Style over substance.

October 27, 2017

       It has become clearer than ever that the overriding aim of the Republicans currently in office is to facilitate cruel and corrupt profiteering.  They have abandoned any pretense that their aim is to serve the public good. Consider the evidence.  In the Executive Branch, EPA Chief, Scott Pruitt, has made a mockery of his agency’s mission by using his power to institute rules that will jeopardize our access to safe drinking water (Source:  “EPA moves to repeal Obama water rule,” by Timothy Cama, The Hill, 6/27/17) and appointed a veteran chemical industry lobbyist, Nancy Beck as the administrator in charge of regulating chemical safety, a consummate example of the fox guarding the henhouse (“Why Has the E.P.A. Shifted on Toxic Chemicals?  An Industry Insider Helps Call the Shots,” by Eric Lipton, The New York Times, 10/21/17).  

     In Puerto Rico, where more than 70% of the island remains without electricity one month after Hurricane Maria, two-employee Whitefish Energy, based in the hometown of Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, was awarded the $300 million dollar no-bid contract to repair the island’s crippled electrical grid (“Tiny Whitefish Energy spars with San Juan’s mayor amid growing scrutiny of huge no-bid Puerto Rico contract,” by Peter Weber, The Week, 10/26/17).  Whitefish’s principal qualification appears to be that its CEO is a major Trump donor.  Everywhere we look in the Executive Branch, we see agency heads hollowing out their agencies by failing to fill key positions or enthusiastically supporting crippling budget cuts, heedless of the human cost.  All the while, these same Cabinet secretaries spend profligately on extravagant air travel, by private or military jet, draping themselves in the unearned trappings of luxury at public expense (Source:  “Traveling in style:  Trump’s White House wrestles with Cabinet costs,” by Drew Harwell, Lisa Rein and Jack Gillum, The Washington Post 10/8/17).

       Meanwhile, the legislative branch continues apace passing laws that serve solely to grease the skids for the unscrupulous to prey upon ordinary consumers without consequence.  Late Tuesday night, the Senate passed legislation prohibiting consumers from banding together to bring class actions against financial services companies,(Source: “Senate Kills Rule on Class-Action Suits Against Financial Companies,” by Scott Neuman & Chris Arnold, The Two-way, NPR.com , 10/25/17).  This law also overturned rules prohibiting mandatory arbitration recently enacted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Lest we think that Jeff Flake and Bob Corker are newfound heroes of the resistance by reason of their pointed criticism of Trump, we should be aware that they joined 48 other Republicans and dead-eyed Puritan, Mike Pence, to vote for legislation which tips the scales dramatically in favor of deep pocketed financial services firms at the expense of beleaguered consumers.

       Then, on Thursday, the House followed the Senate’s lead and passed a budget that is the necessary precursor to the Republicans’ massive tax cut plan.  This budget plan will dramatically reduce revenue to the federal government, to the tune of $1.5 trillion in the next decade (Source:  “House narrowly passes budget, paving the way for $1.5 trillion tax cut,”  by Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post, 10/26/17), with dire consequences for everyone else.  In order to partially pay for the sharp reduction in revenue, the Republicans’ tax plan includes $1 trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid and $470 billion dollars in cuts to Medicare, accomplishing indirectly what Republicans were unable to do directly—passing a massive cut to Americans’ health care benefits (Source:  Senate Approves Budget Plan that Smooths Path Toward Tax Cut,” by Thomas Kaplan, The New York Times, 10/19/17).  The plan includes elimination of the tax deduction for state and local taxes, which will fall disproportionately on residents of high tax Blue states like New York, New Jersey and California.  The coup de grace is  proposed dramatic reduction to the cap on tax free 401k contributions (from the current $18,000 for workers under 50, to $2400), which would  kneecap retirement security for middle class Americans in every state.

       The sobering reality is that there is precious little daylight between Trump and other elected Republicans on matters of policy. Trump and Congressional Republicans share a contempt for the poor and disdain for the middle class. Both favor policies that privilege a small cabal of ultra-wealthy ideologues over the vast majority of Americans.  Both prefer draconian laws grounded in Puritanical zealotry, to a compassionate code of morality that cares for the least among us, values honesty and actual public service.  We cannot afford to let our legitimate horror over Trump’s vulgar recklessness blind us to the fundamental similarity between him and his Congressional confreres.  Remember, whether from a shotgun or a pearl handled pistol, a bullet to the heart will kill you just the same.