA was being debated.

He chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and effectively blocked the Garland appointment simply by following Mitch McConnell's lead and announcing that he'd spend almost a year ignoring it.

Now we can add this one to the hi-lites:

The Hill:

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he favors repealing the estate tax, which the Senate tax reform bill does not do, saying it "recognizes the people that are investing," The Des Moines Register reported Saturday.

“I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing, as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies," Grassley told the newspaper.


It fits the pattern though. Faux Conservatives have preached the gospel of deprivation for decades.  Mostly it translates for the rubes this way: "As long as those undeserving poor people (aka Black Folks, mostly) get less than me, I'm willing to make the sacrifice."

But there's something that's coming through louder and more clearly lately, and it grows out of that core belief that struggle makes you stronger.

We've become conditioned to believe great people are always made to suffer. We project that onto these upper crust individuals to the point where we simply assume a Donald Trump (eg) has suffered as well. Suffering makes you great. Trump is great. So Trump must have suffered. We don't see an Aristocracy of Inherited Entitlement at work here because that's not how we grow up understanding the American ideal.

The unintended lesson is that great people have been made to suffer, so it's the suffering itself that makes you great. 

With that in mind, some folks end up going out of their way looking for "leaders" who promise them more suffering, thinking it gives them a shot at becoming great (ie: rich and powerful), when all that's really going on is that they'll get another chance to empty their pockets in exchange for feeling superior to all those moochers who just want free stuff.

"I've worked hard all my life - I ain't got jack shit, but by god I earned it"

Banging Our Heads

I was honestly thinking Collins and Flake (and maybe McCain) would hold out against this monumental fuckery dressed up to look like Tax Reform.

And maybe there's still some hope that it'll crap out in conference - but it's looking pretty sure that the "GOP moderates" are completely spooked now.  They're finally hearing some very strong resistance from their Dem constituents, and putting that together with the usual shit they get from the wingnuts, they're finding out how toxically untenable the squishy middle can get.

Sometimes, there just aren't two sides.

Susan Collins said she was able to vote for the thing because she got assurances that no Medicare cuts would be triggered by the bill. Of course, there's nothing that says they won't just do it by other means. And there's nothing there about Medicaid or Social Security.

Flake said he voted for it because they promised him not to fuck with DACA, and he got a an $85 billion gimmick eliminated.  Again - a promise? to guy who won't be in the Senate this time next year? And $85 billion - wow, almost one whole percent. Great. Way to go, Jeff. Way to hang tough on a Budget Neutral stance (that turns out to be nothing but posturing bullshit).

McCain's getting skewered with this kinda thing (that I've seen pop up on FB and Twitter several times in several iterations): "John McCain has his cancer treatment paid for by the people whose healthcare coverage he just voted to eliminate".

These are difficult decisions being made under ridiculous political circumstances, but unfortunately, these are not particularly honorable people.

Today's GIF

Here's Steve Scalise applauding the latest version of legislation that we can file (as usual) under the heading of I-Got-Mine-So-Fuck-The-Resta-Y'all.

Looking forward to when the stories emerge - about the tactics and threats and promises necessary to get this piece of shit passed.

Today's Tweet

"...solve for middle income..."

Malarkey - the only thing they're trying to solve is the problem of getting us to say "thanks for the hat" while they shit on our heads.

Trump WH adviser Cohn on tax bill: “the whole trickle down is good for the economy.” my @cnbc Speakeasy interview https://t.co/AWAQ1d0fRN

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) November 9, 2017

 

Charlie Pierce

Esquire's Charlie Pierce:

The only things one can be sure of regarding whatever it is that the Republican congressional majorities come up with for a tax plan is that it will shove more of the nation’s wealth upwards, that the math will be mostly magical thinking, and that there will be various strategies employed to keep the country from noticing these first two characteristics. From Politico, we learn that, yes, the Republicans are pretty much a mess on this front, too.
-and-

Look at this mess. Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, who is perhaps the worst legislative politician since the Five Minutes of Bob Livingston passed into history, desperately needs this win. Passage of this tax bill is the only reason he’s put up with the antics out of Camp Runamuck at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. But, unfortunately, those pesky 2018 midterms have put the gallows in everyone’s eyes, especially Ryan’s.
And let's not ignore this from some polling a coupla months ago:

It Sounds Familiar

Way back in the old days, if the boss wasn't pretty watchful, one of the pranksters would sneak onto the mainframe and start some weird shit thing like:

10 PRINT TO SCREEN: HELP ME - I'M STUCK IN AN ENDLESS LOOP
20 GO TO: 10

And the terminal would eventually lock up and the supervisors would get all pissed off and we'd laugh and laugh cuz it'd take a good 20 minutes to clear the memory partition and restart the sector - or whatever magic the uber-nerds did to get it all back up and runnin'.

And somehow, we didn't know we were just being assholes.

Well, now we seem to have kinda the same thing going on in certain sectors of our politics.

We gave a lot of money to rich people to fix the economy, but it didn't work

So we gave a lot of money to rich people to fix that, but it didn't work

So we'll give a lot of money to rich people and see if that works

And somehow, they don't know they're just being assholes.

Something's Wrong With Kansas

...and it seems to have everything to do with a "philosophy of governance" based on a deep and abiding hatred for government.

From the OP/ED page of The Wichita Eagle:

It seemed like a good idea at the time – a two-year budget cycle enabling lawmakers to “budget the first year, do oversight the second year,” as Gov. Sam Brownback put it a year ago. But a lot of unfinished fiscal business will greet Brownback and the 2014 Legislature next week.

In some cases, the state has no choice but to act.

For example, Brownback vetoed the entire 2015 budget for the Kansas Department of Corrections last summer rather than see it take a $10 million cut. In his veto message he said he looked “forward to working with the 2014 Legislature in finding the department sufficient resources to ensure public safety is not imperiled.”

Because statewide property-tax revenue has been lower than expected but K-12 enrollment is up, state funding for public schools is estimated to be $17.8 million less than the 2013 Legislature intended for the current fiscal year and $19.9 million short for 2015, the Lawrence Journal-World reported last month. The Legislature needs to offset the shortfall.

So your state's kinda flat-on-its-ass broke and Moody's downgraded your credit rating, but you guys just go right on believing Oz is out there waiting for you, and all you need is a few more tax cuts to get you up over that rainbow.

It's bullshit, guys - your premise is bullshit.  St Ayn says very clearly that when your premise is false, your conclusion cannot be true.

Less Tax Revenue ≠ More Tax Revenue.

And just as a BTW, this little problem was not unforeseen.  Here's a piece in Christian Science Monitor from more than a year ago:

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (R) and the GOP-controlled legislature are struggling to accomplish two goals: They want to repeal the state income tax but need to balance a budget that, despite substantial spending cuts, faces a $700 million shortfall.

It is no easy trick. Their solution: new net short-term revenue increases accompanied by a promise to phase out the state’s income tax. This year’s final budget agreement includes both spending cuts and about $300 billion in new sales and income tax revenue that promise to balance the fiscal year 2014 books. But over the next five years, those new revenues will be overwhelmed by a proposed 20 percent cut in individual income tax rates, setting the stage for annual budget crises.

But y'know, it's the teacher's unions and all those other free-loadin' public employees.  That's the real problem.  Those rotten career bureaucrats - it's their fault cuz they don't really do anything (except make it all run as well as can be expected when they're perpetually short-handed, underfunded and generally treated like a squad of scullery maids).  But hey, they just don't understand Supply Side Economics; and that's because they don't wanna understand.  They insist on believing there's something noble and dutiful about serving the public - they're totally in conflict with the New Paradigm so fuck 'em; who needs 'em anyway?

"Conservatives" have been sellin' us this junk for a very long time.

That Tax Cut Thing

Don't like the message?  Make it disappear and then slam the messenger.

Addicting Info:

On September 14th, the Congressional Research Service published their long anticipated study on the correlation between the tax rates and economic growth from 1945 to today. If you go to their website today, however, the report is mysteriously missing.

Before it vanished, the New York Times downloaded a copy, which they now offer on their website. When you read the report, the reason for the pull might be as simple as what the report discovered.

Hey, Willard

About that tax plan.  If you cut taxes 20% across the board, but you make it not add to the deficit by eliminating loopholes and deductions; uhmm, isn't that the same as saying you're gonna pay for your tax cuts by raising taxes?

And if the whole thing is revenue-neutral anyway, maybe we could just not fuck with it in the first fuckin' place.

Thank you.