December 3, 2017
News of Michael Flynn’s Friday plea deal has us salivating in anticipation of what new revelations will emerge. Numerous significant disclosures have already rapidly followed. We have learned that, contrary to White House assertions that Flynn acted alone, he was directed by a “very senior member” of the Trump transition team to reach out to the Russian ambassador and undercut President Obama’s imposition of sanctions as a penalty for Russian interference in our elections (Source: “A Onetime Senior Official Will Cooperate,” by Michael D. Shear and Adam Goldman, The New York Times, 12/2/17). An e-mail from Flynn’s deputy, K.T. McFarland, stated that sanctions, “could make it harder to ease tensions with Russia, ‘which has just thrown the election to him,’” (Source: “E-Mails Dispute White House Claims That Flynn Acted Independently on Russia,” by Michael Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Scott Shane, The New York Times, 12/2/17). As more and more of those in the Trump orbit nervously assess their legal jeopardy, we can expect a greater flow of damning revelations confirming our worst fears about the treasonous criminal enterprise currently running our country.
Yet we should be careful not to be so consumed watching this real life version of “House of Cards,” that we ignore the very consequential developments on Capitol Hill. Late Friday night, Senate Republicans, led by amoral cynic, Mitch McConnell, rammed through a mammoth wealth re-distribution bill that will result in a 5.3 billion dollar tax hike for poor and middle income families and a 5.8 billion tax cut for millionaires. This obscene, hastily thrown together legislation contains tax cuts for hedge fund managers and private jet owners and tax hikes for graduate students and elementary school teachers. With the exception of Bob Corker, every single Republican senator voted for this bill. “Moderate” Susan Collins was bought off with a ‘promise’ from Trump that the bill would not result in cuts to Medicare. “Principled conservative,” Jeff Flake, who isn’t even up for re-election, voted for a bill that will add $1.5 trillion to the deficit. Senator John “Regular Order” McCain voted for a slapped together abomination, with handwritten amendments in the margins, that his Democratic colleagues had not even had a chance to read. To a person, the Republicans have revealed themselves to be unprincipled vassals of their covetous ultra-wealthy overlords.
As numerous economists and journalists have observed, this purported “tax” bill is really a poorly disguised feat of social engineering that will devastate the economy, shred the safety net and destroy every ladder of opportunity for poor and middle class Americans. Through its repeal of the deductions for state and local taxes and its cap on the mortgage interest deduction (in the House bill), it will also decimate the accumulated wealth of all but a handful of rapacious billionaires.
Although our righteous anger has many of us determined to take to the streets, we cannot limit our action to mobilizing protests that leave these dangerous men in power. Concretely, that means the following:
- All 435 members of the House of Representatives are up for re-election in 2018. Democrats need to pick up 24 additional seats to control the House. There are 28 Republicans in the Congressional delegations of New York, New Jersey and California, who all stand to be badly hurt by this tax bill. If we defeat all of them AND hold our other seats, we can take back the House.
- There are 33 seats up for re-election in the U.S. Senate in 2018 and Democrats are defending 25. We need to maintain all 25 and pick up three more to control the Senate. Our first opportunity is in Alabama on December 12th, if we can elect Doug Jones and defeat Roy Moore. After that, win or lose, we need to invest real resources in combating voter suppression in states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and Texas. That means, in addition to challenging onerous requirements in court, we need to work now to ensure that as many African American, Latino and student voters have valid registrations even under those restrictive schemes and not limiting the expenditure on communities of color to the week prior to an election.
The nihilism on display in the House and Senate tax bills is stunningly clear. What is required of us is equally so. There is no greater threat to the security and well being of the United States and its citizens than Donald Trump and Republican elected officials. It is the duty of all who profess to love this country to defeat them, or we won’t have a country left to love.