December 20, 2017
Last night, after a “process” that was secretive, slipshod and rushed, Senate Republicans passed their jerry rigged monstrosity of a tax bill. This bill is nothing less than “legalized” theft from the poor, the sick and people who work for a living, to line the pockets of Congressional Republicans and their billionaire overlords. This may sound like hysterical hyperbole, but just examine the evidence.
This bill, by repealing the individual mandate, will deal a body blow to the Affordable Care Act. This will cause 13 million people to lose their insurance and in all probability, trigger cuts to Medicare, severely impacting the elderly and people with disabilities (Source: “Q&A: Tax bill impacts on health law coverage and Medicare,” by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, The Chicago Tribune, 12/5/17).
In addition to hitting the most vulnerable among us, this bill takes aim squarely at the hard-earned wealth of Blue state residents in places like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California. Capping the mortgage interest deduction at $750,000 and the SALT deduction at $10,000 will result in the double whammy of an increased tax burden and a sharp decrease in home value for huge swathes of Americans. Moody’s Analytics projects that home prices in Westchester and several New Jersey counties could immediately drop by 10% (Source: “Here Are the Housing Markets That are Going to Get Hammered by the Republican Tax Plan,” by Jordan Weissmann, Slate.com, 12/15/17).
This bill will exacerbate our already stratospheric income inequality. Currently, 66% of the bill’s benefits accrue to the top 20% of Americans. When the temporary tax cuts for middle class Americans expire in 2027, that will shift to 83% benefiting the top 1% (Source: “The Republican tax bill got worse: now the top 1% gets 83% of the gains,” by Dylan Matthews, Vox.com, 12/18/17).
None of the tax “savings” from the repeal of the individual mandate or the sharp reduction in the deductibility of state and local taxes will be spent on repairing our crumbling infrastructure, even as we endure fatalities that are a direct result of our disinvestment. None of the money will be spent investing in the education of our young people, even as the United States continues to lag behind other developed countries in educational attainment.
We need to remember this day. Sear it in your memories. This is the day that, with grandstanding and lies, Republicans cavalierly reversed a century of tax policy and ignored the will of the American people;. Do not be fooled. This is who they are. Do not be fooled when they turn on their feeble minded, racist huckster President, once they’ve secured his signature on this grotesque tragedy. Do not be fooled when they seemingly rediscover their Constitutional duty to serve as a check on executive abuse of power and usher this intemperate narcissist to the door in order to install dead eyed Puritan, Mike Pence, in the Oval Office. Never let them forget that they were willing empower a man who colluded with a hostile foreign power to get elected, who fanned the flames of racism and islamophobia at every turn, who shredded decades’ long alliances, for this—the death warrant for the American dream. In November of 2018, make them pay.