They are coming for Social Security and Medicaid next. It is appalling that they passed this legislation without giving senators the chance to even read the bill. This is the death of bipartisanship. Who can work with people who are this mean-spirited and have this level of disdain for humanity? And they did this with an administration that is teetering on the brink because of Mueller's investigation with a clearly unhinged President. For shame, Collins, Flake, and McCain (who has always talked a better game than he's played).
23
"including future generations who will end up bearing the cost."
The idea that the federal debt must be paid by our children and grandchildren is, in my opinion, one of the main political factors holding back our country. It is especially pernicious since it is part of the belief that the notions that apply to our personal finances also apply to the finances of our great country.
I believe in the maxim that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it, so let's look at history. As a percentage of GDP our federal debt in 1946 was the greatest in our history. The debt held by the public was 109% compared to about 76% today. So the debt ratio was about 50% larger then. Did the children of the "greatest generation" such as myself have to pay down this huge debt?
In point of fact, we increased the debt in dollars by 75% from 1946 to 1973. During this period which has been called the "Great Prosperity," real median household income increased 74%. As the economy grew, the debt, as it always has in our history, became insignificant.
Now let us look and see what has happened when we did try to pay down our debt significantly. The federal government paid down the debt by 10% or more in just six periods since 1776, Each of those periods was ended by a terrible depression.
Another maxim I like is that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different result.
3
Hey we all like tax cuts, they're fun. But we need a clear thorough analysis and understanding, mostly even Congress does, to make a vote on something so important.
We know this is really just a way to keep the campaign donations coming, legal bribery. They're under the order to get the tax cut done or they will not be getting their campaign donations again. It's an investment from the immoral mega donors to fill their pockets, the rush is all what is part of this raid on the coffers of the U.S. Treasury by those mega donors who can't seem to ever have enough money. Aligning with Trump just to get more, while the rest of us get scraps. The economy has been doing well for sometime, yet lowering taxes during good economy is really the opposite of what to do. The republicans have forsaken their fervent focus of the national debt, but lining up their own pockets is more important as Trump dismantles the power of the United States through the State Department, dismantles the power of the institutions through his lying propaganda, lies about how this tax plan would hurt him greatly, all while serving up to Putin exactly what Putin would want, whether it was spoke of or not.
Not only that, Trump's dismantling of government entirely seems to be in line with Putin's desires, put the state department in disarray among resisting the sanctions imposed on Russia.
9
One good thing. This ends the lionization of Susan Collins, John McCain, and Jeff Flake. Their votes on this tax bill will be the first sentence in their obituaries. They have been exposed. They don't care about the middle class and they surely don't care about people in the working class and who are mired in poverty.
Amazing that I must say this: this is a wake-up call for liberals and progressives. You can't trust the GOP in any way.
My heart breaks for the people without resources who will face incalculable hardships as a result of this bill. I can only hope that this is also a wake-up call for those Trump voters who have been sold out with this legislation.
456
The deduction for real estate taxes is limited to $10,000. Some people in New York and California are paying $5,000 in property taxes and $5,000 in state and local income taxes. These people would now pay more federal income taxes as compared with someone in a state with no state and local income taxes, who pays $10,000 in property taxes, assume both have the same incomes and itemize. This could cause shifts in businesses out of the states with high state and local income taxes.
The most significant impact could be felt in New York City. In theory, New York and NYC in particular, could reduce income taxes and make up the difference by raising property taxes. This would make sense since NYC residents pay one of the highest state and local income taxes in the nation. Additionally, in terms of tax as percent of market value, NYC residents pay one of the lowest property taxes in the nation.
The flight of businesses from NYC could prompt the government to see the advantage of real estate taxes as compared to income taxes, in that real estate cannot be relocated to another tax jurisdiction. However, given the immense power of the real estate interests in NYC, a much more likely scenario would be that as tenants fled NYC, in response to the tax bill, the real estate interests in NYC would force the government to reduce real estate taxes and make up the difference by raising local income taxes. This scenario or something similar ..."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4127862
26
Will it change the vote of a single Republican? No. As long as the party sticks to its principles--anti-black, anti-muslim, anti-science and pro-gun, the Republican sewage will remain loyal.
Very sick country. Long past the point of no return. The only real question is whether the United States will take the entire world down with it.
240
With the passage of this controversial and highly unpopular tax bill, we are witnessing the final and irreversible piecemeal demise of the Republican Party. Under the guise of concern for Americans, the GOP has successfully lied about who benefits most from its passage. Additionally, when the president lies about how much it will cost him personally, we can be certain most Americans will bear the brunt of its impact. This is merely the first phase in what eventually will lead to cuts in social security and medicare, as the true cost of this travesty come to light. McConnell and Ryan are part and parcel of the biggest heist perpetrated on America in many years.
146
There is a great deal of discussion regarding anticipated corporate response to the newly proposed tax cut. Where are the interviews with the corporate heads discussing how they really intend to react? Do they see wages going up (theirs or the workers). Do they see money stashed abroad returning home? With money earned outside the US off the tax rolls, will they increase their activities abroad instead of increasing domestic activity? I don’t need this published. I just want to know.
55
The GOP has abdicated its position as the party of fiscal discipline. They sacrificed their principles on the altar of donor contributions. When the deficit explodes (despite their claims to the contrary) they will try playing the fiscal hawk card and go after Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.
When it comes time to pay the piper I will have zero sympathy for you Trump voters whose economic fortunes will be negatively affected. Lie in the bed you made. And remember: the stock market is not the economy.
127
I take it all those who are speaking about this tax bill have read it and have had Q&A with experts in tax policy.
What the senate has passed must now go to conference with a version passed by the House. That final compromise will then have to go back to both chambers for a vote and then on to the White House for signing.
There is one concern that we should have, but at this time, it might be premature. The tax bill, if any version of it becomes law, will be a major change in public policy and it looks like the votes will be along party line. We should put away our partisanship and stand against any such vote. We know that members of both parties will be voting for less than noble reasons.
Remember Obama Care did not get a single Republican vote, and that may be responsible for the continued arguments about it. To avoid a repeat, if the final tax bill shapes up to look like a partly-line vote, it should be defeated, even if its passage would be the best thing that would happen to America.
19
This tax revision was in the cards since the election. We have been living in a fool’s paradise with the illusion that the damage could be contained and eventually reversed and repaired. Now the bill comes due for democratic inertia and divisiveness. Serious consequences are starting to pile up. The judiciary is already a reactionary time bomb. Now, with revenue compromised the stage is set for carving up social security and Medicare. The only missing piece is a very possible Democrat failure in the next election, since the executive, whom ever it is, will be committed to the destruction of liberal democracy in the United States of America. (I write the full name whenever I can while I can still stand to form the words). I am not much more sad today than yesterday. This has been waiting for us since last year and there will be more.
56
I can't think any more irresponsible legislative act in the history of the US. Increasing the deficit at a time of full employment creates a huge burden on future generations and exacerbates growing economic inequality that will undermine democracy. it is justified by a economic theory that has proven wrong multiple times on the last 40 years.
112
Yes, this is an unfair tax plan benefiting the wealthy and corporations while harming the poor and middle class. Republicans pushed this through under the dark of night so there wouldn't be a public evaluation of it. So you would think voters will punish Republicans in the 2018 mid term elections.
I wish it were so. Here's the hard facts that Republicans are relying that will protect them from such punishment.
1.) The average American doesn't prepare or understand his own tax return so he/she really has no idea how the changes will effect their own taxes. To them discussion of the tax law changes is all just gobbly gook from opposing parties that at this point doesn't affect them.
2.) Americans won't see the full effect of the tax law changes until April 2019 when they file their 2018 return. Well after the mid term elections.
3.) Republicans are relying on the improving US economy through the mid term elections to make Americans not be critical of them and the tax law changes.
4.) Republicans are confident they will hold their seats in gerrymandered states where voter ID laws allow them to control hwo gets to vote.
Lets hope I'm wrong about this...
96
About those despicable Donors. Is there some obscure passage in The Bill that denies all those billionaire Dimocrat donors, like, for instance, Buffet, Gates, Soros, Bloomberg, Steyer, ad infinitum, the same egregious tax cuts? Do all of the rich folks whom Hillary courted in SilVal, Hollyweed, The Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard, Wall Street - are they exempt from feeding at the tax cut trough?
Just wondering, Editors.
15
Historic tax heist? The only reason for this mother of all understatements, is that no English-language dictionary has words that more accurately describe what this really is.
I'm afraid that the Times won't allow me to state a more piquant description; so I'll let you who read this, fill in the blank, any way you want.
47
And the devil dances as the innocent suffer.
39
Where are the protests? Why aren't people on the streets? Its nice to write comments but until people do something nothing will change.
82
Sorry NYT editorial board but your prophecies are not credible. All of your credibility with respect to prophecies was lost with undying support of Obamacare, even when all evidence pointed to failure. Dogmatic support of failure even when failure is obvious results in loss of credibility. In addition Dogmatic denial of success also crushes credibility. For example one would never get the truth of Reagan tax cuts here which by all objective measures increased GDP and subsequent Federal tax revenues.
19
That Trump guy, he can make a deal.
With the devil.
41
tax and spend liberalism is over, at least temporarily, and we'll see if trump's claims re repatriation of corporate money et al come to pass. coastal elites of your ilk are just worried about your SALT deductions, since in your cases the aggregate of those numbers will likely mean the loss of a six figure deduction. also hysterical to hear you worry about the deficit after what you've published from krugman during obama years. puh-lease.
19
by voting in a law that no one could read or review, with portions handwritten and indecipherable, we are now suffering from taxation without representation. time for a revolution. dont vote them out. storm the capitol and pull them out of their seats by force, shave their heads, tattoo their faces with giant red "T"s for traitor, and declare the 2016 election null and void. burn down the white house if the president wont leave. and what i am advocating is pretty mild, compared to what they all deserve.
93
The accompanying photo really says it all. Normally Mitch and his cohorts look like funeral directors who got stiffed by a client. Today their evil grins reflect the joy that comes with knowing they'll all be getting Christmas bonuses from their 1% paymasters.
70
You Americans have always thought the election of a POTUS as a mere game. You have always rested on your laurels, on your imperial status, and played God in the ballot box every four years: whose country am I going to invade and destroy next?
You've always thought yourselves as untouchables: the POTUS as just an imperator, who only affects the rest of the world, but never the domestic policies. America's domestic economy was always thought as the perfect free market, an economy which runs on auto pilot.
Well, it seems you were wrong: you thought electing Trump was a mere choice between choosing to destroy North Korea and China instead of Iran and Russia; now you're feeling the pain at home. But spare your tears: you still have three more years -- there's no hurrying, you'll have a lot of time to savour your suffering.
37
If it walks like a fraud and quacks like a fraud, it’s a fraud.
No one believes that trickle down works. It has never worked. It gives Republican con men “plausible deniability”, but not really. After 40 years, their feigned ignorance is no longer believable.
It’s time for Ryan and McConnell to pay for their crimes against the country.
If it walks like treason and quacks like treason, it’s treason.
50
What a sham of a tax bill! All to give the Republicans and "He who shall not be named" a win. What a dubious honor they are all smiling about. 2018 and 2020 are coming...Be warned! And as a side note, where was Senator Al Franken's vote on the stats that were printed in the Times?
12
This bill will have all the makings of a bigtime corporate raider heist - a hostile takeover, suck out the profits, saddle the victim with huge debt.
26
So it passed. Republican friends, here are three words for you to listen for. Dem friends, they are for you to act on. They might sound familiar:
"Repeal and replace!!"
48
Are we officially a banana republic yet? Sure feels like it. What's left to do? Maybe get Trump's security detail their own special uniforms. And build a wall around Mar-a-Lago.
42
"Let them eat cake," says the GOP to the American people.
27
There's our Senator Cory Gardner, who had so many phone messages from his actual constituents telling him NOT to sell our kids' futures away or mess with Medicare that you could no longer leave messages.
Result?: He voted to add "more than 1.4 trillion to the federal deficit" with no public input.
So Senator Gardner: Where you lying about deficits before or are you lying now??
His office drones said he was still "considering"- what a laugh! he is their chief pusher for this bill! Hopefully he will be sent back to little Yuma, Colorado in a mid-career retirement move by voters.
45
And they did it when most of America was asleep.
38
Passing this bill is a crime. Whatever happened to the oath of office that all members of congress and the president take upon entering office? "....I will faithfully execute the Office of ____ , and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."? The Whole First Paragraph -- the Preamble -- in NOT excluded from this oath. Including the part to "...establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility...promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves AND our posterity..."
This Congress and the President have now sealed the coffin.
The US economy, alongside our diplomatic efforts and scientific prowess, have been trashed/greatly hindered by this administration, and we may never, ever see ourselves return to the great and respected place on the world stage that we found ourselves a mere year ago.
24
Next stop, Kleptocracy. Doors open on the right.
29
America: land of the rich; home of the poor, the sick, and the hungry.
44
Historians will not be kind to the lot of you, GOP. When this era is studied in the next 25 years, you will be collectively looked upon as the death of America - people will look collectively and shake their heads and say "WHY?" They knew the destruction to come and they did nothing.
None of the GOP fool me (if not a lot of Americans), they know exactly why they did it and alone in the bathroom at night you should look away from the mirror at your own reflection becuase you know you sold out for 30 pieces of silver.
42
It’s not a tax cut,
It’s an axe cut
Sharp, Hard and falling fast
It really won’t be funny
How quickly congress separates
you from from your money
I listened to Speaker Ryan
He was mis-informed or lyin’
You can’t deduct your mortgage or your health expense or school
Is the congress really thinking that the working man’s a fool?
Some of us will pay a quarter
Others will save a dime
But all of that is just shell game
To hide the real crime
It’s not a tax plan it’s an axe plan
It’s oceans 11, the ultimate lift
To give the all the rich folks
the ultimate gift
1.5 trillion dollars; that’s the cost
a fat check for the likes of Ross and DeVoss
A wonderful gift for all the billionaires
and not just them, but also their heirs
A solution for Minuchin,
while the rest of us pay
A republican rip off
To take our health care away
47
So this is it. Republicans bankrupt our future, plunder our national resources, and ignore the crimes of a possibly treasonous president, all so their rich friends don't have to pay tax. This isn't conservatism, it's political terrorism. The backlash will be seismic.
93
Neveah in the field of American politics has so much been swiped from so many by so few.
28
There is little left for the commenter known as Montreal Moe and formerly known as Chimoe to write. Gibbons wrote The Decline and Fall but all I have have left is the energy to write is a small obituary and memories of a country that once was and I once loved.
28
The next elections will fascinate. Please VOTE people!
42
This is on Bernie Sanders. His derailment of the Democratic Party and his paranoia made the difference between a Trump Presidency and a Clinton Presidency.
Now the "progressive" agenda is set back decades. And who will suffer? Answer: the vulnerable.
So, thanks all of you Sanders supporters. All of you who softened up Clinton for the blows she received from the Republicans. You get to have that warm feeling of being "oh-so right," but other people, not you, will suffer.
36
It is time for blue state workers to take to the streets with massive displays of civil disobedience. Those low life creeps called republicans need to be taught a lesson once and for all that the people whose taxes pay the bills for all of those red states aren't willing to pay those bills any longer. We want out of this foul arrangement where we are the ones they stiff at every opportunity.
RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE!
31
Just as there are people who pray to G-d for relief from eternal punishment they know they deserve, I assume there are at least a few Republican Senators today who are hoping to be excused from responsibility for this atrocious tax plan.
Please be aware that this will not work. We know who you are, and we are coming after you.
30
If one takes this Pork of a tax bill and butchers it into parts that are then dispensed to taxpayers, the best parts are being sent to the wealthy and the hooves are being sent to the middle class and poor. Yes, may of us get something out of this, but it's not very good. And then since the Pork was paid for with a credit card, we have to pay the bill back someday.
No wonder then that these GOP liars are smiling. They are planning on cutting up the Christmas ham and giving the best parts to the rich people who gave them money in their election campaigns.
It's disgusting.
25
"I like taxes. With them I buy civilization."
-Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
"Civilization? We don't need no stinking civilization."
-US Republican Party
43
What a sad day for the American people.
32
Primarily wealthy aging white males developed a tax scam in secret, kept the bill from Democrats, then presented a rough draft with illegible scribbling in the margins not long before the vote took place.
This is taxation without representation.
How many of your calls to senators were greeted by a busy signal or a full voice box? How many of your emails to them were answered with deceptive Fox News jargon?
World's greatest deliberative body? Not on your life.
57
A Historic Tax Heist - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/opinion/editorials/a-historic-tax-hei...
I hope everyone realizes this has nothing to do with the substance of the bill.
MONEY from DONOR CLASS:
This is the Republicans' "Dear Donor-Class, Please-(Continue To)-Give-Me-Money" bill.
PRIMARIES:
It is also the "Dear Mr. Bannon, Please-Don't-Primary-Me" bill, as well.
- - - -
They figure that with the money, and without getting damaged (or defeated) in a primary, they can persuade we suckers of anything – mainly, to vote for them (anyway).
Moreover, once they resume complaining about the debt, they'll be in familiar territory.
- - - -
In other words, they DO think the safest way to keep their jobs is to pass an unpopular bill from an unpopular congress, to be signed by an unpopular president.
This approach will (at least) get them to the general election, and make them flush with money to allow them to begin to whitewash this vote…
- - - -
Yes. Of course. They'll cost us our jobs (and/or disposable income), in order to keep theirs.
And Yes: They'd rather risk our wrath than the donor-class'.
To understand it as any other way is to be misdirected.
18
Mnuchin said Treasurys analysis backed up the Administration. But there was no analysis. Mnuchin lied. Will we see an analysis from Treasury?
27
Welcome to the new feudalism.
24
i don't think the reasons you offer for the cave in by the supposed principled republicans are the real reasons. something else happened. my guess? they were bullied beyond their ability to resist..... not a very high bar.
12
What is most enraging about this is, it was passed literally under the cover of darkness, with no one even knowing or understanding what they were voting for. I know for a fact legislators are hard-pressed to read a two-page bill, let alone digest and then debate a 500-page monstrosity that just fell into their laps that very day. This is NOT how things are supposed to work in a representative democracy.
I would suggest that we pay back these shameless “leaders” by voting them out next year, or whenever their seats come up for re-election, but with massive gerrymandering they’ve got that game rigged, too. This is what happens when a gullible people fall for lies over the course of years, as well as continually vote against their own best interests, economic and otherwise: We get taken over, and we are silenced.
22
Sorry to say this, but it’s pure bigotry , racism, and greed that are the constituents of this travesty. Driven by blind hate, they got what they wanted. When the less fortunate find out, they MAY wake up. Then again, those three reasons I stated are powerful blinders on the eyes , ears, and emotions of a large enough minority to somehow be in control. Welcome to republican land
20
The kleptocracy struck just after midnight today just like the vampires that they and this legislation serve. Unfortunately, it is the rest of us that are the victims of this economic disaster that will suck the lifeblood out of us and the economy along with it. The storm flags have been posted and the Great Recession II will, as in 2008, soon be upon all of us. If the voters don't authorize "repeal and replace" next November, I hope, when the inevitable collapse occurs they remember that this time they're NOT "Too Big to Fail" and "Too Big to Jail."
15
Congratulations & wellcome back to the 19th century, America!
27
I was at the Capitol last night, hoping to photograph the hundreds of torches and pitchforks carried by outraged citizens ready to seize their corrupt rulers for foisting this tax bill on the nation. Instead, the Senate side last n the eastern frnot night was eerily quiet: guards liberally posted to fend off persons who hate their government, as taught to do by, ironically enough, the very party inside ramming through the tax bill; a fleet of more than two dozen taxpayer-financed, midnight-black Suburban SUV's waiting to spirit home, or to celebratory private rooms in high-end bourbon bars, the perpetrators of income-inequality institutionalization; a seeming smoke rising from the Senate chambers, incandescent in the klieg lights illuminating the looming Capitol dome, as if indicating the dark cauldron bubbling, bubbling, toil and troubling within; and not one citizen outside to protest what will be the legacy bill of an impeachable president.
I took the photograph, but my heart was heavy with sadness for the nation.
35
All those happy legislators are nuts - I sure don't call this a win - I call it a nail in the coffin of the utter disaster that is the GOP.
America, are you now ready to stop this assault on all the progressive gains of the last century?
Vote, people, vote!
31
These Republicans deserve to be in prison for looting the Treasury in the sum of trillions of dollars and stealing hard earned money from the American people to enrich themselves and their families. They are all corrupt to the bone and not only incompetent, but evil, callous and cruel.
People go to prison for stealing a bike. People go to prison for writing a bad check for a thousand dollars. They are petty crimes compared to what this Republican congress did in the dead of night while American was sleeping.
These Republicans used the power of their office not to do good for the American people but to steal from us.
Unless you're an orphan and worth billions of dollars, the tax hike will affect every single American family. Our taxes will go up and the benefits go down. They're going to cut Social Security, Medicare, disability and all social programs that help Americans when they are down and out.
Every single Republican that voted for this literally deserves to go to prison for their wholesale theft of the American people. This is not a political body. The Republicans are operating as a theft ring.
37
Maybe when these failing left wing pretend newspapers give up all the tax brakes they cried for at the local , state and federal level, and start paying their fair share of taxes, then they can comment on tax policy.
7
The Republicans who voted for this atrocity should all be prosecuted for failure to provide honest service.
A total giveaway to corporate masters and carefully structured to deliver maximum benefits to their own multimillionaire selves.
My only hope is that the millions of young voters who will pay for this travesty - unlike the grinning corpses in the photo, all of whom will be dead - will never, ever be fooled into voting for any Republican candidate. Ever.
15
May be Mueller will indict Trump before he can sign the bill into law.
21
It's time for the Democrats to join the process. They were locked out of the negotiations. Using a whiffle ball to play hardball hasn't panned out. Let's get it going before there's nothing left. The modern GOP is a malevolent malignancy. They should never have acquired such power!
14
Disgraceful.
A complete betrayal of the American people.
22
There was a real tea party once that occurred because of taxation without representation. The Americans protested against the British and our nation was born. This April 15th perhaps all Americans should apply for a extension. Perhaps we should start thinking about how we could avoid taxes by working off the books, not reporting income, unlike the legal things these crooks can do. This is a massive theft from the American people. Hopefully this will come back to bite them.
14
A trillion and a half dollar Christmas gift to those who already own everything. And the cost to everyone else, a slow, painful death of the American dream.
33
I lost my naivete the day I heard on the radio that President Ford pardoned President Nixon.
The fact that I was shocked by Trump's election as the surrogate to large global money should have have come as no surprise. What this administration has accomplished over one year should also not have been a surprise.
Lastly, I've experienced a new feeling... for the first time in my 63 years, I've had the overwhelming desire to smack the smirks off the faces of Trump, Pence, Ryan, McConnell, Graham, DeVos, Mnuchin, Conway...I could go on, but you get the picture.
Sad!
25
This is no democracy. It is bribery of epic proportions. SAD
12
When will the greed end? We must demand more of the United States Senate. I was once employed as a doorman for the Senate. I have never witnessed such a process for Senate legislation that has such repercussions on every citizen. My young 1 year old grand daughter is affected greatly. She has no voice in this Senate.
I detested the Reagan tax cuts and I hate these cuts. The era of Senate deliberation and consensus building is now officially by-gone era. Who are these millionaires tossing 13 million fellow citizens off health care? Who are these greedy legislators that just made it impossible for municipalities to refinance their bonds? Who are these millionaires that give a break to one university heavily supported by the Secretay of Education and a major donor to the Trump Administration?
I am disgusted by this blatant abuse of power.
I do not know of any generation of Senators that have abused their oath of office more than this Senate. Our faith in our Republic is severely damaged. The corruption starts at the top and runs down to local office by those with the cash to buy their influence.
This must need. Sadly John McCain is dying and his kids will reap the windfall.
I am disgusted because my faith in our system of government has been extinguished. Hand written illegible edits to this bill could not be entered into the record! What money will buy. The end of the filibuster is next. And then the riots will commence. The greed must end.
18
The only ethical person in the U.S. Senate is Bob Corker. John McCain, Susan Collins and Jeff Flake should be deeply, deeply ashamed of themselves. As should the rest of the senate. They made it clear they are violently against the people who hired them and pay their salaries. They prefer instead to shore up corporations and a President who heads, we now know, a criminal administration.
23
They're not Republicans. They're an extreme Libertarian party now.
12
This a daylight robbery of our lively hood.
They didn't have money for our education, health, disabled, veterans but they have all money for their donors.
Please help me to find a way to stop this madness from becoming a reality.
13
It is disheartening that a pathological liar who teamed up with Putin and the Russians to game our political system, gaining the House and Senate in the process has won the game. There may be a just reckoning in the future but I fear that in the interim there will be tony neighborhoods in places like West Chester and the equivalent in Manhattan with boarded up homes. Advanced PHD programs will only be for the wealthy. This is the end of our meritocracy. There will be many unknown consequences from this rushed bill and many will never recover.
16
This is what you get when you put a lawless, self-aggandizing oligarch in power. It is a return to a feudal economy -- at least to the depradations of the Gilded Age, when unregulated monopolies interests named their own Senators and wrote legislation, as they did -- sometimes in illegible pen -- last night. Why should my taxes go up so that Drumpf pays even less? This bill is an obscenity. But, evidently, the vampires who claim to "Make America First" intend that to mean stripping citizens of health care, education, housing and disposable income so that they wll be able to bucaneer over the world and with even more incentives to increase their investments overseas. The holllowing out of Anmerica continues. I'm afraid they will inevitably reap the whirlwind.
16
How Obama's administration could have missed such a golden opportunity? Passing a fantastic tax cut, following the same lines as this one, which would have paid for itself, passed with bipartisan support, enriched everybody, shored up the economy...
What a disheartening shame.
Republicans, there will be a day of reckoning for this! And I won't listen at your fantastic excuses. What you just signed is your political death warrant.
8
So that's what normal process looks like. I thought it would have been more organized but John McCain, he of such deep Senate traditions, claims this was an example of normalcy in the Senate. Guess we have a different definition of the word normal.
15
That Republicans are so completely without conscience is truly sickening and frightening. Is there nothing they won't do in service to corporations and the rich?
20
How could you, Senator Collins? Just "yesterday" you voted against your party's attempt to demolish the Affordable Care Act, citing your heartfelt concerns over the highly damaging effects of this action upon your constituents in Maine. Last night, or early this morning, you voted for the solely Republican supported tax bill, which included the add-on elimination of the A.C.A.'s individual mandate.
In a lengthy, detailed letter sent to all Senators by A.A.R.P., including you, it was declared that as a result of the individual mandate cancellation 13 million Americans will lose their health coverage, undoubtably including some fellow Mainers. Insurance premiums for 64 year olds will increase, on average, by $1,500. There is additional health-related harm visited upon the public indicated in this compelling letter. I can only assume that you took the time to read A.A.R.P.'s letter before casting your decisive vote. As to the core economic unfairness and numerous injustices visited on the middle class and working Americans by the provisions favoring corporations and the wealth class littering the bill, these are also set forth in the letter.
Your breathtaking reversal on the A.C.A. and for this millionaire/billionaire bill will do lasting damage not only to your national reputation as the rare Republican "honest broker", but surprise, disappointment, anger, and eventual fury as the consequences of your vote are absorbed by the people whom you represent. Sad, Shameful.
23
Well just a bigger legislative agenda once the Dems take over the Presidency and Congress.
11
Next Saturday might be a nice day to get together with a couple of hundred thousand of your closest friends for a nice walk and tax policy discussion.
11
Now we can officially say 'Welcome to our Plutocracy' or even more appropriately, 'Welcome to our Kakistocracy'. That is government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power.
6
Kleptocracy = government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed.
11
We were just sold up the river. Time to morph into a corporation...
7
In Trump's words, this will hurt his voters - "Big League". Serves them right.
This will go down after McCain's death as his "legacy" vote. Serves him right. Finally, the "maverick" brand dispelled.
Johnson, Rand, and all the other big deficit "Hawks" have finally been exposed as liars. Serves them right.
Murkowski and Collins who sold out 49 states for individual pieces of silver for their own states should hang their heads in shame for the cowards they are. Serves them right.
Out country is over as a country "of the people". It is now a country "of the corporations, run by the corporations through lobbyists - for the corporations.
24
They did it because they can. That's all.
Never you mind ethics, reason, empathy, or even logical functionality for all. I'm talking about decadent, near-sighted, gluttonous troglodyte corporate pirates who can buy their politicians.
I'm talking about cowardly, vicious, greedy and entitled despots who actually believe themselves to be better, know better, and deserve better than the remaining 99 percent of humanity. They are special, you see?
I'm talking about the beginning of the end of America, the crumbling of a once-great country that was innovative, smart, admirable and capable of doing important projects.
The deep, one-way, and in my view irremediable systemic breakdown of American society has now begun, and it will self-destruct even sooner than the disasters of climate change have fully settled in.
Once the ownership of societal resources is stolen from the many by the few, it degrades the many in equal measure that it rots the few. A lose-lose proposition.
The near-psychotic greed, cowardice and chicanery of our "leaders" are now absolute. I do not see any longer a healthy recovery possible for all without waging a new and major historic revolution.
With the pervasive depolitization, indebtedness and dumbed-down public education evident in current United States, I don't see such a revolution happening.
oz.
15
Make Canada great again. This bill just robbed post grads their future and innovation is now out sourced to other countries, whatever China and India don't take, Canada will gladly benefit and enjoy this reverse brain drain, courtesy Trump's band of merry men.
12
Can you imagine the howls Republicans would have let out if Obama tried to increase the deficit like this? I guess era of a president, who is an even more outrageous liar, gives them permission to not even care how transparent their own lies are.
13
Repubs raised taxes on the Middle Class. Dems should hammer that in the next election.
13
It's long past time to take to the streets, people. None one who supported this should be spared.
12
I hope the Kochs, Mercers, DeVoses, et al. enjoy driving (or being chauffeured) in their fancy cars over pot-holed roads and wobbly bridges through a countryside of dying towns and past the tombstones of rusted out factories.
Or maybe they'll take the jet and get the write-off.
18
Which do I believe?
This editorial which says, "With barely a vote to spare early Saturday morning, the Senate passed a tax bill confirming that the Republican leaders’ primary goal is to enrich the country’s elite at the expense of everybody else, including future generations who will end up bearing the cost"?
Or do I believe YOUR OWN table inside the article, "The G.O.P. Tax Plan Can Be Confusing. Here’s Help Deciphering It"?
I believe the table which shows that MOST Americans will benefit. 19% of the rich will pay higher taxes immediately and 38% of the rich will pay higher taxes in 2027. True, there ARE gains for the rich for after all, it was not Sanders who wrote this bill. But there are plenty of goodies for the non-rich, and some bad news for SOME of the rich.
I know that there are far too many here who will ignore the table and listen to the diatribes of the NY Times.
9
As as an upper middle class white male, with corporate health care, I am very thankful to congress to give me a tax cut off the backs of lower income republican voters that supported trump and will now get hosed by the cuts in services and education, loss of healthcare and damage to the environment.
As for all the other sane people in the country, I pledge that any tax cuts I receive will go to social programs, environment protection and any political candidate that opposes these repugnant republican politicians.
15
While the Democratic Party was so interested in LGBTQ and Etc etc, Trump came to power. And now this. When will Dems gain some spine to throw out CA and NY leadership (Chuck and Nancy) and their beliefs and get mainstream back into the play? After VA election, Dems gloated over lesbian and transgender candidates winning turning off center left or center right voters. Most of us don’t care about those issues, but Dems make that big time issues losing large swath of states. Now face it. Stop obsession about Hillary. Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren would have easily defeated Trump. We are now facing the consequences of obsession with Hillary and transgenders. Grow up Dems. Focus on those who matter to get power back and make meaningful changes for all.
7
Our democracy is in ragged shape. The corruption of money in politics has certainly taken its toll. I can't help but analogize this Republican tax initiative as fat vultures feeding on the carcass of a once health majestic beast, bought down by disease, feeding as fast possible to get all the best parts before nothing of any value remains.
11
I fear that Americans need to crash their economy and create complete chaos before they are able to begin fixing all that's wrong with the country. That's a shame because America is a great country and most Americans are wonderful and generous people; half my relatives are American! My hope is that this destruction, combined with the train wreck called Brexit, does not adversely affect the economies of those innocent bystanders like us in Canada (oops .. I forgot that NAFTA is up for destruction), the EU and others. I really do feel sorry for those Americans who understand just what is going on and how much suffering is in store for the vast majority or "regular folk". Good luck to those and may God bless!
6
Republicans will run on tax cuts - again - in 2018, with campaigns financed by kickbacks from the current tax cut giveaway. After all, what else do they have to run on?
5
Time for Senator Collins to retire. She is out of touch with the concerns of the American people. She sold out everyone dependent on health care for almost nothing. Real leadership is needed, not just another person to bend over backwards for the 1%ers.
12
Now is the time for those of us who care about this blatant and unnecessary giveaway to the wealthy and corporation to start locally to change whom we elect to represent our interests. Parents now is the time to explain how this unconscionable and and self serving bill will impact our children's lives and financial futures. McCain, Flake and Collins have proven which masters they serve and we should not depend on the party of the sycophants and flawed economists to run our country.
25
Every GOP congressional representative should be required to disclose orders to buy placed last week.
21
Shame on a Republican congress, particularly McCain, Collins and Flake in the Senate who have demonstrated they know better, for saddling the our grandchildren with debt they won't be able to pay, for denying millions access to health insurance and for raising taxes on the working and retired middle class and the poor while giving shocking payback (think ransom!) to the wealthiest in our land. It will take a little time, but we can fix this by voting many of these rascals out of office in 2018 and by freeing, in 2020 if not sooner, our nation of its incredibly stupid and immoral president, Donald Trump.
19
VOTE THEM OUT.
They did not read and do not understand the size and scope of the massive deficit they are creating. Gross negligence.
26
Vote, vote, vote. Then, re-reform the tax code, immigration reform, climate change reform, election funding reform, and the list goes on and on.
24
For the longest time the GOP sold itself as the financially responsible and fiscally prudent party, out to stop all those out of touch elitist progressives and liberals from bankrupting the nation.
Well it turns out that that heralded stance was only a thin veneer meant for little else other than window dressing. When it came time to preserve the public purse and the interests of the People, the Republicans had no problems, misgivings or regrets of any kind with giving the top richest echelons of Americans society and giant corporations, a very generous helping hand.
Throughout his presidency, Barak Obama was bedevilled on all sides by the Republicans, Tea Party and a variety of other special interest groups, as the villain who was going to wreck the American economy and saddle future generations with an enormous amount of debt.
Well...how times have changed! Make no mistake this "huge, beautiful" tax cut is the basest example of sheer greed, naked self-interest and hypocrisy.
22
I am reminded of the old movie "Alexander Nevsky" by Sergei Enseistein and a particular scene taking place in the tsar's castle.
It shows all the "courtiers, princes,.." seen from the back, wearing their black fur-lined winter cloaks, congregated around a table which we imagined is full of wild meats, large steaming dishes and completely oblivious to the suffering of the Russian people. It is not hard to make the association with a bunch of pigs around a trough grunting while gorging themselves.
We hurt inside about the cruel scene portraying man's inhumanity to man. We can imagine that the serfs were too busy fending for themselves in the harsh winter, suspecting, but mostly numb and unaware.
We cannot claim this last point in the year 2017. We are very much aware of what is happening in our information age. We know who is around the plentiful table and who is not and we are also aware of the uneducated populace who engenders and permits this state of affair. The dinausor kind buried into their bibles, guns, and arrogance continually voting for party and who seem to be content with the trickle down economics of beer, football games, confederate flags, hatred of others and general sorryness - the so-called "basket of deplorables" , a true dog-whistle expression which resonates with me the way similar and degrading expressions resonate with that Duke and Trump-loving crowd.
9
When this bill comes home to roost the last two recessions will be thought of fondly.
11
"There's a sucker born every minute."
Deplorables plus the larger group of Fox-misled-otherwise-honorable citizens in fly-over America could have simply sent paychecks directly to the rich saving us the charade of "tax reform."
Grieve for the ignorance and/or gullibility of this 30%; but its awfully hard to feel sorry for them. They got precisely what they voted for at the expense of an ever-more divided country.
14
This was not a democratic process.
This is not democracy.
23
The feeling of impending doom materialized into doom. I don't know what they're smiling about- drilling in ANWR (Murkowski), their donors like them now (all), nail in the coffin of ACA (McConnell), I'm in the photo with the big kids (Cory Gardner), ....
NYT- keep calling it a tax heist, tax cut for the rich bill, tax increase on the lower and middle classes--anything but a tax overhaul or tax reform. It's not either of those.
Passing this bill doesn't mean they can govern. It shows their mendacity, greed, fear of wealthy donors, and disregard for the rest of us.
16
I sit here this morning thinking of the Jacobin. The one percent and their courtiers would do well to study history. Just as our children will suffer because of America's de-evolution into a plutocracy, so too it could be their children's children who will an even bigger price.
8
There is no need to worry about the deficit. If there is one thing that we Americans can do better than anyone else in the world, it is to print dollars.
2
Enjoy the moment mr. Republican, 49 weeks left. You are responsible for adding to the debt while not doing one thing to address the needs of the forgotten man.
8
There are no words to adequately describe this shameful time in our country‘s history. It may seem a cliché, but I have a little doubt that the founders of this country are rolling over in their graves. Compared to the likes of Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and Adams, the people (certainly not leaders) who inhabit our nation’s capital are complete imbeciles. I am employed by one of the major companies listed in the article, but I am very doubtful that I will receive any trickle-down benefits from the massive corporate tax cut they are quite likely to receive.
10
The americans who put these fools in office, Republicans Reps, Senators, and President, I hope they will enjoy the privilege they have earned to make sure the very wealthy and powerful become even more so. I just wonder how blind and/or stupid and/or ignorant can the Republican base be to vote info office the fools who make this kind of deals? Do they have any understanding of the impact of the Give The Wealthy Obscene Tax Reductions Reform will be on them?
7
Our democracy is dead. The game has been rigged. There’s not a thing the average honest, hardworking, law-abiding American citizen can do to stop the eventual concentration of all wealth in the hands of a few. Our representatives are bought and sold like chattel. The sooner we accept this fact and move on with our lives, the sooner we can help our children and grandchildren live with the realities of the coming society they will inherit. Far better to prep for reality than to continue pining for the past.
9
But don't think the huddled masses who voted for Trump will toss Republicans out in the next election. They will vote GOP if only to justify, to themselves, that voting for Trump-the-Thief was the right thing to do.
6
I had become an ardent admirer of Susan Collins. But I'm a wiser person now.
10
I have a simple solution to the problem: We can all earn $1 million a year. Then we will get a tax break.
8
Unbelievable! No due process, no review, do debate. This is a criminal act and a total disregard for the American public. I am sickened and deeply disillusioned by the underhanded cowardice of this seemingly foreign gov. $ trumps morals and decency. A dark time for our country and the world.
11
what outrages me the most is that our elected representatives purposely voted for something they did not read or understand, knew it was bad legislation and that it will hurt millions of people. The incompetence and meanness of it is cowardly and disgusting.
13
The losers are the poor, the environment because the newly created rich will dig up every tree and blade of grass to fill those places with cement---let's see more condos for the rich? Hopefully now that their pockets will be lined, ordinary American workers will demand their share in increased wages, pensions, and other safety nets. Someone will have to pay for these welfare for the rich tax scheme: will it be you? Stay tune.
7
So much for Collins, McCain and Flake who, after all, really have no backbone at all. So much for Flake's valiant speech raving about Trump (can't call him President). As they say, watch what they do, not what they say. They are all deplorables and hopefully will be swept out of office in the next election. God help us!
12
And now the rich will have even more money to buy their lackeys in congress. Rage battles with despair. Is there any hope left at the ballot box? The world wonders.
8
To fix this we must support Democrat candidates, starting now, and vote Democrat starting next year. Voting only for President is not enough. If we wait until 2020 it will be much too late.
5
Oligarchy at its best, ensuring perpetuation of power grab by the few, through the few, for the few, as principles and conscience are sold or traded. What travesty, what a shame! In the end, Flake was fake, Murkowski murky, Collins caved and McCain no maverick.
3
Whew! Finally an end to hearing how Republicans are fiscal hawks. By 2027, debt will be over 30 trillion. We should be paying down debt in these relatively stable economic times. Or I guess we could go with making the rich happy. See you next November.
6
Laughable, especially because corporations no longer can hide behind the lie that their taxes are too high, and that that’s why they hire overseas. Between loopholes and exemptions, they were already paying near a 20% rate.
So what will be the next scapegoat to hide the real love affair, which is cheap labor. That the trucks moving capital have to share the road with the rest of us peons, thus harming job creation? That worker protections are too costly and thus harm job creation? That being unable to put three-year-old children to work is harming job creation? And you know, the scary thing is, there are more than a few people who would take my sarcasm seriously and agree that child labor laws hurt the economy.
Confederacy of dunces is aptly titled, because that is just what we are.
5
The only compensation for Republicans bankrupting the nation is that it will hurt Trump's base the most.
6
The one saving grace is that the citizens who brought us this circus will be most hurt when the popcorn runs out and the medical tent for the surfs is shuttered in favor of another dining establishment for the circus clowns. Elections do have consequences. A Democrat will get us out of this (impending) mess, as in all of US history, and, unfortunately, the poor and lower middle class will once again shirk responsibility for their own actions and blame a liberal.
1
It's important to remember that a significant portion (in dollar amount) of the tax giveaway to the rich will go to fund more dark money campaign contributions, more right wing 'think' tanks, more media to tell us that up is down, and help to elect more antigovernment legislators at all levels. These bought and paid for cretins will further shape a government that serves only oligarchs, tilts the courts further rightward, and further slashes taxes and the social safety net in a never ending cycle of theft.
2
Makes Menendez's bribery charges look like small potatoes. Time to acknowledge the quid pro quo nature of the big Republican donors who were going to pull back their funding if they didn't get their tax relief that will leave them with even more money to buy even more votes in the future.
3
The country may be on life support before Muller saves us. As usual it's up to us to save ourselves. Our best chance is 11 months away. When it comes, assuming anything is left, we must make these people pay with their jobs. Until then, pay attention, continue to document their abuse, stay angry and then, next November, pay them back with interest!
3
Lies and secrets. That's what we get from our so-called representatives. And no one holds them accountable. No one is able to stop them. This is not democracy.
Every single one of them who is up for election in 2018 must go. This tax cut must be repealed at the very first opportunity, and every Republican now sitting in the Senate must be gone by 2020.
Democratic and indepdendent voters: get ready to wield your votes, because it is the last vestige of power that the Republicans have not stripped us of, and if we are not vigilant, they will rob us of the right to vote, as well.
6
Dumbing down the population by making higher education more difficult to attain and enslaving the middle class by raising their taxes is the path on which this Republican congress embarked. The greedy Republican political donors have won the day and are on their way to enslaving us all. Sounds Orwellian but it IS happening.
4
"The bill is expected to add more than $1.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade." Under Obama the national debt increased by nearly $9 trillion during his 8 years. I don't recall any Democrats worrying about looting of the public purse while they were doing it by a rate of more than 600% higher.
4
13 million will lose their insurance so that the 1% can get a raise. Nothing morally wrong with that, just the cost of doing business. Sad.
4
Why the rush? Why the hurry, why the mad senseless necessity of pushing through a tax bill that effects us all - with hand scribbled changes to it - 500 pages - before anyone could read it? Just to make it through before they needed 60 Senators to vote for it instead of the 51 they barely rallied.
51 men - and just a few women just changed America- our heart and our soul. The reason we exist. The shining light on the hill, and turned us into a joke - an arm of the elite and favored and rich and uncaring.
My god, people who are we?
6
For years, Republicans used Fox News and other right wing media outlets to convince its loyal masses that deficits--always a by-product of irresponsible Democrats--placed an unfair burden on their grandchildren. Last night's $1.5 trillion turnabout provides a clear example of what conservatives really believe.
4
this is the end of america as we have always known it during our lifetimes. we are nothing more than a kleptocracy now, with the average taxpayer mere serfs to the super wealthy and corporations. americans are such suckers. it's a slippery slope to the demise of democracy. and it begins with a tilted playing field and massive income inequality. citizens united, congressional gerrymandering, voter suppression, and a totally immoral republican party
(collins, murkowski, mccain, flake especially) have done us in. time to think about leaving the U.S. there is really nothing left for us.
3
A hundred years from now some political scientist will be writing a book on the demise of the American democratic experiment, and will cite this travesty of a tax bill as one of many noteworthy events that led to the evolution of the plutocracy that replaced it.
By then, America will resemble one of today's corrupt kleptocracies, such as Russia. I fear for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
3
Based on seven decades observing human nature, find it rather unrealistic to think very many well-to-do Democrats are personally upset about tax reforms that will increase their net worth. Naively hoping increased wealth leads to increased charitable giving for aid to those suffering from warfare and those with challenging illnesses. Being largest arms dealer in the world, our government bears share of responsibility for consequences of arming states with low regard for collateral damage. Bending a knee in church does not absolve us from our shameful complacencies.
4
With all due respect, John McCain is dying. The last major thing he'll be associated with is a tax bill that hurts the working and middle classes, while ballooning the debt, in order to further enrich the top 1%.
7
If only we could be privy to the sneers, laughter, and self congratulations as our senate, our masters of the universe, fashioned this assault on our democracy. Fantasy movies that depict plutocracy and despot regimes that destroy a nation once seemed to be distant even impossible outcomes for our nation. And yet our time apparently has come...
2
I'm sure, after I am paying more taxes as an upper-middle class citizen, that I'm going to find a way to donate to every campaign in play across this country that finds its citizens in the same place I am: incensed that the rich continue to thwart progress in this country. These vacuous fools in charge need to go.
4
We have now crossed some kind of warped Rubicon, the likes of which I never imaged I would see.
"Congress and Mr. Trump are giving a giant gift to their donors and sticking the rest of the country with the tab". The Senate has passed legislation with its primary purpose being kick-backs to large $$ donors and supporters. Not just having been influenced by, or unjustly favoring, $$ donors. In this case it is the primary purpose. The raison d'etre.
And to do it, we're not talking about tough horse-trading or gaming obscure legislative rules or aggressive politicking. We are talking about breaking an undeniable ethical barrier - passing legislating that NOBODY in the Senate actually read in its entirety. Never mind a thorough analysis.
If this is the new normal, then what faith can I have in my government and country? The only solution now is for a tidal wave of just-minded people to vote in 2018 and 2020.
6
This photo demonstrates the need for women, people of color, young people, and other non-gray haired men in our legislatures; state and federal. These grinning Republican senators have not given the American people a second thought. They are sure that their corporate campaign donations will start to flow again. And they are probably correct. However, "we" plan on holding their feet to the fire by promoting and helping to elect grassroots representatives who have an inclusive American agenda.
6
Thank you for this editorial.
But what can we do about it?
Twice in the last five elections the electoral college has placed the candidate with fewer votes in the White House.
Living in New York, a populous blue state, our votes count for less than in Nebraska, a less populated red state.
We in NY receive much less from the federal government than we send in taxes already and now with this new tax law we will be sending Washington even more money with less representation than smaller states.
This plus the state gerrymandering across the nation represent an upside down system that appears corrupt as it benefits the minority party. There are more Democrats than Republicans overall in the country as whole if it wasn’t for these electoral distortions.
Could the times start to write an analysis of the electoral college and how it could be reformed so every citizens vote can be counted equally?
Enough with this thieving.
12
The Republican senators should be embarrassed and ashamed by the parliamentary process that they used to ram through a bill with functionally unknown contents. NO ONE, even republicans, had a real chance to read and evaluate the hand written changes that where inserted into the bill mere hours before the voting. Apparently they may have shared the bill with the lobbyists before sharing it with either the Democrats or the media. All of this to say they got a victory this year? Remember- there was NOT a deadline to pass the bill.
So to pay for the additions to the deficit, just which parts of the government do you plan on eliminating? Social Security? Medicare? Medicaid? Department of Education? Department of State (that seems to be already in process). What others? Or have you given up on the deficit as being important?
And where is the "proof" that "trickle down" economics works? It did not work in the 1980s when it was tried then. The much touted analysis by the Treasury department seems to have been a figment of their imagination.
Well congratulations on your "win"- and please don't blame it on some one else.
1
This is all understandable if you think like the "1%" benefactors of the GOP and their focus on what they consider the nation's most pressing "problems". (1) P/E ratios and the markets are already high, with little room for further growth without further inflating the existing bubble. (2) An aging Boomer population is going to need more from the ACA, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. (3) Corporations with money parked offshore and folks like the President that use "pass-through" income to reduce taxes need a permanent way of making their taxes lower. And finally (4) the Boomers in the "1%" want to be able to give their money to their family upon death w/o the IRS getting any. (They may be able to use money to live longer, but nobody lives forever.)
I believe this tax package addresses all 4 of these issues to the satisfaction of the "1%". (1) Business tax changes will provide funding to further drive up the stock market - so more capital gains at 15% rate. (2) Losing the mandate will hit the ACA first; the GOP will then use "the Deficit!!" issue to attack the other three - Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, saving the "1%" from having to pay for these middle class needs. (3) Unlike the personal cuts, the business cuts are permanent. (4) With the Estate Tax gone, inheritances are now safe from the hands of the IRS (Trump children - rejoice!). Should we really have expected anything less than all this?
3
A lot of $ in wealthy "investor" hands appeared to lead to reckless gambling on Wall Street which led to our 2008 bubble. Many Americans lost what little wealth they had and have not recovered. But voters, at least enough of them, have chosen to rewind this scenario and here we go again. Americans want all their needs met but don't want to pay for any of it. Repubs lie and promise a big party (Christmas gift according to DT) but there's always this hangover that everyone (but the very wealthy) have to pay for. It's party now, forget the future.
5
Here you go America. Take a hard look at what a trillion dollar deficit looks like: $1,000,000,000,000. Now imagine that money being used to fix potholes, build bridges, feed the elderly, educate our young people, hire additional police, provide health care to the sick, house the homeless, support our teachers, keep our water and air clean, rebuild storm damaged cities, retrain our veterans, and upgrade our public transportation. The tax bill is a massive sham, and a shameful slap in the face of American taxpayers. But tens of millions of us will not forget come election day. Remember this day, citizens.
36
Oh Please!!! Our children's pockets have already been picked clean by deficit spending... Social Security is not going to pay off for them and financial wealth is going to be destroyed by inflation. The problem is government spending relative to the economy - and I don't see any realistic solution to that...
7
I missed the part of the bill that cuts Medicare and Social Security. Will you please reference the pages and wording. The truth of the matter is that the democrats will regain power after Trump's administration and reinstate much of the taxation that this bill reduces, especially the death tax. But then again, if you wrote that, it wouldn't be sensational and scare the elderly.
2
2018 is an election year for all of the House of Representatives and 1/3 of the senate. Remember, remember the 1st of December and vote the anti middle class elected officials out of office.
12
America is, with increasing velocity, fracturing into a country of permanent castes based on income: those that are rich and untouched by US Government tax code chicanery save for having to pay a few dollars more or less here and there, those that are quite comfortable (125-175K and up) with healthcare, access to good food, vacations, public or private education, a nice home, and then the struggling but careful and budget conscious folks who are commuting 2-3 hours each way to work, trying to save for their children's education, able to take a vacation once in awhile, unable to break out of mundane jobs because they have to keep punching the clock, and lastly the working poor, holding down two jobs, living in lousy areas, unable to afford school, sleep and family time deprived, lousy healthcare for which they pay a fortune, and just shuffling along.
The difference is with these tax code changes these castes become increasingly permanent. Breaking out of them will take Promethean effort if you're at the bottom. Forget about the discouraged, disenfranchised and unemployed and disabled. They are walled off now, and on their own.
It's not that the middle class is gone. It's that it, like being rich, has become an increasingly exclusive club . The roads into the middle class are dramatically more narrow and congested than ever. The Republicans are institutionalizing this caste system and they will, at the appropriate time suffer for it.
21
Two abysmal failings appear evident.
1) Only in dysfunctional authoritarian political systems do very
large systemic policy changes get done in such a hasty, improvised
manner. The fact that this bill (and its Lower
Douma analogue) was voted upon with minimal - if that - review
and a text (with all the details written down) that didn't circulate
until the latter part of the actual debate should tell citizens of
this collapsing democracy that a dangerous threshold has been
crossed. Major policy now gets done without due diligence and
with utter disregard for evidence based reasoning being integrated into
legislation. Lots of shooting from the hip with gut based optimism
replaces sober reflection prior to big changes that take out 1.45 trillion
dollars. This is done when good governing principles are up against a latent tidal wave
of popular disgust that is unfocused and easily manipulated by
powerful propaganda forces acting behind veiled screens and thick doors.
The Iraq war decision comes to mind as precedent.
2) The inept opposition party failed to present to the
public its version of a tax cut in any sustained coherent manner that
would have served as a constant, in your face alternative and become part of the debate (such as it was). Instead
there was a lot of negative grumbling about specific pro 1% pieces that
had the effect of fighting an invading army with slingshots.
Infrastructure repair disappeared as a result from public discussion.
12
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The only thing that will remove us from this ideological loop that we are stuck in is a massive economic collapse, i.e., a depression. That's the bad news; the good news is that's on its way.
Until the people are out of work, starving and have lost everything that the New Deal gave them, like children they'll always be suckered by the GOP's tax fantasies. The Dems will never be able to win their rational argument for taxes, i.e., they are the price for civilization.
"Perseus wore a magic cap that the monsters he hunted down might not see him. We draw the magic cap down over eyes and ears as a make- believe that there are no monsters."
Marx, on denial
9
This bill should be forever branded by the Democrats as "The Donor Payback Bill". It should be repeated by every Democratic member of congress, every state and local official and every loyal Democrat every day and at every opportunity until it becomes emblazoned in our everyday lexicon. In doing so, perhaps some of the less informed will begin to "get it".
14
This will set in motion future, terrible events, I believe. Our brightest young will look for ways to emigrate to countries with more opportunity and a better quality of life - our seed corn, gone.
9
What a despicable crew of GOP Senators. But, it's not over yet. Now is the time to rally House support for a NO vote. Begin your activism now. Prime target -- the California Republican Reps, who are not likely to want to see a tax increase on the 98%, nor a windfall for big corp. or the wealthy. They know they can't win reelection on such a platform. Let's get busy and let's get smart. Get the House to offer amendments such that the bill will never pass there, or will fail to pass.
7
I've been living out of the country for a year and, although I was planning on returning to attend grad school for business, now have zero interest in ever coming back to the States, there's nothing left for me there. All I'd have to look forward to are even lower standards of living and the pleasure of subsidizing billionaires private jets. Sorry America, but you're changing from the land of the fair deal to the fake deal...
11
We can lay blame squarely at Chief Justice John Roberts and Citizens United that unleashed a torrent of dark money into our politics. At least Bob Corker had some moral principle. We are doomed. Welcome to Hunger Games America.
13
Sour grapes gets opponents no where. In an extraordinarily chaotic time with Trump's usual theatricals, the dramatic Flynn guilty plea, the North Korean missile firing, the daily sexual misconduct pantomime, the blunt rebuke by the UK prime minister for the anti Muslim tweets, etc the hapless GOP establishment went about their single minded tax reform. Whether we agree or not it's something of a legislation and a constructive piece of work. Undoubtedly it will be modified in conference. The leftist doomsayers and the conservative growth optimist will both be proven wrong, but we can live with that. Romney's losing line about 47 % not paying income taxes was factual so only 53% are impacted. Of these only a minority bother to claim the "popular" SALT or property tax deductions. These claimants besides live in bluish states. So despite the right and left displaying statistics to bolster their claims the truth lies elsewhere in the hands of the lobbies as always. Voter opinions in media polls means nothing and the voters themselves in 2018 will not remember.
4
The solutions to our national problems lies in the hands of we the citizens of this country. We need to change our civics behavior and become more engaged as taxpayers( the real investors), and we need to amongst many other things become more disciplined in our consumer choices that are at the heart of the massive inequality endangering us. Just like the example of sexual assaults against women, we the public similarly shied away from confrontation!! Time has come to push back hard. It might be a job, a handsome product or a convenience but none is worth your dignity and future. Don't go on forever spilling ink with no tangible actions.
4
There was a real democracy, once. America, it was called, and I was born there. Not sure it still exists. I see it sometimes, "as if through a glass, durably."
1
I am shocked and dismayed. Robert Reich was correct...income inequality is bad now, and our government has just made it much worse. And they wonder why there is a surge in anger and violence in this country.
9
Fifty one votes. $1.5 trillion on the credit card. Even accounting for growth, we're taking a $1 trillion dollar hit along with massive service cuts. If I remember correctly, Obamacare passed with 59 votes and only $500 billion on the credit card. What say you now McConnell?
Democrats need to adopt the Bernie Sanders tax platform. If Republicans are going to pull these tricks with a simple majority, return the favor. You can leave the corporate tax rate at 20 percent. I don't care. Just tax business on revenue rather than profit. Ignore geographic location too. You can eliminate the carried interest and re-raise the estate tax while you're at it. Democrats now only need fifty one votes. McConnell isn't very smart.
4
My wife and I are retired. Our home is paid off, and real estate taxes here in Hawaii are quite low although other state and local taxes are high. The cost of living is also very high here. We were always just a few thousand above the threshold for the standard deduction, so the many deductions available to others never helped us very much. When we finally paid off the mortgage we were limited to the low standard deduction and the standard exemption for 65 and over. Now suddenly the standard deduction is almost doubled to $24,000. Now we can spend a little more for Christmas and eat out a little more. I'm sure many others fall into our same category, so I don't know what the NYT and Nancy Pelosi are talking about. I think the employment chances and salaries of younger people will also improve because of tax breaks given to corporations who will bring their profits and investment in plants and production back home. There will be more demand for workers so pay will go up, and state governments will no longer have to compete based on how many tax breaks they can give away to companies who relocate to their states. Now the balance has shifted, and the corporations will have less power to dictate terms. I think the Dems as usual are just sour grapes.
6
The Republicans fully expect Democrats to take over in the next elections. That will be when these tax policies start to be felt. And guess who will get the blame.
7
I should be decorating for Christmas, wrapping presents, looking forward to watching my granddaughter run in NXN in Portland this afternoon, and hopefully see Wisconsin beat Ohio State later. Instead, I am very, very angry. My grandchildren will have to pay for this mess. McConnell admittedly enjoys being the villain. McCain, Murkowski, Collins, Flake, and Johnson should have kept their mouths shut for the last few months. They incorrectly gave us hope that a few Republicans still had principles. I own five pass through companies and I'm not happy with the tax cuts that may provide. I also own a house in Aruba - I will be moving there as soon as possible.
2
By so deforming our tax code, Republicans may have done America a favor.
A future Congress can enact real tax reform; a bill that recoups this heist, twice over, and actually cuts taxes for the working poor and middle class. I dream of a restored estate tax, a capital gains tax that doesn't favor the sweat of another's brow over the sweat of the investor's brow, and a corporate tax that punishes tax avoidance and charges a fair share for all the opportunity that America provides businesses.
2
So on pass-through corporations, will the partners pay a tax rate of 23% while all of their W-2 employee pay up to 35%?
7
The problem is that we have known for at least two decades that we have crooks running the country and yet we expect them to have a moral conscience somehow, somewhere. What we need is to wake up and realize that the corruption, looting and pillaging cannot be fixed from the inside anymore. To insist on that is to insist that the nightmare is a dream. The nightmare is real and is here to stay unless we are willing to deal with it and treat it as the reality that it is.
6
In a democratic society of elections, elected officials representing the will of the people, bills should get enacted to represent their will for a more sound government system to benefit all for a better society. This bill undermines all that.
Those who felt the surge of energy and positive vibes from the 1% and the corporations to vote for this monstrosity will experience the wheel of karma falling back on them in due time. There could be a plebiscitary revolt as other countries have endured where contemptible politicians, plutocrats and the richest get either vigilante types of justice or face criminal trials. That eventuality makes a lot of sense from the standpoint of real justice. Those who have suffered much as the self-employed trying to comply with the tax code are outraged by the contortions and subterfuges of these corrupted politicians.
Justice is coming and I hope that the same people backing this will have to suffer their people when the chickens come home to roost.
1
No choice for now but to let this play out. Republicans have all the levers and seem to determined for now not only to gorge at the trough, but to stuff their pockets with extra dinner rolls and all the silverware as well. Good news is the more they steal, the more they defend an indefensible "president", the more they will have to answer for and the more motivated voters will be to turf these thieves in 2018 and 2020. As we endure still more lost years for progress at the hands of Republicans, the dream of a Trump Nullification and Obama Restoration Act of 2021 will serve as a shining beacon to right all of that which has not been lost forever.
2
Early this morning ,the Republican members of the Senate desecrated the legislative process by passing a massive tax scam and disastrous deficit buster without any hearings or debate. The Republican members of both houses of Congress decided that their privilege and power and, above all, their patrons are far more important than middle and working class families,the elderly, or low income families. The winners from the scam are the most wealthy people who will benefit handsomely. They can now purchase another villa,yacht, painting, or jet using the money raised from the taxes of the rest of us.
Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell made a determination that democracy is no longer a viable way to govern, that it is much more messy than an oligarchy. Consequently, they dispensed not only with "regular order", they also dispensed with their constituents' interests and needs.
The result will be a burden for our children and grandchildren who will be faced with overwhelming debt paying for the Koch Brothers penthouse, the Sinclairs yacht and Sheldon Adelson's jet. Moreover, 13 million people, at a minimum, will be deprived of health care coverage- coverage that John McCain, Susan Collins ,et.al., receive courtesy of the taxpayers. Teachers who buy supplies for their students, graduate students who receive a stipend will be punished for doing so.
What the GOp is doing is analogous to burning the American flag to amuse their donor class. The New Deal has been replaced by the raw deal.
4
And where have the Democrats been while this monstrosity was being shaped?
Only Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been publicly visible and outspoken about it.
Where were the Democrats who could have stopped Congress cold with sit-ins, and rallied the raged of working people with stump speeches?
The DNC has failed in almost every way.
5
I just closed my checkbook and took my credit card out of my wallet. I am boycotting Corporate Christmas. I will buy food and nothing else this Christmas. Corporate America is getting its stocking stuffed by the GOP with money that will be taken from the uninsured sick, the disabled, the victims of gun violence, the old, the children, the mentally ill and every worker struggling to pay the rent, keep old cars running and the lights on with low wages. I will not give them any more by buying their junk made by Chinese and Mexicans for pennies on the dollar in wages American workers need. I will give my adult children cash gifts because they will need it to pay their higher health insurance premiums and save for their retirement when their Social Security is slashed to irrelevance. Our Republican Congress and president will not listen to the cries of the people who do the work that makes the rich rich. I will send a message to their 1% overlords: "No, you can't it all."
6
I can't help but be reminded of the late great comedian George Carlin's monologue and wisdom when he declared (paraphrase) "there is this club and you and me are not in it, and there coming for everything, and won't be happy until they get everything"
4
I don't understand how these tax cuts primarily for corporations will drive increased living standards for the soon to be automated middle class. i sens corporations will invest in NOT having workers. This is the way we are moving forward into the future. This plan was designed with analog 1950s logic. I will benefit. I am my own corporation. But I expect the middle class to suffer greatly. This could have an incredibly destabilizing effect on our society. Once again middle class middle America has voted against their own interests.
2
I would like to offer an amendment for consideration in conference. The tax returns of the president, officials in the administration, and any members of the Congress who vote to approve this bill and their donors must be made public immediately. Their future tax returns must also be regularly published, together with a comparison to the difference in taxes paid by the rest of American citizens before and after this bill is enacted.
3
Republicans need a war to justify not cutting spending in military budget while going after cuts in the social safety net to pay for this giveaway. That’s why they’re effectively draining the State Department (our peace keeper or creater), ignoring North Korea, and staring feuds with allies.
2
I can't wait to see Republicans try to campaign on the substance of this bill next year. The Democrats certainly will.
Note to the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: don't forget to send a thank you note to Mitch McConnell. He just earned it.
1
It is heartening that our representative form of government is working so well.
But can somebody please explain to me exactly who is being represented in this tax bill?
2
I can't wait to get back to Maine this summer to see what gorgeous yachts are being commissioned with these new tax savings. It's a shame some of us have to give up health care or an education but maintaining the private jetports so that the 'makers' can visit their yachts will at least provide us with a tiny wage.
1
As much as I want to put the blame on the Republican congress, Trump, and a right-wing majority of the supreme court, it all boils down to the vote. Despite the tilted effects of gerrymandering, the electoral college, and supreme court decisions such as Citizens United, the American people still hold the power of the vote. No one is holding a gun to their heads and telling them how to vote. Outside of urban areas, Americans vote overwhelmingly for Republicans to represent their voice, roughly 80% GOP to 20% Dems. A government can rise no higher than its source. And you can't fix stupid.
1
Summing up, there are four broaspects of, or related to, this bill that are profoundly flawed. They are:
1) The bill itself -- its "economics" which are based not on history, facts, or study, but on political theology.
2) The process -- rushed, unstudied, unvetted, unread, unfinished; desecration of "regular order".
3) The objective -- not to put forth a serious and solid plan for the nation's general benefit, but, instead, to pass something (ANYTHING), evidently to please wealthy supporters, to take advantage of the moment, while he-who-understands-nothing-and-will-sign-anything still resides in the White House, and to save face.
4) The Republican Congress and, perhaps, the Party as a whole, both of which flirt with their own final(?) act of intellectual corruption.
Aside from that, a Republican victory.
2
Be ready to now hear endlessly about how we can't do anything else due to the deficit and now everything else must be cut - except for "defense.". Attention must now be paid after they've used their power to steal for them and their friends.
1
This bill was made possible by the fact that facts no longer matter in America. It is possible to say ANYTHING and be believed by partisans on your side. And as Roy Moore shows, even if they do not believe, they support you so long as they think you are sticking it to the other side. Remember that after a disastrous first term, Sam Brownback got re-elected in Kansas. Opponents of the tax bill lack the sledgehammer talking points and total lack of shame that the supporters have. My prediction is that Trump's approval ratings will now rise as Fox News and the conservatives on he said-she said panels like those on CNN ramp up the noise machine.
It is very painfully clear that the President and the GOP controlled Congress care not a whit about what the majority of Americans want, or in this instance do not want. The level and brazenness of the fabrications and lies about the impacts of the tax legislation makes this all the more apparent.
Multiple polls on the Republican tax overhaul abomination indicate that a sizable majority of citizens disapprove of the stealth bill poised for a house vote and then reconciliation and passage.
Certainly not governance of, for, and by the people. This has all the earmarks of an edict.
The only certain remedy for our deeply partisan malady is a Congress where the mix of Republicans, Democrats, and independents in both houses presents an unavoidable mandate for consultation and compromise.
This in tern seems more difficult to achieve than ever in recent history given the absoluteness of the diametric political divide that exists in America. Among the greatest culprits in the regard is the degree to which so many congressional districts have been skewed by gerrymandering to lock in representation by one party or the other election after election.
Given this skewed arrangement the 2018 mid-term elections my well provide no significant chance for redress or remedy.
As Yogi Berra so famously said: "It ain't over, till it's over."
The American people and Democratic Party should be out in the streets protesting this horrible tax cut to the rich. The bill still has to be reconciled between the House of Representatives and the Senate before it can become law. Now is not the time give up or give in.
If the Democratic Party sits on their hands until before final passage of this horrible bill. shame on them and us.
1
An approval rating of 35%, the lowest since such measurements began, for a president chosen by the Electoral College despite nearly three million more votes for his opponent. A tax bill passed by Congress despite a public approval rating of 25%. And the media still call it a democracy.
4
The GOP just through our citizens under the bus. Taking money from the needy to give more to the greedy. Our citizens don't even have the peace of mind of knowing whether they will have insurance from one moment to the next. The US doesn't even have high speed rail. Now these GOP Senators, pass a tax scam that will ultimately only benefit those who need it the least. This will add to our tremendous national deficit, and in the end will take funds from Social Security and Medicare to pay for it. The average citizen is the biggest loser, as well as our nation's infrastructure and our peoples well being. The American Dream is being sacrificed by the GOP, just to satisfy their biggest campaign contributors. The only certainly left us in the US is continued anxiety, and that's not worth defending. American exceptionalism now just means our leaders don't believe in science, diversity or compassion. Just greed.
1
I'm no parliamentarian, but surely there must be some recourse for the American people to challenge a bill that passed the the Senate without public hearings, outside of committee, without final examination by the Congressional Budget Office or any tax policy arbiters, before, in fact, there was even a legibly printed copy to read! I hardly see the point of having Congressional legislative processes and procedures if they can be completely ignored with impunity. Our our democracy has become an embarrassing joke.
3
"Tax Heist" is a good description of the Republican Party's tax scam which they rammed through the Senate at 1:30 this morning. A bill that most Senators hadn't read. A bill with pages with text that was scratched and changes scribbled in the margins. A bill that the GOP worked on in secret without holding either public hearings or giving their Democratic colleagues any meaningful opportunity to have input.
From a parliamentary standpoint alone, this bill should not have been voted on in the state it was in. There's no national tax emergency, there was no compelling need to hold a vote on this without hearings and without most of the Senate having no idea what they were really voting on. No need at all.
As for the bill itself, this bill isn't tax reform. This bill is a giant giveaway to corporations, foreign investors and the rich. A giveaway that will be partially paid for by taking away many middle class deductions, such as those for medical expenses, student loan interest, state and local taxes, and more. The rest of it will be financed by piling needless debt onto future generations and most likely by the next Republican assault on the poor and middle class - draconian cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The GOP was once the party of fiscal responsibility, but this bill is anything but. This bill will cause pain for millions of Americans and it will ultimately damage our economy. And for what? A handout to rich Republican donors?
4
It's time for all citizens who don't like the idea of taking from the poor to give to the idle rich, to demonstrate that we don't have to play the GOP's game. Hit them and their corporate lords where it hurts - in the pocketbook. If some millions of taxpayers could coordinate some symbolic actions, it would show that we are waking from our consumer dream and ready to fight back against those who live to exploit others. For example, a day could be set for no buying of I-phones, no use of Amazon, Google, Etsy, etc. We don't have to remain chumps to be fleeced by these creeps.
I would like to thank the Republican senators who have normalized and demonstrated the procedural process we Democrats will use when we pass our tax reform bill during the next administration.
1
Republic - from res publica, literally the public thing. Ultimately the greatest fear held throughout Western political thought is the private capture of the public good or its institutions. Madison knew this and proposed a system of government that was in conflict with itself, to lessen the effect of self-interested factions and keep them from wholly controlling the public's instruments of governing. Washington knew it as well and relied upon the 'republican virtue' of elite representatives to put public service before their own narrow self-interest and quest for private gain. In this hour then our fears have been truly realized and thus bear witness to the death of the our republic.
Some voters blame Trump for weakening our democracy with his autocratic actions and words. His role pales in comparison to the Republican Congress and the portion of Americans who may realize their pockets have been picked but continue to support their GOP reps because they don't want to admit they've been fleeced.
2
"Mr. McCain, who previously voted against tax cuts in the Bush era because they were heavily tilted in favor of the rich rather than the middle class, seemed unconcerned that this bill was even worse in that regard."
I'm particularly galled at McCain's hypocrisy for voting No on the Healthcare bill specifically because it was not drafted through Regular Order, but voting Yes on this tax bill which was also not drafted through Regular Order. I can't fathom how he justifies that to himself.
Between this bill's passage and the recent revelations that our tax dollars are sourcing secret settlements for the sexual transgressions of members of Congress, it's time for tax revolt in this country. Perhaps -- in a twist on Citizens United, which says corporations are people -- all individuals should declare ourselves corporations, and cap our taxes at 20%.
4
Well, we were all set to purchase a brand spanking new Ford 350 Dually. We have a use for it, as we carry a camper on it for about 5 months of the year.
The cost would have been about $70,000. Only purchase we ever made that was more was our home.
Now? Saving the money instead, and will keep the old one running. Our children and grandchildren will need this money more than Ford will.
1
There is definitely something very very wrong in the country. I lost my respect for John McCain when he accepted the insults from Donald Trump. I still cannot comprehend how the Trump supporters think that they would actually be better off with this congress and with this president. Every time I read the news or watch the news I get depressed. I don't know what would happen to the future of the country.
1
The problem is that too many people only get their news from Fox.
Fox is saying this is a great day for the middle class and that all of the criticisms of the Democrats are lies.
And Republican senators are smart enough to give some short term tax cuts to the middle class.
Those tax cuts will go away and by the time the damage is happening, the Fox News audience will not associate that damage with today.
Same with the terrible deficits and the cuts to Social Security when they come. The Fox News audience will not associate that damage with today.
One of the most sad is what they are doing to people who want to get a college education.
What are the Republicans thinking?
1
The GOP has voted to eat the seed corn: they will stuff their pockets, curry favor at the altar of donors, and codify economic inequity. Most of these legislators will be dead by the time the future generations will face a starving economy. The opposition wants to plant the seed corn and harvest the gains from investing in the future: education, health, infrastructure and renewable energy.
1
When President Obama left office, there were over 5 million job vacancies nationwide.
Now there are over 6 million job openings.
Republicans clearly aren't doing this for jobs.
In fact, they're doing this for power in an attempt to finally win their Civil War.
The GOP knows the demographics are going to kill them in elections down the road, so they have gobbled up local and state governments and are now trying to gut the federal government -- aka The USA -- and take what they can.
Beyond the obvious long-term national threat from within, there is the worse short-term problem that the state governments the GOP owns are also not interested in governing "for the people," and are similarly deregulating. And the lies just as bad.
Scott Walker, who was first elected governor during the Great Recession on a since-failed promise to create 250,000 new jobs, and who continues to claim everything he does is to help create jobs, asked for $7 Million last week to advertise out of state to ATTRACT new workers, because employers can't fill their job openings. This in a state of crumbling infrastructure and defunded schools because there's not enough money, even after gutting various state agencies.
But he had no problem giving $200 Mil to the out-of-state owners of the Bucks to build them a new arena.
And he is in the process of giving $3 Billion to lure FoxConn, a Taiwanese manufacturer that decided to build in the US despite the tax rates here.
Liars and Thieves, one and all.
2
Now that he has one piece of legislation passed that will make him and his kind a bundle, will Trump be willing to step down? Will the Republicans finally stop supporting him, do the right thing, and join those seeking his impeachment? We can only hope.
1
When politicians benefit donors at the expense of the wellbeing of the people and the long term growth of the nation, we've reached they height of corruption. Citizens United is the downfall of what makes American the shining light onto the world of democracy. Shame, pity and sadness across the country.
It's very clear that the deficit will now be use to attack medicare and social security and any other program that helps the people. Social security has never added a cent to the deficit but they will tell you it has. By law, SS cannot add to the deficit. We've been sold out by the republicans for their masters and their masters want to destroy all social programs.
1
Please, enough of the disappointment! We were all counting on Republicans to look out for our general welfare? That ship sailed after the elections, we had our chance then, and now, a year later, we are living with the consequences.
Schumer and Pelosi decided to NOT go to the meeting with Trump, where they could have screamed their heads off at him about the simple lie that he won't benefit from his tax proposal. Instead, we heard absolutely nothing from them. What were they doing instead, watching TV, washing their cars? A photo opportunity lost to the ages. The country saw virtually zero official opposition to the tax give away passing.
1
In politics, the pendulum always swings back so when democrats seize control of congress in 2018 and 2020 there will be hope that these disastrous tax cuts will be reversed. This is a truth that the irresponsible GOP should remember when they lose their seats in mass.
1
I am trying to decide if it is pathetically hopeful and cynical at the same time to think that there may be enough republicans out there who knew that they were going to get to vote on the same bill twice who didn't want it passed but wanted the opportunity to vote yes the first time, and no the second time so that they could make the most expedient claim during their next campaign?
Here's what I suspect is happening behind the scenes: Mitch McConnell made a deal with McCain, Flake, Collins, et al., to pass this bill in exchange for impeachment. There's simply no way, regardless of how much I disagree with him on almost everything, to believe that McCain is willing to let Trump destroy American foreign policy and its standing in the world. McCain himself indicated that he was reluctant to go along with the Tax bill, characterizing it as "less than perfect". He must have gotten something for his vote and what he got is not in the bill itself. He hates Trump and he knows full well what an existential threat he is to our democracy.
In the past one year it has become very apparent that Republicans are not really value voters, don't really care about the deficit, will do anything to get activist judges seated in the courts (and act unconstitutionally while doing so) and will only act in the interests of the top 0.1%.
Yet, 50% of the voters will still go on to vote the same Republicans back to office.
Hillary was right: they are deplorable.
3
With the loss of the mortgage deduction, people will no longer buy. They will rent. Which will further enrich the builders and renters of apartments. And further deplete the paltry savings of homeowners - for a retirement nest egg.
Since people will want to rent, instead of buy, home values will decrease.
I had a nightmare just before i woke up - that our house was flooding. Yes, the destruction of home ownership. Except for the Gentry - who get a Prize and a Purse full of Money.
After I woke up from the nightmare, I had face the Waking Nightmare! That actual human beings would enact a law to steal from hardworking middle class people in order to further enrich those so wealthy they have no need to work.
The heartlessness of this is causing me great anguish. My heart is breaking for this society - which is setting itself on a road to ruin.
1
It looks like the democrats will have to clean up another republican mess again. We need to wise up and realize the republicans do not have the people's interest in mind and that they are also pretty bad at governing.
Reagan (R) created a huge deficit, Clinton (D) cleaned it up and created a surplus, Bush (R) squandered the surplus on tax cuts and bad financial policy and we had the biggest financial crisis since the depression, Obama (D) brought a horrendous situation back to stability and growth, now Trump (R) is creating a potential 1.5 trillion addition to the deficit. So I ask Why? Why, do people vote republican in at all.
2
Trump boasted about his cleverness in using debt and bankruptcy as tools and became notorious for stiffing his creditors. Perhaps the Republican plan is to reap short-term profit through increasing the public debt until no one will buy any more of it, then repudiate that debt and, during the ensuing economic collapse and chaos, buy the remaining assets for pennies on the dollar. I wonder how China will feel about getting stiffed.
1
The deficits this will cause is not an excuse to cut social programs and the vital work of government agencies. With this tax cut the Republicans have gone too far. This act needs to be the beginning of the end of Republican rule.
1
Does Congress believe that Trump and Co will ultimately be out of the White House via Mueller, and that they will need to curry financial favor with the corporates to heavily fund their own re-elections made suspect by Trump's fall or failure? "Tax heist" makes me wonder if we should all just stop paying taxes until this situation is reviewed and resolved in a fair manner to the American people.
A rough guess: The first real economic "depression" will begin in about two years. Give or take. The top tier will NOT reinvest, nor will most of corporate. This probably has been coming for a while.
You simply cannot pull all of this money out of government jobs and services all at once. Most of the money that the top tier receives will be hoarded.
It will not be exactly like the 1930's but it is going to happen.
2
It's a Pyrrhic victory for the Republicans. The tax bill has provided the Democrats with rhetorical ammunition that they would not have thought up in a million years. Wait until Election Day. The days of voter ignorance on these issues have passed. The polls showed an overwhelming antipathy to the tax bill. The Republicans believe in non representative, oligarchical government. The public does not like to have its pockets picked by the robber barons of industry. There will be a reckoning. How big we don't know. As Lincoln said, "you can fool some of the people all of the time." We'll see how the "base" holds up when some of them realize they've been robbed.
Good grief, the fact that "only the dealmakers themselves knew what the chamber voted on" after this bill was revised for the final time only moments before the voting commenced, is shameful enough. But for there to be "many unpleasant surprises" as both sides of the aisle "work to pass final legislation for President Trump to sign" is truly frightening. How in the world could ANY ONE of these senators approve a bill when not fully realizing what they were approving? I can't help but think, on some level, this is the GOP's version of payback for when they believed the ACA was pushed through so quickly, without fully knowing its contents.
Regardless, voting for something with such magnitude was orchestrated and completed while the majority of the country sleeps is alarming. If anything, common sense tells you it was a sneaky and hurtful maneuver for many, many Americans. If this was truly a good bill, the voting could have waited until every Senator was able to read what was in it after the 11th hour changes.
Making decisions like these under the shroud of darkness in the wee hours of the night truly makes one more suspicious and distrustful than ever of anything the GOP does or will do. A disgraceful act on so many levels.
2
If sixty-one percent of Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction, what will it be once this charade is better understood? The only Republican Senator safe to win reelection in 2018, (for putting ethics before politics) is Bob Corker and he isn't running.
House and Senate Republicans will be pummeled in reelection bids when voters realize they've fallen again for the, bait- and-switch scheme. All the campaign promises by Republicans have proven once again, you can't trust the fox to guard the hen house.
When will we ever learn and when will the Democrats start contrasting what they stand for?
Passing debt onto future generations is not the point. If those investments led to improved living, it is not a burden. If it leads to being worse off as this bill does, it i a disaster. The GOP favors a feudalistic economy where the rich Lords control the fate of the vassal working class. What was the outcome of such societal structure in the past?
I can't fathom a number like one trillion dollars. I can begin to feel the impact of the loss of billions of dollars to fund CHIP - insurance for children and pregnant women. Republicans say they won't fund it until they take that money away from something else. What all do they propose to take away if all those economists and the government analysis are right and the deficit will balloon by a trillion? Will a future Congress really let taxes go up on individual Americans when those provisions expire? If so, how will those be paid for? If not, is that good news for middle and lower class Americans?
What a disaster!
Somehow, individuals must wrest back control of our government. Messaging to those who lose, voting rights for all and voters who show up, an end to gerrymandering, the end of the electoral college, a demand for transparency in campaign finance if we can't get big money out - these things MUST change.
Right now, Republicans, please do one thing. Use your optimism about the growth of the economy in the face of these tax cuts to fund CHIP with no offset.
The Democrats should be working right now on their response to this attack on the poor and middle class for the 2018 campaign.
A good start would be a detailed proposal to repeal the Republican plan in toto and replace it with reasonable tax cuts for the 99% along with tax increases on the rich to shore up our social safety net and repair our infrastructure.
Could that send a ripple through our economy? Maybe. But mostly for the good. Besides, the prospect of chaos in the future didn’t stop the Republicans from soaking the poor and middle class, or committing inter-generational theft.
An alternative like this would directly benefit society for decades. We could secure our children’s future with a society worth inheriting and make them proud.
The political calculation behind this tax bill is simple: if you throw a few crumbs to the middle class, they won't care that the wealthiest people are being treated to a steak dinner. And GOP leaders know full well that the measure will not generate enough economic growth to pay for itself. Their real goal is to have an excuse down the road to cut benefit programs and the federal budget. It is all a cynical ploy that exploits the selfishness and the ignorance of the typical American voter.
1
Pass through provisions make no sense as a stimulus for new business development. Tax rates are not a sound reason to take the risk to start a business; financial viability and feasibility determine whether someone will invest in a new business. But why should the individual owner pay less income taxes than employees? In reality properly enacted tax deductions, the so called "loopholes" serve the bona fide purpose of stimulating corporate investment. The tax rate reduction without requirements is a giveaway.
However existing pass through entities for currently viable businesses (e.g., the Trump organization) will now be rewarded for doing nothing new. Other existing entities may restructure for tax purposes only solely to decrease the owner's tax liability. Will Trump increase hiring or buy more portraits of himself? The bill is a windfall for the currently wealthy which will widen the wealth inequality gap.
The Republicans have cynically predicted that all this money flowing to the rich and corporations will result in jobs. This editorial predicts that the money will either be kept or passed on to investors. Am I the only one who foresees that this windfall could also result in faster investment in automation, eliminating rather than creating jobs? This horrible bill is a perfect reflection of a party that has no interest in looking towards the future, and in fact is actively undermining this country's ability to adapt to the changes that are surely ahead of us in a way that invests in its people. A pox on their house!
While Kansas provides useful data in predicting how this debacle will go, let’s not forget Indiana.
During the Trump campaign, the state of Indiana granted millions in breaks to corporations with factories there, grandstanding that those millions would result in more jobs and higher wages.
What has happened? All but a few jobs remain, having been shipped to Mexico, leaving taxpayers stuck with the bill, and under- or unemployed. Even the Carrier corporation, during Trump’s campaign, publicly predicted that jobs would leave, and soon.
I just don’t understand how any rational, sane person belives that the business class would go out of its way to use its tax cuts to extend upward mobility to the middle class, which essentially would create competition for the business class.
Why does the Republican base lack such pragmatism?
1
This tax bill is just the same old trickle-down economics rehashed. Here is one of the biggest fallacies of supply side economics:
I was self-employed for most of my adult life until recently. I invested in my business when those investments would lead to more sales. More sales come from increased demand. When the opportunity to grow presented itself, I invested in my business regardless of whether my marginal tax rate was 10%, 90%, or anywhere in between.
There were a few times when the decision was not clear and I was on the fence about investing in my business. I did consider taxes in those cases - but in the opposite was from what the supply-siders claim. Higher taxes encouraged me to invest. Lower taxes encouraged me to hoard my profits.
- Let's say my marginal tax rate was 35%. That meant I could buy equipment for 65 cents on the dollar. The higher the tax rate - the greater the incentive to spend on business investment.
Business investment, and new hiring, are not constrained by taxes today. If anything, there is a savings glut among those of us with money - chasing assets such as stocks and real estate and driving their prices ever higher. This tax plan will only exacerbate this situation, blow bubbles, and end in a boom-and-bust cycle. Rather, lack of demand growth is what is holding back business expansion. Wage inflation - especially for the bottom half of incomes - is what is needed.
Trickle down economics is a fraud. Don't eat the yellow snow.
3
This doesn’t seem to be what the Rust Belt had in mind when it pushed Trump into an electoral win.
The middle class is paying for all this but gets nothing in return other than wealthier shareholders. New jobs will appear, yes, but they will be automated. That’s been the plan this whole time: use tax rates as the excuse (which are quite low once corporations help themselves to their annual loopholes) and bring back jobs only when they can use tax cuts to pay for robots.
And just think: with Hillary or Bernie, the Rust Belt and Appalachia could have had had free or reduced-cost job training in green energy and would not have had to relocate to take those jobs.
I scratch my head over how it is that so many people just can’t see reality.
If Corporations actually paid that tax rate net-net, then lowering the tax rate would appear justified. Data suggest that few US corporations pay the current tax rate because the tax code has a significant number of loopholes.
All that aside, I do not oppose a reduced tax rate for corporations.
I do oppose the argument: give corporations a reduced tax rate and THEY WILL create jobs and boost the economy in the future. That future has never happened.
I oppose corporations not being held accountable. In my view, ONLY corporations that actually CREATE JOBS should be able to file taxes at the reduced rate.
As a result of lower taxes, corporations that engage in stock buy-backs or increasing dividends should be required to file taxes at the current rate.
It always comes down to accountability. Something lacking with the GOP at the moment.
4
It is so very unfortunate that for most low and middle class taxpayers all the great and wonderful promises of this Republican tax bill will not be seen until the winter and spring of 2019, when it comes time to prepare and file their federal income tax returns - after the 2018 elections.
It behooves every taxpayer to immediately "crunch the numbers," to compare his or her tax bill with the tax gain or loss under this new federal tax regime. Is the astronomically increased deficit, to be paid for by our children and grandchildren, not to speak of slashing of our entitlement programs and inability to pay for needed infrastructure costs, worth the immediate tax benefit (or tax loss in many many cases)?
6
We're living under a criminal dictatorship. The Republicans, lie, cheat, to provide for their wealthy bosses, and screw everyone else. Legislative process? That's for the suckers. The Republicans don't even pretend to care, or have any shame. With a mentally insane president Donald Trump. and a criminal political party in power, there will be a reckoning. Of course only the 99% will suffer, the wealthy and the corporations own us.
11
Yes yes and yes! They’ve screwed us royaly. Every one will eat it up take it and die. This is the most idiotic docile country in modern history.
Founded on racist ideology and it’s what will bring it down.
To their own detriment the racist cracker class has prevailed.
Next thanksgiving reach across the table and stab your lonely uncle. Each one kill one. Problem fixed.
3
Unfortunately, a large percentage of the voting public is simply too blind or too dumb to realize that the GOP doesn't have their interests in mind. Ever. I won't be at all surprised when they reelect these greedy representatives again, because they want to believe their lies. just look at Alabama, where the idiots are about to elect a child molester!
10
Trump will have to hurry to build his border wall with Mexico to keep Americans in instead of Mexicans out, and before he and his flunkies are ousted due to treason....
5
What amazes me is that anyone thought that McCain, Flake, and Collins were going to do anything other than sink into the Republican sewer. They are, after all, part of the white aristocracy.
15
These people are the stuff of "The Aristocrats" joke.
I can almost smell the imaginary millions of dollars floating in front of that slimy smile McConnell and the rest of his shysters have on their faces. The upper echelons of society must be very very happy with them. Champagne all around!!!! Please drink fast though we now have a few entitlement programs to gut in order to fund all those new vacation homes and yachts. Gotchu Suckers!!!!!!!!!!!!
9
This tax bill is for billionaires. Ordinary millionaires are going to be soaked.
If you can convince the lowest white man to hate and fear and resent "those others" he will gladly empty his pockets for you.
11
Here's what's really going on in central Africa:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/04/lake-chad-the-worlds-most-...
Take a look at those silver haired airheads to the left and find yourself a nice place to plant your deck chair on the Titanic.
6
It’s in the details that will really screw us all. The thugs gave a tax cut to the middle class in 2018 aka midterm election year. Then the horror really begins. The problem is it’s spread over so many aspects of our lives that the idiots who keep voting for their own doom won’t necessarily recognize from whence it comes and that it was attributable to the Republican only passed bill.
IF we have any semblance of our country going forward we have now learned the USA is no different than Lord of the Flies, i.e., something evil lurks in us all and that with this unchecked balance comes bad legislation at 2am in DC. Laws need to be written that when issues arise for vote that impacts some percentage of the population, both parties must work together, hearings of both experts and the people must be had, and the document must be shared at least one month beforehand for all to review properly before voting.
Politicians must also sign a statement that they have personally reviewed each and every page - even if it’s 500 pages, and there are no last minute handwritten illegible “amendments” or it goes back through this process again.
We must protect ourself against these thugs - it is disgraceful and should be illegal that LOBBYISTS are the only ones who saw this beforehand - NOT Democrats - and they are the ones who got it into the hands of Democrats.
Grey Panthers: it’s our Medicare & Social Security First! Unite & Scream at them come Monday morning.
11
Grey Panther - Saluting you!
1
Let's call this what it is: welfare for the wealthy. They won't spend their dollars more freely but continue to shelter their undeducted wealth in offshore havens.
I wish the Dems would sell this better and louder--its a hit and con job on the middle class and higher tax paying blue states. If you're a homeowner, among other things, you are screwed.
14
Yes, where the he'll have the Dems been this past year? If the situation was reversed, the Republicans would jave been screaming bloody murder for the past 13 months.
The NYT misses another key advantage of the bill. The hidden first attack on the balkanization of the country. By removing SALT, and hopefully the 10k property tax deduction in Conference, the rest of the country can stop subsidizing the NY, NJ CA, MA, ILL creation of urban dead zones of poverty. Democrat warehouses of impoverished voters on the dole without jobs. The populations of those states will now have reasons to ask why these inner city hell holes of poverty and violence are all Democrat. Republicans should not be off the hook either; the new jobs created by these pro-growth tax changes must distribute sufficiently to the inner city pockets as well.
1
It seems like you have been reading the GOP PR. You do know that the federal taxes that citizens of NY, NJ, CA, etc pay go to poor Republican states like Alabama, right? We in NYC work hard, long hours, apparently, to subsidize people in states like Alabama who don't want to work (or don't want to work as hard as we do).
Maybe it's time Alabamians start getting jobs, working hard and pulling their own weight.
Those "inner city hell holes of poverty" are the few places offering real social services to what are humans in dire straits, often suffering from mental illness, many of them also war veterans. Suburban gated communities and blue states that suffer from opioid epidemics are either outright hostile or literally life threatening to those humans you describe as if they were the scum of the earth.
And guess what has worked really well to counter the spread of such poverty: more equality - in wealth, healthcare, education, housing. Works in many other countries, but the US Republicans use every opportunity to create more inequality and keep telling the old fairytale of the trickle down economy that maybe shortly works but in the end is just that: trickle down. What this country needs is a political system of real independence, not a congress of puppets to special interest groups with deep pockets. Then we will see real representation of the people for the people and by the people.
First of all, the biggest loser is our democracy. To ramrod through a bill making this degree of change without a reasonable, open process is just disgusting. The next time any Republican refers to Thomas Jefferson, who would be appalled at this truncation of the Senate's process, Democrats should hold up big "LOL" signs.
As far as the Senators, what else was promised to Collins? For a $10,000 property tax deduction that will help very few married people, really? Like that's the answer to what this law is going to do to screw the elderly, people with chronic medical conditions, states that are going to feel pressure to lower their income tax and hide increases in other measures, people losing value when they sell the homes that they struggled to pay for so they could have some equity? I worked in the Senate for awhile years ago, and she featured herself as a Republican who cared about consumers and average wage earners. I guess no profile in courage will be written about her. Same for Flake and McCain -- why did McCain bother to derail the Obamacare repeal and then turn around and vote for this?
11
Ego? Notice McCain's theatrical grandstanding when he voted against the HC bill originally...
P.S. His family will get a estate tax windfall when McCain passes away.
All I see in the photo is a smug bunch of fraudsters.
These people have no meaningful ideas as to how to fix anything, so, out of panic, they pass a pile of steaming garbage.
I'm embarassed to say one of them was a friend of mine at college.
7
Republicanism, aka unbridled reverence for the wealthy donor class and complete disregard for the vast majority of the electorate, is a disease. One has to wonder if the symptoms of ignorance and sheer stupidity that manifest in its supporters are caused by it or a precondition for its infection.
And to all the "Thank you John McCain for blocking ACA repeal", this is exactly who John McCain is - an unprincipled POS who can claim that he's voting for a tax bill despite the damage to health care funding that he postured to protect a few months ago. Stop pretending that any of the GOP congress rats have anything but the orthodoxy of greed and cruelty running through their icy veins.
9
So, if the government says they will take 50% (half of your damned income) because you "don't need all that money", then they say "okay, we will take 45% instead", the liberals will say the ultra-rich are getting a tax break? Grow up, folks. Punitive taxation is a bad thing.
The whole trickle down economics scam is just a way to dress it up. But the point is that our government has its hands too deep in some American's pockets. Taking 50% of someone's income is pure greed. And as long as there are liberals, they will seek to steal this money because "it's just not fair that everyone isn't rich and we must make successful people pay!"
Rich people benefit from thing the government provides: roads, schools, national defense, public health and on and on and on. Taxing them is not stealing, it is merely asking them to pay their fair share of the costs of these things.
Furthermore the vast majority of government spending goes to private businesses (eg defense contractors) or individuals who then turn around and spend it on goods and services provided by private businesses.
Why don’t you go Galt already and leave the rest of us to get on with living in the real world!
Rather obscene how they arrange the photo to include a token woman and Black man. Americans are fools, guys I work with probably think this will save the nation from welfare cheats and safeguard their rifle collections while punishing abortion providers and opening Federal land to cowboys.
4
I suppose that Dems could have gotten involved in the process of drafting the tax bill instead of just choosing to grandstand to their base and oppose even items that their own party had supported in the past. Instead, they went for full-on resistance which left them with no one at the table to protect the SALT deductions, the individual mandate or to fight anything else that they oppose. Sometimes it's a better tactic to actually get involved - even if it's behind the scenes. That's just poor direction from the Dem leadership.
2
In my 60s, I have seen this taxcut melodrama played out over and over again. It benefits the wealthy, it mortgages the future, it shifts the burden to our children, it will bankrupt Social Security and Medicare.
In reality the tax cut fulfills very little of the fears of its opponents and very little of the promised rewards of its proponents and after a few years a new Congress comes in and completely re-jiggers everything.
Are there many here that believe that the Democratic Party three years and two months from now will be able to do whatever it pleases with the tax code.
1
A reasonable (not Republican) analysis of the impact of this would be to align the income of each member of Congress and the results from this tax cut. This would probably show how each member benefited. The next step would be to do an average of the constituents of each member and then compare the two.
Gone are the days of concern for the COMMON GOOD.
1
Does anybody that reads the NYT realize that we have the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world? Do they realize that this force corporations to jump through hoops to establish themselves outside the US, resulting in massive job losses?
If nothing else, lowering the corporate tax rate to 20% puts the US in an incredibly competitive and enviable position, relative to other major countries. They are already starting to get worried about the impact this will have on their economies, which tells you something.
And no, corporations are not evil. Unless you work for the government, they are paying your bills and your benefits.
3
Yes, we realize it. We also realize the effective rate is nowhere near that number, thanks to the multiple loopholes in the tax code.
8
You mean you STILL don't know that the GOP is lying to you?
Yes, as the NYT itself already explained repeatedly, in theory the US has one of the highest corporate tax rates.
In practice, however, the US also has a LOT of corporate tax LOOPHOLES, and as a result, it has been proven over and over again that the REAL corporate tax is already one of the lowest.
Moreover, this bill does absolutely nothing to close those loopholes. As a consequence, we'll now have a corporate tax rate that is ridiculously low, compared to other developed countries, AND there is NO serious study out there showing that that will somehow miraculously increase GDP growth or create jobs or increase wages.
As to other countries: of course they're worried, because when the largest economy in the world decides to deliberately add $1 trillion to its already staggering debt, AND does so through tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations, that means that the US trade deficit will inevitably increase due to a lowering of the value of the dollar.
Conclusion: it's not good for the US economy, and its not good for the economy of the industrialized world either (and yes, both are so intertwined that often what is good for the US economy is good for their economy and vice versa ... ).
You know they only actually pay 18% on average thanks to all the loopholes they exploit? If we are going to enforce 20% for all companies then you're quite right, this can work to our advantage. If.
At a certain point one can only recognize that the country is sinking fast and there is little that can be done to save it, so time to abandon ship. All I can say at this point is that I am glad that my oldest son has left the country for his college, and doesn't plan to return after that. He is in a country that offers a higher standard of living, high quality universal health care... in short a country that supports its people. Staying in the US no longer offers his generation equal promise.
17
Two words: Mitch McConnell. The dark side of human. Aside from being a misogynist the man has been at the centre of the disrespect of a President and aligned himself with the corporate thievery of the last 20 years.
It’s like a bad movie over and over. A nation of uneducated religionists with white sheets and a lot of guns.
The world dispares as we watch the elephant disembowl itself for pieces of silver.
10
This is just the beginning. Wait until they start cutting Medicare and Social Security because they are "unsustainable expenses" in the face of a gigantic deficit. America will become like an African banana republic, with a ruling class of gilded billionaires and their faithful upper class executives living a grand life of luxury, and 150-200 million people living as indentured servants to the elites, always one illness away from bankruptcy and death, unable to educate their children to a higher level, unable to lift themselves up and reach up to a higher social level. It is the death of the American dream.
The oligarchs have taken over, and all the "middle class" morons who voted Trump and keep on supporting the GOP despite all the evidence will be the ones who will pay the price.
19
If it comes to that, I fear there will be blood in the streets. People can only take so much.
1
We are all Kansas now.
26
NO! I am NYC! I will NEVER be Kansas.
1
Time to drag out an age old response from the cutesy blonde Trump ==== Let them eat CAKE.
2
So, when and where do we march in the streets? We need to scare these people and make them realize that revolution will come if the 90% of this country can't afford to live! Nothing is worse than a hungry proletariat.
We need to protest in the multi-millions and not about all the social causes of the left ( I am a liberal) but money affects us ALL (all colors, creeds, genders, classes, religions etc)
It is time for major reform like term limits and overturning the corporate campaign contribution ruling! Our government is incredibly dysfunctional and Americans have been asleep at the wheel bring tricked by these old craggy men in gov't that our focus should be on right to life or protesting the actions of someone like Colin Kaepernick or not being able to wish a merry frickin christmas...
8
Only an Article V convention of states will ever propose constitutional amendments to limit congress.
Hold onto your ho ho ho's
This tax plan is not gift. Except to corporations who are already cash filled. And the rich who want to spend their money on a "broom" offered by Tiffany with solid gold "bristles" at over $90,000, what a hoot to laugh at the women who actually have to use them.
And a raise in taxes? Maybe you couldn't afford to buy your husband that $70,00 dollar 200 pound platinum cardigan that he can't ware but is great bragging rights.
While my husband an I struggle with cost of meat and vegetables and fruit at the grocery store - let alone the cost of having a car - and insurance for it to get to the store
6
"They even rob the blind"- Bob Marley and the Wailers lyrics from the song "The Funeral"
Senator John Tester D from Montana is infuriated that he received 479 pages of tax legislation an hour before the vote. He shows us the handwritten edits which are illegible and throws down the legislation.
https://twitter.com/SenatorTester/status/936748480000921600
5
A hijacked tax bill that fell off the back of a truck for the offshore tax heaven crowd.
2
As long as Republicans can win elections on abortion, white fears and old men who are also influenced by the likes of Jerry Falwell, Jr., Republicans who know what they are doing with continue to loot the public trust and reward the super-rich.
5
You have to wonder how McConnell and the rest of this criminal crew manage to get through the night. Personally, I hope they never get a good night's sleep ever again. Traitors one and all.
6
On our way to an autocracy,the Koch boys endgame;This vote shows all GOP congress to be traitors to Democracy& to the American working class;they handed a "no tax card" to their 1% donors&corporate lobbyists who are the GOP overlords because they fund GOP campaigns&buy them their elections;taxes are needed for govt. to work,the Koch's don't want govt&GOP Congress will do anything the Koch's say,that's why all GOP everywhere are climate deniers because when Koch boys give you $$ you sign statement saying you will never do anything to cost the fossil fuel industry any money, a quid pro quo&a bribe,money for service. Taxes are what civilized people agree to pay to maintain a civilized society;GOP no longer qualifies as civilized;everyone needs to have health insurance to make the ins.pool work,but mcconnell made sure everyone hated the individual mandate&he catered to the geniuses who shout "ain't nobody gonna tell me what to do";robbing middle America,ending social programs,designing a tax plan that benefits Trump&his family bigly,these GOP DO NOT REPRESENT AMERICANS;add to this the full frontal assault on America's rights,devised by the devil Bannon&financed by Kochs,they are ending net neutrality&handing telecoms a monopoloy&the freak Ajjit Pai extended no net neutrality to states,that's Bannon,allowed Sinclair publishing a right wing company to buy smaller publishers,Koch bought a controlling interest in Time,so the free press&truth will be ending too.
1
The 1%, Charles and David Koch, the "ain't nobody going to tell me what do" libertarians, Steve Bannon, Ajjit Pai are all Americans and have as much right to participate and promote their opinions and interests as you do. Koch has as much right to be in publishing as any other free American. Calling people "freak" because you disagree with them is not useful.
One more step on the way to making America Great Again!
Nice opposition effort, Chucky and Nancy. Not!
5
How so, Mookie? Be specific, and use credible, verifiable data from a wide range of economists.
I look forward to your response.
1
This could be the proverbial nail in the coffin for Republican control of the House and Senate come the 2018 mid-term elections. When voters realize that they have been conned, Hell will hath no fury like a supporter scorned.
2
Compared to these grotesque grifters and thieves, the Russians are pikers when it comes to undermining the institutions and procedures necessary for democracy in this country. And what vile, brazen hypocrisy: complain about government, then use it every which way to keep yourself and your sleazy corporate underwriters all peachy and plump.
1
Congratulations, Comrade Republicans!
Glorious Tax Bill is wonderful for helping deconstruct administrative state (is beautiful phrase, no?). Tax bill will help undermine many classic decadent institutions and traditions -- health care, education, home ownership, charitable giving, infrastructure, social welfare -- all things that might have Made America Great!
You have done brilliant work of proclaiming that the trickle down fairy dust will lead to higher incomes, more jobs, and prosperity -- when of course you know that it will only mean fatter wallets, more stock options, more dividends, and payouts for you and your friends. Is beautiful!
You -- how you say? -- will "stick it" to the deplorables who will blame Democrats, and you will build oligarchy, dissolve democracy. Just as we planned!
Good work, comrades!!
4
We are going to to be deep and troubleing times.
Please vote in 2018 and 2020.
3
Jake Gittes: How much are you worth?
Noah Cross: I have no idea. How much do you want?
Jake Gittes: I just wanna know what you're worth. More than 10 million?
Noah Cross: Oh my, yes!
Jake Gittes: Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What could you buy that you can't already afford?
1
It's more than high time for a REAL Tea Party.
1
This bill simply punishes people who’s live in blue states and cities
2
If those are the people who have been voting for this massive bloated government that has been nosing into every area of life destroying my freedom, then good! They deserve more.
1
Dear NY Times: Can you be any more hysterical? I mean, seriously.
Under eight years of your guy Obama this country suffered through horrific growth (1.6% avg.), an explosion in the national debt (to nearly $20 Trillion), wage stagnation (particularly in poor and minority communities), and the lowest labor participation rate since the gloomiest days of the 1970s (why the real UE rate is well over 10 percent).
Perhaps all that makes sense to the NY Times and the modern American left, which looks across the Atlantic at the failing European welfare states and says "yeah, we want to be more like THAT."
Fortunately, it doesn't make sense to most Americans, who went so far as to elect a nut like Trump just to give us a shot at undoing all the damage Obama and the Dems inflicted on this country between 2008 and 2016.
7
Horrific growth? That's gratitude for you. It was miracle on 34th street all the way over to Main Street that there was any growth at all considering the economic crisis he had on his hands. Apparently the longest running economic expansion isn't good enough for you because of one number.
2
The sources for your numbers and claims?
1
Trickle up to the 1% was made possible in a smokeless room late at night and sealed with a kiss to seal the delivery for the oligarchy donors to the Republican senators to line their own pockets. They will take back expensive Christmas gifts to their family and friends. Ho ho ho!
2
Just ignorant. Take them one thing at a time. The personal tax changes will benefit many and simplify the code. They will (actually might) increase the federal taxes paid for the "wealthy". Those that have expensive houses and make a lot of money. Too bad for them!!! I wonder if you get to deduct interest on your second home, surely only the wealthy can afford two houses.
3
Okay, one at a time, then.
1. The "personal tax changes," amount to about $15 bucks a week for most everybody. Then they expire, as the corporate bennies do not.
2. Most people will see net losses over the next five years, due to losing at least a big chunk of SALT deductions, deductions for mortgage and education loan interest, medical cost deductions, buying school supplies for kids deductions, and inflation adjustments to income.
3. Oh, and then this bill will pile 10% health insurance increases, per year, on top of regular premium increases.
4. Neither the House nor the Senate version of this disaster does a single...solitary...blessed thing to require corporations to increase wages or investment in equipment. The loot will go to paying down debt, Wall Street, and golden parachutes for executives.
5. Oh, and hedge fund managers--you remember, the guys Trump swore up and down that he'd go after?--they keep carried interest deductions.
So yeah, one step at a time. From those of us who are not ignorant.
2
Oh, so suddenly you want the wealthy to pay up? Where's all that "personal responsibility?" What about all your "freedom from taxes" nonsense? What about "the rich deserve to keep their money?" All of sudden you're happy for us to treat your state like a charity case, well fine. We will continue to do so as we always have. Tennessee is one of the poorest per capita GDP states--thanks so much for getting off your butts and working so hard to contribute to the economy--so inevitably our tax dollars float to you. Hopefully, your state will use our money wisely.
We affluent blue states have always been happy to chip in so states like yours can get a handout. If you think you're sticking it to us, you are not. We have a sense of social responsibility that you lack.
2
This was a cynical effort by the Republicans to rush through a love bon bon for their big contributors. This has nothing to do with rank and file Trump supporters who will no benefit in the least. Trump's presidency is based on enriching the rich and then try to butcher the federal budget because it cannot afford to pay for legitimate public needs because the federal deficit has inexcusably been raised through these tax cuts. The only gov't entities that will grow are the Pentagon and its allied agencies.
1
Those who voted for Trump and the Republican extremists will get the short end of the stick. Sure, it will hurt the blue states with the non property tax SALT back door levy but it is questionable the NY financial center will end up in Texas. So it is a lose-lose proposition all around.
The corporate tax cuts will benefit the people with heavy asset exposure.
The coal country? The manufacturing belt? Good luck to you.
Healthy and wealthy retirees will be moving to Florida and Arizona. It is questionable they will contribute to the local economy.
Even if this tax cut bill doesn't touch ACA, Trump & the Republicans (except a few who have heart enough wanting to fix it) are determined to destroy it - out of spite because it reminds them of President Obama - and will herald back in patient dumping and other regressive practices.
So, this is more than a heist. After all, a heist is a one time theft. This, my friends, will reverberate for generations to come.
7
NO surprise . This tax plan is really the reason Trump has any support among Repulican's. This plan Senator Ryan has been wanting for years. IT's the same misguided strategy that trickle down spurs the economy,it failed in the 80's. Corporations will invest in the future , and wages will go up ,growth,growth. Really? Trump and the very rich will benefit.
5
Hopefully, the God of the Republicans will show them their misguided ways,
and give them defeats in the 2018 elections!
11
You ever notice how much Republicans smile when they put their hand in your pocket?
32
I've never seen so many pictures of Mitch McConnell smiling, let alone that I've never before seen *any* pictures of Mitch McConnnell smiling. I didn't know he had it in him.
One of the basic indicators political science researchers use to determine if a system of power can be considered a democracy is to assess the amount of influence the majority of the people within that system have on decisions that affect them. A 2014 study (see BBC News, 17 April 2014, "Study: U.S.is an oligarchy not a democracy") found in the United States the majority of people have little or no influence on national policies affecting them such as in current healthcare and tax reform legislation. One commentator called the study, The Duh Report, and I call it "an outbreak of common sense." This is why the Republicans, doing the bidding of our oligarchy, were able to pass a tax cut enormously and disproportionately benefiting the richest people and corporations, tax middle and working class people more to pay for it, and eventually take money from Medicare and Social Security to pay for the $1.5 trillion deficit projected to result from it.
36
It was designed to NOT be a democracy. It is a feature, not a bug. When I talk about anything of importance with my neighbors, see surveys on civic ignorance, or read comments on the internet, I am thankful for this.
Arthur, people here either don't vote, or believe the lies the Republicans have been telling for years, so this is what they get. Study after study has shown that even conservative voters don't want reductions in Medicare and SS, want corporations and the wealthy to pay more taxes not less, and want some level of universal health coverage, but they buy the nonsense the Republicans feed them and vote against their own best interests time and again.
It's frustrating for me that our electorate is so uninformed and gullible, and I attribute the blame to right wing media that has demonized Democrats for decades. So, we're only an oligarchy mainly because the people living here are just stupid.
The Republicans will regret this action in the years to come, because they will be unable to blame any hardship it creates on the Democrats. They will have to take full responsibility when prices do not come down, salaries do not rise and jobs do not materialize. Corporations will send larger dividends to their investors, increase executive bonuses, and use their cash to buy up smaller competitors and lay off redundant workers. Meanwhile, states will have to reduce unemployment and welfare benefits because of the bill, and more and more unemployed will have nothing to fall back on. Food, medical care and housing costs could all rise. I don't think all this will happen overnight, but in a decade or so we could actually experience a new kind of depression, one in which the rich are unaffected and protected, while the middle-class workers and the poor bear the brunt. I hope none of that happens, but the silver lining is that if it does, it would be the end of the Republican Party for good.
21
Don’t count on Republicans taking responsibility. They will blame “liberals” somehow, and their lies will be repeated over and over on Fox, and their supporters will fall in line as always.
Oh, they will find a way to twist it so to blame the Democrats. Those who voted for this will surely not suffer the consequences; that will be reserved for the Average American. In one night they packed a one-two bunch. The Republicans passed a horrific tax bill and at the same time, effectively dismantled the ACA without having a sensible replacement. To Flake & McCain, Thanks you guys!
Realty doesn't constrain what these fake people say about anything.
1
As I read about how this bill was slapped together, with almost no senator having read the entire thing, I’m simply stunned.
Whether one likes or dislikes this bill, one thing is clear...
We, the citizens, the voters, the ordinary people who make up this Country are no longer effectively represented. These are the kinds of actions that lead to revolution.
58
They have to pass it before they know what's in it, LOL remember?
2
That sounds remarkably familiar. And it lost the Democrats the House, then the Senate, and then the Presidency. And, soon, perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court, too. These politicians never learn. Sadly, they have an equally divided country that only seems to be able to point the finger in the *other* direction. The fault lies both in others and in ourselves. Maybe, just maybe, the Democrats will have learned their lesson when the pendulum, inevitably, swings back to them. Hah, what am I thinking?!
They don't have to read what they are forced to do.
This morning I woke up from a nightmare to a nightmare: In my dream the house was flooding; we were up to our necks in water! As a retired therapist I know exactly what this means - the GOP Tsunami Tax Scam flooding the nation.
This tax scam rings the death knell of public eduction:
#1. If you live in a place where housing values have sky-rocketed, real estate taxes will not all be tax deductible. So ultimately the public schools will suffer as people demand lower local tax levies they can deduct in full.
#2. The GOP is now making it possible to deduct the cost of Private Education. Not only do you get a deduction if you send your child to a private or religious school, you also get one for home-schooling. I think you may even be able to save for that private daycare kindergarten or private school for your unborn fetus through a 529! And all that private schooling from pre-birth to post-graduate is tax deductible! I’m guessing you can deduct the cost of “home-school” trips to London, Paris, Geneva etc. too!
The only thing this tax scam is lacking? Deductible Peerages! Think how nice it would be to send your little Prince or Princess, Earl or Lady, Duke or Dutchess to his or her Private Nursery - Tax Deductible!
27
So was it ok that Obama heisted 8 Trillion from our children's pocket? The largest increase in debt than any other president.
5
He saved the economy and the country while doing it. Please remember the 2008 crash. We came very close to a collapse of the financial system. Remember he saved the auto plants too.
This is just spending to reduce taxes on people that need it least. Remember revolutions start when there is an unfair tax system that benefits the rich. We approaching this because the cuts for middle class families expire. It’s a scam.
1
That was done to get us out of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. You spend your way out of a recession, right? Now is the time to pay down the debt, not add to it. But the borrow and spend GOP can’t help themselves. Corporations are already sitting on more cash than they know what to do with. Q: Why are wages still stagnating if trickle down works? A: because the money never trickles down.
1
Obama bailed out the auto industry to protect thousands of jobs and unfortunately Wall Street. That was no heist.
1
Finally! Finally there is a party that cares about not the middle-class free-loaders and whiners (read: anti-patriotic, European-style freebie begging liberals), but about the business-owning, job-creating, God-fearing mainland - the back-bone of this country. I applaud this bill and personally Mitch McC, who has pushed it thru. This bill is bad for the socialist-loving liberal elites indeed, but good for us - the hard working Americans. The NYT is pandering to its subscribers - the card-carrying demagogues and academicians (remember - Hillary has not worked 8to5 a day in her life), but forgets it is feeding of the fruits of labor of people like me - a small business owner who simply adores this tax bill. Thank you, the Republican party, for being honest, brave, and humble enough not to cave under pressure.
7
I'm middle class and work my butt off for everything I have. I don't whine, I don't complain. I pay my taxes. I keep my health insurance. I'm no liberal elite. But I believe in fair taxation, not so the rich can get richer. I believe in helping the disenfranchised and people who are poor getting a leg up so they can have the basic things in life. You live in a bubble, whoever you are. The Republican party is a bunch of rich guys, who pretend they're Christians, screwing over the rest of the country.
3
Lol.
You do realize that demand drives supply, right? That the “job creators” are the middle class whose demand for goods and services is the driver of production? It doesn’t matter how much supply you have of something if nobody wants it or can afford to buy it. This tax bill guts what’s left of the middle class If the middle class has less disposable income there will be less demand and the economy will tank. The GOP just set up a massive economic bubble that will end in ruin, like they always do. See: Great Depression and Great Recession
1
Shame on all Republicans, that's about all I can say. They just did enormous damage to our nation for decades to come. Why? Just to get a win? Political expediency? Sheer incompetence? Negligence?
They don't deserve to be in positions in power given their lack of intelligence, common sense and integrity. I had hopes for McCain, Collins and Flake. All hopes are gone now
16
What exactly has been or was the great alternative by the Democrats? ...is that crickets I hear?
4
Did the GOP ask? Showing up the middle class, social security etc and investing in our ancient infrastructure , if you don’t know. Why do corporations need a huge tax break when they are already sitting on more cash than they know what to do with?
That's a case where no reform is better than one.
Democrats has many alternatives but the mechanism of the legislative pas of the bill is structured specifically to leave them out of the process , obviously you are not paying attention
Unless folks makes at least 750K, you will be poor and your next two to generations to come almost forever. That is what happens to contempt of the Federal Government. Do not blame these unemphatic "lawmakers and leadership" you voted.
15
What happened to "We the People" not "We the Rich People?" USA sliding downhill in so many areas and the rich keep getting richer. Here's 8 reasons why Rome fell: http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-reasons-why-rome-fell. Read it and weep!
6
Yes!
Also the attacks on its institutions by demagogue emperors!
Thanks!
This is just shameful. What is going on in this country?!?
10
Why do you have to ask?
But if you wanted to know, go pose your question to citizens from post-Soviet east-block failed states. Not only do they have the correct answer, but as experts, they can tell you based on their day-to-day struggles what you're in for.
Not only does Trump admire Putin. He's gone one better. He's installed Putin's vision of statehood in your own front yard ... while you were wide awake!
Time for all good Bolshies to succumb to the hard graft demanded by the all-devouring American Soviet.
(There's a wicked gripping plot spiral in this tale of Cold War victors laid low, the very stuff of Russian literary classics.)
If you want to know why all those people in the photo are smilimg, it's because they'll most likely be dead before this horrible tax plan really kicks in -- and being part of the wealthy elite in this country, it won't touch them much anyway.
This is what happens when politicians forget the people they're sent to Washington to represent.
And all you Americans who voted for this, and Donald Trump, thinking he'd be your champion and there'd be less government interference in your lives....SURPRISE!
20
If you don't think this is war you have your eyes closed. They will cut Social security next then Medicare and Medicaid.
They will not stop until we pay taxes but are slaves to these Demigods.
31
I suggest a March on Washington ASAP to bring attention to this unfolding disaster.
29
It has to be in the millions....all across the country.
Oh no. That gate has closed.
In most other First World democracies, citizens organize BEFORE their governments get so much as a notion to run roughshod over the social contract.
Where was your attention span during all this? Wasting your conscious hours on Harvey Weinstein? Trump tweets? Baseball?
Vote every Republican running out of office in 2018, Senate and House alike.
A massive fumigation of the Congressional cockroach nest is coming after Trump, with gleeful malice, signs this Tax Heist Bill.
21
GOPs behave as if "The Collapse of Western Civilization" were inevitable, and as they pursue their selfish and ill-considered agenda, perhaps it is. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-collapse-of-western-civilization/97802...
5
I say to all those democrats, liberals, moderates who either sat out the last election, wrote somebody in or chose Bernie sanders, I hope you are are proud of yourself. And I hope this is a lesson you will never forget. There are consequences to your choices. Especially elections. I did not care for mrs Clinton especially. But I voted for her because of the consequences of electing a nut job president. Last night the cows came home with chickens on their backs.
32
Stop blaming voters for not choosing Hillary; she lost because of the electoral college, her political baggage, and failure to capture enough votes in key states.
Well, the Republican Party certainly has demonstrated that crime pays.
33
I look at that photograph with Mitch McConnell, Orrin Hatch, and the other bunch of liars and frauds, with their glee like they done something good for America, and it makes me want to throw up!
This bill is nothing more than wanton greed and a small payment to their donors and lobbyists, nothing more and nothing less.
Susan Collins, you are no better then the rest of these phonies and I have lost all respect for you, in particular.
36
Between this tax bill and the republican's undying affection for Mr. Trump,
this republican party is gasping for life.
8
But they are taking the money with them.
This tax bill is an orgy of greed heaped upon the American obscenity of inequality.
15
The Trump Tax Hike to the Middle Class...............................run on that one.
10
How many NYT readers know that Putin's own spokesman, Peskov, has a wife who is a Kremlin cutout & a US citizen? These people are not poor. They have assets in the USA. Trump's tax plan will make them richer, too, along with an unspecified number of other Kremlin minions who are living quietly in the USA, or in other Western countries, while holding US passports & owning US companies via any number of instruments.
Make a point of remembering the names of every single Republican who supported this outrageous plan to reward America's worst enemies while hurting America's most vulnerable households. Remember to donate to their opponents, to the Democratic Party; support every media outlet that denounces this betrayal. Make intelligent spending decisions to prevent those who promote this scandalous abuse of power from increasing their own wealth & power. And make sure you give some of your time, or support a family member who gives her or his time, to mobilizing voters for the next key elections. Punish those who have helped Putin & Trump; help those who help honest Americans who need a helping hand to propel themselves upward up the socioeconomic ladder via education, employment and entrepreneurship.
Quite obviously, people struggling with health challenges (their own, or a loved one's) are going to need more time, and more support, to lift themselves into a better situation. Shame on those wealthy Americans who are rapaciously greedy & content to be friends with traitors!
17
Speaking of taxes.., how's the IRS audit going on Trump's tax returns? Is it being done by the same 100 workers that did Menuchin's analysis?
22
My decision to not have children has never looked better!
14
Looks like Mitch had all his wingmen wear the perky light blue shirts with red ties. Nice touch Mitch, so patriotic. Sen Corker will be regarded as the only lucid thinker among this troop of spineless grinning sycophantic silverbacks.
7
I keep wondering why people expect something else from Republicans.
They're Republicans. Looting the treasury is what they do.
18
We lost this war, the Second Civil War, that began in Atlanta, Georgia on September 22, 1906. That opening battle ( a pogrom) was organized and lead by the legitimate AngloSaxon grandchildren of the CSA Plantation Masters and Drivers.
The White Citizen's Councils ( Klanners in Suits and Pearls) took up their fathers' and mothers' battle for AngloSaxon Supremacy. Their children ( which includes me and my siblings) , the White Evangelical Dominionists, won this war. Our slogan " In God We Trust" long ago replaced the original American slogan " E Pluribus Unum" ( Out of Many, One).
You were warned there was a war, but you didn't listen. The blues singers, the jazz singers, the griot jalies , the chain-gang survivors, the few poor white/tri-racial union organizers that managed to cross the color line--- they all warned you, but you didn't listen.
We didn't even listen to our greatest modern prophet, Saint Billie Holiday. She kept singing " Strange Fruit" after being threatened to stop singing that song by Anslinger, the Aryan head of the Narcotics Bureau. She kept singing it until she died on the filthy, cold floor of a Jim Crow prison cell.
St. Billie Holiday is telling us to tell the truth if we want our country back. If you are not sure what she means by "Truth", listen to the old spirituals forged in slavery times, the jazz songs, the blues songs, the folk songs. They sing more American truths than all the history books written about our United States.
8
"A Historic Tax Heist." Glad to see the NY Times admit that taxation is theft. It is so obvious to all who pay taxes to the IRS.
5
Taxation is part of what makes a civilized country functioning.
What strikes me is that you are probably one of these tax payers who will eventually pay more taxes in a few years, and you are gleeful. On the other hand, my wife and I are among those who will pay less taxes, and I feel ashamed for that. Everybody should pay its fair share, everybody should be equally "displeased" to have to pay taxes. Eventually, this is called Democracy.
The poor subsidize the rich -- once again.
15
We must collectively reject this anti-democratic obscenity. Pitchforks time. Town hall ruckus time. Elections have consequences! Get out and VOTE VOTE VOTE and participate in your local party meetings.
10
A possible - I stress possible - silver lining in the ramrodding of the Tax Bill by the Republicans.
The only thing the Republicans have ever been interested in is tax cuts and looting the Treasury for their donors and heirs.
Now that they have accomplished this -- it'll get worse in the Conference Committee, folks, where even the fig leaf of "revenue neutral" will be banished as the pigs crowd up to the trough -- they no longer need Trump.
Trump's role as the useful idiot will have basically run its course.
Trump himself, canny operator that he is, will sense this. Indeed, his super erratic behavior this past week can be viewed as part of his strategy for the next phase of his Emperor Jones run.
The drama will be played out district by district, with the Democrats adding to the panic that many Republican House members and, alas, only a few Republican (because of the Democratic holds and gains in 2012) will now start to feel.
Fasten your seat belts, folks, but the tea leaves, and the numbers, read that the mariage de convenance between Trump and the Republicans is headed for a messy divorce.
And, yes unfortunately, a lot of innocent bystanders will be hurt in the process.
5
I predict a huge market for bullet proof vehicles and private security and homes with big walls
8
I still don’t know what’s in this bill. But if previous information is correct, it is designed to punish blue states (by eliminating stat tax deduction), graduate students, and colleges and universities. In other words, anybody who, in the Trump world, belongs to the hated “liberal elites”. I am one of them. I don’t care what happens to Trump voters. They deserve every reduction in Social Security, every cut in Medicaid and Medicare, every opioid death that is coming to them. I do care what happens to the country where truth is provisional, education is mocked, professional success is vilified, and oligarchs rule. Such a country is doomed to fail. I was born in the USSR and I studied its history well enough to know that the US has now embarked on the same doomed path as Russia. Congratulations, Trump voters! You wanted to punish “Marxist liberals”: you are now entering a totalitarian paradise. Let’s see how much you like it.
14
Ok, but I am a liberal who will also suffer from cuts to SS and Medicare. I'm 75 years old, retired. Part of my financial plan, along with investments, has SS and Medicare factored into it. Now what?
The United States just became a Third World oligarchy.
14
Mitch McConnell steals Supreme Court seats and now, with this bill, is on track to stealing our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A bunch of old white men are destroying the future of our country.
14
This editorial is all doom & gloom with no specifics. Just saying it is a deplorable giveaway to the rich does not make it so.
You bemoan that it's a bill that's good for Apple. Hands up if you are going to dump your iPhones. Didn't think so.
You whine that the ACA mandate will be repealed. If you want a mandate so badly, how about a mandate that insurance companies provide certain plans at certain prices, rather than force individuals to buy plans that aren't fit for them?
You beat your chest that it adds to the deficit. Hey, if the government stopped spending so much, the deficit would go down. We could start by ending those wars you love so much.
You assault the characters of McCain and Collins and Flake because they didn't do what you wanted this time. A month ago they were your heroes. You have an adolescent's grasp of virtue, and it shows.
You consider a $10,000 property tax deduction "inadequate." You must be out of your minds. It's easy to champion the poor and middle class so long as they underwrite your vacation homes in the Hamptons.
Only time will tell if the bill does more good than harm. You assert the elites will get a windfall. But at least some elites will feel the pain. Because if you work for the NY Times, then yes, your taxes will go up. And that's good enough for millions of us.
Time for you to pay your share for once.
4
No, just the opposite....the NYT, as a large corporation, will pay less. You, my friend, are the one who will pay more in taxes.
If we needed more proof that government is not working for us.......this is it. Now is the time for the people of this country to galvanize and speak out against atrocities such as this like Washington has never seen or heard before. This is no longer a democracy when you have 51 senators wheeling and dealing for their constituents and special interests behind closed doors during wee hours in the morning at the expense and sacrifice of the people and country.
6
I stand to benefit financially from this morally vacant act, and it disgusts me. Any Christian who supports this hasn't been paying attention or has been following the guidance of charlatans.
14
So Collins, Flake, McCain were going to save us? They would put country ahead of party. They would think of ordinary people instead of the oligarchy. But here's the rub: they might not like Trump's crudity but they are Trumpites all. Collins, McCain voted against the repeal of Obama-care, but this bill savages that care--just a little more subtly. I've heard some African-Americans say they prefer the open racism of the bigot rather than the subtle racism of "polite" prejudice. Trump's brutalism is appalling but Susan Colin's fluttering defense of corporatism sickens me almost as much.
7
Lies, thievery, class warfare, sexual patriarchy, racism. It’s their PLATFORM. It what the Republican Party *runs on* There is also a negative side.
3
They voted blindly on a bill, and nobody knows what's in it? What kind of banana republic have the US become?
7
Et tu, Susan? John? Jeff? Lisa?
5
cc to Corker, who caved.
Democrats are toast after this win.
2
The GOP is just the entertainment division for the military industrial complex and the oligarchs
8
"Shame on Collins, Flake and McCain. You were our only hope." --gailweis, new jersey
No. They were hopeless, all of them. Party over country. Soon enough it will dawn on those knee-jerk Republicans and Grifter-voters who are grinning with satisfaction at stickin' it to the libruls that their own Social Security will be cut to a pittance before they get there and their kids will simply have none; they'll have to go deep into debt or pull the plug on dear old Mom because she couldn't afford health insurance, Medicare won't cover her illness, and Medicaid won't be there because after all, people should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, right? whether they have boots or not. All this and more, in a country where many millions, including Grifter-voters, are scraping so close that they can't come up with a thousand bucks in an emergency, where more than a third have no retirement fund whatever. All this, so our "legislators" can please their obscenely wealthy donors and be showered with moolah to be re-elected to their cushy sinecures with great bennies, including health insurance subsidized by the rest of us. You can bet they won't cut that. Yours, yes; theirs, uh-uh. They've got theirs. So sad for you.
So, no hope there. Our only hope rests on one man: Robert Swan Mueller III.
4
If McConnell is smiling you know the middle class has been harmed.
11
congrats to the editorialists for using exactly the right term to describe the Republican tax plan: heist.
7
Best Senate money can buy.
8
Was Mr Flake drunk? In what universe would Trump and his ilk make serious efforts to reform DACA? Half their speeches are attacking immigrants.
7
Domestic priorities for 2018:
1. Return Congress to the American people.
2. Rescue the Executive Branch and its agencies.
3. Repeal and Replace ChumpTax.
RRRR!
2
Seeing that photo of Mitch McConnell bearing a Cheshire Cat grin made my stomach flip over with nausea. This is the most heinous bill in history and all those who voted for it should be ashamed of their unabashed greed and immorality.
9
If people in red states keep voting in congressmen who want to damage this country, well, THEY should be the ones living with the consequences.
I am tired of red states dragging this country backwards with their (lack of) values, backwards goals, cruel treatment of it's citizens, and, to top it off, taking blue states' money.
Governors in the northeast and western states that want to move our country forward, not backward, should form a new coalition and devote THEIR resources to improve THEIR infrastructure, have their OWN relationships with foreign countries, and provide healthcare, robust educations and improve the lives of THEIR citizens.
Red states do not have our values or goals--they never have and they still don't. Any student of history knows this. Now that slavery is (hopefully) over, time to cut'em loose. And good riddance.
6
Trump the anti-Robin Hood, and his gang of merry men:
Rob from the poor and give to the rich.
4
There are Democrats in Oklahoma City. We recently elected a (gasp) Democrat to the state senate. Changes occur bottom up, and despite this setback, we need to start our fights from the school boards up. As citizens we need to get off our rear ends and participate, donate, and protest. I'm only commenting because I can't seem able to get out of this section.
4
Well, so much for the alleged principles of "traditional" Republicans.
2
Once upon a time, Republicans huffed and puffed against deficits proposed by the ignorant, foolish black bear. 'You can't mortgage our children's future!!!' they shouted for eight years. Poor bear, forced to scrap building new dens. trails and better veterinary care for all the little critters, because deficits are bad, very bad. for our children.
Ah, but today deficits are good. The biggest, neediest elephants need more. More what? Why more everything. And the little mice, small cows, goats , birds squeal but what about that bad deficit predator? No worry. And the big elephants will be very generous and share. But a little mouse pipes and squeaks, ' but you haven't shared in years.' And the elephants trumpets this time it will be different.
And all the animals cheer. 'This time it will be different' and go to sleep but upon waking find their larder bare and their children cold and hungry. But the elephants say what are you talking dout? We got more than we ever had. See, we've made America GREAT AGAIN!
5
One of the salient lessons I learned in my time as a grunt in the jungles of Vietnam is as follows: When ruthless ideologues are trying to destroy your life and everything you live for, if you respond to them with overwhelming physical force, they stop trying to kill you-- at least, for awhile, anyway.
2
And the sainted John McCain folded. We knew he would. When all is said and done, his party came first. And that goes for you, too, Susan Collins.
14
Thank you for an *Excellent* editorial - seems my published 2013 NYT Comment may have foresaw this - at least to some extent? - and perhaps worth repeating, in part, as follows:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/opinion/krugman-the-one-percents-solut...
Comment - NYTimes - April 26, 2013
FWIW - Seems *400 people* now own *HALF* the wealth in the country - more money now in fewer hands - eventually, *one person* may end up owning it all - at least in theory - a *monarchy* of sorts may result from unlimited inequality - and from starving the poor - maybe we could do better? - maybe there's more valuable things than money - like good health and happiness - for the greater good - and the greater number - these days however, to understand the world, one may need only to follow the money - glitter rules - or so it seems - in any case - Enjoy! :)
Supporting links -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States and
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/mar/10/michael-moore...
Dr. Dennis Bogdan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Drbogdan
2
Okay, disaster is coming. And I say -- GOOD.
We deserve what we're getting. A country that is this dim-witted and uncaring deserves its collapse. All those poorly-educated voters that Trump loves will take the biggest hits (and again, I say GOOD!) They don't even know what's going to hit them, or why, and will never be able to figure it out except that it must involve Obama somehow.
The educated people will get by, somehow -- they always do. It might not be in this country, but there are places where opportunities will be had. Just be sure to stay clear of the riots when this whole house of cards collapses.
3
Now we know what MAGA really stands for:
Modern American Gilded Age
3
The con artistry has propagated from the White House to our legislative chambers and to the masses who will cheer this historic swill being forced down our throats.
Had Obama and the Democrats had presented this legislation with the harm to the individual taxpayer and the gift to corporations along with increasing the deficits the outrage would be unbelievable.
Many of us called the Reagan trickle down plan as “Reaganomics” or “voodoo” economics. What shall we call this toxic bill?
2
The American GOP is afflicted with “Louis IV syndrome”. Arrogance and greed equals income inequality equals social unrest equals revolution in one form or another. The GOP thinks they are different from all world history lessons on this subject. The American people will not take this robbery lying down. When Trump and Co. are arrested, I will rejoice in watching these GOPers crash.
1
This is where the risible block by the nytimes on this tax bill had to go and in fact has gone.
Only a myopic and persisting editorial board could write, again, over this tax bill corporate-sided the joy of relishing again on the cut president Trump is going to have.
This is the reality the editorial board is selling, with the obvious disastrous consequences, since the election of president Trump.
What and how everybody could get interested to what is going to happen with the cut in taxes of the president? Only in a reality-show way of thinking of the politics the nytimes could have thought so, with the nefa
1
Even though I know better than to have heros, for a brief time I got to feel good about a Republican woman standing up and doing the right thing. Thanks for nothing Susan Collins. How will you sleep at night?
5
For this coming Monday edition the NY Times needs to publish a full page description of the campaign donations received by key members of Congress and hopefully it will be picked up by as many local news outlets that cover swing states. It's time to fight back.
3
"A Historic Tax Heist
In which Republican donors pick your children’s pockets. Future generations will bear the cost of this terrible bill."
Why was this Not a headline for the last week?
2
The coup by the oligarchs is now complete. It started with the appointments to the various Cabinet positions of people who are not-so-slowly undoing their departments or de-regulating as quickly as possible, continuing through the takeover of the judiciary by nominating extremely conservative judges throughout the country and now this tax bill. It was "bloodless". A term we all used to use about 3rd world over-throws and those dictators. Welcome to the New America. My heart is broken. Nevertheless She Persisted and, fortunately, we still have elections. It will take decades to undo the damage that has been done in less than a year, but we can't give up. We have to work hard to change our elected officials at both the federal and state levels.
2
Why is there so little reference in the media to the repeal of the Johnson Amendment in the House's tax bill? The Johnson Amendment, passed in 1954, prevents churches and other non-profits from endorsing or opposing politics. If this is agreed to by the Senate, the political landscape in our country could be drastically altered.
8
Of course the desperate Left - including especially the Editorial Board of the NYT refuse to acknowledge that FACT that the Tax Bill as passed will give a great boost to our economy for it will draw back from foreign economies, US corporations and their labor force - the ONLY way employment AND our economy will grow.
Only fools believe that the Democratic mantra of higher taxes, mandatory socialized medicine and even more government spending paid for higher taxes will benefit all Americans.
52
Why is this is a pick when all of it is factually incorrect?
41
You are merely parroting what you have heard those lying Republican politicians say. You have no evidence that this loot will translate into a boost to our economy. It didn't in the past when Republicans pass huge tax cuts. So, stop lying for Republicans.
30
Talk to me in 20 years, and we will see whose predictions are truer. I seem to recall similar claims in the Reagan era. Somehow we got economic downturns and greater inequality. What happened? Why will things work out differently this time?
21
Rhetorical question - how many of you spend your money on goods and services from companies that contribute to Republicans or corporate centrist Democrats? It doesn't have to be large corporations; it could be local businesses.
Rich people vote with their money; we should do the same. For example, if this Christmas nobody bought a single item from WalMart, the company would be in freefall after fourth quarter earnings are reported. Most companies are like WalMart and contribute millions to politicians and spend millions lobbying for legislation that will result in increased profits and executive compensation. They oppose a minimum wage or even a livable wage. They are always in favor of erasing any consumer protections. They oppose increasing funding to Social Security and Medicare and many oppose universal health care. They collectively spend billions lobbying against doing anything meaningful for the greater good of everyone.
These are partisan times and like earlier days of our Republic, people should support only those who share common values and political ideology. Merchants learned quickly that to increase business, they needed to be supportive of the entire community. It used to be customers were put first.
You don't have to wait until election day; you can vote everyday with your dollars. At the very least find out who doesn't have your best interests at heart and respond accordingly.
30
The Republican tax bill is really a historic tax heist as it amounts to further enriching the rich through extracting money from the poor while leaving the latter to fend for themselves, not sparing even the future generations who have been burdened with repaying for the permanent tax cuts bonanza to be given to the wealthy privileged few.
23
As long as the constitution allows deficits, the party in power will use them to buy votes and reward supporters while the power will point out the evils of deficits, until they get in.
Congress will not reform itself. We need flat non-discriminatory equal taxation of all income and a balanced budget amendment. We need an Article V convention to propose amendments to impose limits on Congress that they will never impose on themselves.
7
KBronson:
There is no need for a balanced budget amendment, which may actually be a serious mistake. There are times when a deficit is a good thing, as John Maynard Keynes first explained in his classic book, "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money." You should read it sometime. His explanation has now been used to pull us out of TWO depressions cause by foolish Republican economic behavior.
They just did it again. Wait and see.
The dollar is the international reserve currency. Numerous transactions that do not involve any US entity are denominated in US dollars. The Federal Government can always print enough dollar bills to pay off any debt that it wants to pay off. Nobody else can do that. So the Federal Government is unique. Its budget is not that same as your family budget. Equating the two is foolish.
2
It is all so convoluted. Just on example. The ACA says everyone one has to buy insurance or pay a penalty. EMTLA says hospitals must provide people without insurance free care if the hospital accepts Medicare (they all do). So as the price of doing business if you accept Medicare the hospital has to treat the uninsured for free. The bottom line is Medicare is the secret santa funding source for the uninsured. So the Senate repeals the mandate that requires people buy health insurance and leaves Medicare funding of the uninsured alone. The senate also leaves alone the ability to bankrupt out of medical debt for $1,500 (compared to student loans that you cannot bankrupt). Anyone who is not a child understands that peoples' healthcare costs do not magically disappear because they do not buy health insurance. So why did the Republicans repeal the mandate. The reason is everyone who does not buy health insurance voted for the Republicans to get rid of the mandate. The Republicans have no trouble with this because Medicare is paid for through payroll taxes and their income is dividend income and not subject to payroll taxes. The hidden bonus is after dropping all the uninsured on Medicare then they can turn around and complain about Medicare. America, a country where every proud poorly educated Republican man, and his lady, can have a $50,000 pickup, his very own LLC (to avoid payroll taxes), a border wall, no savings, no equity in anything, and no health insurance.
215
Neither of the first are true, sure it says a penalty but if you don't get a refund you can avoid that. And I think emergency care is free (sort of) not hospital care. And nothing is free!!!
It was the Supreme Court that mandated all ERs treat those having an emergency.
The foolish GOP only compounds that by denying all Americans what every other advanced nation has: Universal Healthcare.
Of course, we are no longer an “advanced nation” - we are in decline.
4
EMTALA says nothing about "free care" it says the hospital must treat and stabilize- people cannot be turned away. If one has no insurance then one receives a whopping bill. So either the recipient is bankrupted( but these bills are not forgiven by bankruptcy) or the hospital "eats" the bill which means you and I pay.
1
How do corporate tax cuts work? Imagine a corporation with $100 million in profits. If they pay the current 35% corporate tax rate then $35 million goes to the government and $65 million goes to the stock holders. If we cut corporate taxes to 20% then $20 million goes to the government and $80 million goes to the stock holders. With the stroke of a pen the government loses $15 million and the wealthy stock holders gain $15 million.
The government will have less money to spend on military, public health and safety, education, infrastructure, social security and medicare. The wealthy stock holders will have more money to invest with our foreign competitors.
Corporate tax cuts only benefit the wealthy stock holders and they harm everyone else.
19
You conveniently omitted key facts. Stock holders pay tax on the dividends received which is at 40+% for the wealthy . Also you failed to mention that 20% is in line with much of the industrialized world.
You are leaving out the fact that any dividends distributed to wealthy individual shareholders are then taxed at the individual tax rate.
Ronny:
they can also spend some of that $100 million as "business expenses" (the CEO's bonus, the corporate jet, the corporate condo in a resort area) and deduct that from their "income" of $100 million, without paying ANY tax on that.
Some big companies, like GE, make BILLIONS and pay ZERO federal tax on their corporate income. Read their annual reports. They ADMIT it.
We are still fighting the battles of the 1930's.
Neanderthals in the GOP want to repeal the New Deal [Social Security, SEC, unemployment insurance, collective bargaining], LBJ's Medicare, and even reforms under the first Roosevelt [FDA].
How dare that "commie" Dr. Kelsey keep thalidomide off the US market.
Recall how IKE's HEW Secy Hobby opposed giving free Salk polio shots to school children. This was "socialized medicine thru the back door".
The GOP's bill will run huge deficits which they want so they can argue that the only choice is to destroy Social Security and Medicare which was that low life Milton Friedman [ask relatives of people who were "disappeared by Friedman's buddy Pinochet] "starve the beast" strategy.
Of course when Paul Ryan's father croaked his family was happy to collect SS survivor benefits.
Now he wants to cut benefits for OTHERS.
Recall during the campaign Donald promised not to cut Social Security Medicare or Medicaid.
Unfortunately veracity and respect for the truth are not one of his virtues.
If the GOP were truly worried about deficits they would propose taxing all dividends and capital gains as ordinary income [raising 160 B /year or
1.6T /ten years] and taxing unrealized cap gains at death [eliminate step up in basis] raising 40 B /year or 400 B /ten years.
Can't do that. Half cap gain income goes to top .1%.
31
Our economy is growing, unemployment is at it's lowest, the housing industry is again on the rise and the GOP, behind closed doors pass a bill which will reverse this and lead to problems too long to list.
The key words are "behind closed doors". I thought our government was representative of the people? I guess I had that one wrong.
Lesson for the day: Any politician can be bought for the right price.
42
There are enough broken arms here to suggest a use of force.
Excellent summary of the contours of an almost indescribably reckless piece of legislation—one labeled "tax reform," in Orwellian fashion, and touted by proponents as a Rubrics Cube. In fact, it’s a Frankenstein monster loaded with the body parts of the cadavers of other failed GOP pipe dreams—from gutting the ACA to opening Alaskan preserves to oil & gas, none of which should be included. Indeed, we—and virtually every Senator—have yet even to learn what was ultimately grafted onto this deformity.
Perhaps its worst aspect, though, is its core Enron scam accounting trick: like the Enron fraudsters, the Republican Senators have already "booked" the "vast profits" that will supposedly accrue from the "economic growth" magically spurred by this hideosity.
But we all know better and so do these Senators: several years from now, there will be a gaping cavern in our national budget and it will be plugged by gutting programs that the 99% must have and by issuing even more U.S. debt.
The Enron executives were eventually exposed and their scheme collapsed after untold numbers lost their life savings. But the outcome for our nation after this GOP tax scam collapses will be a vastly worse reckoning, fiscally, environmentally, and socially.
If we voters tolerate this, and if the Democrats again fail to harness the rage that should follow, we will have only ourselves to blame—because we are the ones who elected these villains in the first place and we alone can remove them.
38
Mr. Fouad, you have succinctly but thoroughly captured what any reasonable, thinking person knows this morning.
For what it’s worth, in spirit, I recommend your comment a million times over. Thank you for the flash of sanity in an otherwise Orwellian nightmare.
2
The bill must be good for me if the NY Times editorial board calls it a heist. Riddle me this? Who pays the most taxes? The rich. When you cut taxes who also must benefit? The rich. The poor don't pay taxes. Hello? Now we need to cut spending across the board. Thank you POTUS. Path to 2020 is paved. The economy will continue to boom. Look for 4% growth in GDP, not the anemic 1.5% under Obama socialist regime. Happy days are here again.
1
When you include ALL taxes { income, payroll, sales taxes, property taxes [ landlords pass property taxes as higher rent]} all income groups pay about the same proportion of their income as taxes.
Why is the need to cut spending only directed to social programs but never never to the bloated defense budget.
Neither Social Security nor Medicare are part of the budget. Each is paid for by their own dedicated payroll tax and each program has a POSITIVE balance in their trust fund. That means neither program has contributed one cent to the present debt.
Why should these programs be cut to pay for deficits caused by cutting taxes for the rich.
13
All data and virtually every single economist say otherwise.
Besides, if it’s so great, why didn’t it go through normal processes? Why did some senators vote for it without reading it?
Wow. You really don’t know what’s in store, do you. No wonder Republicans get away with such crimes.
4
Ouch, harsh. And faulty logic -- according to all recognized economic reports this bill ultimately hurts the working class and the middle class and they are the majority of our tax-paying population. This majority fuels our economy with its everyday purchases of goods and services. More taxes on them = less money to spend (on new cars, clothing, or haircuts) = less economic growth. The rich buying Rolexes, yachts and taking trips to Paris does not grow our economy.
1
Those impoverished future generations who "will end up bearing the cost" are not going to be bearing the cost of tax cuts -- they will be bearing the cost of a bloated federal government that the New York Times at at least 48 of the 49 noe votes have no intention of putting on a diet because overgrown federal spending also keeps them in office.
1
Absolutely sickening. How anyone can call the GOP the party of fiscal responsibility, with a straight face, is beyond me.
24
I counted 5 woman republican senators and 16 democratic; if there were more female republican senators this ugly bill wouldn't have passed. The way forward is to elect more women in the senate and house.
9
We elected the House and Senate Representatives and the President.
Case closed
2
When the Soviet government dissolved after 1989 the oligarchs scooped up all the spoils that the Russian populace had built for fifty years. We have here the capitalist version of the same event and it will lead to the same result. When all the economic gains made by a country are restructured to flow into the pockets of the few, human disaster is sure to follow. Thank you GOP, you are truly the Grand OLD Party (of rich white men).
16
An evil Santa and evil elves have delivered a smoldering gift wrapped package to the doorstep of middle America. Like so many other historic activities of President Donald, this will end up a stinking mess that will destroy more than a few of the little people who think they got a piece of the gold. Like so many other individuals who tried to work for or with the Donald, those who voted for the guy will spend many years wondering why they thought this was a good idea. Ready to kiss the National Parks goodbye? Support for R&D and all scientific inquiry including disease research? Any limits on what pollution can be dumped into the air you breath and the water you drink? Ready for accelerated raids on the Social Security Trust Fund and Medicare? That's what you voted for (or failed to vote against) America. Hope you're ready or plan to leave body or soul and move to another life in the next few years. First the Economy on steroids, then the heart attack. Like the French King, the Don will be able to say, "après moi le déluge". One should note he thinks his tribe is unsinkable. There is really no way to prepare for what is being unleashed.
9
My great-grandfather died in the mines here in Arizona back in the early 1900s.
He was a foreman and the company gave his widow and her three children two months pay and a couple of boxes of groceries and sent them on their way.
That's NOT the America I want to go back to.
30
With passage of this bill, GOP senators have demonstrated callous, cruel, malicious and deplorable intent toward the American people.
22
A Pyrrhic victory. They have just galvanized the resistance. As precinct chairs, we are committed to get out the vote against these crooks, to run the Trump train off the trestle and into the gorge. I intend to live long enough to see the gleeful grins wiped off their smarmy faces.
19
>
The GOP is just getting started, next on their menu are the cuts to SS, Medicare, Medicaid, schools, etc.... Kansas comes to DC. State and local taxes to increase.
Joe Trumpkin's ill Mother-in-law will being moving in with him and his wife, since she'll not be able to afford the cuts coming her way. There is some cosmic justice to be derived from that occurrence. Nobody will be hurt more than the poor Trumpkins.
The Dems were once again asleep at the wheel here as to any vocal or visual opposition.
“What we have achieved in this country is socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor.”
Gore Vidal
18
Under the pressure of the donors—Sherrod Brown the other day named Adelson, Koch, and Mercer—the US Congress has turned the United States , not into a banana republic, but a sui generis capitalist dictatorship.
The last Republican administration, of the Bush/Chney duet, was supposed to usher in the New American Century. Instead, the American people were lied to—untruths cooked up in Rumsfeld’s Department of Defense and disseminated through Dick Cheneys office—goading the nation to invade Iraq, which was done off the books, producing a ballooning national deficit, and thousands of deaths and persons maimed for life.
Questions abound.
In the age of lies and liars, how are we ever going to teach coming generations to tell the truth?
Absent the regulations that protect us from polluters, how fast are our lands, waters, and air turn toxic?
How many deaths will social disinvestment cause?
Will our colossal and ever-increasing national debt turn us into client-states of Russia or China?
I hope that shame and opprobrium stains forever the names of all the Republican senators who were party to this
14
This tax overhaul will help families with their budgets and help corporations to be more competitive. Why was there no complaint from the NY Times when Obama spent nearly a trillion on a "stimulus" bill that didn't stimulate? The truth is that this will help the economy and also the Republicans and that is something that cannot be tolerated on these pages.
1
it did stimulate on the lines of saving from death , GM , AIG etc.
gains are harder to quantify if the patient id dead !!
1
Help the economy?
Yeah, that’s what you guys said last time, and we’re still payijg down the debt that accrued because of those lies.
Wake up already.
1
Economists, the CBO, and anyone who remembers the disaster of the Bush tax cuts all disagree with you — in other words, anyone who is not either duped by GOP lies or complicit in them.
The Obama stimulus was thwarted by your party, which insisted that tax breaks be included — 40% in fact, which did not create a single job. Once again, economists agree that the stimulus was too little and too short-term to be effective.
1
This is nothing short of a day in American history like October 24th, 1929. That day the banking system was in obvious collapse and the NY Times printed that, "Wall St. laid an egg." Well today the NY Times can inform the public on Main St USA that Washington DC has laid an egg that will soon turn to rotten in the streets and stink up a storm. American democracy is in collapse, and authoritarian government is here feeding itself at the expense of Main St. USA.
Most of us will either lay awake night after night waiting for our share of the fallout, our personal down slide to come. Many will have to bury their heads in electronic media and an artificial world of better times and holiday cheer.
I know that I should not spend a dime this December, I will need it to pay for healthcare, or stuff it under my mattress for rainy days ahead, but I may just join the group that buries my head in movies and TV and live like it's 1979 until I can't anymore.
11
There is some good: The new tax laws will help Michael Flynn pay his lawyer's bills.
2
Once Trump signs this massive giveaway to our ruling class, the Republicans no longer need him! Hello President Mike Pence!
3
This bill still needs a final vote after the two Houses reconcile their differences.
Some GOP senators [Rubio] are now saying we have to cut Social Security and Medicare to pay for the deficits this bill will cause.
Use these proposed cuts to these programs to arouse public anger and let people contact their legislators.
Public pressure stopped Bush's Social Security privatization plan. It can still stop this bill.
10
Just want to go on the record: I voted against Sen. Pat 'Friend of Betsy DeVos' Toomey here in Pennsylvania in the last election. I hope I never run into him in front of the Diego Rivera fresco 'Liberation of the Peon' at the Art Museum. (Spoiler alert - the peon is bound, whipped, and dying. But then, we all knew how this would end, anyway.)
6
I too voted against Toomey in PA. But his election can be laid at the feet of the Democrats. Toomey was extremely vulnerable, very beatable. But the Dems ran a weak candidate who did not have broad support or name recognition across PA and could not even come in second in the state Dem gubernatorial primary. we could have had one more Dem seat in the Senate. Very frustrating when we keep shooting ourselves in the foot.
1
I wonder if there is any way to challenge this in court as in the way the ACA was challenged?
3
Look at the bright side: this Bill will spell the end of Republican control. From Hoover to Nixon was a span of almost thirty years.
McCain, Collins and Flake-the-flake are the true villains in this story. They allowed hope as they connived. Their legacy is sealed.
8
I would now like to know how I can get ready for the coming huge recession in a year or two.
5
The top 1% pay 69% of federal
People don't pay taxes as a group, but individually.
Capital gains, which are the primary driver of great wealth, are taxed at a lower rate than wages.
Most of the rich are rich because they are afforded more advantages than working people.
It's absurd to try to defend that.
3
The top 1% also have more wealth than the bottom 90% and control 38% of all the wealth. Therefore, it stands to reason that when you earn more you pay more in taxes. I would love to flip the equation and put more of the wealth in the hands of the bottom 90% and gladly pay more in taxes. Would you?
I don't know which tax year you are referring to but in 2015 that number was 43.6% according to the tax policy center, nowhere near your number.
Yes, the lies will become more brazen and one can bet the farm that the GOP will trash Medicare, Medicaid, and SSI or completely eliminate them. Two things will happen. First, Schumer will give a lukewarm "tsk tsk" on the Senate floor and that will be the extent of the Democratic party"s tepid response as always. Then cowardly silence. Second, the very people that the elimination of these programs help will overwhelmingly vote GOP. Both are incomprehensible. Both will happen. And the country will continue to wallow in the fetid pool of ignorance lead by a raging maniac to a nuclear exchange with NK and China.
7
The tax bill does not just "favor the wealthy." The tax bill was passed to pay back billionaire donors like the Koch brothers, who told the Republicans they would not contribute any more $$ without this tax bill.
The impact of the cuts to the SALT deduction will be immediate and long-lasting in NY and NJ. Make no mistake, the war on blue states by red state Republicans in the US Congress will continue. Meanwhile, we in the Northeast are expected to be patriotic and pay for the next flood disaster in the red states. Enough!
12
Doesn't matter, some districts and states are so red they will vote for anything with an R be its name, even it the results will kill them. On the bright side, looking for a real bump in my retirement savings. Hopefully it will help when my SS and Medicare are cut. Back to the winner take-all, dog-eat-dog, zero-sum world that voters think will MAGA.
4
Passed practically in secret, under the cover of night.
How appropriate! Just like the thieves that they are.
7
As Colbert said, “Our Government, with a great amount of squeezing and straining, has produced a great steaming loaf of legislation. This achievement proves that the GOP wants to kiss their ultra-rich donor...but not on the lips....They have a much lower target.”
The Trumpsters have won, and our nation is officially in decline in the name of greed.
10
Perhaps someone more politically astute than I am can explain why the Democrats don't threaten to shut down the government next week if concessions are not made on this tax bill. Why not link the two?
11
Because the Democrats, with only a few exceptions, are cowards.
And the DNC is a conservative organization that cares more for the party machinery than for the working people who were the party's traditional base.
1
This is just the beginning.
They will be coming for Social Security next after this monstrosity blows a giant hole in the tax revenues that this country needs to build their bombs.
It's one thing for Kansas to light themselves on fire with idiotic tax policy, quite another for the United States.
15
A number of years ago The New York Times ran a story about the abuses the oligarchy in 14th or 15th century Venice. How they pushed the laws so far in their favor that there was a revolt. This might be a good time to run that story and historic accounting of the abuses the super rich can inflict when they go unchecked. S.E.
6
The only plausible explanation for all GOP Senators voting for this piece of.....legislation ( and you know what I really want to call it) is that they were blackmailed. Our President is clearly dishonest when he says he will not personally benefit from this. Our Secretary of the Treasury keeps saying it will pay for itself, but doesnt have anything to prove that is so. And the GOP Senators all nod in agreement like bobbleheads on a dashboard as we carreen out of control.
3
We have the power to stop this. No waiting for the 2018 elections.
No calling your congressmen.
Strike!
General Strike ,stop the 20 trillion dollar economy in its track. They will take this abortion off the table in a heartbeat.
6
We, "the people" are finished. The Oligarchy has arrived and the ignorant masses will not vote out these tools of the rich. There is NO hope for us, as the next target is the entitlements.
4
I agree with your criticisms of the bill, the process (which is particularly loathsome when one considers that the Internal Revenue Code contains 10,000,000 words) and Senators Flake and Collins. But Senator McCain has aggressive brain cancer and is undergoing agressive treatment. He is not a proper target for your criticism at this time.
If he was well enough to vote, he is well enough to take criticism.
if so , maybe he could have not voted
I feel that the Republican have open up Pandora Box. That makes this a sad day for America and the world.
5
Middle Class Republicans: how much longer will you be duped? Your Congress has sold us out, plain and simple. Our tax dollars will now subsidize the lifestyle of the 1% and enhance the bottom line of multinational corporations. Just what you wanted, right? Keep voting! Yay.
8
Krugman said it best today on Twitter: GOP is 100% corrupt. No more excuses for the likes of Murkowski, McCain, et al who were supposedly the principled ones. We have met Ebenezer Scrooge and he is Mitch McConnell. In the words of Tiny Tim, "Merry Christmas, everyone!"
8
This is no different than when Bush took us to war on lies.
We knew it was wrong but marches and blogs dont stop this level of corruption.
General Strikes will stop this.
5
History has shown us that great civilizations in the past have collapsed.
Now we can add ours to that list. You won, McConnell.
6
Let’s have a really large Tax March.
9
Net result is Taxation without Representation for most Americans, previously overthrown in 1776. For shame!
6
Trump and the GOP are setting this country on the path to becoming a second-rate economy and world power and thus helping to usher in the China Century
5
But I wonder why Collins and Flake in particular voted yes. Is there something they were afraid of if they had voted no? The whole thing seems very peculiar.
4
David - in Flake's case, it was DACA promises.
What an odd twist of history: Micheal Flynn starts bringing down the presidency on the same day the Senate starts bringing down the rest of the country.
7
If I didn't have wonderful and sane friends in the US and forgot for a moment more than half of the population didn't vote for the party which Noam Chomsky has called the most powerful criminal organization in history. And if I didn't realize the US is threatening world peace and the environment, I'd say: sure, go ahead and destroy the US for generations to come!
2
The jealous rage of the liberal redistributionists never fails to shock. Somehow, in the NYT world view, confiscating less private property translates into theft. The intellectual convolutions required to make such a conclusion likely require mind-altering drugs resulting in hallucinations. The entire point of a tax cut, is to allow those who actually pay taxes to keep more of their own property. (Or to put it another way: to have the State forcibly confiscate less). Smaller, less intrusive government, perhaps a byproduct of this tax cut, is a worthy goal since it will ultimately permit greater individual freedom. My problem with this tax cut is that individual rates remain punitive and should be decreased by half.
yeah , the personal freedom to be sick and poor at the end of a struggle of a life ...
1
freedom! freedom! hallelujah!
does this freedom extend to the right to abortion, to marry whom you choose, to get at least 100 cents back for what we send to DC, to free and fair voting rules...
or is this, as it usualy is, only about money?
1
Bitter irony that Trump's legislative achievement entrenches oligarchy at the expense of peasants & ignores the peril of a crippling deficit - his puppet master Putin is beaming with pride. Trump's bankruptcy legacy is a dangerous act to follow for a nation - people will suffer.
Once a shining city on a hill, you're aiming to look more like Russia c.1997. Resist, purge, wake up your people. This is painful to watch.
3
What is deeply troubling about this tax heist is how many election cycles could unbelievably favor the Republicans. Next year the mid-term election should be a disaster for the GOP, but a significant tax break for many may mean the Republican’s have bought themselves - Yes, bought, like everything else they do, it’s about money - an election win. Same is true for 2020. By the time all the negative parts of this tax heist take place I’m sure Republicans will have found a way to blame their fellow Democrats. I have no respect for the GOP any longer. They are a bunch of stooges for the oligarchs in America as welll as internationally. Republicans frighten me with the damage they are doing to America. Yes, rather than spending a trillion dollars on improving the country they are dismantling the infrastructure and placing a tax burden on all of us that will impact young and old. Just when the aging baby boomers (ten years from now) will really need social security and Medicare the GOP will want to cut. How mean, how despicable can you be to your own countrymen/women?
7
Where are all the red-states' voters who will be harmed by this?
Why aren't they in the streets promising to not vote for these despicable excuses for human beings in the next election?
This is a deeply unpopular tax plan---there must be SOME voters in red states who are scared witless---
Unfortunately, red-state voters of integrity and morality who threaten to unseat their senators may be our only line of defense!
5
So, how do we stop this madness?
4
If only they had waited till December 7th to pass this bill. The symbolism would have been so appropriate.
2
Every single Republican, House or Senate, who voted for this must go ASAP. The next two elections are the most important of our lives.
1
I hate the bill and most of what it stands for. I cannot understand how any progressive could rely on people like Flake, McCain ( Palin’s running mate) or Collins. Remember , they are republicans with checkered pasts. Expect nothing from these wrong headed senators.
A little soul searching would serve us well. It goes back to having Hillary as a candidate. We need to own it. Democracy is not our friend. We need to tend to it regularly or someone else might use it against us.
As a taxpayer, I have this one question:
Does anybody else want to see Trump's tax returns for the last ten years?
5
Congratulations to the Republicans on the win. Well played.
Women, minorities, working class people who want a government that represents us and not wealthy donors, let's erase the lead in 2018 with a hat trick: House, Senate and Impeachment.
Such fun
3
Anybody have any thoughts on when the recession will hit? I have a self-directed IRA and want to know when to shift out of stocks and into bonds.
2
The house and senate tax plans would raise my family’s taxes between $950 and $1200. I’ve called my senator, Rob Portman, several times to demand he opposed the senate bill. He ended up voting for it in the darkness of night on 12/02/17. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. After all he was Bush Jrs budget director and we all know how that ended.
3
This is a turning point in American history, a shift from a (flawed, surely) republic where the people choose their representatives to an oligarchy, which managed to manipulate it to where the oligarchs choose their public.
The fault lies squarely in the lap of the American people who stupidly pulled the chain to flush their rights down the toilet. I'm sorry to paint the situation with a broad brushstroke, but this has been evolving since Ronnie the Dimwitted pronounced government the problem (the people were the government, remember?) and opened the floodgates for greed to inundate us. The result is that the GOP and its handlers, the oligarchs, rule the brain-dead, the part of the population they hoodwinked into voting for their own doom; the brain-dead were a large enough minority so the Republicans were able to sway the hapless American people to finally create a country in their image.
The ship of state left its berth and is now sailing into its destiny and the inevitable tragedy of the iceberg of ignorance-induced self-destruction is looming in the horizon.
It was a noble experiment by our Founding Fathers that did not work out. Now stay tuned to the destruction of their pesky Constitution.
If there is no change after the the elections of 2018 and 2020, enjoy rearranging the deck-chairs on our doomed ship of state.
3
Who knows whether the handwritten "adjustments" were recorded before or after the vote? Picture a shoplifter being led away by the police, yet still grabbing merchandise off the shelves and stuffing it into his pockets.
It really does not matter, since the entire bill is such a crime against the American people.
2
OK they shoved down our throats a reverse Robin Hood tax plan. Cut the budget for the IRS. Use taxpayer dollars to pay sexual harassment suits.
I know the approach I'm taking to prepare my tax returns from now on.
2
This tax bill will help the middle class working in and around major urban cities, currently experiencing an increase on everything related
By far, this portion of the demographics pay more of their fair share, so this tax bill is a welcome.
Pretty sure the Dems who want to import a dependent population and keep taxing and spending on programs to increase their grip on power are the ones pick-pocketing my kids.
Maybe the government could try spending less money. Maybe then they won’t need so much revenue.
This "tax reform" bill was created, and evolved, in a shameful, swampy back chamber led by cynical & corrupt men with no love of country, beholden only to donors. Shame on McCain, Murkowski, Flake and Collins who decided forgo voting their consciences in lieu of giant stacks of cash and favors for their states. This is a sad day for America.
4
Of all the things I've lost in my life, I think I'll miss America the most.
17
Oh and by the way tRump says we can now say "Merry Christmas" freely and without fearing backlash. That should make everyone feel real good.
3
The American democracy has been gone for over a year now. Will the media ever stop focusing the effects and address the cause?
5
One year into this horror and what has The Great Deal Maker gained for the American people?
This misbegotten tax plan, Judge Gorsuch, chaos everywhere in government and what else?
Some Believe Me.
Some Only I Can Fix It.
Some What Do You Have To Lose?
Some We're Going To Win So Much, You're Going To Get Sick And Tired Of Winning.
3
If this bill, for the donors, of the donors doesnt make you vote for campaign finance reform, nothing will. Wait—people voted for politicians who voted to do nothing after Newtown.
I guess we will get what we deserve.
2
I find it amusing when the New York Times joins the rest of the Corporate media herd in talking about this huge tax giveway contradicts Republican concerns with deficits. The Republicans have NEVER been concerned about deficits as shown by the actual record so long as those deficits benefit the Military Industrial Complex and the rich. Clinton actually had a budget surplus which Bush in record time turned into a huge deficit with his Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq coupled with the last huge tax cuts for the rich. The last President before Democrat Clinton to have a balanced budget was LBJ even in the midst of the Great Society programs and huge spending on the Vietnam War. Nixon and Ford had deficits which were cut by Carter until Reagan also ran huge deficits and turned the US from the world's biggest creditor to the world's biggest debtor in a few short years. The reason the Republicans increase deficits is because of their undying support for the endless Wars and increases in military spending which in fact is over 50% of the Federal budget.
But somehow this is totally ignored by the Corporate Media. Hence the Republicans have gotten away with the lie for decades that they are concerned with deficit spending - they are only concerned with deficit spending for public institutions which benefit all Americans like public schools, transit, parks, libraries, health etc. But provide a trillion dollars for more nuclear weapons or F35's or endless Wars and they are all in..
9
The recent purchase of da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi' for $450 million seems foolish in comparison to the return on investment a wealthy donor can get from buying a Republican Senator. How sickening to see the photo of these grinning scoundrels...so proud that they have made their owners wealthier.
And how sad for the folks who voted for Trump based on his words that he would be the one to save them. When will they ever realize that they were conned in the same way he treated people throughout his business career?
The GOP : 'Salvator the donor class!'
2
To all who spent the last few months stressing divisive issues of identity in the press, taking the eyes of well meaning people way off the ball, Misters Ryan and McConnell would like to extend a warm thank you on behalf of their friends and families.
1
Sold me out for a handful of silver.
2
So a tax bill that makes us competitive worldwide in terms of the corporate tax, doubles the personal exemption and only adds $1 trillion to a $20 trillion deficit is a calamity?! Please. If this was a democratic bill the media would be reporting that this is a 90% decrease in the rate of deficit rise compared to the last 8 years, just like they did with the Obama budget. This is why although we all still read the Times, it is no longer considered anything more than another political website. There is obvious fear that rising wages and jobs for our younger generation, who are burdened with college debt, may actually see how capitalism works, as opposed to the trickle down social engineering and redistribution that has failed to raise the standard of living.
1
The national debt was already expected to increase by $10 trillion over the next decade under the current tax policy. This bill will add another $1.4 trillion to the debt beyond that.
What ever happened to the "Party of Fiscal Responsibility?"
I guess "deficits don't matter" when the GOP is in power.
1
McCain, Flake and Collins have disgraced themselves. Several other senators earlier opposed portions of the bill but caved in the end. However, nothing honorable was expected from them.
2
They voted on this without reading it. We can only hope one of those illegible scrawls in the margins included a provision by some staffer that the massive giveaways to the super rich, including the repeal of the estate tax, DO NOT apply to anyone in Congress voting on the bill, or anyone in the Trump Administration. You know, so it doesn't look like self-dealing.
But who am I kidding. It's probably something about bringing back indentured servitude and the fugitive slave laws, or sacrificing first born children in Odin's name.
2
To all young people who are trying to find a lucrative career, politics is the way to go.
2
It is obvious that the G.O.P. bills help the rich and promote double taxation in the blue states. The NY Times has also published the Democratic alternative – do nothing and ignore the growing family wealth gap.
Instead of keeping the good and eliminating the evil parts of the tax system, the Democrats are so wed to the bad that they don’t see the evil of their own folly. Is it really so bad to eliminate the estate tax? Well it is; if most of the accumulated wealth in the estate have never been taxed and others pay state, federal and payroll taxes on the same income. The estate tax could have easily been reformed by allowing a credit for taxes paid to the Treasury over the decedent’s lifetime. Perhaps the Democrats really did not want to offend their wealthy contributors.
The payroll taxes harm workers the most and Democrats have never shown a willingness to replace the tax revenue with a VAT. Instead, the Democrats support tax credits for the poor that have the perverse effect of encouraging low wages that qualify for the credits. That is no way to help the working poor.
It is outrageous to conflate taxes on corporations and individuals. What is the harm in lowering the C corporation tax by eliminating business tax perks and increasing the tax on dividends to normal rates? Most NY Times readers fail to understand that corporations merely collect taxes and give the proceeds to government. This rich want corporations to pay so they can pay less on their individual returns.
2
My son got a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Duke University and is now doing important work for our government. His tuition was waived because of his teaching and research work done in connection with the degree.
Under the tax plan voted for by the GOP there is no way he could have afforded to go to graduate school by being forced to pay income taxes on the imputed income he did not receive.
I know the Trumpo administration thinks “science” is a pejorative word, but I’m shocked that folks like McCain, Collins and Flake have turned out to be flaming hypocrites in voting for this bill on the quick and dirty.
History will judge them accordingly.
10
Exercise in "Nest Feathering"
A supreme example of those in power feathering their personal nests for future personal gain upon their return to private life. Those who voted for this legislation deserve a special place in the annals of history as enablers of a corrupt government driven by personal gain at the future expense of all American's!
4
Those smiles won't last long. Though this monstrosity of a tax bill will continue the dumbing down of America by adding to the cost of a college degree, the ignorant masses who continue to vote against their own interests will eventually realize they've been conned. The GOP may be trying hard to kill off the sick and the poor, but it won't get all of them, and when the survivors eventually turn on the "donor class" it won't be pretty.
4
Most Americans find these polices repugnant, yet only 50 to 58% of voters turned out in the last few election cycles. If you sit home and fail to participate you get the government you deserve. We need a far higher turnout in 2018 in order to take back the house or the gloom and doom comments writ here will be our epitaph.
6
The Trump voters must be elated. Now they get the same opportunity as their kinfolk in Kansas had. And, all they have to do is wait for their trickle from the wealthy.
3
Let's keep it simple. The GOP is now about nothing but itself. Has been for a long time. Its called nihilism. There are no moral equivalences here. If unchecked, the GOP WILL destroy the United States.
3
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine that the Democrats have introduced the identical tax bill for consideration by the senate. Now imagine the overwhelming praise showered on them by the Republicans!
2
When news organizations are labeled fake news, the reason is often the framing of alleged facts. 13 million people do not “stand” to lose their health insurance. The bill does coerce them to drop their insurance. It merely eliminates the mandate, the tax, that forces them to purchase health insurance.
If a person chooses to keep his insurance, nothing in this bill prevents him from doing so.
I ashamed to say that Flake and McCain are my Senators. They do not represent me. McCain voted for this bill because, after he dies, his very wealthy family will not have to pay an estate tax and other taxes. Flake voted for this bill because he wants to ensure that a very lucrative lobbying job will be there for him when he leaves the Senate. I am sad, disgusted and disheartened today. Tomorrow, we have to start fighting.
7
I wonder if Trump voters will finally turn on him when they're standing in line for cheese and bread. Probably not. I weep for our country and our children.
3
No, because like their hero, they will still have their hatred of blacks, Mexicans, Muslims and women to cheer them up
Susan Collins, John McCain and Jeff Flake should be ashamed of themselves for voting for this tax break for the wealthiest Americans, one that has provisions in there that specifically enrich Donald Trump and their wealthy donors.
I'm am shocked that Susan Collins from a state that will be hurt immensely by the homeowners deduction would stoop to this canard of a fraudulent bill. It seems out of all the Republican's the only responsible Senator is Bob Corker.
All anyone needs to know about the integrity of this plan, is that it wasn't even written properly or even in a final draft, no one really read it, it had half written pages, there were no economist or experts input, it is a disgrace that anyone would vote to add over a trillion dollars more to the deficit based on this last minute, incomplete cobbled together draft.
Steve Mnuchin that greedy, incompetent excuse for a Treasury Secretary, who is completely in over his head, never did the due diligence that he promised, this bill is an insult to all hard working middle class, elderly, and poor working American's.
Any Senator who had the indecency to vote for this money grab by the wealthy entitled class in this country should be ashamed and held to account come 2018 and 2020 by the voters, a really Dark Day in America.
8
The founders gave us a precious republic, if we can keep it. Now we're doomed, in real time. As a 1970's intellectual once said--- every word is a lie, including 'and' & 'the.' Last night's events felt like a coup d'état.
The charade seen on C-SPAN, as Republican senators even voted down protections for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid-----> programs that play a critical part in our lives.
And so they passed a tax bill that brings a trillion dollar deficit that will not pay for itself. And by GOP rule, any legislation increasing that deficit is paid for with spending cuts or other offsets. The rule can only be waived by the GOP.
It won't be paid for by increases in revenue-- this bill starves the treasury. Federal taxes accounted for 93% of all federal revenues in fiscal year 2013.
This bill just slashed future revenues.
Reminder: After the massive Bush tax cuts + its daily war machine, as the administration winded down it's 8 year term, federal revenues declined. The debt increased 60%. And a great recession began in 2007.
That is the path Republicans have again chosen.
2
Thus began the new dark ages: not with conquest by barbarians from foreign lands, not with nuclear bombs hurled 'round the globe by madmen; not with the scourge of an unstoppable plague of obscure origin; but with the amorality of the assembly of leaders of the world's first and - because other peoples will be caught in the undertow - last democracy. Perhaps, in some future time, a more worthy civilization will emerge from the darkness and another Homer will be born who will sing of the fall of the city on the hill and of the day when, betrayed from within, its light ceased to shine.
3
This is a very sad day for Americans. It shows the moral bankruptcy of the national leadership and their incompetence and cruelty. Even day seems to bring new evidence that the Republican Party and the Trump have no interest , and no knowledge , of what is best for Americans. Imagine the Secretary of the Treasury advocating for this tax gut by pretending he had a report on his benefits. in most he such a lie would lead to immediate firing, but in the era of Trump. This administration and their Republican supporters will increase economic insecurity and increase the likelihood of some form of revolution. The people can be fooled for a while but not forever. The people will sonner, not later, throw these bums out.
3
Our only hope for the future: Vote Democratic.
For any election, in any state, for any level of government, vote. This is the only way to blunt the coming catastrophe that this bill has to America. We need sane folks in government, not these awful people called Republicans.
2
"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed."
And Lo, it was later decreed that the poor. the sick, the elderly, and the downtrodden widows and orphans should be taxed far more than the rich and the mighty, for Caesar's wars without end, until the very Empire would fail. And armies from the East descended upon them, and darkness and despair ruled the Earth.
2
The day after the party analogy applies here. The punch bowl has just grown exponentially, the party goers will gorge as never before , get drunker than ever before, but the day after inevitably comes, a massive hangover and sobering thoughts of " what have I done " . The last chapter inevitably comes: who will be left to clean the mess. Except this time the cleaning bill may be more than you can afford...
Another day in December that will be remembered for it's Infamy.
You can only blame ourselves for not pressuring our representatives and not protesting and bringing important lawsuits and commanding the media presence for what is being dismantled. We are at fault for shopping at amazon, walmart, wholefoods, super markets and fast food. Endlessly busy with money and not family and morality. We care more about the next Netflix show and the stock market than social progression. We are pretend liberals that now are facing the reality of our lack of participation in our own lives and the protecting what we earned the decades of hard work and suffering.
Too bad it was just a dream, the democracy we once had.
Good Luck to us all in reaping what we sowed.
Gerrymandering and the Electoral College continue to gut and carve up what was, The American Dream
I pay almost entirely with cash. I no longer support professional sports in any way. I have zero debt. I own some physical silver and gold. I hoard my nickles. These are some of my protests...
It's beyond comprehension that an advanced nation has agreed to corporate tax cuts - with the goal of growing job numbers - without tying those cuts to a graduated formula which requires individual companies to track new employment and salary levels in order to qualify.
In other words, this tax cut is a gift to wealthy donors from congress people and senators.
Don't be surprised when the two bills are reconciled that Donald Trump's estate is going to save billions after he dies because of the estate tax. That's billions that won't be available for redneck voters that enthusiastically support him today.
1
What was done can be undone. At midterm, we can continue to roll back this madness, just as we have done recently and the Old Dominion. We can stop this plutocracy, but if we are complacent they will win and we will all live under something like Jack London’s Iron Heel.
1
The United States is being effectively sold to multinational corporations. Good to know. Thanks, GOP politicians. Future generations will curse your memory.
3
So here is the proof that everyone is Washington is corrupt. Including the Democrats whose feeble resistance to this bill is telling. It's all a dog and pony show, folks, and the one percenters are blinded by a foolish greed that makes them think a bigger slice of a smaller pie is better than a smaller slice of a bigger pie. And what gave them the guts to do it? The last election of course. They've gerrymandered and rigged and voter suppressed themselves into power, and they'll keep doing so, with help from anyone who wants to pay up, Russians, maybe North Koreans next time.
For regular people, you can only make a difference on your local level. See what needs to be done and do it. Governments that get this top heavy always fall.
1. In 2018, get a copy of your company's annual financial report. Most companies have an online connection at the bottom of their home page. If not, get the number for customer relations and request a copy. Study it, learn the facts about your employer. See where the money is being spent. Know how much is in cash, know how much is being spent on taxes.
2. Most companies give their employees access to a forum for senior management. Sometimes it's in the form of emails, suggestion box, quarterly conference calls, "all hands on" calls. There's normally some mechanism to ask questions and hear about the state of the company. Put these people on notice that you expect a raise next year. from "footing the tax bill".
3. During your annual review or any opportunity you may have to talk to your boss or the personnel department or other senior managers - let every single one of them know that because of this significant tax cut, that you expect a significant raise once it's in place.
4. Keep monitoring those financials. Look at the quarterly reports, get your hands on 2019 annual report, find out where all the money is going into your company.
5. Ask management what kind of benefits you can expect to trickle down from this tax package.
6. Remember, you are the one that is financing this tax package. Don't forget it! Don't let all that money go back to the shareholders or buying back stock. Demand more money, demand better benefits!
2
Who elects our lawmakers? We the people or the rich and wealthiest who benefit from their decisions, disproportionately?
2
Sadly, it's no longer a matter of who elects them. It's who buys them that counts.
Senator McCain - shame! What a terrible end to what had been a legacy of courage and standing up for the people of this country. I am more disappointed in your vote than any of the other people who supported this stealth gutting of the middle class.
The Republicans are gambling that this payoff of their rich owners will keep them in power after the 2018 elections.
It is that simple.
And, the solution is simple: Vote!
The margin was 51-49: Change the margin!
3
Maybe it's time for a middle class tax revolt. If tens of millions of people refuse to file their taxes maybe then our congress will get the message.
1
It has always troubled me how these leaders never ever speak of the poor. It is always about the wealthy and some ill conceived help to the middle class. It is as if the impoverished do not exist. And we still have not seen his tax returns.
Why should I be surprised? We have not had a democracy for a long time.
It is Putin who won yesterday. Oligarchy rules.
The wealthy control the Senate.
Their message to the middle class and the poor: "Let them eat cake."
1
There is one way to undo the damage being done to this country by the Republican Party which is beholden to the Koch’s, the Mercer’s, and their ilk, VOTE them out of office. Marches and speeches are grand,but waiting in line to vote is heroic.
2
Out national debt has grown from USD 5.7 trillion in 2001 to just over USD 20 trillion today. We've had both parties in the White House and in control of both houses of Congress since then. This fact makes it hard to argue that either party is interested in debt reduction to any serious degree, except for minor trimmings here and there. Fact is, Americans will not support budgets cuts since doing so invariably hurts programs they prefer. All of this is supported by our microscopic interest rates. With USD 20 trillion in debt, an increase of 0.5% will add an extra USD 1 trillion to financing or rolling over that amount.
Yeah!!!
Now our super-rich will be free to be super-rich again, and perhaps, if the rest of us peons are lucky, we will someday be able to scrub their toilets!
Thank you, GOP!
Please take away our medicare and social security next, so we can have freedom and choice again.
And thanks to the Trump voters. I wish I had the insight to see this wonderful gift coming.
Republicans insist that the tax bill will infuse corporations with capital and increase productivity and thereby wages. Let them carry through on their promise immediately by raising the minimum wage.
1
In Canada, we lived through the same Conservative gameplan for a decade, with Stephen Harper. His government passed tax cut legislation with the hidden pupose of creating huge deficits. When these materialized , they were the perfect excuse to promote huge government expense cuts. When these were enacted and the government accounts weere balanced again, the cycle was repeated again , with more tax cuts ... In the end, Americans, like Canadians, get the government they deserve !
How to create a permanent American aristocracy?
- Tax passive income (capital gains, dividends, pass-through profits, and carried interest) at the lowest rates. - CHECK
- Eliminate the estate tax (or at least raise the threshold). - CHECK
- Preserve the step-up basis for inherited assets. - CHECK
Mission accomplished.
13
For the middle class, this is taxation without representation. 500 unread pages of legislation, unread. Now, the Republicans, when voted out, are sure to have gainful employment in any large corporation. And I say any, because in their former jobs they were they were unqualified, out of office, why should it be any different.
7
Whatever happened to this "deficit hawks" such as Paul Ryan? Whatever happened to him?
Oh, that's right, deficits only matter when there's a Democrat in the White House.
10
Obama stated that wealth inequality is, "the defining issue of our time" and then entirely ignored it. Republicans, far from ignoring it, are making it far worse. Can anyone claim the we live in a democracy?
16
Anyone can claim anything in the US because everything is fake. It is no longer possible to make a fool of oneself with one's own speech.
1
The term ‘drunk with power’ comes to mind as the Republicans finish wrapping their Christmas gift to wealthy Americans, large corporations and the fossil fuel industry.
Republican politicians are lying about who purchased the gift, denying that it was paid for with the hard-earned dollars of working Americans already having a tough time making ends meet.
Worse, the gift was purchased on the installment plan, and middle-class children will be forced to pay for the Republican generosity to the rich for years to come.
At a time of the year when Americans traditionally prepare and deliver gift baskets to the needy and cook meals for the less fortunate, Republicans on Capitol Hill have reversed the process. The wicked perversity of the Republicans this Christmas is astounding.
The handful of Republican senators who persuaded us that they put country above greed -- Collins, McCain, Flake and a few others -- were easily bribed by the leaders. Shame on them and shame on us for believing their hypocrisy.
17
Bribed? Or threatened?
The Revolutionary war was fought because the majority of the American people felt that their interests were not adequately represented in government and were fearful of a fear of growing tyranny. The lack of representation of the interests of the American people in this government is at least as profound as it was in the eighteenth century and the social and financial assault on the non-wealthy, non-white is beyond disturbing. The continuation of the current regime and the passing of this egregious legislation is a tragedy for America.
15
No, the Revolutionary War divided the people of the colonies into thirds, pro, anti, and apathetic.
"Under his (Douglas Holz-Eakins) leadership (2003-05), the CBO undertook a study of the tax rates, which found that any new revenue that tax cuts brought in paled in comparison with their cost." (Wiki) The same guy is featured in an article today in which he spouts the party line. It's all about the power of money to influence politics, and to profit from the influence that money can buy. It's that simple.
2
Plutocrats definitely do influence university economics faculty appointments when they donate to endowments. My own alma mater pays homage to the gentlemen whose names it bears.
"People need to regain power."
Power is an interesting thing. It usually comes wrapped in will.
From my perspective, Republicans did what they've been conditioned to do: run roughshod over the rules whilst bowing feebly to their true masters. For their part during the debate, whether there were any Democrats heard above the din that cut through the media's obsession with GOP hysterics and cheating is open to question.
So back to power and people: In France, any similar government action would have lead to its CITIZENS literally shutting down the country. Post-haste. BEFORE any similar shredding of the social contract could get up on its hind legs; likely just as soon as the French had got a whiff of legislative stench. That's power.
It seems to me that Americans are suffering through political exhaustion, beaten down by the unrelenting twin curses of Trump and the GOP. Which brings us to will's role in the power equation.
(It gets worse. With Trump and the GOP, it just does; in the case of the latter, has been for decades.)
Millions stayed home on election day. The organization needed to mount effective civil protest went MIA, last seen during the women's march. Sex scandals crowded the headlines in the midst of an existential struggle over wealth redistribution.
As manifestations of power and the will to assert it go, even here in Quebec, we know precisely what we would have done. Our largely French leaning is a saving grace, often where and when it counts most.
18
Le Canadien,
1984 is currently on a the best seller list in a number of places because of a number of places. It was written in 1948 the year I was born. I hated the movies because 1984 did not look like 1984 it always looked dark and dismal and like Europe after the war. America looks like a beautiful prosperous country it only feels dark and dismal because perception is real in its consequences. (from Voltaire)
The Medium is the Message. America is a Zombie Apocalypse. This is what 1984 looks like. The Montreal poet Irving Layton asked the question we should all be asking ourselves.
"What power ignorance,
that makes your possessors seem so strong."
Irving Layton loved the USA and and was contemptuous of Canada and I felt much the same way. Today I read John Ralston Saul and Adrienne Clarkson and fly the Maple Leaf. Today much like Layton the United States of America is yesterday when I was young.
2
Has the nation hit bottom yet? The seeds of this despicable tax bill were sown with the Citizens United ruling by the Supremes.
This "tax" bill is nothing but a payback to the rich donor class that fuels Republican political campaigns. For shame.
10
Far from making America great this will speed out decline into second class status among nations of the world. We can only hope that reconciliation will prove too difficult.
Republicans have proven once again that they are only interested in benefiting the richest among us. Everything they have tried to do has been mostly beneficial to the rich with a few bones thrown to the rest of us for a few talking points on how they feel our pain. GIVE ME A BREAK!
6
Join the revolution of 2018 and vote every party over country person who is up for re-election out of office. They deserve to find out that decisions have consequences. I attempted to call my two Republican Senators yesterday( four times each) but kept being diverted to voicemail which , in both cases, were full and not taking messages. Don’t these Senators have enough staff that they cannot empty voicemails so that constituents can communicate with them? This has happened to me the majority of calls that I have made in the past six months. Is this the method they employ so that they are not “bothered” by constituents ‘ calls?
15
No Republican administration in my lifetime has failed to blow up the deficit and crash the economy. Remember the first Bush, post-Reagan mantra: "It's the economy, stupid"? All indications are that it will happen again. Republicans are flaming hypocrites when it come to deficit spending.
9
budgets have always been the true measure of values. this budget places tax cuts over the economic viability of the United States. this budget places corporate tax cuts over Medicare and social security. the Republican party is a fraud and the Republicans in Washington DC are con artists. bush blew up the deficit going to war on the American credit card. Trump simply refused to ask the Americans who make more to pay the same they did last year. I never want to hear another Republican ever mention balancing anything other than a spoon on their nose as they perform their lastest trick.
9
Party over country. Stealing from the poor and the middle class to give to the rich and corporations. Covering this heist with the widely discredited theory of trickle down economics and then using the inevitable consequences as a justification to cut the social safety net. The republican party is the party of the rich, period. What can we do? Take as stand expose the lies and keep it up. Ordinary citizens need to believe that they deserve better than this, and DEMAND responsible government. Organize and get the word out and most importantly VOTE.
11
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. As the deficits grow, they’re coming after Social Security and Medicare, while they continue giving to the rich. Anger and revolution, that is what will happen. I think we (voters) just gave away our government. Hope we’re all happy with dictatorship of the rich.
10
Republicans are turning our democracy into a corrupt, cynical version of Blind Man's Bluff. They voted on a document that they had not even read. If that's not an irresponsible betrayal of the American people, I don't know what is. They have violated our trust, and made a mockery of their oaths of office and the Constitution that they have sworn to uphold. No sane person in the middle or working classes can ever vote Republican again.
9
The Republicans' dismantling of our government and Americans' animosity for one another are existential threats to the Republic. Most countries are founded on ideals, principles, and the rule of law. But all countries are forged in war. American will go back to the smithy. Those of us who reject the Republicans' destructive policies and want a country that does good must revisit how countries are born.
America was founded on a war against a church-state kleptocratic monarchy. It has now become a feudalistic oligarchy that would become a kleptocratic monarchy if Donald Trump had his way. He's getting his way. The oligarchs must be overthrown.
9
Paul Ryan's "No Billionaire Left Behind" tax plan/plot redistributes American wealth to those who need it least, while keeping the details secret from the American taxpayer and Democrats.
This economic Fantasyland tax bill should be the end of the Republican Party. Let's at least hope this is the last time we see "Supply Side Economics, if we survive the coming Great Depression of 2019 and global conflict, that is.
Meanwhile Republican legislators and their voters continue to give their political party and economic agenda higher priority than the welfare of America and its citizens.
Why is there no hue and cry among citizenss at the highway robbery being committed? This tax bill is a total sham/scam perpetrated upon unsuspecting taxpayers, not unlike that of the Bush 43 Administration, in collusion with Tom DeLay and Dick Armey. We all know how well "supply side" economics worked then.
8
Poverty, infrastructure, healthcare, climate change, safe drinking water, clean air, racial and religious tolerance, end to sexual harassment/abuse, education: these are the things we should be working on in a time of low unemployment and record Wall Street gains. I am ashamed of the US, for voters who support these criminal acts. Yes, it’s a criminal act to give out tax breaks to the wealthiest. The top 1% already have most of the money. How much more do they need? And they didn’t make it on their own, but on the backs of all of us. Shame on the US. Shame on us.
11
The International Oligarch Party (formerly GOP) took its last best chance to goose the economy and keep the donor money flowing for one more election cycle. Our gerrymandered political system will guarantee divided government long enough to make the tax cuts a generational change. With no more stimulus available, and a built in deficit ,the next big economic downturn will be unmitigated by governmental action. It will be the second great depression, coming soon, because this time is no different than any other time, and the business cycle has not been repealed.
8
The process or lack thereof followed in ramming this Bill through is appalling. Can it really be said that this is (or is soon to be) properly enacted legislation ? Can’t it be challenged in court? It may be that there are no specific laws requiring proper notice and opportunity for debate etc because no one ever dreamed that we would ever see such a group of evil lying cheaters as the present Congressional Republicans. But there are (or were ) well entrenched conventions and principles of fairness and it is at least arguable that their breach undermines the legitimacy of any legislative action taken in disregard and contempt of those conventions and principles.
The Dems were far too passive and complacent in not challenging McConnell’s theft of the SC seat. They probably thought Clinton would win so it didn’t matter. But now it matters a great deal. If the Republicans can get away it this time there will be no end to it. Take it to court. There is nothing to lose.
PS Thanks McCain. I guess Trump was right. You are no hero.
6
We could stop this Tax Bill if the American people wanted to. General Strike bringing the economy to a halt until the bill is off the table.
Ten million people marching on Washington demanding it be stopped would work also. It just depends on if you are all talk or you want your children to have a future.
14
I'm with you. Let's go.
I no longer believe in our system of government. I no longer believe we are a country of the people, by the people and for the people. I'm afraid for my future and the future of all my fellow citizens who are middle class. I believe the only thing that would save this country now is a revolution. And I don't mean signing petitions. I mean a real revolution.
7
I'm not sure why the Republican Senators in the photo with your editorial are smiling? Is it that they are celebrating the end of America as we know it? Are they happy that millions of Americans will lose their healthcare? Are they joyous in anticipation that now they can privatize--read destroy--Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare? Are they looking forward to home foreclosures, garisheed wages, homelessness, children going to bed hungry? Or are they just smiling because they finally won one for their beloved President? Or perhaps they just don't care about anyone but themselves...
6
Why is anyone surprised? This is the direct result of Citizens United. Republicans are simply serving the wealthy individuals (corporations are people too, my friend) who own them.
8
If this bill, or anything like it, becomes law the super rich will be able to pass all of their wealth on to their heirs. Meanwhile the middle class will not even be able to support a surviving spouse if the other spouse has to go into a nursing home. Why? Because cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are inevitable if this bill becomes law and that will result in impossible financial burdens for the middle class and the poor for health care and elder care. Oh and then there are the healthcare jobs that will be affected. The republicans are kicking grandma under the bus but doing it in a way that they hope will not be traceable to them. Paul Ryan can't wait to get his hands on Social Security and Medicare and this "tax reform" bill will help him to get there. IS THIS THE KIND OF COUNTRY WE WANT TO LIVE IN?
6
Let's not forget that the American economy depends on consumer spending. Giving more money to the rich will not increase consumer spending. Taking money from the middle class and the poor will lower consumer spending (since they will have less money to spend), which will actually cause a decrease in economic growth.
It is clear that the GOP doesn't care one whit about the country. All they care about is their donors, who will give them money so they can be re-elected.
I am thoroughly disgusted!
6