Congratulations, Dr. Krugman -
You managed to state the obvious while actually saying something useful for a change.
However, what you conveniently neglected to mention is that politicians from BOTH parties are playing the same game. Look at Corey Booker's completely inability to do anything to reign in big pharma's extortionary pricing. Look at Hillary Clinton's 6-figure speeches to Wall Street.
The public is being gamed by BOTH parties and no longer has a voice no matter which way they vote.
1
If nearly all the middle class gets a tax cut, why are the Democrats against it? The answer lies in the reduction of their power over the middle class. They fear that the middle class will abandon them, which is going to happen. They should be cheering this tax bill and get with the tax relief program. Now you know!
1
Amazing. I am stunned. However, my son - a latter Millennial/Gen Z is glad because this guarantees these people will be OUT OUT OUT, leaving the way clear for the Democrats and Independents to undo the damage and make things better...such as go after the president and his grotesquely unqualified and simply grotesque cabinet members. It's like changing a bandage - we are at this moment at the ripping off stage (in more ways than one).
Societies sensitivity to income inequality varies from country to country.
The GINI index attempts to measure this around earned income.
If the republicans are all about asset based income
is the US storing a massive instability in social self control by extending inequality far beyond where the CIA (45) civil disturbance model would place it when bringing in such blatant aggrandisement of the already rich?
Will the next phase of political activity be against a context of large scale civil unrest? Would the republicans benefit from this as a diversion from inequity in their proposals?
Republicans like to brand things as a way of dismissing like the Death Tax. How about calling this the DIE TAX (that is, the Don Jr, Ivanka, Eric tax)?
Selling tax cuts is usually the easiest, most popular thing a politician can do. It's like offering candy to children.
But it looks like voters may be finally wising-up to the Republicans' tax-cut scam.
1
Of the two major political Parties, the Republicans are in the minority. Ergo, they must lie, cheat, and steal to remain in power. For example: they don’t believe in democracy, they believe in gerrymandering.
3
Their party used to know that it won elections despite its economic program, not because of it – that the whole game was to win by playing on social issues, national security, and above all on racial antagonism, then use the win to push fundamentally unpopular economic policies.
- Paul Krugman
-----------
That would not work if the Democratic Party had more sympathy with the social concerns of lower income whites. They have legitimate concerns about crime, especially black crime. By competing for their jobs immigrants depress their wages. Most of them want a Christian presence in the public sphere.
Tax cut are not a repair to the system- unless the structural reason currently used to avoid taxes, offshore tax havens, shell companies , special carve outs, are changed it will still be the same tax system
1
It would be interesting to see the net worth of all representatives & senators to show which of them benefit from the tax debacle. And why not make corporations earn the right to have taxes reduced by actually doing more business in the US, creating more jobs, etc.? All the extra money will go to their already rich investors - as those corporations have stated. What a sorry & selfish bunch of elected officials.
3
After reviewing the cycles one can only come to the conclusion that the one party builds, only to have its accomplishments torn down by the succeeding administration. We have witnessed this over and over. The Clinton administration ended with a balanced budget and a surplus. The G.W. Bush administration promptly spent it all plus plus plus. The Obama Administration brought the economy out of disaster, now the Trump administration is gobbling and destroying at top speed.
I keep wondering when or if the voters will finally come to the realization that it is their pockets that are being picked today.
4
Senators McCain and Corker may not show up for votation because of health issues. I wish them prompt and total recovery. Their absence could take away this Trump win. I do not count Marco Rubio out because although he is "barking", he will show up and vote for the bill no matter what. He does not have my vote.
2
Even Marco Rubio's threat not to vote for the tax scam unless there is a greater child tax benefit for children (which Peggy Noonan just approved on MSNBC with the comment "we need workers; we should have more children") is useless in that:
1) many do not earn enough, even with both parents working two or three jobs, for tax relief to make a significant difference in their lives;
2) one child in four in America goes to bed hungry; the GOP has refused to support the nutritious school lunches Michelle Obama managed to initiate, which means many of these children get only junk food (American Grocer's Assosciation inventions for the poor and poorly educated among us);
3) as long as the GOP pays only passing attention to climate change and the stresses it causes to the food supply, the child tax credit is backwards thinking as we need to follow Japan and lead the world in downsizing.
If Marco Rubio, whose state may be partially under water sooner than he imagines, thinks good leadership is to have more people on less land, perhaps he should be asking agricultural colleges and hydrologists about their ability to produce adequate food and clean water for them.
While we speak of the White House occupant not getting briefings about Russia and Putin, we need to think about the reality denial of both the GOP and all of us who are not thinking about the real and really obvious future of the planet.
3
Republicans know that they are doing things that are wildly unpopular. Many in the GOP think that, with enough money from donors, they can pull off another heist of the election like the one the Trump performed. Their long-term strategy is to eliminate voting rights for those who are likely to vote against them. They have no loyalty to democracy. Indeed they view voting a just a way for the "takers" (Romney's 47%) to tax the makers (their odd moniker for those who inherit great wealth). Thus they hope to succeed by putting shackles on the democratic process.
5
C'mon Paul, you're overthinking it. Though I think Option#3 is probably the most relevant for today's GOPer. But even if you factor out the political background noise, this is Bannon's GOP, previously known as the Tea Party. They've never met a donor that they didn't feel deserved all the care and feeding their control of public money would allow. The irony is, Bannon doesn't care either way. As he's stated many times: His mission is to 'destroy' the establishment GOP. What he want's to replace it with, is where things get interesting. Suffice to say, as a self-described Leninist, Bannon would be happy to use plutocrat money to gain enough populist power to eventually cut down the plutocrats! But for now, today's Republicans feel those who make the most money deserve to be heard over those who don't. It's as simple (and Darwinian) as that. After all, these are the same people who believe in the 'animal spirits' of the so-called free market to somehow make up for all the creative destruction caused by capitalism, by magically becoming altruistic in rewarding hard work beyond the minimum rate that the market supports. It doesn't make any sense, I know. But then, for Republicans, it's not supposed to. It's just supposed to make you feel good. If not about the policy, then about being on the 'right' team, which knows how to throw it's weight around, no matter the optics...or the ethics.
2
Because they're mean-spirited by nature, and they just don't care. That's why. They've got the power, so by God, they're going to use it (for the wrong things). Let that be a lesson to the Democrats: Next time you've got the numbers, use your voting power and give a good President like Obama - a man with vision who wants the right things - what he wants. Let time provide the proof after that.
2
And vote the same party into Congress or they can do nothing
1
This Tax Abomination is just the second coming of 1828's Tariff of Abominations, but in reverse: taxing Federalists to advantage Jeffersonians.
President Obama did win a lot of victories in his first two years but, crucially, he did not reign in Bank of America and other mega corporations deemed 'too big to fail', when they were on their knees after destroying the international money markets. The Democrats in a position of power then could have broken up those monoliths but did not.
The result? Citizens United, providing the corporations with supreme power over the electoral process. This tax bill, if it passes, will continue and perhaps finalize the process of corporate control over virtually every aspect of American life. It will be a stake in the heart of freedom for most Americans.
18
If there is another recession like late 2007-2008, I hope they let the big banks all fail and print us some more paper $. Afterall, how do we know there is still any gold bullion in Fort Knox since whoever it was in tRump's cabinet got to go 'see' it in person? Paper $ may be all this so-called republic really has left.
There is a 4th reason, they need to do something before they can take credit for the expanding economy. So what if there actions make no difference, they will claim otherwise and the media will help them get this message out. Furthermore, at least in the short term it will put some more money into the economy which will in the short term make the economy expand a little faster. By doing something that in the short term marginally helps the economy in the short term Republicans will have something to run in 2018 and that is perhaps the best political move for them at the moment.
1
The Republicans are rushing to hide what's in the bill from public scrutiny. The Republicans are rush'n to get it done before Collins or McCain change their minds (again). The Republicans are Russian to have the bill signed before everyone learns what a tax cheat Donald Trump is, and how he colluded every which way he could to cover up how much he is in hock to a hostile foreign power in his accumulation of wealth or in his campaign for President. Just the pass through provisions alone will greatly reward him for any past criminal activity. Aiders and Abettors all.
16
These politicians play for the next quarter.
Objective:profit now.
They see themselves as employees of the corporations they serve.
2
Republicans cannot lose by serving the interests of the 1%. Their campaigns are financed by these plutocrats for as long as they want the job. If they lose a re election campaign in spite of these wealthy backers they have kushy jobs waiting for them in the private sector. Given their personal ambitions there is no downside for a Republican in the US Congress to voting the David Koch tells you to vote.
4
Dear tomster:
Unless of course more than the usual 50% of voters show up at the polls irregardless of how much money is put into a candidate's coffers.
This money pit I blame partially on the electorate. We are an apathetic lot. We take more time perusing the minute details, stats and odds of an upcoming Sunday football match than we do on our political candidates, despite our Representatives in Congress having a lot more influence on our lives than the outcome of a football game (unless you have a large bet on the game).
In Wisconsin, Russ Feingold, attempted to re-enter the Senate in the last election. Feingold has been the very epitome of honest grass roots politics. He took no money for any big donors. His budget was run on a shoestring. The people loved him and re-elected him. But in the next election, the Koch Brothers targeted the low budget Feingold, and sure enough, despite being an incumbent, he lost. Who's to blame? The very voters who demand a politician not in the pocket of big corporations.
Feingold attempted to get back into politics during the last election cycle. A know candidate, with name recognition, and a sterling reputation. Again, his opponent was backed by the Koch's. Well, guess who won? I guess you already know the answer to my obvious baited question: it wasn't Russ.
So tell me, what am I to think when I hear all this whooping and hollering from voters? Not much. A lot of fury signifying nothing. And unless they change, neither will we.
DD
9
The six year term allows senators to ignore their constituents for the first 3 or 4 years and to play party politics because they count on people forgetting those years and concentrating on what they did in their last 2 years. This makes many senators comfortable with voting for a tax bill that benefits their donors rather than their constituents.
3
Unemployment is under 5%...that means 95% of the labor force is employed. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment for the United States was revised up to 98.5 in November of 2017 from a preliminary of 97.8. Still, it was lower than 100.7 in October which was the strongest since January 2004. Expected economic conditions deteriorated compared to the previous month although less than initially estimated. Employers are having trouble finding qualified workers. That should be driving wages up and increasing discretionary spending. Income gains have been slowly improving during the past year, and the data indicate that trend will continued. The tax cuts for the middle class will get spent, but the cuts for Big Profitable Corporations will get hoarded by the wealthy.
3
Smart R's in NY/CA will make sure the GOP has enough votes, then vote against the tax bill to show their voters they stood up for them (while giving a wink to their donors). Then there are the arrogant ones -- they'll proudly vote their party line and continue to lie about the consequences or blame Hillary or Obama or Mr. Krugman and the Times to distract..... The arrogant ones, will be the really dumb ones, come 2018.
4
I wish the Dems were in a position to hold up this tax vote, but unfortunately they are not. I have little faith that Republican leadership will wait until Jones is seated. It's one thing when they obstruct, but they believe the Dems have no right to do the same, let alone wait for the rightful holder of the AL seat to be sworn in. Heck, Moore has not yet conceded, even though there is no hope he can gain back over 20K votes.
As bad as this is for citizens affected adversely by the tax bill, it may be helpful for the Democrats in the long run. It's one more example of Republican shenanigans, of which most of the public have had enough. It may well lead to the Dems taking the Senate in 2018, and closing the gap in the House.
4
It's also possible Republicans believe they have a "base" of loyal voters large enough to remain in power without the need for any other voters. That "base" believe what Fox News and Breitbart tells them about the tax cuts ("a Christmas gift to the middle class") and ignore as "fake news" anyone who tells them it explodes the deficit to give handouts to wealthy donors. The "base" would vote Republican no matter what Republicans do to them.
Thus, Republicans need to care only about keeping their donors happy and their "base" brainwashed. With the failure to repeal Obamacare and the next election looming, Republicans urgently need to show donors they can deliver the promised return on investment before the end of the year. They also need to show the "base" they can deliver the "middle-class tax cuts" they've been promising for decades. Passing a tax cut that redistributes large amounts of wealth to donors will satisfy both constituencies, the only ones that matter. Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and perhaps some help from friendly Russians will take care of all the other voters.
On the other hand, even if Republicans are confident they can regard everyone but the donors and the "base" as irrelevant and expendable, they can't entirely ignore the results in Virginia and now Alabama, and the outpouring of opposition that helped to derail the long-promised Obamacare repeal. That may make passing the big tax cut for donors now, while they still can, even more urgent.
6
The GOP has devolved to a party owned entirely by the 'donor class', their leaders have admitted this in unguarded moments. This group of oligarchs, and the oligarch wannabees who identify with them, care about only two things: 1. Increasing their personal 'take', and 2. Being free of any government restrictions on their behavior, while of course living in a stable society that protects them at little or no cost to themselves.
This tax manipulation they are proposing is completely in line with the goals mentioned above, and we, the middle and upper middle class, are the ones who will pay for it through inflation and hugely increased public debt. We would be crazy to let this abomination stand.
12
Massive tax cuts to subsidize wealth, massive bailouts to subsidize the risks of the wealthy, massive subsidies to the industries of the wealthy. We have become a republic for and at the behest of the wealthy among us, a republic in name only, as really only one ravenous and insatiable constituency is represented here, leaving none but crumbs for the rabble.
5
If Scott Brown had actually been seated in time to vote against ACA then Republicans could be accused of hypocrisy. But Brown, wasn't seated in time to have any effect on ACA so the GOP can only be accused of playing by the rules the Democrats established.
Warren Buffett said, "Through the tax code, there has been class warfare waged, and my class has won, "It's been a rout." The forces driving inequality through the class warfare that Warren Buffett points to are cumulative. It is the compounding effect of shift away from taxes on capital income such as dividends, capital gains and inheritances each year as the rich get proverbially richer which is the prime generator of inequality.
If any Republican had been elected, the shift in the tax burden from the rich to the middle class that Warren Buffet describes as having been "a rout", would become an outright massacre.
This will not be great for the Congressional Republicans politically. Their prospects would be much better if no tax bill is passed and they then they could run on the issue of "elect us and we will enact a middle class tax cut". Many Congressional Republicans are probably aware that massively shifting the tax burden from the rich to the middle class is not a political winner. However, they want to pass legislation that does that with the knowledge that as long as Trump is president there is no way that their tax legislation can be repealed, even if Republicans lose control of Congress. Furthermore, as Obamacare and the Bush tax cuts have demonstrated, it is very difficult to change existing laws once they are passed. This is true even if the other party gains control of both Congress and the presidency..."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4119553
3
Sen. McConnell denied , President Obama 's nominee Judge Garland for almost a year on unprecedented procedures , Committee hearings and vote for Supreme Court seat . Here , again he is playing partisan politics by ignoring a precedence set by Sen. Reid as majority leader in the aftermath of 2010 election of Sen. Brown did wait for new Senator ! . Sen. McConnell need to review his decision . President Trump and Bannon both are not happy with McConnell 's job performance . May be they would get him out of Senate leadership , not accepting his scheme . What do you think ?
Once the GOP and their mega wealthy donors and supporters rob the rest of us is there any way to reverse the trend and take back any of that ill gotten wealth? I am guessing that the GOP believes that once they have the cash that is the end of the story so what happens afterwards makes no difference, since they will all be obscenely richer.
6
The reason the GOP is rushing this tax abomination is because the thing that matters most to them is to defund the federal government in order to force spending reductions in various social programs that they resent being taxed to help support. The GOP and those who back them have no interest in financing programs that they do not believe are valid expenditures for the America republic envisioned by our founders. It also doesn't matter to them if our nation drowns in debt because they are able as part of the wealthy class in America to protect their own personal wealth.
13
Yes, this is about a "win" -- and especially a win for corporations and the wealthy. But it's a little more complicated than that. For one, current high stock market valuations are supported by the expectation that corporations -- rather than spending their windfall to build capacity for demand that doesn't exist -- are going to buy back massive amounts of shares, thus making the remaining shares massively more valuable. And for two: the Republicans are already talking about making tax changes effective on Jan. 1. Why? Because they'll urge people to recalculate their withholding based on temporary cuts; people will presumably see a larger paycheck -- even if it's only slightly larger -- starting in early 2018; Republicans will be able to use this as a powerful talking point in the 2018 campaign. They'll be back in office, is the idea, before the truth hits home and people realize they've been scammed.
The political cynicism of this bill knows almost no bounds.
8
Leveling taxes on graduate students will not mean that America's great universities will wither away-- yet. Foreign governments are willing to pay their best students whatever it takes to get degrees from the ivies and the Big Ten universities. (Not an exhaustive list, either.) And many of those students do end up with careers in the US.
But there are plenty of foreign students studying in the US who would prefer to get back to Tokyo, Madrid, Delhi, or wherever. And the momentum will inevitably shift from the US universities to those in the countries that are willing to support their own research institutions. The basic research that has been the starting point for American innovation for so many decades will move to other shores.
And America will be-- what? An ignorant backwater?
Is that what you want, Republicans? Are you sure that's what you want?
6
On the Republicans and tax cuts: there is nothing more dangerous than an idea, when it's the only one you have.
Or: when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
2
Cut taxes, start a war, cut taxes, start a war, rinse and repeat until Bankrupt.
4
An other reason, is the possibility the Democrats, in one voice, may yet blitz the airwaves, and as I had suggested some weeks ago, take out full pages advertisements in major mainstream publications, including The NY Times, describing in detail what this heist is doing to further enrich corporate America, its wealthiest citizens, and showing how it is continuing the decades long beggaring of the poor and the middle-class.
I have no hope this will occur, as we know, and you do too Paul, that the Democrats in Congress, being some of the wealthiest Americans, are keeping so quiet one would think they had all died, because the heist is also benefiting them.
There is hardly a smidgen of concern in either party for the well-being and welfare of the poor and the middle-class, and both know from the history of the last several decades, that the rape and pillage which has kept wages flat since the 70's, and raised taxes continuously since then, can be continued with nearly complete impunity.
They both are so subtle in their gaming; start with the most onerous of plans, and with fanfare give in on certain not so critical points, causing the people to believe that their uninformed objections accomplished something, and of course that something is simply leaving in place the breadcrumbs which were always there, stale and every harder to benefit from.
Our corporate owned government, hard at work stealing from the masses, in broad daylight, to further add to their overflowing coffers.
3
I'm going with, don't care. But the closer we get to November, the more that pathetic attitude will change. Too bad (for you) mostly boys, this time we're paying attention and you will pay!
1
The GOP is rushing this abortion of a bill because its days of unfettered power--and ability to have Traitor Trump sign any piece of used Kleenex the GOP writes in secret and passes without Democratic input, are numbered.
They are in the same position as the Vichy government, which "governed" and passed its nasty agenda through the German occupation of the "unoccupied" zone and up until Liberation in 1944.
When Trump and Pence are removed from office for treason, collusion, and violation of the Hatch Act and Emoluments Act, they stand naked to public obloquy--and having the voters they shafted take their revenge at the polls and otherwise.
6
"Make my day" is a luxury only the politerati can afford. The rest of us trying to pay the bills, support better *public* education, care for grandma and send our kids to college are left holding the bag for the Waltons, Kochs, Trumps and their layabout kids. Can someone send me the address of the Koch Brothers so I can just send them my tax payment? That way, we can disintermediate the IRS, layoff some clerks and save Steve Mnuchin and Marie Antoinette his wife a few nickels. They seem to be desperate for it. God save America.
9
We need a full stop to obnoxious, non-stop, vicious LIES of Republican PROPAGANDA. May the Republican scoundrels choke on their rampant, vomitous, self-serving PROFITEERING. Their mission is to destroy America
every-which-way. Enough already. Kick 'em out, America! ! !
7
To your first point, not sure when Republicans stopped playing to racial antagonism. Didn't President Comrade kick off his campaign with his rationale for building the wall?
5
Dark deeds done literally in the dark of night with great support from the evangelicals! For a Christian, witness how the anti-Christ will really work, and who his supporters really are.
5
Like salmon returning to their birth river, desperate to spawn before they die, Republicans are now near to their sole purpose in life: to create an upward wealth redistribution by eliminating income and estate taxes on on their uber-rich donors (the Kochs, Mercers, etc.). Fox News, conspiring with Russia, Citizens United, a billion lies, stealing a Supreme Court seat, voter suppression, etc., are all just pieces of this grand plan. Nothing else matters. So what if their senators and representatives lose the next election: they will be rewarded with lucrative lobbyist positions. This tax scam is their climax and the ultimate Republican orgasm.
7
"Ultimate"? I doubt it. Here's the math: by the middle of this century, 70% of the American population will be living in the 15 largest states. This means that 70% of the population will be represented by 30 senators, and 30% of the population will be represented by 70 senators.
IOW, you ain't seen nothing yet!
4
Republican donors don't care about next elections - they simply want to create a financial moat that 500 years of Democrats can't drain. Only a guillotine will be persuasive, which may be what it comes to.
Ask only what your country can do for you.
4
I am curious why no one in the Times or it's op ed writers,(unless I missed it), has not called this GOP reduction in taxes and elimination of busness taxes by the name it was given in the '80's when Ronald Reagan pushed the same idiot mixture? Reagan claimed that by lowering business and wealthy people's taxes, that he could encourage-like giving a pack of wolves a few pounds of hamburger-the business "community to invest more of the "meat" we were giving them, in the US economy, naturally causing big hungry wolves with numerous pups-legit and illegitimate- to give the meat to poor, tiny underfed bunnies or geckos and small animals of the forest.OI!
This was then called "Reaganomics" and it failed so severely, that taxes had to be repeatedly raised during the '80's and then, when Bush,(G.H.W), became president the taxes were raised again . Bush had initially, in the run-up to the election of 80, named Reagan's insane tax system "Voodoo economics": Give money to the rich and, like voodoo, the poor and middle class will find their wallets and bank accounts fatter!.
It was a disaster, but GOP voters loved Reagan for his practice of never answering questions of media reporters, and of blowing people off illogically. Apparently this was actually because he was partly deaf and also suffering Alzheimers. No presidential candidate ought ever be allowed to serve or even run, without a big workup by neurologists to discover if they have this awful and frightening condition.
7
Yes Sir....Obama did shellacked in the midterms. Part of it of course The ACA Monstrosity.
Biggest reason of course was his payoffs to the bankers and his Political Masters....nothing better than seeing Americans lose their homes! Obama's 1st Priority! If America was gonna have a Republican Government, might as well just vote for one!
1
I think the repulsives have finally shot themselves in the foot and no matter what they do, there is no longer enough redemption from their ignorant, religious following. I believe the voters are awakening, especially women and things are about to change drastically. Best the Dems get their ducks in a row and start shouting loudly and clearly about how they are going to get out country back on track. No little hands in the white house bashing. This is counter productive. Get the voters out for issues that actually affect them.
5
Why Is the G.O.P. Rushing This Tax Abomination????
Because, awful as he is,
TRUMP IS RIGHT ON ECONOMICS.
Who said so ??
PAUL KRUGMAN, in the NY Times, when the Presidential candiates were slugging it ou.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/opinion/paul-krugman-trump-is-right-o...
Are you sure that you didn't mean to write, "Trump WAS right on economics"? It seems to me that Trump may have been right then, but, oh my goodness, as soon as he was elected, his whole story changed! He began his "new and improved" version of "tax reform" that stood his earlier stance on its head and was exactly what the GOP has been working for all along!
1
Trump put one over on many Americans on his way to becoming flim-flammer in chief. Now is not the time to blame anyone, least of all Mr. Krugman, for taking Trump at his word when he promised to raise taxes on the wealthy in contrast to the rest of the Republican primary field and ther oligarch masters. Nor was Mr. Krugman endorsing Trump’s candidacy. None of us could imagine how the 2016 election would result in what history will surely conclude to be the most dishonest, corrupt, vindictive, and incompetent presidencies ever under Donald Trump. If this country is to survive this abominable man, we must learn to identify phony pretenders to the throne.
3
I feel tyranny. Needs dealt with, accordingly
4
Excellent but please, please don't start with the word "so." That is the most overdone error in written and spoken English today. Thanks.
2
Republicans "rushing to jam the thing through before Doug Jones can be certified" is indeed outrageous and hypocritical, given the the Scott Brown issue. And let's toss in their refusal and stonewalling regarding Merrick Garland.
The Bully party is one colossal treasonous hypocritical outrage.
9
Top Ten Reasons to Push a Tax Abomination
10. Tax cuts pay for themselves, just you wait!
9. It's a tax cut, and we only have spending problems, not revenue problems.
8. The top 1% having 42% of the wealth just isn't enough.
7. We can use it as an excuse to cut spending, and nobody'l notice.
6. We prove we can legislate and are winners like the boss!
5. We can hurt Obamacare at the same time, a double bonus.
4. It wasn't important enough to have hearings, so what's the big deal?
3. What's a $1 trillion deficit increase among rich friends?
2. I need a nicer helicopter to go with my yacht.
1. Fox News will tell them what they want to believe, that we've pushed back the incursion of Communism yet again, preventing the impurification of our precious bodily fluids.
7
It is time for Flake Corker Collins to stop getting played and do the right
thing and kill this heist.
Memo to Sen Collins real Mainers are going to suffer by this
obscenity.
Always do right, it will gratify some an astonish the rest
Mark Twain
4
Mr. Krugman: Isn't your question rhetorical?
1
Political suicide is always fascinating to watch.
3
Are they rushing because next year they will need to go back to 60 votes to bypass a filibuster? Forcing them to negotiate with the Democrats for a bill that makes a lot more fiscal sense? That is more beneficial to the middle class and less of a giveaway to the wealthy donor class and corporations?
7
This is all Paul Ryan's shell game. Next year we'll discover there never was a ball under any of the cups when he and his Republican brethren, along with Trump, who will renege on his campaign promises, cite the looming deficit nightmare they're creating now to provide a convenient rationale for the repeal of Medicare and Social Security. These men are unprincipled, amoral robber barons. Let's hope this works as well for them as standing behind a pedophile in the Alabama Senate race did.
5
Of all the dumb or punitive or sneaky reasons for passing this wildly unpopular, ill conceived, regressive bill, claiming to be following up on a promise to campaign win has to be the most ludicrous. What the GOP promised was tax reform, not huge tax cuts for corporations and tippy top %, and the voters have already demonstrated in polls they know the difference and disapprove of the latter.
As with their so called health "reform" bill, there's no bait, only switch. It appears they haven't bothered to notice it's too late in the game to claim they are fulfilling anything, rather like a parent who finally delivers on a pony when the child is turning 25 and has long ago realized that it's better to have one's own money to pay to ride full size horses.
2
What you describe as the K Street Endgame only works like this because most voters are completely ignorant of what's going on and show zero interest in anything. A functioning democracy needs not only competent and faithful politicians, but also competent voters who are informed enough to reward such politicians. The American electorate does not possess this basic competency anymore, and are getting what they deserve as a result.
4
If only two Republican senators would have the backbone to demand the release of Trump's tax returns in exchange for their 'yes' votes on this bill, the fat lady would sing, and this show would be over.
8
If you have Trump’s tax returns stashed under your bed, or some maybe some extra-creepy outtakes from “The Apprentice,” please send them to the Times or the Washington Post NOW, when the resulting uproar might delay (or even derail) this disastrous tax cut. You don’t need to use your real name. (Try an alias: something original, like “Deep Throat 2.0.”)
You’ll be doing the middle class a great service (like, maybe saving the middle class). And they’ll make movies about you starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, even if they never figure out your name.
3
Because they have no shame?
2
the main goal: starve the beast...
1
Yes, Paul. It certainly is a scam. This administration is a cruel joke for our holiday season. Repeal and Replace the Republicans can't come fast enough.
2
It is a game of chicken between the R donors and the voters. The congressmonsters want to please both, but in the final vote some scapegoat will vote for sanity, honesty,reality, and conscience.
1
A president who won't release his tax returns, refuses to divest his businesses, and settled a $25 million lawsuit for fraud is now asking us to believe his tax plan will help the middle class and not billionaires like him.
But wait. There's more grist for the gullible. Yesterday, Trump announced Democrats secretly like his tax plan "a lot."
So who will believe him? The greedy, the ignorant and the bigoted.
3
I think he said yesterday, "I haven't read the bill."
That person in the White House says he is giving the people a huge Christmas gift with this horrible tax bill, when in fact we are getting coal in our Christmas stockings.
1
TRUMP'S ACTIONS Become dumber and dumber and dumber, in rapid succession. Such inability to learn from mistakes is, in his case, attributable to a history of learning challenges, complicated by symptoms of dementia. Trump never met a bad idea he wouldn't try to sell. Like with the Trump "university." Trump's bold-faced lies about delivering a great tax break for American Families omits mention of the fact that he's only referring to the 1% of the wealthiest families. I think it's interesting to see the GOPpers walking up to and jumping off a cliff. They'll know they've hit bottom after the midterm election returns in 11/2018.
2
I don't think they will. If FOX tells them they're doing great, even with higher taxes, no healthcare, etc- they'll believe it.
"Starve the beast and drown it in the bathtub." The GOP goal since the days of Reagan. What they don't tell you is that the "beast" is American democracy.
3
David C. Barker who actually studies this stuff as his core metier and has the credentials pretty much answers your questions: "The GOP doesn't care if you like its tax plan. Here's why" — http://theconversation.com/the-gop-doesnt-care-if-you-like-its-tax-plan-...
1
This tax horror show is meant to enrich the already rich. Plain and simple. The rest of us do not matter. There is no other explanation. They are making sure that those who hold their leashes will keep feeding them cash.
3
Phil Gramm said it best in 1995: ``I have the most reliable friend you can have in American politics, and that is ready money''
Republicans' blow-up-the-government policies have failed so spectacularly for so long they have very little real support in the real world and know it will be much worse in 2018. So they must work even harder to create daily Fox "News" style fantasies and that costs money; lots of money.
Of course, we know how this worked out for President Gramm.
2
John McCain personally has a small fortune but his wife has a large one. this tax legistration will benefit her and his family with tens of millions of dollars. he is most likely to die soon, to ask him to deny his family this boon for principals is asking a lot!
3
Hmmm?...........Republicans call down-and-out recipients of help, slackers.
If I were on Welfare, I'd wise up and become a Congressman to get lots more money.
2
Because when you are going to rob a bank, you absolutely must get your hands on the money quickly so you can get away before the "Mueller" arrives.
2
The recent commentaries of Grassley and Hatch, not to mention Ryan's Ayn Rand fixation make it clear this whole tax scam isn't about constituents or any political strategy. It's about subjugating people they see as being beneath them.
Grassley said something to the effect that if you haven't made millions, you're a low life who will just spend your extra money on booze, women, and movies. Really. He said that.
Hatch told us clearly that the lives of 9 million children on CHIP aren't as important as tax deductions for private planes for the uber wealthy. And this, even as they made deductions for wealthy children for private schools and savings accounts they can start while in the womb. In other words, to Hatch and the moneyed bigots, the 9 million children on CHIP aren't really children to them. They're refuse. Something to be tossed aside to die along with millions of people who depend on the ACA and Medicare. If you're not rich, the republican oligarchs figure you deserve to die. They don't want to pitch in one penny to the American community. But they do intend to make sure that those 9 million children and their parents and grandparents hand over whatever they have to those private plane owners. This is class warfare in its most vile form.
This Christmas Trump and his band of thieves aren't only planning to drain the treasury into their own pockets. They're also stealing Tiny Tim's crutch, and his grandma's shawl, and the tiny Christmas goose off the Cratchit table.
5
I take issue with the sentence "Today’s Republicans are apparatchiks, who have spent their whole lives inside an intellectual bubble in which cutting taxes on corporations and the rich is always objective #1."
Today's Republicans do not live inside an "intellectual" anything!
If they were to actually use their brains, their policies would be vastly different. They do cogitate, connive, conspire, lie, etc.; they do *not* intellectualize ..
3
I agree that its an act of hypocrisy, and it is outrageous, but its hardly stunning. A Taser wouldn't stun me anymore.
Mostly its about the congressperson who let it slip that if they don't get this done the donors say don't call me anymore.
Simply put, they aren't getting a good return on investment.
2
Ryan's supposedly a savvy politico, yet he can't see the writing on the wall. Trump and all that's attached to this oaf is radioactive, and Republicans who continue to discount the cancer that is Trump, and the slippery slope effects it is having on the GOP are in for a rude awakening. Politicians are a calculating lot. They're always weighing every statement they make and how a comment may alienate half their constituency. And so, they are gamblers, and they ones who get it right, and survive, go one to stay in office another term. Representatives all have a two-year hourglass on their desks. They watch as the sands run out and by the end of their first year they are already priming the pump for their re-election. In the past year, despite Trump doing enormous to his presidency and the party, Republicans who guess wrong, and claim they are doing the "will of the people" with this tax bill are already behind the curve. That was the will of the people a year ago, a lifetime in politics. To ignore the past year leading up to the special election in Alabama is a big mistake. The public is fickle. They're always demanding change. They're impatient. They wanted Obamacare repealed until they didn't. They want tax cuts, but not this tax plan. Ryan is gambling his seat with this tax plan. I hope those whom he represents let him what they think of his plan, good and hard.
DD
Manhattan
3
I know that most of the Republican positions are ridiculous.
But really? Are they saying out one side of their mouths that this tax bill will stimulate the economy, pay for itself with increased economic activity - and then say the opposite - that it's going to cost so much people should be prepared to give up Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security?
To pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and cash rich corporations because their newly found cash will trickle down?
Just how gullible do they think we are?
Hold on GOP. Your days are numbered.
5
I love absolutely love all the comments that whine about this tax bill! We had 8 years of BO the socialist and his identity politics and now the shoe is on the other foot. Negating, no destroying BO's bogus legacy is what Trump and the Repub's called for..and they are doing it.
This is hardball identity politics for wealthy donors, businesses and investors.
1
Aw come on now.
The rich guys deserve something for getting their guy Trump in don't they?
Now the kids will want to grow up to become Congressmen on-the-take.
1
"Explaining Senators like John McCain or Susan Collins, who are working quickly to destroy all the good will they won by taking a stand on health care," is simple. They're perpetual shills, plants, or stooges (take your choice) of Republican long cons. He's no principled maverick; she's no principled moderate. A confidence scam can't possibly work unless you gain trust from your marks. Lots of things can be exploited, including those mentioned here, like racial animus. However, great shills still have an impact even when a con isn't working, as is the case with this blatant Republican attempt to destroy Social Security and Medicare. McCain and Collins make big speeches about high principles and caring about average Americans, they'll even throw in a few token votes, no different than deliberately throwing an early hand at cards, to sweeten the pot. However, when the real votes count, they're all-in on the grift. Few may believe the con-artists or grifters here; Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and, of course, Donald Trump, but even Krugman seems to miss McCain and Collins as plants, as did David Leonhard in his recent Times piece: "Susan Collins’s Big Mistake." Everyone seems to forget that John McCain was the ring leader in The Keating Five corruption scandal way back in 1989, a 1.3 million dollar bribery scam. Of the Five, Four (all Democrats) fell. John McCain, though most culpable, survived and flourished. He was indispensable to the Republicans, and like Collins, still is.
1
Err, because it’s done? And because the President promised it year-end before Moore happened? Because nahnahnah as political strategy just ain’t working? Because constituents want it? It’s good for the economy? Good for growth?
Here’s my answer: all of the above. There. Class dismissed.
1
I believe they see this as a once in a lifetime to do what they have always wanted. They reasonably think their chances in the future to be dim at best
John McCain may not be able to answer the bell. Regardless, McCain is down for the count. For the life of me, I can muster no feelings of remorse. If Coker holds and Collins feels enough pressure this thing may not pass after all. We can only hope.
2
Even the denizens of the donor class, the real power behind the throne of the political parties, must being wondering "What are they THINKING!!??!" over this tax bill. Those truly gifted at the political arts, and make no mistake they are arts, understand that subtlety is a key component in any political act. But those "politicians" engaged in ramming this legislation through are not artists, at best they are poorly trained mechanics. This tax package is about as subtle as a swung sledgehammer in a crystalline palace. I hope they're prepared for the crash.
John~
American Net'Zen
2
We already know why the GOP is rushing this. It's because the donors (i.e. billionaires) have threatened to cut off the money spigot if they don't. They've come out and admitted it. They no longer work for the people who elected them, they work for the people who provided the funding that has allowed them to buy the airtime to tell their lies to those people. I wish I could think that once the people who elected these guys see what they are doing to them, they will come around to sanity. But that the likes of Roy Moore received over 2/3 of white votes this week tells me that they will instead blame the usual suspects -- black people, immigrants, Muslims, uppity women, and not enough theocracy.
1
I think the answer is an even more cynical version of your third factor: Republicans know that they have a rare moment of control of the entire federal government, allowing them to do their patrons' bidding, and they don't care if they get blown out in the next election because they have the promise of cushy wingnut welfare jobs if/when they lose their seats.
2
Point 1: Because Donald Trump is going to get impeached.
Point 2: The Republicans need his signature. After that they'll won't need for him (back to Point 1).
1
I think you may be overlooking a simpler explanation.
For decades now people with a lot of money have been waging war on democracy in America. They’ve worked to elect fringe candidates and delegitimize the very idea of government as a positive factor in the lives of people.
They’ve funded a media ecosystem that pushes their messaging 24/7. They’ve funded think tanks and academics to spread bad ideas everywhere, while systematically attacking liberalism, and the very idea of the public good.
Paranoid, anti- social - even sociopathic... they’re recreating the country in their own image. They are far closer to Putin than any of the founding fathers.
Greed and stupidity explains a lot - but don’t overlook seriously bad actors with money: Adelson, the Kochs, the Mercers, the Murdochs, the Princes, and all the rest who keep to the shadows while they use their money as a weapon.
If a biblical plague had struck down the super rich 30-40 years ago, this country and our politics would look very different today.
2
How many corporate loopholes will be closed? Oh, right!
1
Many Republicans in the Senate and House are millionaires and lowering the inheritance tax, etc., will put money into their own pockets, and into the trust funds of their heirs. They can't delay because they can see that Donald J. Trump is a disaster for President and the honeymoon with all three branches of government ruled by Republicans is coming to a blazing end.
Say what you will about the House Republicans... McCain and Collins would have to do a lot worse than vote for an idiotic tax bill to lose all the goodwill they have earned from their heroic stance on healthcare. I think of them as modern day equivalents of General Meade, after Gettysburg. Politicians and pundits alike were furious when Meade let Lee escape after the battle, but you can't fight every given battle at any given time. Troops need to recover just as constituencies need to be appeased.
Yes, the war would sadly drag on as will our decrepit politics. I would have loved it if Collins and McCain either voted down this monstrosity too, or if they both just switched parties... freeing themselves from the obligation of supporting Republicans' ill-conceived legislative priorities; however, until that happens, they face exhausting headwinds from donors and constituents alike; who, for better or worse, are the ones that brought them to the dance and put them into office. They've done what that can do for now. "Why should we censure a man who has done so much for his country because he did not do a little more?" (Lincoln)
This bill should shred any remaining doubt that Republicans don't care one whit for working class Americans.
1
The geneeral attitude of the Republicans has drifted into contempt for decency and fairness. There certainly is a down ward slope which starts wih Mr Trump. Alabama is clearly terrible for Republicans all over the country. Dirt rubs off on those who associate with a porkine leader. It will be payoff time next election. House and Senate for the Democrats?
1
Ask Kansas people what happen when "TAX CUT CUT CUT" was effected there.
1
As if the GOP needed another strike against it! Need to pause and reset or face loud music in November. Ram and rush this through, I'm afraid will have very negative consequences.
1
The reason for rushing this tax bill through is simple. When next can the Republicans pass a tax bill? And will the Democrats ever pass a subsequent tax bill that increases taxes? The Republicans want to get this done now, because if not now, it will never happen. They are true to their philosophy of no taxes, no big government. This tax bill will lower the bar to the point where, except for that sacred cow - military spending, the federal government will be broke and totally ineffective. This is the Republican's end game.
3
The 'stunning act of hypocrisy' is not really so stunning. What I find stunning is that Democrats pay any attention whatsoever to Republican demands when such demands are always ignored when the shoe is on the other foot. In fact, Republicans seem to take joy from the consternation and distress of Democrats. It's Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, over and over again. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander. If Republicans are going to be the mendacious opposition rather than the loyal opposition, Democrats have to treat them as such.
In any case, once Democrats regain levers of power, I will be asking them to reform the tax code to not only return to the status quo ante, but to exact a price by closing loopholes that exist right now, such as the carried-interest loophole, and raising taxes on the undeserving rich by increasing the estate tax and removing the step-up in cost basis for estates over $1M. In the long run, the corporate oligarchs will have to be taught that these anti-democratic power grabs cost them in the end.
2
Make my day, Paul? I think I'd rather see John McCain or Susan Collins torpedo the Tax Bill. Otherwise, if this awful bill passes and results in Democratic landslides in 2018 and 2020, then we are back to the "Obamacare thing," except it will be called the "Tax scam thing."
Right now we have what I call yo-yo politics. Dems pass the ACA and the GOP promises to eviscerate it. Next, the GOP passes the Tax Bill and the Dems promise to reverse it.
When will we ever get the sane, level headed legislation we need to set our country back on track? McCain and Collins have the opportunity to get the ball rolling again in the right direction.
2
Mr. Krugman. Please write an editorial (soon) calling out Jeff Flake, John McCain and Susan Collins specifically on this tax vote. Maybe there is time to lead them to doing the right thing and vote against the tax bill.
1
You’re making this too complicated, Paul. You’ve actually answere the question in previous columns. The Republicans are simply following the same strategy they have employed successfully in the past: start with gerrymandering to greatly increase your chances of winning; run on a platform that combines appeals to the worst paranoid instincts on social issues (to get the voters) and unexamined libertarian economic ideas (to get the donors); and then govern to satisfy the donors: plutocracy in action!
1
Some voters wanted Trump to run the country like he ran his businesses. That seems to be what we are getting. Take the money and run. Declare bankruptcy and let someone else clean up the mess
1
Easy answer - they know how terrible it is. If people have even a few days to read it and think about how devastating it will be to hundreds of millions of Americans there is zero chance of it passing. And the Dear Leader has commanded them to give him ANYTHING to sign so he can brag about signing it.
They should pass a bill renaming a street, label it "Great Big Tax Cut Bill" and give it to him to sign. Get extra flags for the ceremony and maybe even the Marine Corps band.
He will never read it, Fox will tout it as a tax cut victory, and since he does not follow real news he will never know the difference.
We live in Pennsylvania's 8th district. Both our Republican representative, Brian Fitzpatrick, and one of our senators, Pat Toomey, have been steadfast in pushing the GOP tax scam. This is a high tax area, and both of these congressmen know they are voting against the wishes of their constituents with this bill. They don't care. Their response to my numerous calls, emails and faxes is to send form letters ridiculously claiming that the tax scam will benefit the middle class. Fitzpatrick even runs ads to that effect where the announcer says that we should "Thank Brian Fitzpatrick" for his tax cut efforts for the middle class. Brian and Pat, we know what you are doing, and we do not thank you. We do not thank you for lying to us, for denying us our representation in Congress by ignoring our wishes, for increasing already extreme income inequality, for endangering Social Security and Medicare, and for increasing the national debt.
They got a deal "on principle?" Principle stems from the Latin word for first. We are confused over what to put first since like forever. An example: many people say they never give to a beggar or buy from a door-to-door salesman on principle. That is they put generalizing prejudice first, overlooking that nobody crosses our path without a gift in her hands, and they also put mental imprisonment in the illusory walls by which we assume ourselves separated from each other first, overlooking that we all experience exactly that what we have others experience, while putin humanity last by trumpin it with bigotry. We think this is proof of our dignity, insight and honor, where it exposes our primitivity, blindness and disgrace instead. It is only when we recognize our lost kin in the refugee stranded at our shore that we will have found ourselves back.
This tax heist and greatest wealth grab in the history of mankind is an upward travel ban for the middle class and the poor. Making everything and everyone the loot of the corporate executive floor, the wealthy and the money changers again. Locking anyone who starts on base (not already wealthy) into an Alcatraz of debt and disadvantage in the face of exorbitant costs for life's necessities, dictated by virtually unbothered, taxed nor regulated market power abuse, so we all become an even better target for greed grabs and hostile exploitation. Dehumanized on principle. "First they came for the illegal aliens. And I shouted: "Yes!"
If this is "rammed through" do we have the ability to alter or stop it?
A reaction from Mr. Ryan's dead eyes alone would be worth it.
1
They are rushing the abomination so nobody has a chance to actually read the whole thing and process its consequences prior to voting. Republicans want people to vote on the tax bill on partisanship and emotion, because they know that the actual content will not win votes.
When the reality of Trump's middle class tax takes hold and the current trend of demographics favors democrat candidates the GOP house hacks will look at the exits. It seems unlikely Bannon will take over the GOP after his latest defeat and the realization of most Americans see him as drunk who has wandered onto the stage after a weekend bender and rants about destroying government . Trump has no philosophy of his own just a huge fragile ego someone like Bannon who has read a lot of books when he was sober is able to manipulate Trump with flattery, Bannon's choice before Trump was dingbat from Alaska what's her name McCain's albatross. Trump will likely unravel by next year sending insane tweets daily quietly ushered to safe house by his family in government replaced by Don Jr and Eric co presidents as the constitution is written.
In the currently hyper-partisan political environment, it is more important that "our side" wins in ways that hurt our perceived enemies. Disgruntled Trump voters with massive chips on their shoulders are delighted any time they can stick it to their "coastal elite" nemesis foes. Every insane looking policy change has its roots in heartland animosities. Colleges are seen as indoctrination camps that destroy Christian values so they support a plan that calls for decimating the ranks of graduate students who will fill the professorial positions in coming generations. Blacks, minorities and poor people, to say nothing of the LGBTQ community are seen as cursed by God and thus not deserving of health care or social security or public education. State and local tax deductions have the greatest impact on residents of States that are mostly godless Democratic enclaves so hurting them is a good thing. Republicans will attempt to jam their tax reform bill through before the political antibodies get a chance to generate a sufficient immune response to kill it, hence their ploy to keep it secret and vote it through before too many people learn of its draconian impacts.
Most Americans do not want the Tax bill in it's current form. The GOP doesn't care. So much for representative government.
This brings up the question: than why? (forget the blatant lies - this just diverts attention of the populace and media from the issues.)
The simple fact is that our government and probably most are run by large global organizations/cartels which no longer have any use for The United States. Our "so called greatness" has been rapidly fading since the 1970's. In it's place are the emerging Asian markets, especially China and India. As they grow, so do their middle-classes which will be the new consumers.
Why else would our government work at destroying health care, education, our middle class wealth, small business etc. Simply, they are no longer needed. It is no longer necessary to pour money into these institutions. These businesses are not stupid, they know where the markets will be and have known for decades.
Sound conspiratorial? Well, I've not heard a better answer that makes any sense. Back to why the GOP would vote for a tax bill, though most of the country says no. Because, they are not representing the people they are representing these businesses.
I hope you now understand why, health care is the most expensive in the world, why quality higher education is out of reach for most, why middle class jobs have been stagnant for decades why manufacturing will never return etc.
Oh yes...This is not and has never been about Trump.
10 reasons Republicans are rushing the "tax reform" plan:
1) Trump wants the attention.
2) Trump will make more money
3) Trump will look good.
4) Trump will make the deal.
5) Republicans will look bad if they don't get something done.
6) Promises, promises.
7) Rich donors will increase campaign contributions to Republicans.
8) The middle class and poor aren't as important as the rich.
9) The plan is terrible and the Republicans are ashamed.
10) Repeat 1---4 above ad infinitum.
Why are the Republicans passing an unpopular bill? Because their big donors demand it, absolutely insist on it, and it will be very very difficult to reverse, any time soon. Democrats will not have ability to govern, pass and sign legislation, before 2020 at earliest and probably not even then.
Next question?
4
Republicans know this tax bill is a disaster, even their own economists tell them so, but they also know their party is on its way to oblivion. So it's a parting gift to themselves and their donors. Every Republican administration in the past has increased the deficit while every Democratic administration has lowered it. Tax cuts can be reversed, just like Trump's deregulation frenzy will be reversed as soon as the Republicans lose their congressional majorities. Can't happen soon enough for me.
2
Right, we all understand why the republicans are pushing passage of this tax increase for the many. And yes, later they want to use this to destroy more social programs.
However, Krugman is partly responsible for electing Trump. Since Krugman was so disparaging of those who questioned the wisdom of nominating Hillary Clinton. (She was a weak and highly compromised candidate in 2008, her failings, and flailings, only worsened in the intervening years.)
Frankly the way Krugman has been writing over the last 2 years, I'm not sure he'd have supported Medicare/Medicaid in the 1960s or Social Security and overtime in the 1930s. He is after all someone who advocated for the likes Goldman Sachs and Enron back in the 1990s.
To them that have, more shall be given.
What is the point of the article, Dr. Krugman? We know that when the economy needed a strong fiscal stimulus in 2009, the fiscal hawks screamed "deficits" and "inflation." Now that the unemployment rate is below 5%, the deficit is no problem, and inflation - what's that?
Reagan said deficits don't matter and two Bush Wars were fought with borrowed money. Are you really expecting intellectual honesty from the Republicans on tax and spending issues?
Fiscal stimulus at this point in the cycle will probably lead to overheating and some inflation - and to a run up of interest rates. The oligarchs will love it as they will be able to use their tax savings to purchase higher-yielding US government securities. And the more they acquire, the less chance there will be of a government shut down or default.
Ain't that just GREAT?
1
The republicans are counting on the benefactors of their tax program to fund their reelection campaigns and supply enough money for beneficial publicity campaigns, hoping the American people will once again be fooled into voting against their own best interests. America is becoming one big reality show with Americans being bombarded with republican strategy to trick the American people into believing that it's best to give corporations tax break and have the poor and middleclass people pay for it. We may get THE WALL, but it will be to keep people in, not out.
1
The answer to this outrageous action on the part of Republicans lies in the history of the founding of this country. The founders embraced the theories of John Locke and others, whose ideas regarding the "social contract" between a people and it's government stated: "...when the government fails to secure their natural rights (Locke) or satisfy the best interests of society (called the "general will" in Rousseau), citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey, or change the leadership through elections or other means including, when necessary, violence." I would prefer the former since elections are no longer reliable due to gerrymandering and disenfranchisement, to the latter. Let's hope this is not put to the test.
1
Convincing voters is in the messaging. If Republicans win the messaging competition about this tax plan, then they may come out of it OK on this issue. Democrats need to hammer home all of the ways this all-Republican, no-debate tax plan—and all of its add-ins and side effects—are harmful to regular Americans and the things and services that they value. Democrats need to scale up and win the messaging competition.
This might not be the appropriate forum for this comment, but I am getting a little tired of reading and hearing this tax plan described as a giveaway to the rich. Many of the wealthy folk in high tax states will see their overall tax burden increase because of SALT non-deductibility. The $10K deduction is insignificant. Property values will fall, people will move and the poorer folks in the state will ultimately be hurt. Yes there are provisions in the bill that help the wealthy, but your garden variety wealthy person in high tax Blue states will see increased taxes.
Now back to Krugman. Another reason the Senate is rushing this and not permitting Jones to vote on this is that McCain might not be available to cast a yes vote. They cannot afford to lose another vote. I wish John McCain the best and hope for a recovery, but the cold calculating McConnell knows he can't count on his vote.
1
Krugman has been a reliable source of information for me for over 2 decades. I currently live in Canada. Please have more of him in the print International edition, as the US economic issues he debates are often equally applicable to economic policy abroad. I'm afraid that here our papers haven't a Krugman-like contributor.
People rush things when they know they have a very bad solution and they don't want you to catch them at it. If this legislation was examined in detail, with hearings and bi-partisan discussions, all its many flaws would become evident and then the Republicans wouldn't have a tax bill that offered cuts to all their wealthy donors, that shaved millions off the tax payments of the very rich like Trump. In other words, then they'd be accountable for robbing from the poor and paying the rich.
1
Trump is still riding Obama’s economic recovery (much as George W Bush did when proposed tax cuts for rich in 2001), but the business cycle has now for historic length and is due for correction. The Trump/Republican tax plan eradicates any safety net. And where is the $300 billion coming from to repair after unprecedented climate disasters? The Trump/Republican tax plan will not only strip $1.5 trillion from working and middle class, but the change in state and local taxes, mortgage deduction will trigger a collapse in the housing market, make homes unaffordable for seniors, while higher costs for health care will more than offset any reduction most Americans see. The planned cuts to Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and welfare “reform” will exacerbate the hardship. You will have this amount of money drained from consumer spending, which will trigger the next Great Recession. Meanwhile, Trump is eliminating regulations and oversight (Consumer Financial Protection Board), which will only incentivize the risky and shady business practices that sparked the Bush Recession.
And the federal government will have no resources to help people make a “soft landing” as Obama so skillfully used; interest rates will have no where to go.
Before readers take this Krugman column at face value they might want to consider his comments in the Times on election night, when it became apparent Trump would win:
"If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never…So we are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight. But on economics, as on everything else, a terrible thing has just happened." - Paul Krugman's election night comments when it became apparent Trump would win.
A year later we are looking at record stock prices, low unemployment, and high consumer and business confidence. Perhaps Mr. Krugman should devote a column to explaining where he went wrong. As for that "devastating defeat" in Alabama, perhaps Mr. Krugman should have explained that it was engineered by Republicans more than by Democrats. Alabama's senior senator Richard Shelby basically told Republicans to write in a candidate, thereby sealing Moore's fate. Write-ins exceeded Jones's margin of victory. In Moore's defeat Republicans dodged a bullet.
Democrats were never going to vote for any major legislation that might give Trump a "victory", even if Mother Theresa wrote it. Your call to arms for Democrats to oppose? It was guaranteed already.
Although the bill is over 500 pages, that is short for the number of changes being made. Many terms are NOT defined in the bill, but are left to the IRS to determine. The IRS does not have enough lawyers on staff now to make such determinations. Republicans have underfunded the IRS ever since W.
Since the proposed law is badly drafted, and since the IRS is inadequately staffed to make rulings and determinations with regard to the law, the law will be resolved by corporations going to court. Like the IRS, the federal Tax Court is understaffed.
Republicans in Congress can avoid these problems by taking the time to better draft the law. Instead, they want to vote for the law before Christmas. They want to pass a law NOW and then propose an “errors and omissions” statute to clean it up later.
Of course, on March 23, 2010. the Affordable Care Act was signed into law and in the seven and a half years since, not 1 “errors and omissions” corrective statute has been allowed to be voted out of committee. More than 63 bills to end the ACA have been voted down. Not 1 bill to fix the ACA has come up for a vote.
Will Democrats in Congress support Republicans fixes for this tax bill after 7 years of Republicans blocking any and all fixes to the ACA?
1
Taxing the poor to enrich the wealthy has been the Republican's philosophy of government since the Reagan era. It stems directly from the master-slave relationships found in Pre-Civil War America. Nothing new or surprising that Trump Republicans see value in doubling down on that approach - it means greater profits for them without having to do any work whatsoever. The loss in revenue will be made up by the working class who will have to work a couple of weeks extra to keep up with their current income. Wall Street will love the greater corporate profits coupled with reduction on personal incomes of the wealthy, the rich hit the jackpot twice in Trump's plan.
Something important is missing from this analysis. Although I don't know what exactly it is, it can be demonstrated by an example. Charlie Dent, my Congressman is not going to stand for reelection. He is known as a moderate, and I believe him to be thoughtful, intelligent, and caring. Yet he voted for the house version of the tax bill along with the rest. Why? He cannot believe (I hope) in the well elaborated and failed trickle down idea. Nothing in the column or comments gives me a real clue.
5
The massive transfer of funds from the less than wealthy to the wealthy with only the sliver of a hope that somehow some of the largesse will trickle down is a brilliant strategy for defeat Since the Republicans can't stand the idea of sharing any of the capital being created. They want to whisk it away and hide it from taxation. Now the sea of money the Republicans do not to share goes hand in hand with the fact that of the voters for Trump now see as the brazen racist bore that he is.
18
Paul, I'm a big fan, but you missed the biggest reasons: (1) the Republicans really need to give this gift to the donor class so the donors will feel they're getting something for their money and keep those donations coming; and (2) they have to act fast before the final bill can be scrutinized and opposition mobilized. Your explanation does explain, without naming them, why Senators Collins, Corcoran and Flake will vote yes, even though the bill goes against their stated principles: even though they are leaving the Senate, success in their next career likely depends on Republican good will.
34
Bingo. It's important to make a distinction between the tail and the dog that wags it. Tax cuts are sold as a gateway to freedom and to a dynamic, growing economy. That's true for the .1%, at least until the rabble shows up with pitch forks and torches. For most, however, it provides an illusion of freedom, and growing momentum on the march to a neo-serf economy.
In 2017, it's not the economy, stupid -- it's whose economy, stupid?
1
A very complex analysis of a simple reality. The last paragraphs are closest to the truth, which is, Republicans need to deliver a big payment to the donor class or the spigot will close.
In case anyone hasn't noticed, both parties cater to donors when there there is a conflict between the base and the wealthy.
16
Not much of a gift to the wealthy in CA and NY, as high earners' loss of SALT and property tax (above $10K) is going to cause their taxes to go up. A 2% drop at the highest bracket comes nowhere close to offsetting this.
The tax benefits for 80% of the population will be so minor, they will barely cover one week's grocery bill if that. For anyone who itemizes, taxes will go up as deductions go down. Anyone in higher education is about to be punished for their hard work and educational endeavors. However the benefits to the really well off, and corporations will be billions sucked out of government revenue that will kill off spending that actually benefits everyone one way or another. And then there is Paul Ryan licking his lips in anticipation of the reason he has created to attack Social security, Medicare, Medicaid. On top of that, I saw a story in which Trump is proposing for states to pick up the infrastructure burden and raise their own taxes to pay for it just in time for the SALT deduction to be axed. So unless corporations used their tax cut to create MILLIONS of jobs that pay say $75K or more, most of us will be much worse off from this tax scam, the budget will be overwhelming, the deficit tripled, and a couple years down the road since Congress has no more candy to dispense, the stock bubble we are now in will come crashing down. I see a very bleak future as a result of this so called "reform."
47
Make my day will come, maybe next year, when that dynamic duo of Ryan and McConnell try to ram through cuts to social security and medicare with the explanation that high paying jobs is so plentiful who needs safety net programs.
21
What happens to the citizens of a nation who have been put into the impossible position of accepting involuntarily tax bill that will devastate their share of the economy and possibly do considerable damage to their quality of life over a period of ten or more years? Even if the economy becomes super hot for a period of time people below the top 90% range of income know that any kind of downturn will result in economic conditions that will do nothing to enhance their quality life. The last bubble to burst was devastating but many leaders have no concept of how bad the near depression was for others below their economic scale and quite a few highly skilled people in top income tiers who lost good jobs, permanently. The only hope is that naysayers are wrong and the days of rosy economics are ahead for all citizens. What are the chances of that happening with republican economics?
27
If the economy super heats inflation will probably follow as well, which with this "tax cut" will likely devastate most of us economically.
11
Perhaps an even simpler answer: Republicans genuinely believe in this stuff. They know it will hurt their voters, but they really believe that it's not "fair" for "successful" people like themselves to pay higher marginal tax rates than poor people. I know a lot of conservatives who genuinely believe in flat tax rates. They care more about this extreme right wing ideology than they do about how it will affect actual people.
46
You make a very good point. Republicans believe that those who acquired substantial assets or income shouldn't be taxed to provide for the welfare of others in the country because they earned it themselves. They just ignore the fact that "they earned it themselves" is simply false. The federal government provides the essential pre-conditions for people to acquire substantial assets and income. The Constitution, the branches of government, the enacted laws and regulations, executive departments that foster commerce, the army that protects against plunder from abroad, police that protect against plunder within; diplomacy that allows extraction of wealth from abroad; the list goes on. A government of the people, by the people, for the people is not limited to spending tax dollary onlh on functions that enhance accumulation of assets and income. In this sense, assets and income are part of the national treasure, and it is right and proper that they be taxed and that part of the taxes go toward social welfare. This view is fairly commonplace in Europe, much less so in the US and England.
13
Yes, absolutely correct. And it's an ideology based entirely on their own short sighted GREED. They need to think of the long term consequences of widening the income equality gap.
1
I suggest that a variant on your thinking more accurately describes how they "instinctively" act; I use "instinctively" and "act" to describe what is occurring, as I firmly believe these creatures act using their base animal tendencies.
They are a pack, operating like a pack, doing what comes naturally, which is the innate survival of the fittest way of being; in other words, grab it all, at every opportunity, all of the time.
They are constantly and rabidly always feeding.
Incidentally, I also believe that this recent spate of sexual abuse exposures, is simply bringing to light, again, the innate savage force in the DNA of these creatures, operating from the urges residing in the Amygdala areas of the brain, such areas, specifically highly active in the psychopathic narcissist creatures controlling our lives.
In a nutshell, they feed (gorge), rape and destroy, and sleep, all representing the entirety of their lives.
Republicans know this bill will not stand the test of time. But they need to establish the point from which democrats must negotiate in the future. To use a football analogy, they are putting the ball on the one-yard line to make the Democrats take the ball down the field. If they are lucky the democrats will only be able to go 30 yards. It will be a brutal ground game. But they know the ball will remain in the republican territory. The republicans know they cannot leave the ball at the 50-yard line. The democrats can then get the ball 20-yards into their own territory. It is obvious.
15
The dollar bill blinds the Republicans in swing districts as these Congressmen are more concerned with the gift being given to their donors so that they'll be sure to fund their 2018 campaign they are reading the writing on the wall of the bill's unpopularity. My Christmas message to these Congressmen and women; from Clifford Odets in Awake and Sing: "Go out and fight so that life shouldn't be printed on dollar bills."
6
I am truly sorry John McCain is back in the hospital, but I wonder how Mitch McConnell gets 50 votes without him. Bob Corker already showed his integrity by voting against raising the national debt. Will Susan Collins recognize she has been played? I would imagine she's furious with Paul Ryan's, 'I didn't make any deal with Collins.'
Looks like 48 votes to me.
26
Don't forget "deficit hawk" Jim Lankford of Oklahoma. Any Oklahoman capable of walking upright and using tools knows Inhofe is a lost cause, but at least Lankford seemed to be fiscally conservative (instead of let's go back to the Permian era Inhofe). Then he lied to us.
Shame! To quote the lively group of activists at the Indivisible rally last weekend, "VOTE THEM OUT! VOTE THEM OUT!"
And we can. And we will.
1
Paul you do know we can't afford to cut taxes. That is the problem. How you cut them is a secondary issue. Yes corporations realize the greatest benefit but the middle class is getting a benefit as well. Right now we should be raising taxes to deal with the huge deficits we ran up with the war on terror. In addition let's face it the Bush tax cuts were not affordable. As an economist you should be emphasizing how in good times such as these tax increases are affordable and how they are necessary to fund the entitlement programs we have and believe in.
19
The middle class is not getting enough of a tax cut benefit to offset the damaging cost to the revenue that provides essential services to the nation as well as themselves. That's why most of us are against it. It will cost us all in the long run.
3
Professor Krugman ignored a fourth reason that Republicans are rushing their tax cut package to completion - they have faith in trickle down economics. I use the word faith in this case in the religious sense; an abiding believe that requires no proof. They not only believe that trickle down economics work politically, the believe it works economically.
It is true, the GOP is facing an existential crisis. The party as they know it could soon be swept away. In that situation, they choose not to try a new approach but instead to follow their core beliefs. They truly believe that a rising tide floats all boats. They truly believe that the wealthy will shower everyone else with the gifts of better pay and work environment. They believe that if they pass this tax cut they will be honored as wise men who saved the economy for the common man - just like Ronald Reagan!
7
Democrats need to take control of the House and Senate in 2018 and then adopt a tax bill that countermands the increase of taxes on individuals so that corporations and the rich can get massive tax breaks. If there ever was class warfare, the GOP tax bill epitomizes it in proposed legislation.
And Mr. Trump: what happened to your strong opposition to carried interest taxed as capital gains? Another campaign slogan thrown into the dust.
9
The wild card is who will be president by the time Democrats retake congress? It is extremely unlikely that trump will last another year, or even more than a few more months. The lingering unanswered question is how deeply will Pence be implicated in TrumpRussia, and will his illegal use of EMAILS as Indiana governor ever be followed up on?
1
president trump said that the corporate tax cut will allow each of us to receive an additional $4000.00 in our paychecks . I just want to know, Will the check be in the mail January 1st 2018?
10
Much could be saved by defunding Congress; it does more harm than good, at least counting the last few election cycles.
11
The tax cuts for the middle/under class will not happen until rank-and-file Republicans realize that they can also demand it to politicians. Right now these people let steal their voting power by the rich that donates election money to the politicians. The rich never has voting power against the mass poor.
2
So how has Krugman decided that the tax plan is "massively unpopular"? Is he referring to the House or the Senate version?
Where the tax bill is concerned, Senator Collins may think she's made a good deal with her overlords, but positioned as she is on the left fringe of her rightward rushing party, she's likely to discover that her deal-making skills aren't quite all that. In reality, she's more likely to turn out to be the pathetic wall-flower who has been conned into bringing the beer to the high school party, thinking that by doing so she's about to become part of the in-crowd, when she's really just being used as a beer-delivery service.
16
Senator Collins should change parties, or at the very least leave the GOP, register non affiliated, and caucus with Democrats. Guarantee Senator Schumer would get her whatever she wants if it brings Democrats into a 50/50 position
Jeff Flake is in the same position. If both did this mitch McConnell would no longer be in position to destroy the United States, as he has been trying to do his entire adult life
1
The GOP has relied on campaign tactics to divert voter attention away from the policies they actually promote and implement, and so far it's worked out very well for them. The usual; race, fear, tribalism. The most obvious answer is that until that strategy fails they'll keep using it. So regardless of what happens with the tax bill, you can expect when 2018 rolls around to hear endless amounts of talk about immigration, terrorism, job creation, and eliminating government waste. If history repeats itself, the GOP voter base will get wound up in a frenzy, completely ignore the fact that their representatives are actively promoting policies that hurt them, and turn out in droves to vote for 'their side'.
It's sad but that's exactly what's been happening for 40 years, and so far I've seen nothing that would suggest it won't happen again. Have you read the comments section over at Fox News?! Those people aren't going to be enlightened any time soon.
9
Not even Voodoo can save this disaster of a tax bill. The GOP says it will take ten years of 2.9% GDP growth so this tax cut for the wealthiest will ONLY cost us $1.4 Trillion. When the economy fails to grow at that rate the cost will be ten times larger.
10
My sense about the current rush in Congress is that the true insiders know the days of the current administration are numbered, and those numbers aren't terribly big. So they want to give their corporate sponsors and major donors everything that can be grabbed from the distracted American public. Who cares about the mid-terms...
10
Isn't it obvious that they are rushing the tax bill because this is the final objective, for which the Koch brothers have invested millions, buying off our political system?
This is their end game, along with de-regulation, and packing the courts.
This is the Koch brothers victory.
18
Isn't the simple answer to rush to pass the conference tax bill that the Republicans realize they may have limited time to loot the government and are getting as much out of the store as they can as soon as they can? This is their chance. They are making the most of it. They don't pay much attention to downstream political consequences. So far they have not had to choose between truth or consequences.
12
Thanks for continuing to expose this scam.
I believe, they are rushing because the losses in Virginia and Alabama and the antics of President Trump are taking a toll on the G.O.P.'s sense of political security that the GOP and Donors have worked long. hard and invested heavily to create.
They have undeniably been successful in winning state legislatures and governorships, but now many members sense that the 2018 midterms will unravel the red fabric. Senator Schumer is correct in saying that passage of this tax cut to benefit the very rich, in particular the donors/legislation/lobbyist/writers who have taken care of themselves and their interests but don't have a clue about how to achieve the economic growth targets that the corporate tax cuts are designed to produce.
Meanwhile in their speeches Republicans appear to sincerely believe that cutting corporate taxes from a high of 35% to 21% will be "rocket" fuel to US economic growth. They and even Chair Yellen have said that there should be modest growth in GDP, if the corporate tax cut is approved.
My thoughts are: we should but won't consider what investments we could make to increase the economic efficiency of the US by modernizing freight logistics, electric power, and communications infrastructure. There is also the safety, efficiency, and affordability of our aging mass transportation systems.
Finally, we would be wise to not change the individual tax code until the corporate tax cut is proven to work.
5
History has shown that meritocracy in combination with economic reward as an upward mobility driver in time produces a calcified top-down society. This pattern has been and continues to be the same in all societies. Future generations become an entrenched moneyed oligarchy grounded on nepotistic loyalty. We humans are programmed that way. We are economic and nepotistic animals.
As a result, throughout human civilization going back to the very beginning, we can see that economic power is always rigged in favor of the oligarchic blood line by way of massive wealth transfers to succeeding generations. With it comes political privilege, intermarriage among the privileged, superior education and superior medical care.
This is what we see now in America. Time Prof. Krugman to start writing about it.
www.InquiryAbraham.com
8
A simple majority is the only way to get a Bill through the Senate.
Obamacare changed the game forever, and just now Krugman is surprised? People dismiss the fact that Ocare became law with 5 votes. The '01 tax cuts, aka "Bush Tax Cuts" passed the Senate with 14 Dem votes.
Things have changed. Jones has nothing to do with it.
Doug Jones for one thing.
I also wonder that, given John McCain's declining health, that they are worried that he may not be available to vote yes - for whatever reason.
2
The key words in this article, which is good are: keep the party machine happy, never mind the voters
In what country are we living?
5
Regarding the tax bill, Democrats should take a page out of the Republican playbook. If the Republicans won’t wait for Doug Jones to be sworn in before voting for the tax bill, let’s shut the government down. Right. Wrong. Precedent. Protocol. These are things that Democrats worry about while Republicans march forward like storm troopers, carrying out the will of the donor class, heedless of the consequences for the majority of Americans, or the overall well-being of this country. Meanwhile, maybe Susan Collins and one or more other Republican senators will find a conscience.
7
Last week I went to the continuing education and tax update of Shearman & Sterling and this week went to the same thing with Winston & Strawn. What I heard from the speakers is that both the House and Senate bills had differing implementation dates all over the place, differing tax rates, and were devoid of clauses defining the legal terms employed within the law. The law is nearly 500 pages, but that is short for all the changes that are being proposed.
The consequence of the poor draftsmanship is that the legal terms will be decided by the IRS or by the Tax Court. Tax lawyers may make more money, but no one in tax law wants to make more money because of poor draftsmanship by Congress which could be totally avoided by taking the time to do things right.
The two proposed bills are poor economics and poor policy. Not only that, the bills are so poorly drafted that even tax lawyers who agree with the bills intentions consider the bills to be a level of incompetence last seen in the Gilded Age after Reconstruction when the Senate was the preserve of extremely wealthy semi retired multi millionaires.
8
I think your last point about lobbying jobs and pleasing their corporate donors is what mostly explains the rush to pass massively unpopular tax cuts, tax cuts that go mostly to those same wealthy donors.
I think it's pretty simple really, yes the tax bill will make voters dislike them, but the wealthy donors who fund their campaigns are demanding the tax cuts, and that's who they really work for, probably assuming that with enough campaign cash they can override voter disgust -- and who's to say for certain that that's not true, maybe it will work.
They're obeying who they actually work for, in other words. Our system has become so corrupted by money that most people can't compete without massive infusions of funding, and for Republicans let's face it that means billionaires and corporations. Who are now getting a tax cut in return for their funding of politicians.
I hope of course that the politicians are figuring this wrong and that voters toss them all out next year for voting this bill through and that the funding from the wealthy won't save them this time. However up to now, it always has.
6
Would campaign finance reform fix the problem of elected officials working to please donors rather than the people in their state or district?
1
Definitely would help. Which is why Republicans in particular have blocked all efforts toward any such reform. Their donors don't want it, and they work for the donors.
This whole system is going to have to be thrown out, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were the only ones making any sense in the last election cycle.
1
Shades of the healthcare reform bill, rammed through by the Democratic majority. Without seeking by-partisan support. Without sufficient, thorough-going analysis. Remember "We have to pass it to see what is says"?
Remember not caring what opponents had to say, much less how they felt they were being bullied out of the conversation?
How does no one recognize the echo? How does no one reflect that this is how it feels when it's their ox being gored?
Your analogy is false, because your facts are wrong. Months of public hearings were held and dozens of Republican amendments to the healthcare bill adopted (making it less good), in a futile effort to win Republican support. In contrast, this sorry fraud of a bill was scrambled together in haste, behind closed doors. The input of roughly half the Senate was neither desired nor allowed. But the vast majority of Americans will be feeling the pain, for decades to come.
1
During this tax discussion, there should be two numbers that are peppered and proliferated throughout the American public, on the airwaves 24/7 to help give context. I’m surprised the times and Krugman have not circulated this more: In the last four quarters, US after tax coporate profits are nearly 7 trillion dollars, record levels both in terms of size and share, and up 400% over the past 15 years. By all accounts large corporations are doing extraordinary well and are rife with cash. The second number is 400 billion, the amount in federal taxes those same corporations paid last year. The Trump/GOP tax plan will drop this to around ~250 billion, 150 billion in tax savings.
Let’s return to the overarching claim by the GOP that tax cuts are desperately needed to free up Corporations so that they have the bandwidth to invest and give raises. In essence, their argument is claiming that at 7 trillion in corporate profits, corporations are shackled and so burdened that that can’t create jobs and can’t give raises...but if they instead had 7.15 trilllion, they would open up the coffers and start creating jobs and giving raises. 7 trillion = woe is me, we’re too strapped to invest. 7.15 trillion = okay NOW we’ll start trickling down the wealth.
What a joke. Whose buying this nonsense? Anyone who thinks corporations don’t already have the cash to invest now are kidding themselves.
6
The GOP-controlled Congress is doing what opportunistic thieves do: It's called a smash-and-grab.
They're trying to do as much damage as they can, as fast as they can. They know their time is limited, so they'll hand as much cash over to their paymasters as possible in as short a time as possible. While they're at it, they'll do their best to crater healthcare, social safety net programs, and any other gov't program that benefits the poor, the working class, and the middle class.
It's obvious, isn't it? That's what the GOP does, every single time.
6
Paul Krugman is far too kind to the Republicans. The GOP apparatchiks could only have spent their lives living inside an intellectual bubble if they had something resembling intellect. They don't. There's little evidence that their supposed intellectual backers (like economist Robert Barro) have any intellect either. Money-grubbing dishonesty does wonders for destroying what intellect someone might once have had.
Krugman's first two explanations both appeal to possible mistaken thinking or strategy among Republicans. But most Republicans, and all of the Republican leaders (including Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Orrin Hatch, Chuck Grassley, and John McCain) know exactly what they are doing. Paul Krugman's third explanation -- the K Street End Game -- touches on it but is still incomplete.
Republicans aim to line their own pockets by working as willing executioners for the Koch brothers, the Mercers, and other rabidly anti-government billionaires. They are not actually opposed to government across the board. They enthusiastically support government when it redistributes upwards and when it protects the haves from the have-nots. They oppose government when it aids average Americans or the poor or blacks or latinos. Republicans have joined the Koch Cult in trying to march the U.S. into a new feudalism.
3
The problem with "make my day" is that a lot of people get harmed in the process.
1
The push for bad tax reform using bad methods doesn't make sense to me either. For all intents and purposes, this is political suicide. Ostensibly, Republicans are panning to donors but that doesn't make sense either. Wealthy donors should know how to play the long game. An unpopular and economically risky tax bill is not a good way to win the long game. I might as well give a teenager a bottle a bourbon and the keys to a Lexus. Things aren't going to end well. Millionaires should know this already.
This is one of the moments where you really have to wonder about the viability of our political system. I'll subscribe to praetorian theory. There's an eighty percent chance Republicans are about to get smacked silly if they pass this tax bill. There's a twenty percent chance the Party is never getting back up again. The odds for Democrats aren't much better in the long run. We could be witnessing the collapse of political organization as we know it. The King is dead. Long live the King.
1
The positive comments for this tax bill are delivered directly to the personal phone numbers of congressional members. The negative comments are logged by the newest interns. Voters don't have a seat at the table for this one.
4
John McCain's wife is worth at least $100 million dollars. The repeal of the estate tax will be incredibly beneficial for his family.
1
Brilliant academic analysis; hopefully it correctly predicts future success for the Democrats and more humane and civilized policies in future years.
But like the ease with which Democrats uncaringly dumped Sen. Franken, in an attempt to gain what they thought the “moral high ground,” Democrats’ failure to more strong inspire action to reject the Republican tax scam will cause true disaster due to increased poverty, disease and death for millions of individuals with no defense against Congressional action. The lives of people are more than an academic exercise.
2
The GOP is rushing this through because they may very likely loose one or both chambers of Congress. Tribal politics notwithstanding, people will want a check on this president.
We get the government we deserve.
1
The Republicans gave away the national resources to the wealthy, their benefactors, and started the discussion about taking money away from the unemployed and afflicted to alleviate the costs of that robbery. That way, only they will get welfare payments from the wealthy individuals and Corporations. The wealthy pay more. Pretty tough politics huh? All this as wimpy Democrats smile for their cameras as they sacrifice their own.
1
Taking from the poor to give to the rich has been the GOP scam for 40 years now. When are the poor GOP voters going to wake up to the fact that trickle down economics doesn't work?
3
Prof. Krugman, it's pretty simple. The GOP is rushing this tax abomination because they see the handwriting on the wall. They see that Donald Trump is in serious trouble, with American voters and with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's FBI investigation. (They may even have heard seriousliy bad Congressional testimony about Russia-gate that most of us haven't heard yet.)
They also see that the GOP itself is in serious trouble, and with the New Jersey and Virginia wins and Doug Jones' fluke victory, the clock is running out. So what better to do that ram through a massive tax giveaway to billionaires and global corporations, a monstrosity that will enrich foreign investors and the Trump family itself, when there's no way whatsoever to stop it?
They also know full well that the Democrats, should they gain power, barely have the vision, let alone the courage, to swiftly turn this mess around and do the correct thing with fiscal policy by raising taxes on the rich, investing in infrastructure and the American people, and so on. Bill Clinton did it in 1992, but remember how Barack Obama had to fight just to get the stimulus bill through--with Democrats in power and the country in freefall after W Bush?
The GOP knows after they blow up the economy again, the Democrats (and the media!) will do everything they can to protect Wall Street, the megabanks, Silicon Valley, etc. And who gets hurt? We, the American people. That's why the GOP is rushing this "tax abomination."
4
What if politicians just want to feather their own nests? Maybe Republicans realize that the hypocrisy of their economic and social policies are finally catching up with them and that their own time in office may be limited. The recent increase in attention to sexual offenses may be increasing the unease of many of them. They don't just get money ostensibly in the form of campaign contributions during office, they frequently get lucrative jobs after office as lobbyists or in other roles. I think Krugman has mentioned this motivation in the past, but it may be especially important now.
2
Republicans are really good makeup artists. They can put lipstick on a pig better than any. They are already calling this tax bill a middle income tax cut bill. And the media will let them get away with it. How many people know their small tax cut goes away while the corporate big tax cuts stay?
Honesty has never been a big thong with them.
8
NY TImes, today
Fed Predicts Modest Economic Growth From Tax Cut
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/business/economy/fed-interest-rates.html
You can either believe the Fed (whose specialty is monetary and fiscal analysis) or Paul Krugman (whose specialty was analysis of geographic trade patterns)
1
Krugman only believes in raising taxes and spending more.
Woof:
And it doesn't appear that you actually read that link beyond the headline.
Perhaps you should have read and digested the article rather than just the headline prior to making your comment.
1
Dr. Krugman - How about organizing a response by the nation's top economists to the latest version of this fundamentally flawed plan. With a thousand moving parts each changing hourly in response to political considerations, there appears to be a real possibility that this plan will trigger a recession.
22
Depression - not recession.
There's something to be said for "a rising tide lifts all boats." Some of our best economies have been when everyone participated in the growth of the American economy, and not just the wealthiest in the nation as what we have now. The GOP's tax plan, that has been thrown together in the dead of night and behind closed doors, and will not even come close to lifting all boats. As a most likely outcome it will come to shore like a tsunami that will eviscerate the lowest end of the economic ladder. The GOP is in for some very rough sailing in 2018, and not a moment too soon.
13
It's really "A rising tide lifts all yachts." Let's call it for what it is. One can only hope that some of what's been done can be undone after the '18 election, but I am and will remain skeptical.
3
There is indeed something to be said for "a rising tide lifts all boats." There is also a reason why we haven't heard that truism in well over a generation, including right now. The tax bills designed by the GOP were meant to lift only the better, larger vessels, not the bass boats and sunfishes. They knew this and so also knew better than to bring out that old saw about a rising tide.
As Bill Maher observed, when an average American asks why the economy isn't working for him or her, the answer is, sadly, "Because is wasn't designed to."
2
A rising tide does not lift boats with holes in their hulls...
1
Or fourth:
Within recent weeks Senator McConnell said of the tax bill: "I'm/we're trying to give the president a legacy."
Senator Collins engages with VP Pence, about her "ironclad guarantees" re her conditions for supporting the bill.
A presidential physical by military doctors is announced as scheduled soon.
The physical is cover for a forthcoming "medically-indicated retirement", and/or congressional leaders have been told that the special counsel will be disclosing radioactive findings that will impel resignation/retirement or removal.
13
GOP strategy is pass it before people know what is in it. Making it effective on Jan 1 when pay stubs will not even be able to reflect it in monthly budgets. Or people who are undergoing major medical treatment and have no idea if some portion will be tax deductible. Or smaller towns with tax bills coming up to vote. It goes on. GOP's banana republic management style.
Then there is the permanent part. How is it even permissible to make part of a bill permanent in a democracy?
18
Shouldn't "permanent" changes be done by amending the Constitution? Yes, that's hard, but permanent things should be hard to do.
1
I guess they noted Pelosi's winning strategy in passing something so you can read it.
As a resident of NJ I face increased taxes of a few thousand $ from this bill, as well as a decline in home equity probably exceeding 10%. But its passage will make it much easier to defeat my Republican Congressman in 2018, as well as the Republicans in other districts. NJ is soon going to be a very unpleasant place to be a Republican.
44
So, you're taking one for the team and good with it. Bravo!
1
The Mann Orenstein column in Last week's [Sunday] NYTimes was absolutely correct.
"Republican leaders have been blunt about their motivation: to deliver on their promises to wealthy donors and down the road to use the leverage of huge deficits to cut and privatize Medicare and Social Security."
The GOP has to ram this tax "reform" bill thru before people understand what is in the bill.
78
If they had any common sense at all, they'd abolish the Second Amendment before setting up the majority of Americans for economic disaster.
"The first Amendment, so we're told
Permits the rich to speak with gold.
The Second Amendment, it could be said,
Lets us edit that speech with lead."
WBL
1
Since Mr. Jones cannot be seated in the Senate until officials in Alabama certify that he has won, watch the Alabama secretary of state, John Merrill, to delay certification for as long as possible to give Congressional Republicans their "win" on their tax sham plan.
Mr. Merrill has already brazenly campaigned to prevent thousands of eligible Alabamans from voting.
http://www.naacpldf.org/search/node/Alabama
https://www.salon.com/2017/12/01/how-the-gop-has-already-hijacked-the-al...
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/this-republican-candidate-ha...
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Ramming their abominable tax bill through will get them the same results that should be expected anytime one tries ramming a large and solid object through a tiny and fragile hole. Their reputations and political capital will be shattered just the same, but then they are just as lacking in foresight and wisdom as a person cramming a brick into a petri dish. We've watched the Republicans get more and more extreme in their heartlessness for four decades, and now it's only natural that we watch with glee as they tear their party apart. This video warms the cockles of my heart: https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/1826115587419923/?hc_ref...
22
This tax-cut is quite unnecessary and can only have a negative impact on the economy. The claim that it is a stimulus to the economy is just bogus. But Republicans are addicted to tax-cuts to benefit the rich who are already loaded with wealth that mostly belonged to the rest, the "trickling up PROCESS."
What we need is tax-hikes on the richest, on the top 0.1% incomes. They should not enjoy benefits such as lower tax rates on capital gains & on carried interest. All such incomes should be treated as regular and taxed between 45 & 50 percent.
Corporate tax-cuts may be limited to 25% at the most. The tax-cuts that are needed are payroll tax cuts on the first $10K to say, 1% & 2% on the second $10K. The cap on it should be raised to pay for the shortfall, preferably lifted but to make it less unpalatable to the rich cut payroll tax again to say, 1% on over about $150K.
I would say, there should be another top rate on the "top 400" household incomes, or say on over $100 million to 70%. Until 1980, that 70% was on over $215K ($630K now).
33
Or, we could just take it all. I mean who better than our government to take the earnings of a citizen because they made more than we think is fair.
While I think the tax cut is overbroad and ill advised, taking what someone has earned by their ingenuity and giving it to the government is not the best solution. Perhaps requiring them to increase wages to their employees who assisted them in the enterprise is more fair.
6
Please be reminded that the trickling up phenomenon, where it is found in nature, is called "evaporation."
1
Darcy though the first part of your comment was a bit snarky your latter bits were right on and well stated.
I know the devil is in the details but conceptually what this Nation needs to really prosper are these:
an easing of income inequality
a modernization of our infrastructure including knowledge/information highways
making infrastructure access less dependent on wealth/status
upgrading and also leveling access of education through "junior college"
A start at doing this would be creating a minimum wage floor that is shared equitably by public and private sector. Example GM can handle the burden of $15/hour but mom/pop cannot - mom/pop gets public supplements as needed.
Tax increases on high earning corporations go into wage upgrading, infrastructure, and education which BTW will benefit them (rich corporations) in long run.
Re: Education. Junk the property tax system - make quality 14 year education universal and independent of zip code; i.e., a matter of public concern paid by some form of general revenues
Again all that is conceptual - sure the detail implementations require guts, creativity, expertise, and sacrifice - but this general gist is NOT unrealistic - it is implementable - that is if the electorate gets woke and elects real patriots and not demagogues/babies to "man" the helm!
2
The Republicans care not one whit about their constituents, especially those of us who did not vote for them in the first place. And, will their strategy result i a "make my day" moment for Democratic strategists? In some states, perhaps, but not nearly enough to make a difference, I'm afraid. While the Alabama election provides some hope, I remain a doubting Thomas.
18
Republican tax cuts will hurt Americans. (But by design) Democrats will pay the price. The consequences of the tax program will shelve support for the Republicans, but once in power the Democrats’ hands will be financially bound for years" writes Bruce Bartlett, an advisor to Reagan and Bush Sr., who explains the strategy pretty well. A chilling read.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/20/republican-tax-cut...
13
Thanks, Ann. That's a terrific article. More people should read it, and the NYT should reprint it on their website.
1
I'm hoping that McCain ends up playing Lucy holding the football, begging Trump to kick it. Then of course yanks it, like he did with Repeal and Replace.
76
Last I read he was in the hospital fighting the effects of chemo and radiation treatments.
Trump needs to reveal his tax returns.
No taxation without revelation!
If the GOP rams this tax bill through, it is tantamount to what the outcome would have been if Moore won.
GOP=Trump=Moore
74
" No taxation without representation" was a rallying cry of the American Revolution. "Taxation without representation is tyranny" - James Otis, Jr. 1763 (attributed).
1
Bernie needs to as well. AND finalise his FEC filings, which that stalwart champion of campaign finance accountability refuses — refuses! — to do.
If and when the Democrats take both houses will they actually be willing to do more than just trim around the edges of the results of this tax bill? I mean the same lobbyists will still be there fighting to keep their deductions. Are the Democrats willing to go to war for the middle and working classes like the Republicans are for the rich and the corporations.
50
A question so rhetorical it didn't even warrant a question mark. The Democrats in congress care a whopping 2% more about the middle class than the Republicans. What we hear from Ruling Class Democrats these days is about how awful Trump is, not about how they would change the country to the benefit of the 99.9%. Take the 2%, but don't kid yourself. The outrage at Trump is over his getting to steer the ship, not over where it is going.
“Are the Democrats willing to go to war for the middle and working classes like the Republicans are for the rich and the corporations.”
I sure hope so! At least some of us are.
1
"Still, the idea that you have to win something seems to have a grip on the GOP, and of course especially on our childlike president."
Is it a "win" if you ram through a highly unpopular bill? The tax bill is not exactly the ACA, unpopular among all the GOP just because it was Obama's, but increasingly popular among those who actually used it.
This tax bill--it still has has no name, which is fitting--is highly unpopular because people can read headlines. They can read it benefits the wealthy, and then they can read more and find out that really benefits the wealthy.
Unlike the ACA, which took years to implement, taxes will be immediate. Suddenly, for every $.50 cent weekly break in taxes, families are going to discover all the other terrible things this bill does to the middle class.
Paul Ryan keeps repeating something "We need to pass this bill to keep our promise to the American people. The American people elected us to keep our word."
Well, I don't know one single person who's said I hope the GOP passes a hugely lopsided tax bill that rewards donors.
The opposite is true: the more people learn, the more they hate it.
I hope all the videotape of the GOP gloating is distributed to every 2018 candidate. The ads will write themselves.
The GOP better buy some strong protective armor during the January sales-they're going to need it come next June.
60
The tax bill should have a name. I propose the Johnny Rocco Wealth Redistribution Act, in honor of the gangster in Key Largo.
1
Steven M. Rosenthal estimates that 35% of US equities are owned by foreigners, so will get $70B/year from this tax plan. The middle class will benefit $23B/year, 68% less and will see more costs with the added deficit and reduced social benefits sure to come. Makes no sense to build a Wall or complain about offshoring jobs with such a massive export of our tax money to overseas.
55
This isn't complicated - the GOP will rush through the policies they are paid to create.
GOP congressmen and senators are simply bought and paid for lackeys, doing what paymasters want. Vast wealth is possessed by enough greedy people to make it possible to buy politicians. Once they're bought, the pols in DC will loot the store as hard as they can - it's what they are there for.
Don't be fooled by Susan Collins. She loves her moments in the spotlight, and then falling into line. Was she fooled by McConnell? Not a chance - she's a big girl and knows exactly who she's dealing with. She'll complain, of course, hoping that will fool the voters back home. Talking the talk, while not walking the walk has worked for her so far.
56
Yes, lackeys (GOP) of the leeches (wealthy donors).
1
There is no real argument about what the Republican Party is doing to the majority of Americans. It also seems clear that they achieve their goals by ignoring ethical standards. Those are givens. The real question is how Republicans keep winning elections. I think things are about to change, but not for the reasons most people think. Reality is that the voters who were recruited into the Republican Party starting around 1960 on the basis of race, religious bigotry, and anti government nonsense are aging out. Just like gay issues no longer work politically (trans stuff still does) because nobody under 65 cares, many of the issues that convinced people they were Republicans are becoming ineffective. Guns and abortion still work, and sensible people need to counter those, but the voters who see themselves as Republicans will continue to vote that way regardless of the issues. They will distort reality to convince themselves that Republican policies are in their interest. It is going to take the influx of younger voters to break up the Republican dominance of our government. The task of the Democratic Party is to find the gut issues that will appeal to younger voters. If Democrats are not willing to play the Republican game, they will cede another generation to Republicans. Don't expect any of this to be rational. Rationality might explain ten percent of voting behavior if we're lucky.
26
Why is the GOP rushing this tax change? It is because hat is what their chief funders paid them them to do.
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One little word: donors.
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One more word: corruption.
1
Like the smart politicians in Mexico - that trump praised for taking advantage of America - Republicans will TAKE all they can before they leave power and office. Every six years in Mexico, the party in control cleans out the nation's wealth as they walk out the door. The Republicans are doing the same for themselves and their patrons as they see the writing on the wall. They are cleaning us out while they can and destroying everything the can to sabotage the government they hate.
36
Excuse me -- but why are we even discussing this hasty bill without seeing Trump's tax returns? He filed for re-election on inauguration day and should now be covered by a piece of legislation I seem to remember that requires tax form disclosures for 2020 candidates. He's campaigning regularly at these "rallies." Never forget he's a candidate as well as a sitting president, for cripes sake! We need to know if/how he personally benefits from this tax heist. C'mon, Democrats -- step up!
236
Since the public has not been permitted to study this bill, is there any chance that it could be challenged on that basis?
29
It's the latter. Plus, they know that none of us will do anything to stop them. No huge demonstrations in the streets, no descending upon Congressional Offices by hordes of livid constituents, no consequences whatsoever. We simply can't be bothered, or we're simply worn out and have given up. We all know who's running the show; we all know who's going to win and who's going to lose. We're all just going to stand by and allow our "representatives" to rob us blind - and we'll probably elect most of them next year!
12
Yes, our system dictates that their congressional careers depend on keeping donors happy or else the donors run someone against them who is more cooperative.
But who are the 'donors'? Obviously, not we the people---thus we have little influence on our representatives we elect. Researchers show that laws are passed with little regard for the wishes of the citizen majority on all issues. We have to vote for candidates staying within policy limits that the big donors set up.
The donors are the richest corporate monopolies who subsidize candidates for their gain and our loss---in all the things like jobs, regulations, taxes, health care, education, retirement, infrastructure.
But in other capitalist democracies, how do politicians run for office if they don't turn their elections over to the richest corporations? Why don't they, like bank robbers, go where the money is?
Could Krugman compare their taxes, how they finance generations of universal health care, and low cost education, and family support? And their better Gini scores, which show more equality vs the USA?
We'd think an award winning economist, with the title Conscience of a Liberal, might use his influential NYT column space to discuss these comparisons. Use them for positive role models and refute the Gop? Seems not---our media keeps all this a secret. Why?
19
Meredith, there's no big secret here. Many other countries have laws that restrict campaign finance, or campaign durations, or both—much more so than the US. Google is your friend here. Try searching with "french campaign finance laws" or "uk campaign finance laws" as search terms (no quotes). In the search results you'll find lots of information. Particularly useful are the US Library of Congress summaries (the "loc.gov" links), which give a brief summary in each case. When you read about these laws, have in mind our supreme court's recent "Citizens United" decision as a point of comparison. Hint: We've moved in exactly the wrong direction vs. the rest of the developed world. Just like with health care.
Now, why we're moving that way—that's an interesting question, with a lot more than just economics to its answer, though I suppose the economic interests of rich power brokers is a root factor.
14
A partial answer from http://prospect.org/article/how-our-campaign-finance-system-compares-oth...
" ...TV advertising is the single largest expense for most American congressional candidates, while in many other countries candidates are either forbidden from advertising on television or given free TV time. In most places there's substantial public funding of campaigns, and candidates are often forbidden from campaigning until a relatively short period before election day. Put all that together, and you have elections where, even if it would technically be legal to rain huge amounts of money down on candidates, nobody considers it worth their while."
2
Thank you Tom. Citizens United is sure on my mind, but never on the media's mind. I will check loc.gov.
Yes, some google info. Example.... France and others use more public funds, limit the private donations, use free media time, and most crucially, other democracies ban the privately financed campaign ads that flood our media--- our biggest expense..
And
1
I would like to see a third party that really is interested in representing the people of this country. Is that likely to happen? Probably not.
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The main reason the Republicans are pushing this bill is #1: they are increasingly out of touch with reality and preaching the gospel of supply-side economics. Such is the power of ideology, as J.M. Keynes pointed out in the 1930s.
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The Republican Party is morally bankrupt and rotten to the core. They have all drunk the kool-aid and are beyond revival but their suicide threatens our society while their are squirming around in their death throws.
Unfortunately, the Democrats are so poor at messaging that they are just sitting still waiting to slide into office. Virginia and Alabama show that the electorate is hungry for change and tired of the tired old parties.
It is time for the Dems to break the tax give away down so it is understandable. The following numbers are wrong, but the idea is not: for every $1,000 of tax cuts that are divided among 100 Americans, the richest corporations get $600 forever, the richest one person gets $300 for 8 years and the rest of the Americans split the $100 ($1 apiece) for 8 years.
Dems can also recommend infrastructure deals that are owned by the government NOT 'private-government' partnerships with usage fees.
16
Not sure where you've been, Kirk, but the Dems and all respectable press have been doing just that. The problem as I see it is that many people are tuning out and just assuming that they can't do anything about it anyway, so why pay attention. There is plenty of good, accurate information out there, but you can't lead a horse to water, as they say. We have an uninformed electorate by choice, unfortunately.
1
As a Democrat, the Republicans may be making my day, especially today with the victory of Doug Jones in Alabama. Nevertheless, this is a truly horrible, dishonest tax bill that blatantly creates "winners and losers" unlike anything I've ever seen in my over 50 years as a registered voter. As a middle class retiree, I'm about to see my tax bill go up--way up-- while wealthy corporations riding a record-setting stock market and individuals get to see theirs go down--way down (by 14 percent and 2 percent, respectively). I, and I must assume many others given how suburban voters have been reacting in recent elections, feel that we're the victims of legislative theft on a massive (to the tune of $1.5 trillion) scale. Just as there was no decency and no humanity in Roy Moore, and his ally in support and sexual misconduct, Donald Trump, there is no sense of fairness or concern for those who are not well-to-do. This is a bill that removes health care from 13 million of the neediest Americans, will eventually raise taxes on the lower- and middle-class, and has a good chance of choking the economy and creating a recession as most people have less to spend. This bill, if passed, will be the Roy Moore of legislation that will throw out the Republicans who continue to serve the kleptocrats who bankroll them rather than those who actually voted for them.
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Depression NOT recession. And we possess few of the old-timed skills needed to survive. Which probably doesn't matter long-term because those with guns will kill and eat us anyway.
Has McConnell already scheduled a time for the vote on the final tax bill? If not, couldn't Democrats do like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and hold the Senate floor continuously until either Doug Jones is seated or the GOP otherwise relents?
18
...to add to my earlier post - the reason the Dems lost in 2010 was not in spite of the legislative victories, but because the bills they passed (ACA) were watered down versions of what actually would have worked and would have been popular. The overwhelming majority of ALL voters wanted and still want a public option, and we all know what Rahm Emmanuel said about that. That decision by the DNC to side with their donors over the voters (not to mention good governance) has set off a chain of disasters leading to where we are now. Sure the Dems want to win, but not at the expense of losing their corporate and Wall Street backers. Otherwise, the DNC might have actually supported the progressive candidates who lost special elections in Kansas and Montana earlier this year.
8
I think they spent more time picking out their neckties than on this plan!
For something so impactful, I do not understand why we have not harnessed 'big data' to make an intelligent tax plan based on reality. (And the one-page fan fiction from Treasury is most definitely not based on facts.) Ugh.
11
In theory, this is a Republican plan for self destruction. They will run in 2018 on tax legislation that benefits Donald Trump and other real estate developers, some major corporations, and I suppose other entitled top .1 percenters. They can run on that and Trump's disastrous public image and other regressive policies. The party should sink like stone laying the groundwork for another beating in 2020. The good news is that the Democrats should have at least four years to repair the damage. The destruction of the public interest should halt in January 2019 and then remediation begins on January 20, 2021.
5
If us older citizens on Social Security and Medicare are still alive then.
You ask why the Republicans are rushing this tax cut bill? It's the great Republican Saleabration! The wealthy class bought them and the Republicans bought the TV industry with campaign money and in turn the TV industry devoted a Billion dollars worth of free airtime to Trump during the campaign. The TV Industry brainwashed the public by rote to vote for Republicans and they did, winning them power. Now the Republicans have a Monopoly Government and are paying back the wealthy class and corporations that were declared "People" by the Republican controlled Supreme Court, for the money they gave the Republicans. It's Christmas Time and what better way to hide paybacks than by disguising the tax cuts as gifts? Everyone will be happy to have been paid back or paid off for their votes and the whole cycle will continue for many years. Money talks and the Republicans know the language.
13
Paul, I'll take door number 3. When the voters, in an act of complete self delusion, turned over the control of the government to extremists and fringe thinkers, they set up a rare opportunity for GOP apparatchiks to fast track their program to turn the country into an oligarchy, controlled by their major donors, to be remade in the image of those donors' beliefs.
The GOP apparatchiks understand that they may not be returned to office, but it doesn't matter. They will continue to feed at the public trough, paid for by their slowly comprehending victims, for the rest of their lives and they will receive handsome private sector rewards from their keepers. Really, there's no downside for betraying the interests of the American people. They just have to get as much done as they can before the ax falls.
20
Alter Boy Ryan, tired of Wisconsin winters, and even more tired of sleeping in his office while working for a "pittance", has probably already privately sounded out Wall Street about future seven-figure job prospects. If and when he dutifully delivers to the party Plutocrats on tax cuts, that figure will probably mushroom to eight-figures. Go east young man, there's gold in those lower Manhattan canyons!
13
They are rushing it through so that can they can cut Medicare and Social Security (due to the huge deficit they deliberately created) before the 2018 elections, which they know may take away their Congressional majorities, since Trump is now a liability and could be indicted soon.
This is all to please their wealthy donors and to satisfy their ideological followers who want small government with no safety net due to their uncontrolled GREED.
13
Why is the GOP rushing this tax abomination?
Because they can.
Because they are in charge and the Democrats are not.
Because lying, scamming, and maligning is what Republicans do--mostly to please the Kochs, multi-billionaires, big polluters, and to dupe their working-class base into voting against their own best interests.
Because Republicans would never allow Democrats to do the same thing.
Because both parties care more about big donors, the business class, and big investors than they do about the American people and the well being of society--only the Republicans are worse than the wimpy Democrats who keep playing the Republicans' game, called "Corporatocracy," rather than start their own game called "Democracy."
Because the clock is ticking, and the GOP knows its days are numbered.
Because you can only fool most of the people for only so long--I hope!
10
Dr. Krugman is absolutely right: voters are, to many GOP Representatives, irrelevant at this point. Their survival depends on satisfying corporate donors, right now, today, as much as possible. As for those "principled" Republicans (all three of them), those principles are a sham. McCain will leave a large estate inherited from his wife, and he will benefit immensely from the estate tax cut. Collins is from a state (Maine) not known for its corporate powerhouses, though she clearly likes those tax cuts. Let's face it, this is the 1% ramming through the legislation of their dreams while they still have a chance. Not too much different from the way Obama rammed through the ACA, if you want my opinion, but I certainly sympathized with Obama's goals more than the Republican corporatists.
9
" ...1% ramming through the legislation of their dreams while they still have a chance. Not too much different from the way Obama rammed through the ACA, if you want my opinion," PLEASE stop parroting Faux Newz talking points, please? Obamacare was discussed ad nauseum for eighteen months of meetings and negotiations in the CONGRESS. It was republicans who wasted all of that time by becoming recalcitrant at vote time, because there was Mitch McConnell doing his best to "make Obama a one-term president". Do you not remember? Are you going to try false equivalence here? Because too many of us have no patience left for that.
1
I am fine with everything republicans are doing. ( whoa... hold on a sec )
A MASSIVE Democratic wave is coming for next years' midterms and for 2020. I want ''true'' Liberal ( with a capital L ) policies to be then enacted when we have super majorities ( or even with 50 + 1 ) ;
~ A living wage of 22$ hr ( cola automatically adjusted every year )
~ An end to all wars and troops home
~ Guantanamo gone
~ Liberal judges packed onto courts ( especially SCOTUS )
~ taxes raised on the 1% with loopholes closed
~ Single Payer
~ FICA cap on Social Security with benefits expanded
~ etc, etc etc...
When republicans balk ( as they will soon forget their hypocrisy as usual ), we can just recite all of the little soundbites they are offering now.
24
And a pony.
Right you are - the Dems should view this as an opportunity to continue to highlight the disparity between the fundamentals of each party. Republicans for the well-off, Dems for . . . well, ostensibly the rest of us though they don't really have a resonant message to that effect so far. The Republicans are the worst sort of hypocrites - the self-righteous kind who can (and will) find any sort of way to engage in this duplicitous behavior now, and if/when the tide turns again, will cry foul when Dems use the same strategy to dismantle the scaffolding of chaos that they have thus far wrought. Dems can make things right - as we have seen with Obamacare, anything that is intended to endure (as the "permanent" tax cuts) only needs a bicameral majority and a Dem in the White House. All 3 elements might not align in 2020 but I suspect they will at some point and the only thing standing in the way of rolling back the tax abomination is the politicians' own penchant for serving those very same K Street shills that brought it to us in the first place. Because even in these times of severe tribal polarization, the one thing that continues to unite is campaign contributions.
5
Trump is an ego-maniac, and he has had little to brag about since he won the Electoral College vote by 77 votes. So, from that time until now he has achieved NOTHING. Now, very close to the end of this year, he wants something, ANY THING, to hang his hat on and say, "Look at me, mom. I'm the president, and I'm a big success!" He's pushing it as fast as he can because he's afraid that something will go wrong and people will think that he's incompetent, which would be true. We already know that he spends hours each day watching TV and then sending tweets rather than focusing on the important business in our country.
Why, Oh why do we put up with this?
6
One of the great things about the tax reform is that free college tuition for employees of colleges will now be taxed. Why should these people get this benefit? We have too many college graduates anyway. College education no longer means a better life. College professors should feel the pain for what college has become. 4 years to fall into major debt with nothing to show for it but time in a safe place that doesn't allow diversity of thought.
This particular benefit goes to only some employees of some colleges and universities -- many of whom are not paid well enough to afford the schools they work at for themselves or their children. Tenured/tenure track professors now make up less than 25% of faculty, so you're talking about lecturers and adjuncts, 25% of whom are on some form government support every year because they earn so little. College graduates make up less than 25% of adults, not enough for an advanced economy. A college degree may not mean a much better life, but it does mean not falling into the chasm that has swallowed workers without degrees with lower real earnings over decades. The real problem with this kind of thinking is that Republicans are happily doing the bidding of those with incomes in the invisible stratosphere while directing the rest of us to look around us at the crumbs left over for the middle class, working class, to elderly, children, and the poor. In the race to the bottom, it's important to take away things from people. How in heavens name is less education the way forward for a great nation?
11
Brilliant — we have too many college graduates. What a political statement, and how deeply contemptuous of human beings.
A college education is not simply about getting a job. It's about learning to think, to be curious, to read books one might not otherwise be exposed to. There's a reason the American oligarchy doesn't want people to do that. People tend to learn things about what they're worth, and they tend to learn that the American ruling class is hustling them into the ground most of the time. I'm glad you would like to keep those young people believing the worst of themselves. ("I'm not getting anywhere in the society and it's all my fault.") Bravo to you. Keep them down any way you can. No, we don't have an excessive number of college graduates. The simple fact is that a college degree is increasingly the cutoff point for any jobs requiring what we call "symbol analysis," which is fancy speaking for being able to think. That's where the jobs of the future are and there will be many more of them and we will need somebody to fill them. Maybe AI will grow by leaps and bounds and robots will take over all of those thinking jobs. But not quite yet.
There is only one reason to stop people from getting educations and to encourage them not to try to get them. The eason is, it keeps them docile and unquestioning — and that benefits only the elites that run the society. Shame on you for your reactionary thoughts designed only to keep people in their place.
11
America's biggest problem is not that it has too many smart, educated people. Why should someone pay income tax for an education benefit when they have no actual monetary income?
1
To : AlCibiades42 Louisville, KY 1 hour ago
The FACT that Macron and Trump do the VERY SAME reforms, even though they are light years away in education, sophistication and understanding how finance works
There was not enough space to explain more, such as the motivation of Trump and Macron, or what Piketty things that drives this remarkable fact.
Piketty never moves beyond the point that in his opinion both are wrong (naturellement for one who made his fame in equality studies) and he spends zero what might cause this remarkable coincidence.
But to someone who has studied the effects of globalization , this is NOT an accidental coincidence but the natural outcome of global competition in tax structures.
For a current example study the refusal of the Irish to give up their corporate tax structure (12.5%) even though massively pressured by Brussels , to understand that is a real effect, that drives politics. The influx of capital between 2008 and 2014, generated the equivalent of 8 million jobs in the US.
So global competition in tax structures is REAL, and to deny it, is to deny facts
Very , very simplified
If you can't get low tax States to fall in line, you join - or you lose out.
This is exactly the game that Macron is playing.
3
Examples, please? The idea that Trump and Macron are doing the same thing is a bit silly. Trump is not demanding money for infrastructure or education. Only a shill for the Republican Party could assert that these two men are doing the same thing. As for the corporate tax rate, the story for the last half century has been that up or down, it doesn't affect productivity any more than a capital gains tax does. Do you want to sell that one too? Reagan raised taxes. A boom began. Clinton raised taxes and had one of the largest postwar booms. Why go back to that argument — higher taxes are bad for the economy — when history doesn't bear it out for five seconds? The marginal dollar income tax rate under Eisenhower was 90 percent. He ran a boom the whole time but for the short 1958 recession that affected everybody in the world. Enough already from the radical thieves who want everybody to be poor except for a very few at the top. History is theoretically on your side since slavery is always more successful, economically that is, than freedom. But we're going to try for freedom anyway, even as you try to get rid of it. We are going to try to stop the very rich taking every dollar they can get their hands on it and instead spend it on building a civilization and a country we can be proud of. Some people are proud that 9 million children are about to lose health insurance. That's the kind of country they want and they vote Republican. Good for them and God help the rest of us.
1
The Republicans are rushing because they have a narrow but (unfortunately) game-changing and irreversible opportunity to consummate the truly huge electoral victories they achieved between 2010 and 2016. On the other hand, we would currently have a Democratic majority in the US Senate if the Democrats had played their cards differently in 2016, focusing on how to engage with and win clearly winnable US Senate races in places bounded away from NYC, the Bay Area, etc.
My home state delivered a Democratic US Senator by less than 1000 votes. That margin could and should have been far, far higher, with complementary victories in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. But did Democrats (nationally) play to win swing voters in swing states last year? No they most definitely did not. The risk of a system failure was clear from the results of the February 2016 primaries in the so-called "Blue Wall states," which turned out to be neither "Blue" nor a "Wall."
So live and learn. And may *all* of us who believe in small-d American democracy look for ways to forge a winning coalition even if that has to include non-urban, non-professional people coping with whatever kinds of problems and challenges face our communities where we live each and every day.
6
Add reason #4 to why Republicans are rushing the tax cut: to enact the law before Senator-elect Jones is seated. Republican Senators probably hope the Alabama Republican who certifies the election will be slow in executing his responsibilities. But we all know who won.
Further, he could be seated tomorrow. Article I Section 5 of the Constitution states "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members..." It does not have to wait for the customary election certification. I don't expect the Republican majority to move quickly, but it is something the Democratic majority should push for in the interest of honest government.
13
Please don't call our president childlike. Children are innocent. Children are cute. Children come by their ignorance honestly.
18
Nice to meet you. I have said the very same thing a gazillion times. Pundits , news people in all media , editorials , all all manner of opinion givers keep right on likening Mr. Trump to a child. NYC very wisely will never print what I have to say about Mr. Trump. What I will say here is that it is an insult to children past, present and future to compare Mr. Trump to them.
4
If a heist like this were committed by a person, they'd be in the slammer for life.
11
I very well know who my Congresscritter is: (R) McClintock, CA-04. I and many other of his constituents have let him know that we weren’t fooled by his No vote on the House version of the tax scam. We know that his party overlords gave him permission to do that. Next year, we’re turning our district blue. Goodbye and good riddance, Tom!
33
Faso in NY same deal. He seems ok enough, but I can't vote against Ryan, or McHenry or McCarthy so I will vote against him. We have to vote out enough of these guys so that they can't keep hurting us. The greater challenge is electing enough of the right people to repeal and reverse this atrocious legislation.
9
We all know that Krugman’s mantra is “tax more, spend more”.
And the republicans' mantra is "cut taxes, create large deficits and leave the mess for the democrats to clean up". Just in time, as Obama's fix of Bush's economic disaster is finally bearing fruit.
7
And if done smartly, it won't help improve our infrastructure, support science research, and stimulate the economy because....?
4
And we all know the Republican mantra is tax less, borrow more (who do ya think benefits from that?)
11
Why doesn't NYT do an in depth interview with Collins and McCain and ask just why in the world they supported the tax plan?
I would really like to read the answers to a detailed, good interview with them.
135
The Wapo is more likely to stagecraft such an interview than the NYTimes. Look at the roll of WaPo in breaking the Alabama Senate Race open to competition from Democrats. Then thank goodness that Jeff Bezos rescued the WaPo from financial disaster and turned it over to smart folks to run. WaPo hired a lot of young eager news sleuths and the rest is history. Folks can't vote in their own interests if they don't know what is going on. That's the problem in West Virginia.
because McCain is super ill and essentially dying...it is a week before Christmas so most people are not paying attention. sigh. America.
Another possibility. A lot of the the GOPers in Congress don't really care that much whether the party is in power. If they've got a relatively safe seat, what they need are the campaign donations for the next election. So they'd better keep their donors happy.
12
Mr. Krugman, you may be right. But there could be a simpler explanation.
Most Americans pay their taxes in payroll deductions. Most get a chunk of that money back when they file their tax returns each spring. So most Americans don't really see how changes in tax law affect them personally until the year after those changes take effect.
Today the President (briefly) spoke the truth about the tax bill, saying that if he's able to sign it into law before Christmas, changes in payroll deductions will take effect in February; most middle class taxpayers will start taking home more money. But they won't know how the tax law really affects them individually until the spring of 2019.
That's right. After they vote in the midterm elections.
By the time some of these taxpayers realize they've been bamboozled - when the tax refund check is smaller than they expected - it will be too late. They will have already voted with their pocketbook.
If the Republicans pull this off, they might be able to retain control of Congress through a midterm election under a historically unpopular President. That in itself would be quite a trick. But they might also make it possible for any evidence of wrongdoing that Robert Mueller might uncover to be nothing more than a footnote to history.
The stakes for this tax bill could hardly be higher.
35
It’s really quite simple. Republicans are behaving towards their donors as expensive girls do with their sugar daddies.
20
Professional lobbyists wrote this bill. What could possibly go wrong with it?
16
Paul again is too kind. The GOP Congress has only one plan. It is very simple: do what you’re told!
If they do, their very few, very nuts, billionaire backers will fund their campaigns, drown their opponents in an avalanche of disinformation, phony charges of malfeasance, and rile up the voters with inflaming fake news. All of which has proven so far to get any candidate back into office, the exception being Moore. However, Moore was possibly the worst candidate ever fielded, except possibly Trump.
19
I haven't yet received, or seen in my local library, a five to ten page analysis of how this tax plan will impact - positively and negatively - ALL Americans. Is it true that poor and middle class folk will lose after two or three years whatever benefits that they first appear to receive, while the rich and corporations benefit FOREVER. Donald Trump, it is said, wants to have his one and only success ratified before the end of the year. What the heck is wrong with this ego-maniac? Everything has to resolve around him? What about "we the people"?
10
#4. Too many Republicans are living in an adolescent Randian fantasy where they believe they are Masters of the Universe despite being empty-suit government employees beholden to the donor class.
Weak-kneed mediocrities like Paul Ryan look in the mirror and see John Gault starring back. Trump is not the only Republican "leader" with a thin grasp on reality.
22
You're giving Ryan too much credit. I don't think he sees John Gault in the mirror. He sees a a guy rather clearly named Paul Ryan who isn't dressed up in John Gault'a baloney ideals. He sees a greedy, ambitious, empty-headed little gangster-enforcer who will do anything to get reelected and bring more money into his coffers. He sees exactly what he is. A water carrier, and carrier of everything else for that matter, for the Mercers, the Koch brothers, and the Sinclair-Smiths. Ryan may not be very bright but he certainly knows which side his bread is buttered on. Which is to say, for Mr. Ryan it's buttered on both sides. Why anybody pretends he is anything less than a full-fledged, highly paid servant of American thugs is beyond me.
Apparently con artists are at risk, long term, for falling for their own scam. Drug dealers eventually start using their profits, and propagandists, finally, come to believe their own propaganda. The Republicans, in their current iteration, are finished. They have nothing left to give anyone except the handful of billionaires who fund their elections. They are dangerously out of touch with everyone elderly.
9
There can't be any quid without a quo.
2
I agree that Collins and McCain are a disappointment. I was almost fooled into thinking McCain had finally come back to his senses and that Collins remembered who she represented. The Republicans in the House and Senate no longer represent character, compassion or common sense.
They can’t even add. 4th grades could do a better job of budgeting. They are collectively a disgrace. Not a critical thinker in the bunch
23
What could be more unfair and convoluted than the current tax system? A system that encourages businesses to offshore their operations, penalizes the small and medium businesses that due their production and sales in the US and exempts 47% of the citizens from financing their government.
1
So unfair that after tax corporate profits are at an all time high? It's a real shame.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP/
1
Easy. This bill in a walk.
5
Easy one to answer. This bill by a country mile.
5
The GOP is rushing this bill trough because they know Trump is done. What this is really about is getting what they want - massive transfer of wealth - in the form of tax policy, in exchange for throwing the Emperor to the lions.
It is crass, political blackmail. Pay us to go away, and we'll bury our mistake.
25
"Or you could say, “Well, I guess I’ll be looking for a lobbying job/ think tank position/commentator role on Fox News in 2019” – in which case your mission in what remains of your Congressional career is to keep donors and the party machine happy, never mind the voters." That's exactly what it is - always about the money, always with the GOP.
40
The Republicans probably are betting that they can hold on to enough seats in the House and Senate next year to make it impossible for the Democrats to override a Trump (or Pence) veto of a repeal bill. We're going to be stuck with this nonsense until the Democrats have majorities in the House and Senate and President Gillibrand takes office in 2021.
15
I'm a Democrat. Lifelong. If Gillibrand is president I'm leaving the country. She she may be more sane than Trump but has about as much integrity. They're both con artists without a speck of principle.
2
"Now, all of these stories work better at explaining the House than at explaining Senators like John McCain or Susan Collins, who are working quickly to destroy all the good will they won by taking a stand on health care."
Paul, why are you surprised about the fact that McCain and Collins have voted for this deplorable tax bill? Anyone who thinks McCain and Collins are "moderate" Republicans needs to think again. These people are only "moderate" in relation to the rest of their far, far, far, far, far right wing party. McCain and Collins are in a different universe than every Democratic Senator, including the likes of Joe Manchin.
I remember when Collins and McCain were doing their utmost to drag out the negotiations over the ACA as long as possible in the hopes of scuttling it altogether. They kept pushing for just one change here, and just one change there. They told their Democratic counterparts that if they agreed to those changes, then Collins and McCain would vote for the ACA. They were playing Obama and the congressional Democrats for fools, and they nearly got away with it.
34
Oh, for heaven's sake, Paul! The Republicans have the best legislators money can buy.
22
I wrote to my two United States Senators about what a terrible bill the Senate legislation was, and received a written response from Sen. Hatch. He practically sprained his shoulder patting himself on the back for the “nearly a week of robust deliberations before the Senate Finance Committee” on a 13-11 party-line vote. Oh wow: I am certainly comforted that that much dispassionate effort went into blowing a 1.5-trillion-dollar hole in the deficit.
I am now trying to decide if Hatch doesn’t care about the electorate because he will not run for another term, or if he thinks that because he is a Republican in Utah he can perpetrate any awful legislation decidedly against their economic interests (abolish personal exemptions, anyone?) and still get re-elected.
16
It's the k street effect. Everything in this country is about money because the rich have stolen and hoarded all the wealth we have to fight over the scraps.
As the great Scottish Patriot once put it, speaking to the nobles, "you think the people exist to provide you with possession but your possession exists to provide the people with freedom!"
12
Why?
Republican Chris Collins explained it (apparently forgetting to keep up the masquerade that the GOP cares about the average American).
"My donors are basically saying, 'Get it [the tax bill] done or don’t ever call me again.'"
Simple: Fat Cat Billionaire donors demand action--GOP rushes to provide satisfaction!!
95
The Republican Tax Cut Bill, has one purpose only: deliberately bankrupt the United States, so that the top 1% and corporations can transfer wage earner taxpayer assets to themselves. Who is going to pay for the $ 1trillion + deficit, a gross underestimate? When the bills come due and can't be paid, because of the historically documented trickle-down scam, the Republicans will go full speed after their real target: social security (paid for by wage earner taxes), health care, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, privatization of public infrastructure, internet access, and wage earner pension funds or savings of every kind. For workers worried about a job, and wondering why their income keeps going down, the Republicans have been practicing this for years. Buy a company (or the government), put yourself on the board (or in the Senate/House of Reps), vote to max out the company or government's credit line (borrow as much as you can against the company assets or in the case of the government keep the military-industrial complex corporations happy-if necessary start a couple more unfunded wars) and award yourself the cash (e.g., short term stock options--when you fire people the stock price goes up; or, if you're running the government pass some big time tax cuts). Then when the company or government is all out of money, declare bankruptcy & fire everyone so that the workers and all below the top 1% have no income, health care, homes, or jobs) and shut the doors.
28
I keep thinking of Mitt Romney and the 47%, the "takers" by which he meant most of us. Could we just reverse that thought and call the 1% the takers?
Your analysis is excellent. Thank you.
7
Medicare is also paid for by the wage-earners.
I think it has more to do with Mr. Trump's ego than anything else; his need to dominate others and to be right all of the time. His response today to Mr. Moore's defeat is telling, "...I was right".
6
It doesn't seem all that complicated. The Republicans want to have something to talk about in 2018. They want to be able to claim that everybody, especially the middle class, is taking home more money courtesy of the Republican tax plan - so vote Republican: never mind the scandals, the incoherence, the chaotic and drooling president, the traitorous involvement with the Russians. Without this tax issue they have _nothing. As a group they live from election to election. The tax plan eventually dumps money from the middle class in to the pockets of corporations and the very rich, but as long as it's over the horizon of the next election, they just don't care. As long as you do whatever is necessary to win the next election - by induction - you stay in power indefinitely, and that's ultimately all that matters to them.
17
Probably they think that they may never have an opportunity like this again. Let's hope that they are right!
13
Supply side economics is the opiate of the GOP base.
The GOP apparatchiks, at least most of them, don't really believe cutting taxes for the rich or corporations will create jobs. They certainly don't think tax cuts for corporations will boost workers earnings. That's a new claim that's even more outrageous than the standard longstanding supply sider claims. But the GOP base won't buy into those tax cuts without being fed a continuing supply of near religious claims that the tax cuts will not only pay for themselves, not only create jobs but even miraculously give every employee a $4,000 per year pay raise! And many in the GOP base do believe those claims just as they believed Obama was not born in the US.
Let's face the fact that the GOP base are the most gullible voters on the planet and the GOP leaders know it and cynically exploit them.
Let's also face the fact that whites, including white women, voted overwhelmingly for Roy Moore. His defeat was wholly due to record African-American turnout. If Alabama lawmakers had been more effective at suppressing the black vote Moore would have won.
10
You might check the results. White women in urban centers seem to have voted for Doug Jones.
4
It is amazing how Republicans are literally slapping this thing together in secret, without any attempt to appeal to Democrats or popular opinion, and without any intellectual justification for it. They accused Democrats of the same thing with the ACA, although their complaint wasn't true. We have not since then heard them offer a single intelligent idea to address health care issues in the country. Republicans also complained throughout Obama's presidency about debt and deficits, but now that they are in power, we don't even hear them mention those words. They claim they want to help middle-class people, with this 'trickle-down' policy, which has never worked in the past. On the other hand, they are dead-set against a policy that would actually and directly put money in peoples' pockets, namely, increasing the minimum wage. If working people were paying attention, they would realize that Republicans are NOT serving their economic interests.
10
"The rot afflicting the G.O.P. is comprehensive — moral, intellectual, political and reputational." (David Brooks, NYTimes) Indeed. As an Independent voter, fiscally conservative and socially moderate, I have problems with both major parties, and with the two party system, for that matter. But in recent years, I have to agree the Republican Party has lost any semblance of respectability. Now with control of all three branches of government, they appear utterly drunk with power. The recent tax "reform" bills are perfect examples, where they were writing in stuff in the margins while they voted for it, and even after they passed it. "Tucked into the legislation from both chambers, however, are measures with consequences for the environment, health care, churches and abortion rights." (PolitiFact) That is not governance, just obeisance to their donor/owners.
12
The Republicans are more afraid of their donors now than their constituents later. On the other hand, they're probably convinced that they can persuade a critical mass of voters that whatever suffering they're about to experience is somehow the fault of Obama and the Democrats.
As far as Democratic reticence goes, I can think of only two options: (1) the Democrats are giving the Republicans a really long rope to hang themselves or (2) enough of their corporate and Wall Street donors like this bill that they can't act too outraged.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, the full effects of this bill won't come due until after the 2018 election.
7
I'm taking a layman's guess here but I don't see that this tax plan will boost the economy. As I see it, while the new tax plan will give corporations and pass through businesses an extra amount of cash, the government is also borrowing the same amount to pay for it. Unless foreigners come in with new money, there's no new money in this plan that will stimulate the economy. The piddling crumbs offered to the middle class will not be enough to stimulate demand very much. The Fed meanwhile is SELLING US debt, not buying and is also planning to raise interest rates. The simultaneous DHS attack on 11 million undocumented immigrants will also hurt the overall economy. The only bright spot as I imagine, is that the world economy appears to be finally coming out of the Great Recession and this might spur our economy as long as the planned fight against free trade is unsuccessful.
3
It's a shame that we can't tell the GOP that if they break the economy they own it, all of it. Then again, do we want them to own something that they've broken unless they get to suffer along with the rest of us?
6
My republican representative voted against both wealth care acts (health and taxes) yet I still won't vote for him in 2018 because by remaining part of the republican caucus he remains part of the problem; and, the only solution to that problem, I'm afraid, is for there to be a majority of Democrats in congress come 2018 and a real president again in 2020.
23
Dr. Krugman nails the problem when he asks, "How many people even know how their representative voted?" There is a fundamental disconnect between those in power, especially in Congress, and the voter. That gap allows those in Congress to toe the party line: "It's a middle class tax cut. Check your paycheck in March and you'll see." Well, that may actually be true for some middle-class taxpayers. However, the statement ignores these key facts: A) The lion's share of the cut is for the wealthy and corporations. B) It worsens income inequality, and in so doing sows the seeds for the next Great Recession. Temporarily you're going to like it. In the long run it will do you in. It is extremely hard to hold your 2017 congressperson accountable for the 2022 recession.
28
Senators Collins and McCain seem to lack the guts to vote against this horrible bill. In fact the wealthy donors who supported the GOP will be happy if this bill passes because it will be a victory for them to the great detriment of just about everyone.
25
"Today’s Republicans are apparatchiks, who have spent their whole lives inside an intellectual bubble in which cutting taxes on corporations and the rich is always objective #1."
I think that the above sentence in this opinion piece captures the Republican spirit perfectly. The GOP does not have any understanding and doesn't want to take the time to understand what working Americans need or expect from their elected officials. Why? Because if you have the likes of the Koch Brothers, the Waltons, and a bunch of other upper crust families and corporations funding you, flattering you, and donating money to your campaigns there's no need to pay any attention to the people who voted you in. In fact all you need to do is throw them a small piece of gristle and they'll be thrilled.
The other problem with the GOP and the current congress and administration is that it's so white and rich male that they suffer from groupthink. No one will challenge them or correct them. Trump will reward them with lavish praise in early morning tweets if they give him what he wants. He wants their unwavering adulation (not loyalty), a tax overhaul that will put more money into his pockets, and to wreck the ACA without replacing it. The GOP wants to end every safety net program in existence so it can have more money to give to its favorite donors/friends of the GOP. Trump's immature behavior can be overlooked as long as he allows them to destroy our country while helping the 1%.
28
Bravo! Well and truly said. The truth about the behavior of Republicans and DT has never been more tellingly told. Thank you.
3
The best way to think of this 0.1% is as an old-fashioned bank robbery.
The Republicans planned this record heist a long time ago, carefully gerrymandering the country into fake voting districts, passing voter suppression laws left and right to ensure Republican (0.1%)tyranny, championing 0.1% political speech to drown out citizen objections, gutting the Voting Rights Act to ensure White Republican Rule, using the undemocratic red state Senate to stuff the courts with Russian-Republican sympathizers, and relying heavily on the 'magic' of the Electoral College to appoint rubber stamp stooges to whatever highway robbery they could legislate.
After all those years of diabolical scheming, planning and carefully orchestrated overthrowing of American democracy, the Grand Old Pirates are not going to abort the plan on the day of the bank robbery and reconsider.
They have discredited the bank tellers, paid off the security guards and the getaway car is waiting to take them out to celebrate Christmas dinner and then to a private airport for a Caribbean New Year.
The Republican Party has devolved into organized crime and is taking the national treasury.
Now get out of the way before they start waving their guns at Americans and someone gets hurt.
"We are taking the money.....now beat it !"
GOP 2017
389
Socrates, you are one of my favorite commenters. I have. over the years, posted nearly all of your comments to Facebook. Thanks!
1
Great comment as usual Socrates.
Your bank robbery analogy conjured up visions of "The Return of the Pink Panther" movie with Chuck Schumer as Inspector Clouseau holding the door open for the escaping robbers after asking John McCain, "ave you a leesonce for siz monkee?"
C'mon, we have to laugh or we'd probably go jump off a bridge with all that's gone down lately. Except, that is, the brilliant beam of light at the end of the tunnel that's coming from the Alabama election - hey Republicans, objects in your mirror, like Nov 2018, are closer than they appear!
Yes, they want a legislative victory - not for the voters but for their actual constituents who write the checks. The Democrats are only marginally better on that count. If Congress actually delivered things the voters wanted, we'd live in a much better country.
5
Critiquing it for being rushed matters little to those who believe Trump's empty promises about how great the tax bill is. The vote on Roy Moore can easily (and probably rightly) be seen by them as a referendum on the allegations, as opposed to his economic agenda.
Republicans are doing what their leadership has been promising for years - cutting taxes and attempting to shrink the size of gov't. It's all well and good to say that voters don't support tax cuts for the wealthy, but they keep voting in people who say they're gonna do exactly that. The Republicans weren't punished for the Bush tax cuts, and Obama chose to not to make an political issue of it or fight against the prevailing wisdom that getting rid of those tax cuts - such as the estate tax elimination was not a good thing to do in the wake of the financial crisis. Why not? Why not make a show of using the revenue from the estate tax to fund a public works project? He also chose not to make the economic argument for a larger stimulus, and not to have an ideological debate about how private spending had gotten us into the current mess, and why public spending was necessary. He allowed the contention that the financial collapse was due to reckless behavior of first time home buyers, to go largely unchallenged.
In short, he didn't use his bully pulpit to argue against the ideological underpinnings of the conservative revolution and therefore didn't change the conversation effectively.
7
You do realize everyone gets a cut, right?
Well John will that cut allow them to have clean drinking water, breathe clean air, have a secure retirement fund and affordable healthcare?
What Republicans hate about gov't programs is that they help lower income people with taxes from wealthier people.
Do you honestly believe that these tax cuts are going to compensate for the defunding of the safety net?
2
It is far from clear that the bill is an abomination. As Piketty observes, the Trump ("vulgar American business man") tax bill is virtual identical to the tax plan of Macron( "well-educated, enlightened European with his concern for dialogue between different cultures and sustainable development") in France.
US Plan: federal tax on corporate profits will be reduced from 35% to 20%); a reduced tax of approximately 25% will be instituted for the pass-through income of company owners (as an alternative to the higher rate of income tax at 40% applicable to the highest salaries); and inheritance tax will be considerably reduced for the richest.
France Plan: The rate of corporation tax will gradually be reduced from 33% to 25%; a lower rate of 30% will be introduced for dividends and interest (as an alternative to the 55% income tax rate applicable to the highest salaries); the wealth tax will be abolished for the largest financial and business wealth holders holders
I.e Trump and Macron, arrived at the same conclusions (In French même combat)
The rational conclusion is that there are factors at work that forces two individual that could not be more different to arrive at similar tax reforms.
I.e. globalization (promoted by Mr. Krugman with little understanding of its political and fiscal consequences) - that has now lead to global competition in taxes.
http://piketty.blog.lemonde.fr/2017/12/12/trump-macron-meme-combat/
2
Why is the rational conclusion that there are other factors at work? Pikkety argues against both Trump's and Macron's approach (and you must admit that Macron isn't making the same drastic cuts Trump is.) Why shouldn't we conclude that because the leaders of Sweden and Germany agree on not cutting taxes on corporations, that theirs is the logical approach?
The effective tax rate for corporations in the U.S. (comparable to most Western countries) is 19 percent. However, most Western countries, France included, do not have the myriad corporate loopholes we have. The GOP tax bill does nothing to close corporate loopholes, which would have made the bill seem more serious. Instead it eliminates middle-class deductions and creates a huge new corporate loophole, the treatment of pass-throughs.
8
You neglect to point out that Piketty goes on to say both are wrong. Macron's is a little less rapid and extreme. But they are both pointed in the wrong direction.
4
There's only one principle at work.
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we
are. They are different. ” F. Scott Fitzgerald
3
Why isn't every single Democrat in Congress screaming their heads off on every news station, every single day about this Reverse (perverse?) Robinhood plan to steal over a trillion dollars? Where are the billboards, the headlines, full-page ads, or the radio talking heads to inform the public???
This is real, folks! It is happening and it will affect every single one of us. Sound the alarm!
158
Mike, your question is powerful, and why indeed? They sure loudly took to the airwaves about Al Franken--attacking him, marching him through the town square, and then sending him packing as though somehow his boorish pranks matched the predatory attacks of Mr. Moore on kids. So we know they are not afraid of being loud-- why so quiet on this tax rip-off? Same wealthy donors demanding their quiet fealty perhaps?
Why? Because they can. It's who they are.
8
"Because they can"--or, "because he can"--is the answer to everything the Reps do. Also the answer to why men bully and abuse women. It's up to the group being hurt to stop the bullies wherever they are. Even on the school playgrounds. Hit them first, and become one of "them," in effect? This is the philosophical question Jesus attempted to solve: Instead of hitting them first (or back), love them. Look at how well that's been working. (Apologies to Christians everywhere.)
2
Maybe they are just intellectually lazy people who don't want to spend the time to craft a bill that makes sense and would rather watch television.
6
And when the democrats are the majority all this will be turned over
1
GOP logic:
Healthcare plan: Cut healthcare for the poor, but cut taxes for the rich.
Tax plan: Cut taxes for the rich, cut healthcare for the poor.
There is a pattern here...
126
While the tax bill SHOULD spell doom for the Republicans, it may not go into effect before the 2018 election. That is, next April, we will probably all pay our income tax under the existing rules.
Are the Democrats smart enough to take the advantage in these circumstances, to remind the voters what will happen to their lives if this bill goes into effect?
10
Further thoughts on Republicans seeing a Democratic wave coming in the future: pardon my cynicism (though it's hard not to become cynical in these times), but they may be counting on that Democratic wave. To wit: by the time their tax cuts explode the economy, remove peoples' benefits, etc., etc., Democrats are likely to be in ascendancy, with at least one house of Congress. American voters have notoriously short memories. How many people think the 2008 financial crisis was caused by Democrats, since many of the darkest days of the crisis happened right after Obama took office...though the crisis was created on Bush's watch? Republicans may be positively counting on Democrats being in power soon, so they can blame any negative events on liberals. Ugh.
23
I'd hesitate to call Trump "childlike" -- "childish" seems far closer to the mark.
Speaking of marks, I think the GOP are hoping they can bamboozle enough marks in next year's elections to ride things out. And/or their voter suppression/intimidation/gerrymandering can protect them. Or maybe they're hoping Trump will get America into yet another war and drive American attention spans abroad, when they should be focused on what's occurring at home.
The hope is that there is enough voter turnout in 2018 to send a blue tsunami to sweep away the GOP red tide that's plaguing our nation.
7
Not "childlike", I think; infantile.
17
- and we really should tell the truth.
After this Dream Program of every rich gambler on the planet will pass -the American economy will boom in the next year like hardly ever before -
and Prof. Krugman should explain NOW to the American people - that this coming superboom is - and will never be the success of the GOP or Trump.
It will be the success of the yuuge worldwide money slosh - (aka the Confidence Fairy) - which is just waiting for the new tax law to be enacted - in order to swamp the US homeland with so much more dough that it might literally explode the Casino.
And not to tell the people this truth NOW - probably will be even worst than ignoring the devastating pkight of the US workers for years?
1
The only boom in the economy will be the exploding deficit and debt of the middle class.
2
GOP is also betting on the lameness of voter memory and reason -- specifically that the modest tax reductions some middle-class voters will see in the near term, along with a continuation of the upward economic trend that started under Obama (but will now redound to Trump), will be enough to 'convince' them that the country is on the right course 'at last'.
8
One reason voters don't know how their representative votes is that unless the Speaker and the Majority Leader are sure they have majority support, they don't schedule the vote.
This leaves voters in the lurch, not knowing what their representatives are willing to commit to. But it serves the needs of the rep because, without a record, he or she can always claim to agree with the audience.
It is this cynical style of leadership that cheats voters out of knowing who and what is on the line.
9
I'm a registered Republican who voted for Lee Zeldin (R) in Suffolk County in 2016, and Zeldin won only narrowly.
Zeldin voted against the House tax bill, but (as I've written him)
-- I don't care how he voted, and
-- if my Fed taxes go up due to this bill -- and they will go up a lot -- I am voting Dem next time and for a long time.
BUT HERE'S WHAT I WANT: I want to contribute to other Dem House campaigns next year to help the Dems take a LOT of close Republican House seats in 2018. How do I do that?
Is there a Dem Super-PAC that will focus on just those House races, the ones that are close and in which "upper" middle income taxpayers can be motivated to go vote against the GOP Reps who stabbed them in the back?
Jones won in Alabama because there was a superb get-out-the-vote effort. Who is running the same effort in all the close Republican-held House districts in 2018?
I want revenge.
193
Aye aye and bravo. The 2018 elections are the most important political event in the next 12 months. No other way to have a genuine impact on the direction of policy. I too have been looking for one group/PAC/organization that is 100% focused on that election and changing the composition of the current House of Rep. When you find it let me know !!
1
The easiest is just to donate to the Democratic Party: they know where the close races are, and will likely do a pretty good job of funding them. More complicated, but more fun: keep track of how the races in various states are going, and donate directly to candidates who meet your criteria. I recommend the political coverage in Daily Kos (fee free to ignore the more snarky articles on that site) but the political anaylsts there who write the Campaign Roundup are remarkably well informed).
2
Www.swingleft.org is doing exactly that. You can volunteer, too.
3
I do genuinely wish that after Democrats regain the Senate and the House, hopefully in Nov 2018, we can halt this corporate tax scam, and reinstate the climate accords, and chase away the conspiratorial cabinet, and impeach Trump. Among other necessary things.
31
Problem is that if Trump is still pResident he will veto repeals and we won't have 2/3 of Congress to override.
Not unless we get a veto-proof majority, which is unlikely.
1
Great to see you here again, I'm a fan. Today, I came to a realization that the greedy, heartless, donor serving, echo chamber Republican Hoods Robin' are in fact a Monopoly Government. Our patience will be rewarded with rebellion at the Polls inspired by the Republican power grab and abuse. It will "Make My Day".
3
I feel like the elephant in the room is: Republican politicians are rewarded handsomely after being in office for lowering taxes on the donor class. They are taking care of their own personal financial future. Hamilton Nolan elucidated this nicely in "The Republican Party is a Trick," one of Gawker's final and most honest posts.
8
Dr Krugman,
I have seen these economics before and it may be again work to grow GDP and kick start growth.
From the time Swift wrote his Modest Proposal to the time of the potato blight the poor of Ireland added nothing to the Irish economy and the land the poor lived on provided only potatoes and shelter to Ireland's poor.
In a land whose economy was based on food export the death of one million peasants and the deportation of a a million more meant the Irish economy could grow and the rewards could be shared by 20% fewer people.
Neoliberalism is a wonderful economic philosophy for those devoid of empathy, compassion and humanity. There is a bridge in Montreal under which lie the bones of those who didn't survive the trip from Ireland.
GOP policy makes a lot of sense to those who see America's future as a nation with far fewer people but with people who each have a larger stake in the the nation's prosperity. Roy Moore told it like he sees it America was great when slaves did the work and technology means that just as in Ireland all that is left is for the poor to disappear.
8
Pretty good analysis of today's incredibly dysfunctional GOP. It deserves everything awful that can happen to it.
Dr. Krugman goes on to say, "...in which case your mission in what remains of your Congressional career is to keep donors and the party machine happy, never mind the voters." This can be said just as well for Democrats, though they seem to have fewer post-career options available.
Krugman also gives an unintended indictment of the two-corporate party system at the end when he states, "And while Democrats should and will fight this attempt to ram tax cuts through with the vote of a lame-duck Senator, if I were a Dem strategist looking toward next November I’d be looking at current GOP moves and thinking, “Make my day.”" He is noting that today's corporate parties care for little beyond the acquisition and maintenance of power. The professor overlooks the fact that independents are the largest group of 'party affiliates;' we have choices for whom we vote and the number does not stop at two.
2
If you really don't see the difference between the parties at this point, we're all lost. Sometimes cynicism is very naïve.
We have a two-party system unless and until we reform elections to allow instant run-offs. If you split the left, you get the results we have now.
If you want to have a multi-party system, then lobby your state to adopt instant run-offs. You're tilting at windmills otherwise. And you're indirectly electing Trump and the GOP.
3
If you vote independent, or doing so is not legal in your state, you are giving away any hope of having a better 3rd party in the future, and are helping the GOP rape the majority of us.
Every Republican in Congress believes he is not there to make the lives better for the district or state he represents, but rather delight to serve as a rich man's disposable toy or cleaning aid, like a few squares of toilet tissue. This is why they hide behind "talking points" crafted by others and take no interest or time to learn about the details of the proposed legislation or what legislation might be appropriate to address the needs of their districts.
Unfortunately, the evidence is overwhelming for this position. In many states and districts, there is not a single person who this tax bill really helps--and the majority, especially after the forced budget cuts, will be hurt.
23
It's a deceptive diversion to make people think it's a Christmas gift when in fact it is a payoff of all the Republican Donors for their support.
11
There are some insect species, including the praying mantis, where the female consumes the male after he has fertilized her eggs. The voter of today is like the male mantis. After they've served their one function and pulled the lever for "their" candidate, their involvement in the political process has ended and they merely become food for the corporatists. Their children are hired to fight their wars and their tax dollars are funneled up the ladder to the wealthiest among us. All substantive policy decisions are made by lobbyists, in complete disregard for the greater good and enacted by well-coiffed stooges who some day hope to join their ranks.
13
The GOP members of Congress don’t care about constituents. They only answer to “donors”. They don’t care that the tax scam will harm many Americans to help the super rich and big corporations. Is there a bigger example of such arrogant disregard for voters? I can’t think of one.
8
You're overthinking this, Professor. The GOP is doing what any burglars do when the hear sirens approaching.
34
I'd like to suggest adding Jeff Flake to the short list (composed of Susan Collins and John McCain) of Senators who have failed their constituents.
11
Flake, McCain, Collins and Sasse all object to the tone but not the substance of GOP policy. If you listen to them, at the outset they sound like people of principle but as they rattle on you realize that they are just as drone-like in their pursuit of tax and social welfare cuts as the most rabid Republican. What they would really like is for everyone to comport themselves while the robbery is taking place.
2
Does Mr. Krugman really think it's going to be a democratic wave election next year because Doug Jones eeked out a marginal victory over a maybe sex offender and all around bad candidate? Wow, reading a lot into that victory. And how long will Mr. Jones keep that seat. I'm guessing about two years.
3
Why? Because they CAN. And, this might be their last chance.
Seriously.
8
I have only one quibble: Dr Krugman's description of Trump as 'childlike'. Certainly Trump is childlike in terms of his ignorance and lack of experience. But few children could be nearly as mean-spirited as this POTUS. Nor fabricate such outlandish lies with such frequency. And be so dangerous to all of us.
20
Maybe the Republicans are just trying to prove that Brownback wasn't really wrong, he just mismanaged.
9
The GOP has to rush this through before all of those middle class white guys that voted them in realize that they can no longer afford "booze, women and movies".
92
".... our childlike president." ???? I don't think so.
Remember that Jesus said that unless we become like little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven? You really think T-rex is "childlike"?
I know what you have in mind.... his 10 second attention span.... his repetitive speech patterns.... his immaturity.
But "child-like"? I don't think so. I've never seen a child as vulgar as T-rex.... with the mind of a sewer ..... No. If he were child-like, there would be hope. But he's just a 70-year old real estate manipulator who has learned how to get his own way, to play off one group against another. He's the worst of what we mean by "politician" -- indeed, he's so vile, you can't really call him a politician. I'm not sure there's even a category vile enough to encompass him.
Moore's defeat is the promise of even better things to come: Trump's defeat in 2 years. Let's work for that.
106
"Childish" is better. It implies the deficiencies of childhood without the virtues. And I'm inclined to agree he isn't a politician in the normal meaning. He's an outright con-man.
9
Childish, was what he meant
1
Here we are, once again discussing a grave, urgent problem, as if it were a game to be played and points to be scored in the comments section, with nary a word about how to address it in the real world. By contrast, consider this message of hope and encouragement by Tom Friedman in his column today:
"And most of all, thank you [to Alabama] for sending a message to Donald Trump and Stephen Bannon that you are not as dumb as they think you are. That you see what they are up to — trying to use divisive tweets and racist dog whistles to get as many Americans as possible so aroused and inflamed that they won’t think about the real issues, they won’t think about the actual candidates, they won’t think about the national interest, or even their own self-interest, but just how much they dislike “the other” — and you’re not buying it any more." http://tinyurl.com/y7a5zca9
Yes, the hate must stop on BOTH sides—if we are to survive as a democracy. BOTH sides are victims of what Hillary Clinton rightly called a "vast right-wing conspiracy"—perpetrated by the Koch brothers and their allies, with an almost limitless amount of money to support their divide-and-conquer strategy.
Are you angry? Good, put it to work. Go out and ring some doorbells for a promising, young, Democratic candidate. Tell the voters about the tax scam, and how you and they together can help fix it.
85
I find it so depressingly naive that after a well stated comment like that, you still think that the Democrats will “fix it”. They’re beholden to the same masters as the GOP; they just market themselves differently.
We we need is a social revolution.
4
Doug Jones won in Alabama, yet he won't be seated until after the new year begins. Repuglicans will rush through this tax bill before the year ends, because they want to be assured of the money flowing from their owners...er...donors. It's like a crack addict, when you are hooked, you "will do anything" to get that next hit. For these lawmakers, power is their drug of choice.
34
play on words...I have 2 pugs who are loving, great company, and kind...opposite of trump. maybe repugnant is a more accurate term if one chooses to use the letters pug.
1
Congresscritter? I must get myself a new dictionary.
4
I think Jim Hightower uses that word.
1
There is no reason to suppose there is a grand strategy here. Much like the mind of our President I'd say the Republicans are just living in the moment.
Right now they have the votes to pass the tax bill their donors want. So they'll pass it. The future, they'll worry about that when it comes.
19
The problem is the Confidence Fairy - and as there is no competition for the US Casino currently - worldwide - there should be some warning by economists -
that the coming boom might be far - faar too successful - as not only the Irish know that lowering the Corporate Rate always was the easiest economical tool to become even richer than god.
And the problem might be - that we - the Confidence Fairy and teh homeland - really wants that?
A forth reason might be that once the holiday season is over people might have the time to understand this monstrosity better, see the hypocrisy of their elected officials, let the negative momentum gain steam, heed the call to action and pressure the Congress to write a better tax bill. The ship of state, normally, takes it's time when steering toward the future to ensure a safe passage. This bill needs to be rushed through so the passengers can't see that the Captain's unfit, the crew are all drunk and the lifeboats have holes drilled by corporations. Welcome to the Good Ship Lobbyist.
29
Passing this bill in a country that already has very high inequality according to the Gini index will be political suicide for the Republicans. Alabama showed there is a strong grass roots movement in America to get rid of the corrupt Trump government. I've been saying for the last year that it is strong American women who are going to revolutionize American society to be a more humane place for everyone. I would love to see Kirsten Gillibrand as President with Hillary Clinton as VP. The US would benefit from Hillary's vast experience at the top levels of government, and Gillibrand's energy, credibility, resolve, leadership, and speaking skills. Barack Obama chose an older running mate in Joe Biden which worked out well for him. Hillary would make a great mentor to Gillibrand. She would also make a great president but it may be time, as has happened in Canada, to pass the baton to the next generation.
6
This is not difficult to understand if you are open to the big picture. The republicans are not seeking to give America a functional budget or tax plan, this is an attempt to break the government, and shut down all of the social programs. They have been trying to do this for years, attempting to privatize them so their cronies can run them for a profit. Some of them have already made statements to this effect. Social security has been ravaged by congress for years, and now that it's time to pay the piper, they are determined not to.
The unfortunate truth is, the money is not there, and this added burden will throw the debt into overdrive. And that's what they want. This will position them to then say, "oh, we have to make these cuts to save the country", while all the while, they and the fat cats will be busy hiding the money they are currently setting themselves up to receive. The dollar is going to crash, and the country is going to come apart. Well done you republcans.
How does it feel to be great again?
13
I really, really, don't want to talk about this, but with the possible massive transfer of wealth to the already-wealthy and the possible blowing of a 1.5 trillion dollar hole in the next decade's finances I feel I have to. I had two close relatives die recently, one from glioblastoma and one from metastatic melanoma that had spread to that person's brain. Brain cancer affects people's ability to reason. Senator McCain's positions on fiscal responsibility and other issues would have lead one to believe he might object to this abomination of a bill. Instead, I saw a video of him being pushed in a wheelchair to announce that he was in favor of the bill.
McCain was and still is a hero to me. I think the people of this country deserve to know whether McCain really understands what he is signing as opposed to being coached. Again, I am really sorry to have to bring this up but the issues are too important.
23
The GOP is only about money. Donor's money. Money to outspend the opposition. But it's not free. Donor's don't care about philosophy or priciples or the people or the country. Donors are The Rich and The Businessmen. They became wealthy, their businesses grew by focusing on only one thing: the bottom line. That means getting something (tax cuts) for something (their political contributions).
Quid Pro Quo. Lindsey Graham said exactly that.
11
Aside from the obvious fact that their donors are paying them to do this, I feel that an equally obvious reason is being overlooked: Each Senator and Rep who votes for this is benefiting themselves. These are all wealthy people. They are cutting their tax rates and passing their wealth to their heirs tax free in perpetuity. This clearly explains McCain's apparent flip flop. He is very wealthy and is also dying. This legislation is his personal gift to his wife, children and grandchildren. Remember the old advice: Vote your economic interests. They are.
32
At least the NYT has finally updated their style guide such that it is permissible to label a tax bill which cuts taxes for higher earners and corporations a tax bill which cuts taxes for high earners and corporations instead of 'tax reform' or 'tax overhaul'. Who says there is no such thing as progress? I predict that it will only take them a year or 2 to figure out that 'entitlement reform' or 'entitlement overhaul' actually means 'cuts to Social Security and Medicare'. But perhaps that is overly optimistic.
5
Another concern relative to next election cycles—-will middle and low income families be blind sighted by short term, very limited tax “benefits”... only to lose so-called benefits upon their expiration? There needs to be a clear, targeted accounting . If college loan interest, state tax, medical or child care deductions are eliminated, will there be ANY short term gain? The sooner this corrupt tax plan is initiated, the less will be the public’s understanding. But why allow for wider education when the republican goal is to support corporations, the wealthy, and favorite lobbyists. Seems that democrats should be doing a better job of detailing the needlessly confusing factors.
8
First they took too long, and now they’re “rushing it”. They’re moving the tax bill along, Paul, so they don’t have to deal with Doug Jones and 5,326 more editorials and op-eds from the New York Times that condemn it. Altogether, it seems like a rational move to me.
It’s not at all outrageous: it’s politics. And if Democrats had been less insistent on that abomination of an ACA, it wouldn’t even be an issue, because the likelihood is high that they’d still have enough juice to keep Republicans honest by the lights of liberals. As it turned out, though, Democrats, even with Jones, don’t constitute a majority in any part of federal government and still watch as Republicans run two-thirds of our governorships and partisan statehouse chambers.
Why should they wait? To please YOU and Democrats!? Hahahahahahahahahaha!
Paul, your bluff was called on 8 November 2016, when Republicans MADE your day.
11/08/16 Right, that is when Trump lost by 2,800,000 votes and several blue and purple state Republican senators were re-elected solely by running on the mantra that they would be good opponents of President Hillary Clinton.
Find a family whose loved one's life was saved because the ACA allowed them timely medical care, and then denigrate the law. Yeah right.
8
Those Democratic strategists might be gleefully thinking "Make My Day", but I suspect that those of us not making six figures a year as consultants are thinking more in terms of "Our Days Are Numbered."
Sorry, but the realization that the GOP mobsters are shooting themselves, and that the Dems look good in comparison doesn't put food on our tables, pay the rent, make doctor visits feasible even with "affordable" coverage, or ease whole lifetimes' worth of crushing student debt.
With the election of a monumentally incompetent criminal to the White House, the Republicans are newly emboldened to act out the darkest fantasies of the malignant Donor Class, a/k/a the Owner Class. The defeat of good ole boy pedophile Roy Moore does indeed spell the eventual doom of Trumpism and possibily the GOP majority. So they'll grab while the grabbing's good.
Plus, all the really nasty bad stuff is traditionally rushed through during the joyful winter holiday season. They count on most of us being either too busy consuming, or too depressed about our already-strapped existences, to make much of a stink. Furthermore, since we don't know exactly what is in this piece of malignant legislation, and the entire media-political complex will have made their quick holiday getaways, by the time we find out it'll be a done deal.
Then we'll be told to "adapt" and to practice "resilience" as we wait to vote the good guys back in to, at best. only partially undo what the Sadism Party has wrought.
195
In addition, I think there is a sense of urgency to pass it. Sort of a reverse Nancy Pelosi, this time it's "We have to pass before people learn what is in it." The longer it takes, the more opposition to it will grow. It's worked well in Wisconsin and, more recently to an extent, in Iowa.
5
As another blue stater -- wondering if court cases can be brought against this legislation as it unfairly pits states against each other and calls out winners (the tax advantaged) and losers who have to pay the winners.
1
You have completely nailed it- thank you.
1
The dangers of allowing too much power in the hands of too few people is clear in this self-serving rush to approve GOP tax plans . Now trumping even the government itself, the largest danger today is the burgeoning U.S. system of unaccountable private corporations and Wall Street entities. A tiny fraction of 1% individuals /oligarchs/corporations not only own & control our economic system, but now even the government itself through huge campaign donations with many conditions and strings attached that benefits them at the expense of everyone else. Our buffoon politicians now are shameless tools & lackeys of corporate America who continue offering very inadequate facts, figures, and above all, toxic programs and policies. Changing their positions as fast as others change socks, they serve up fantasies, facts, figures and views that often even naïve , uninformed individuals can find difficult to believe . With much theatricality, these pathetic 'facts du jour' are manufactured & delivered while simultaneously rejecting the wisdom attributed to Abraham Lincoln about deception :
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time".
9
This is tax/healthcare policy for the 1%, and the Democrats have to hammer that home. Tax cuts for the rich but no healthcare for kids. It cuts taxes for businesses and rich estate holders, while (if paid for) will hurt 72% of taxpayers. It increases health insurance premiums and reduces health coverage by millions.
Of course it makes record income and wealth inequality even worse, making income brackets stickier and probably slowing economic growth. And if not paid for, it hurts the deficit, which means eventually taxes on the bottom 99% have to go up even more to offset the cuts the top 1% got.
Tradeoffs are another good way to explain the impact. For example, what could we do instead with the $15 billion a year in estate tax cuts alone?
1. Pay for in-state college tuition for 750,000 kids at $20,000 each.
2. Pay health insurance premiums for 2,500,000 uninsured at $6,000 each.
3. Pay off student loans for 405,000 debtors at $37,000 each.
10
You attribute too much rationality to them, in contrast to some of your other columns. The con men here, Ryan in particular, is conned by his own con. If he has any self-doubt whatsoever, it clearly frightens him.
5
Rush it through under cover of darkness because it won't hold up to scrutiny by anyone who cares about the exploding deficit, the average citizen, or the truth. If it passes, the rich get richer, and their enablers keep their jobs. Any sort of debate will only point out how completely awful the results will be for everybody else.
Look! Over there!! It's Hillary's emails!!!!
21
Oh, jeez.... It's a lot simpler. Tax cuts is what their donors paid for, and Republicans dare not say "no" to Singer, Schwarztman, Adelson and the Kochs while they still have the chance to pass it.
Meanwhile, how many Democrats secretly wish they could vote for this abomination? And would love nothing more than a Grand Bargain, so they could share the credit?
Or have we already forgotten that Chuck Schumer was a loud defender of the carried interest loophole and that Obama couldn't wait to give away the store and cut those pesky entitlements, because cat food....
5
Here's one explanation - many, if not most people are susceptible to group think, and take on the opinions of those they surround themselves with. As the Republican party has shifted ever rightward, and the older generation of politicians who remember the time before all the social programs of the 20th century were in effect died out, the remaining senior Republicans have slowly adopted themselves to the new conservatism. Given the electoral success that the Republicans have had with their take no prisoners attitude, who were they to object?
Here's another - the Republican party has always been the party of the wealthy and successful, but had been restrained from acknowledging the extent because they were fearful of public opinion. Over time, it has become safer and safer for the well off to give free reign to their sense of entitlement, ultimately allowing Donald Trump to get elected even after refusing to show his tax returns, despite the fact that his "success" was achieved with the help of multiple bankruptcies that helped him stiff people who worked for him, and probably helped him avoid paying taxes as well.
Republicans no doubt realize they have a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it is time to finally act on their dreams. This is their moment and they are determined to seize it.
16
If the GOP votes in this tax plan, they may well be showing the Democrats how to pay for single-payer. If the economy doesn't grow with the tax cut, the Dems can just hike the tax right back and pay for Medicare for all. I would be deficit-neutral.
54
May be. But the real danger ultimately is a deficit that ultimately creates real depression, economic depression.
3
Slowandeasy - You have it just backwards. Deficits don't cause depressions. Look at the periods preceding EACH of our 6 depressions. All of these periods were ones in which there were NO deficits. Here are the dates:
1817-21, 1823-36, 1852-57, 1867-73, 1880-93, and 1920-30.
A depression began in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893 and 1929.
In fact, EVERY TIME we have eliminated deficits for more than 3 or 4 years, we have fallen into a real, terrible depression.
Interesting points by Krugman. But I rather think the pressure on these Republican legislators is from their benefactors, the very rich, who have made clear in no uncertain terms, that they will cut off the flow of funds if the legislators don’t deliver a tax cut, probably by some date certain.
What’s more, most Republican legislators do believe that a corporate tax cut will help the economy—which goes to Krugman’s first point. It’s an article of faith among them. Watch this video of Any Barkan talking to Sen. Jeff Flake, if you need convincing. https://youtu.be/NDmwW_uRyCk
44
I think an answer can be found in the what should be a rhetorical question: Who do the Republican Representatives and Senators represent in the House and Senate?
The Republicans represent the donors and donor class. And the donors aren't even bashful or shy in telling them so and what they expect the Republicans to do for them. Or else.
If they represented the people the polls of the unpopularity of the tax plan and the means being used to pass it would have meaning. The donors don't care about either, just in getting it done ASAP with no SNAFUs.
41
If Republicans could be figured out with mere logic and reason, it would have been done long ago.
Tax scams are just one arrow in their quiver. They don’t do what’s best for The People, because frankly The People they see are disgusting: mostly poor and middle class schlubs who demand retirement security, social safety nets and medical care. They also need to be protected from themselves, because they’re either getting high, shooting each other or taking each other’s stuff, sometimes simultaneously.
The best Republican thinking attributes this maladaptive behavior to spending all their measly cash on booze, women and movies. This trenchant analysis has led them to believe that money is best funneled to the wealthy, who really know what to do with it. Generally that involves single malt Scotch, high-class hookers and Broadway plays, but there's a big difference that seems to defy analysis.
Political nuance is just a waste. Republicans have found that the best way to deal with the hoi polloi is to keep them broke and stupid. This creates resentment, and resentment can be turned into votes just by insinuating that minorities are coming for them, and by warning that poncy liberal Democrats are nothing but Communists in cheap suits.
The details of governance are of absolutely no concern. They didn’t lift a finger during the Obama years, and yet they were hired to make the country great again.
How’s that working out?
580
Gemli-- para 3 ought to go viral. You brought a roar of laughter to this liberal Californian. Happy Holidays!
10
Exactly. The GOP base will never wake up to the reality of the party's policies.
2
I love the line that Republicans turn resentment into votes. My Republican friends are constantly angry, usually about taxes, immigrants, health insurance costs, and the poor. Yet someone in their family benefits from social security, medicare, and medicaid. Keeping them angry is the most important mission of the Republican machine (think FOX news).
2
Well, older folk, remember when we marched in the streets against the Vietnam war?
Where are the marchers?
Why stand by while the Republican congress cuts taxes for the donor class, for ALL wealthy people, and for corporations? The same corporations that have been shifting profits to shareholders while allowing wages for workers to stagnate?
I was a teenager marching against the war, where are the young people today? This tax bill won't just hurt them in the near future, it will hurt them in the long/far/deep future.
The revolution will not be televised--Gil-Scott Heron
It won't be on twitter. It won't be on snapchat or instagram either. Look up from your iphone and out to your life.
340
A European remarked to a similar article and as you have that if this were France or Europe people would be protesting why were they not protesting here?
3
Ii have asked myself the same question. It was moral outrage that energized the civil rights and Vietnam activists across the country. Such moral outrage, when present, is fragmented into blogs, tweets, and comments, and it is weakened by a strong sense of alienation and cynicism.
In addition, university faculty members have so much retirement income tied up in financial markets (look at that Dow!) that moral fervor is muffled: little leadership is offered to their students. Universities which used to be adversarial are now part of the problem (look at those endowment!).
3
I remember very well and have wondered myself why our people are so subdued.
What I have been waiting for though, is that spark to occur when something is denied that should be basic to all people all the time. Like food, medical care, clean air and water and a safe place to sleep. I'm told that spark is not ever coming.
And yet today I see silence, resignation and the last fraying threads of democracy in the face of tyranny.
Thanks for the reference to Gil Scott-Heron. Hadn't heard him rap for a long time til today..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGaoXAwl9kw
3
I go with a variation on #3, the Eric Cantor "Let's Cash In" Theory of Public Service.
Repubs in quasi-liberal precincts won't bother to run for re-election. They'll vote to make the wealthiest 1% even wealthier, and walk... Straight into a Wall Street gig that pays more and has none of the hassles.
120
While retaining pensions and healthcare coverage via having been in Congress, of course.
If the Democrats are smart, starting right away they will loudly and very publicly demand that the tax bill get full hearings before it is passed. They should be wrapping themselves in the mantle of responsible governance, arguing that a bill this major should not be rushed through without hearings and without giving corporations and individuals time to absorb and adjust to its provision. They should be raising fears of unexpected tax increases and burgeoning deficits caused by a bill riddled with errors because it hasn't been properly vetted. Basically, they should be using whatever bully pulpit they have to reach directly to the American people and appeal to them to demand that congress act like responsible adults and give the bill the careful vetting it deserves. Waiting by passively and hoping that the bill will be unpopular once it passes is a weak way to be the opposition. The Democrats have to be aggressive now not only in questioning the bill's provisions, but even more important in questioning the responsibility and competence of the GOP as it tries to push this bill forward far too quickly without hearings, expert testimony, and the full vetting of all its provisions.
312
Welcome to 416. We had four by-elections yesterday and the opposition parties were devastated. In the age of GOP governance it is not surprising that a competent government in Ottawa should see unprecedented electoral success as we watch the USA flounder in its inability to deal with our 21st century reality.
The Democratic Party has problems proposing the policies that make our liberal the mainstream of Canadian politics. I am old enough to remember Republicans from the northeast like Brooks, Rockefeller and Javitts. I know Gillibrand and her history, she is a conservative and I remember a time when she would have been an ideal candidate to lead the GOP into the future. The Democrats are still two decades away from the 21st century.
6
We wish. What is wrong with them?
3
I agree absolutely. It's time for the Democrats--my people--to stand up, spine up and get to work fixing the mess we're in. It's not enough to be the "good guys". We need to be the smart, determined, well-versed and insistent guys. Our chldren demand it of us.
3
You left out what I think is the main cause. If they don't pass this bill the rich donors will close their pocketbooks but if they pass it they can expect very large campaign contributions. Their only hope is that by running enough campaign ads, no matter how misleading, they can convince enough voters to re-elect them. They may be right.
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According to the Guardian, the senators who voted for TPA got campaign donations from the same groups regardless of political party. Let's not ignore this new way of looking at the politicians' financial benefit first (well, maybe not so new but increasingly common.)
Agree with point- but why call them "donors"? They should be called what they call themselves-"investors". And what do "investors" want? Return on "investment"!
And what return have Republicans produced so far for their "Investors"? None!
So what is the motive for this secret, rushed, punitive, and outrageous legislation and process? They need to have something to show LAST year's "investors" to persuade them to be NEXT year's "investors". Organize!!
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Over the long run the Republicans are playing a losing game as more new, young and educated voters move into Southern cities, where new jobs have been created, and who are more interested in economic issues rather then the social and racial issues that have propelled the party to victories in the past. Moore may be the first victim.
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Which is exactly why they're working on getting all the coins they can NOW.
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I think they're betting on a combination of voter amnesia (How many voters will remember this bill next November after all the intervening twitter rants?) and the fact that most of the negative effects won't kick in immediately. They believe people will look at their either slightly lower or unchanged tax bills next year, and think it's not a big deal. And they'll keep on thinking that until they try to retire, and figure out that $1,500-$2,000 per month Social Security check they were expecting is only worth $800. But that's far enough down the road it will be some future politician's problem.
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My sense is that when congressional actions are decoupled from the will of the people (as is the case here) that it tracks back pretty well to corporate money and profits. These folks are bought and until there is election reform they will remain bought.
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The problem is that there is not enough difference between the republicans and democrats. No matter who gets elected, the deficit still gets bigger, we are still mired in a middle east conflict with no end in sight, infrastructure needs repair, therefore taxes must go up......our government is on an unsustainable path.....
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Ther's actually plenty of difference. A major portion of the real problem is that some simply prefer not to see it.
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Were the Democrats elected, it would in fact be different. We'd get infrastructure repair, which would have the added benefit of putting people to work and putting money into the economy. The deficit might not get bigger -- remember the Clinton years? The war machine could very well be scaled back.
Yes, the path under the GOP is unsustainable but only because of their foolish policies and anti-99% priorities.
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Lucifer, look at the history on the national debt. On average the federal debt has grown enormously since the founding of the country. It practically always rises. Why is this not sustainable since we can create as much money as we need?
I might also point out that the six periods in which the debt went down 10% or more, 1817-21, 1823-36, 1852-57, 1867-73, 1880-93, and 1920-30, were each ended by one of our six depression which begin in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893 and 1929 respectively.
In addition, in the Great Prosperity of 1946 to 1973, the federal debt increased 75%, so it would appear that the huge debt from WWII was never paid for at all. It would appear that whenever we did what you prescribe, the economy fell off of a cliff, and at least once when we did not, the country prospered.
It may be simpler than that. Nobody knows what is in the tax bill and nobody knows how it will affect them personally. (As a New York City resident I assume my taxes will be going up bigly but I haven't actually been able to see enough of the tax bill to work how how much.) So the faster Ryan and McConnell pass the bill the fewer the number of people who can work out whether they are better or worse off. Unlike health care, it's not a repeal/keep vote, nobody is being pushed off a cliff, so middle class voters who are some hundreds or thousands of dollars worse off will just swallow hard and tighten their belts. The really bad consequences of the bill are not immediate, they're a long way off, when the Big Pool of Money the 1% are sitting on gets invested in some new bubble that will pop and shock the financial system, another 2007 just waiting to happen.
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Yes. And when the next bubble hits there won't be enough money available to save the 99% from a real depression.
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I think you're mistaken.
The consequences will be swift and painful as middle class taxpayers stop spending and start saving to pay their taxes.
The fears of recession are already making people reconsider their investment strategies and saving plans.
For those about to retire, the fear of social security cuts will force those who can keep working to postpone retirement to try and save a little more. For those that are forced to retire, minimum wage jobs loom large in their future.
If this plan passes we are very likely looking at a long drawn out recession that will reduce tax receipts to the government drastically. The rosy predictions of a 1.5 trillion dollar deficit from this bill will turn into a 3 trillion dollar nightmare.
Start saving, there will be no safety net for anyone.
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The tax bill truly will be a disaster for Republicans next November, for at least these two reasons. First, mid-term elections are not just about the President. They are about the party and the record of the representative. Second, how independents vote will massively affect the swing. Republicans and Democrats are more predictable. The Gallup poll about the tax bill's popularity this month put approval by independents at 25 percent, even lower than the national 29 percent figure.
If the election were held today, the Democrats would win. But keeping today's issues top of mind will be the challenge, given both Trump's constant propaganda in word and deed and divisions among the Democrats which we will see in the primaries.
Hopefully, Republicans actually will push hard to gut Social Security and Medicare. First, they will fail. Even with a war with North Korea (although Trump may save that for the general election), gouging those seniors, who vote, or their kids, would be suicidal for the midterms.
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Good for now, until Trump starts military hostilities against N. Korea or Iran. The public always rallies around the president, at least initially, when we go to war.
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The GOP has succeeded at systematically relieving much of their base of their souls, through sustained effort over a long period of time. Mountains of evangelicals--supposedly morality/decency driven folks--voted for Donald Trump and nearly enough voted for Roy Moore, as just one demographic example.
Otherwise decent, community-minded folks have been turned into partisan warriors who hate the other side so profoundly that they'll support anyone who's republican, even when the democratic candidate better aligns with both their morals and their best interests vis-a-vis policy.
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Sad but true. And even these misled decent people would not be able to subvert our system without voter suppression and gerrymandering.
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There is also "PAC fear" which might be some corollary of "K Street end game." GOP Congresscritters justifiably fear those political but not political TV ads sponsored by "the Donors" that will appear during their primary election and question their conservative or Republican credentials.
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Even Paul Ryan is looking a little grayer today. Besides, it must be getting more difficult for the leadership to get a good nights sleep with all the lying and tweeting going on, not to mention the barrage of "fake news." We are watching this space, thanks Mr. K.
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If Sen Luther Strange were a Patriot, he would ask Sen-Elect Jones how he would vote, and then vote on the tax bill in the manner Alabama’s newly elected Senator would vote.
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Is there any question how Jones would vote? I think not.
The "GOP moderates soon looking for another job" scenario strikes me as the most plausible.
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How I do agree, a much needed essay.
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i'm also deeply concerned that the hidden machine of voter suppression and gerrymandering means that these politicians believe their positions are more secure than the rest of us realize.
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Take heart. Alabama has tried to suppress voter turnout for decades. It didn't work yesterday.
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This, I think, is an unspoken truth. The Republicans, especially Paul Ryan, aren't even trying to manipulate people into thinking this is good for them. When they do, it seems stale and underperformed. It's as if they are just going through the motions. But, why wouldn't they? They control all 3 branches of government in DC, they control 34 states.
Our only hope is moderate Republican defectors.
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I think that the GOP's tactic of winning with a minority of voters is the most basic threat to our democracy. All other issues – economics, women's issues, basic fairness in the country – are ultimately subject to subversion as long as the GOP can pick its voters rather than having to appeal to the majority.
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A fourth possible explanation might be Twitterfear: That a Republican who doesn't vote for the tax scam will be the target of one of His Lowlinesses Twitter outrages, which might give rise to a primary fight even in a supposedly safe district.
On the other hand, this assumes some level of rational and coherent thought on the part of a member of Congress or the Senate, which is problematic these days.
The real reason is more likely much simpler: Republicans know that the longer they wait to vote on the Great Tax Grab of 2017, the more likely it is the country will awaken to what is being done and start to raise a howl. The GOP has seen already during the push to kill Obamacare what happens when the nation is outraged and aroused. The longer Congress and the Senate take to ram through this abortion, the more likely voters will storm the Capital.
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Perhaps. But how do they discount the rage that will rise over the course of 2018, as people realize their paltry tax reduction (which gets smaller every year until its gone in 2027) will be vastly outweighed by being unable to deduct state and local taxes, medical expenses, student loan interest and more. Or that the in kind education PHD students get is now income, thus requiring a tax payment that is more than what they earn? Or that there are automatic reductions in Medicare when the budget is massively unbalanced?
These are all very real pocket book issues that people understand.
How will the GOP explain them in the mid terms?
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The Republicans don't have to explain anything if they can continue to rule with a minority of the vote. Democracy probably would actually work. But we have here does not resemble democracy, although the corrupt GOP will tell you that it's legal.
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"On the other hand, this assumes some level of rational and coherent thought on the part of a member of Congress or the Senate..."
Honestly, I think that you've nailed it. Krugman is an awfully bright guy. He spends most of his time surrounded by other awfully bright guys. And awfully bright guys over-analyze stupid people's motivations. Have you ever spent any time conversing with your average Congressperson? Let alone one of the Tea Party ones? To be blunt, a lot of them are as thick as a brick. You wonder how they ever learned to read or drive a car. Best guess on their motives is that Mr. Donor Lobbyist man in the spiffy suit made it sound like a real good bet.
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"Follow the money" applies to a lot of situations. They're hoping the big donors will take care of them, so as you say, it's more important to keep them happy.
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And, please don't forget to watch all the paths the money flows. Left, center and right.
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