#74- Republican Leaders Need to Grow a Back Bone

Republicans politicians, for once in their sorry lives, need to grow a backbone

There are many reasons why the Senate version of tax reform should not see the light of day, but let me focus just on one.  It safer that way, if I put too many points into one posting, I would be afraid too many readers might just lose it completely and spontaneously combust into a pile of ashes. I wouldn't want that on my conscious. 

You may have heard that there are a lot of positive tax reductions for businesses, and there are also tax reductions for many, but not all individuals.   This part is true.

But do you know that the business tax reductions are permanent?  Which means it's very possible that they could stay in place for all of eternity or until hell freezes over, whichever comes first.

But, but, but the individual tax cuts, on the other hand, are set to expire in 2025.  Hmmm...maybe it's just my own personal, always optimistic, glass half-full outlook on life, but that seems to be a few years shy of eternity to me.

Yes, I know, it hard to comprehend, so let me try explaining it another way.  It’s pretty much the equivalent of you getting a good job out of college at age 22 and agreeing with your new employer that you will work 10 hours of overtime a week, for the good of the company, until the day you die, but your employer will stop paying you overtime pay before you reach your 30th birthday.  That’s fair, right?  That's something you can swallow. 

As perverse as this is, Republicans, including Speaker Paul Ryan, blamed, what they consider to be, the arcane Senate rules, for causing this “disconnect”.  Imagine my surprise.  I thought those rules were in place to keep stupid politicians from doing stupid things.   It shows you just how little I really know. 

The arcane problem to which Republicans will refer is that if the individual tax cuts were permanent, that would jack up the calculated cost of these tax cuts from $1.4 trillion to somewhere in the range of $1.9 trillion, according to the fiscal watchdog group Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is roughly $.4 trillion over the so-called arcane Senate limit. 

Republican leaders, in promoting their PT Barnum “there’s a sucker born every minute” approach to tax reform say, don't worry, don't worry, Congress will do the right thing in 2025 and extend the individual tax cuts.  I suppose that is possible. It is also possible that the approval rating of Congress will top 15% by 2025 as well, but I wouldn't put any money on it. 

“The savings, the score (i.e. the $1.4 trillion stated cost), it just isn’t valid because you know that they’re not going to follow through,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), an avowed fiscal conservative, said in a recent interview. “You can’t assume that we’ll grow a backbone later. If we can’t do it now, then it’s tough to do it later.”

Great point Senator Flake, thank you for trying to get your Republican friends to think intelligently.  It’s an uphill battle I know.  And here’s another question you can ask them.  Why don't Senate Republicans just make the individual cuts permanent and allow the business ones to lapse in 2025 instead?

That would be because many Republicans politicians cater more to their donor class than to their citizen class.   

#73- Republican Leaders Sink To New Low

In a desperate attempt to prove they are not a bunch of bungling, selfish bullies, masquerading as the leadership of our country, the Republican led Senate firmed up plans to fleece the American Public and jam through a bunch of tax cuts under the guise of tax reform.

The Senate released the 515-page text of its sweeping tax legislation for the first time Monday evening — and Republican leaders are now planning to hold a floor vote on it within 10 days.   10 days!

Oh and by the way, in between those 10 days, instead of actually discussing and debating the implications of the bill, Mitch McConnell, the Obstructor in Chief, and the other disinguine, power hungry abusers took a week off, so they could all celebrate Thanksgiving back in their home states and give thanks to the short-sighted obliviousness of their own base who will believe anything they hear, as long as it's not from a liberal snowflake.

So you appreciate the implications of the incredible brevity in play here, in contrast, the last time we had a rewrite of the tax code back in 1986, the process took months, and the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans have assailed for seven years now, all to no avail, took six months.

Oh, and there is one more reason for the expeditious process, my friends.  Republicans don't want you to know what's really in it. They claim it's a tax break for middle America, while the real winners are the ultra rich. And, and, and, because it's going to increase the annual deficit to the tune of $1.5 trillion over the next ten years, it will mortgage the futures of your children and your children's children, so a few bungling idiots might appear relevant for once in their sorry lives.

If Republicans were really serious about tax reform, it would go through the time honored process of discussion, review and debate...discussion, review and debate.  Sadly, Republicans continue with their obstructionist agenda, having concluded that our country does not deserve that luxury

That’s because they wasted the better part of the year failing to Repeal and Replace...something, we are not exactly sure what, and all because Donny Sr. and all the Little Trumps want something to brag about at their Christmas table.

At least one GOP senator has complained about the pace of the proposed legislation.  “I’ve got a real problem with this process,’’ Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said Monday on WISN radio. “I would prefer that this bill would’ve been introduced months ago.’’

“Months ago” said...one Republican senator.  Sigh, common sense, once a stable trait of the Grand Ol’ Party, the party with which I used to vote, is now in the clear minority of its members.

Why is this so upsetting? Well, one independent analysis found Tuesday that the Senate legislation would result in between $1.3 trillion and $1.5 trillion in lost revenue over 10 years — EVEN AFTER CONSIDERING ECONOMIC GROWTH EFFECTS. The Penn-Wharton Budget Model at the University of Pennsylvania released the finding, which counters assertions from the bill’s proponents that it would pay for its tax cuts with increased growth. THE TRUTH IS WE DON’T YET KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE, BUT 10 DAYS, INCLUDING THE WEEK OF THANKSGIVING, IS A SURE SIGN THAT REPUBLICAN LEADERS ARE HIDING SOMETHING.

You should note that Penn-Wharton is that fine university where Donald J. Trump supposedly matriculated, but can we be sure? Has anyone ever seen his graduation certificate?

Republicans won’t be draining any swamps in the near future. They are too busy digging new ones.

[Data points from today’s post from Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg News, righteous indignation courtesy of WMTN(m)]

#72- The Holy Grail of Republican Tax Reform; Repeal of the Estate Tax

Listen up friends, this one is important

In introducing the tax plan proposed by the Republican led House of Representatives, which will add $1.5 Trillion, $1.5 trillion  to the national debt over the next 10 years, Speaker Paul Ryan gleefully boasted, “With this plan, the typical family of four will save $1,182 a year on their taxes.  For many families, having an additional $1,182 more will make a real difference”.

Lost in the midst of the Republican speeches, the celebration, the applause, the self-congratulatory back-slapping of the day was the planned silence of, oh a rather small piece of the new proposed Republican legislation, the elimination of the Federal Estate Tax.

  

It was a classic move of misdirection.  Distract them with a little reward, over here…and walk away with the big prize, over there.  Classic.

And let me make this important  point, House leaders are not discussing simply changing the tax, they are not talking about lowering the rates.  They are not talking about increasing the taxation levels.  They are talking about ELIMINATING THE TAX,!COMPLETELY!  Gonzo! Poof! 

When, in the history of taxation on Planet Earth, has this ever happened?

Most Americans don’t know much about the estate tax, and that’s not a surprise. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, 99.8% of estates owe no federal estate tax at all, leaving only the estates of 0.2% of the wealthiest Americans to pay up.  Let me say that again, .2%

How does the estate tax work?  Well, today, the estate of a married couple with net worth of $11 million won’t owe a dime of estate taxes, but anyone with a larger estate would owe a tax of 40% on anything over this level,

Let’s use a simple example, so you all understand what’s at stake here. In May 2016, then presidential candidate Trump filed a personal financial disclosure form that detailed a net worth of more than $10 billion.  That’s billion with a B.   

Fox News Lovers, take note.  This is not fake news.  This figure is from Trump’s own certified statement. So, it would appear that under the current tax law, when Donny Sr. kicks the bucket, his estate will likely have to shell out oh, roughly 4 billion, that’s billion with a B, dollars, in federal estate taxes

But, if the current Republican tax reform passes and the estate tax is repealed, Donny Jr and his siblings will pocket their share of the $4 billion savings, and each of them will be able to go out and buy….their own personal skyscrapers!

So you see, if you are in the stratosphere of the ultra-wealthy, this change in the tax law is the whole ball of wax.  It is the pot of gold at the end of rainbow. It is the Holy Grail.  

In 1980, the top 1% of families owned 25% of the country's wealth. In 2012 that same 1% now owned 42% of the country's wealth.  42%, The ultra-rich have been accumulating wealth for the last four decades, how’s that worked out for you?  Are you still waiting for your trickle down? 

So I ask, at a time when the wealth accumulation of the ultra-rich is at an all-time high, and our annual deficits are already severe,, and we are faced with the greater risks from terrorism, war and climate change, and and and the dysfunctional Republican led government can't agree on a sane way to offer all Americans affordable health insurance, is the repeal of the estate tax really something that should even be on the table at this time?

In his introductory speech for the new tax plan Speaker Paul Ryan actually said and I quote “we are getting rid of loopholes for the special interests and yes we are leveling the playing field”  Leveling the playing field!!  He actually used those words.

Let’s me close with quick review.  What does all this mean?

Well, you get $1,182.

Donny Jr. and all the other little Trumps win the lottery, collect the pot of gold, and in the process treat you like the doormat they take you to be, and laugh at you, all the way to the bank

Is that what it means to level the playing field? 

Is that what it takes...to Make America Great Again?

#71 - Common Sense Diplomacy

I love a good ol’ fashioned common sense perspective, as it sometime seems lacking in the world today, and while watching Fareed Zakaria GPS this morning with guest Richard Haas, President of the Council on Foreign Relation, I received a much needed dose.

I have always enjoyed Haas’s perspective as he seems to be a straight shooter, who I have heard both criticize and compliment Barack Obama in the past.  Recently, Haas called for the resignation of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but not because of the reason you might think, that at different times, his own boss has gone out of his way to emasculate him in public.

It’s true, while Tillerson was meeting with Chinese counterparts, the President disparaged his own diplomatic efforts, and separately undermined the Secretary of State at every turn as he tried to work a deal between Saudis and Qatar.

But Haas went on to say that Tillerson has made a bad situation worse, because of his focus on reducing the size of the State Department staff.   Calling the savings a routine rounding error in the budget, Haas asked why we should be doing this with magnitude of the diplomatic challenges we currently face, including one in South Korea, asking “Why don't we have an ambassador there nowa?”  He went on to say:

“We face as large a diplomatic inbox any administration has ever faced in modern times, and this Secretary of State seems focused on reducing the diplomatic capacity of his own department staff.  I simply don't think that is wise ”.

Neither do the majority of Americans who still believe that the world doesn't end on the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

#70- Pass the Torch to the Hands of a New Generation

I watched an interview about a week after the horrific Las Vegas shooting on ABC conducted by Martha Raddatz with Congressman Seth Moulton (D) of Massachusetts and Congressman Scott Taylor (R) of Virginia who debated aspects of gun control legislation, specifically the possible banning of bump stocks, which for the price of dinner for four at Applebee's, can convert a semi-automatic rifle into an outright killing machine.

The interview was noteworthy for it brought together two men with somewhat opposing positions to discuss those positions intelligently and rationally, and for anyone watching it was a very small sign of hope, that… the country might return to better days, and it was even more meaningful because of the unique background of both of these men.

Moulton graduated from Harvard University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in physics, joined the United States Marine Corps after graduation and served four tours in Iraq. In 2008, during his final tour, General David Petraeus requested Moulton's assignment to work as a special liaison with tribal leaders in Southern Iraq. On his return to the States, Moulton went on to earn his master's degrees in business and public policy in a dual program at Harvard University. 

Taylor, enlisted in the United States Navy right out of high school and served with the Navy SEALS for eight years. He is fluent in Spanish and served overseas in South and Central America in counternarcotics and foreign internal defense missions. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Taylor was a SEAL sniper.  He earned a Bachelor of Liberal Arts concentrating on International Relations from Harvard University Extension School, and also received a certificate in government contracting from Old Dominion University. He is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group of centrists and moderately conservative republicans in Congress. 

So it was not lost on the audience that both of these men held resumes which included military training and experience in armed conflict, an anathema to more than 99% of Americans, and that they were willing to sit down TOGETHER and have a real conversation on a topic that has been extremely divisive for our country

Here is the real kicker.  A lot of Republicans shy away from this discussion.   While many are recipients of NRA financial support, who will wave the flag and proclaim the right to bear arms as if it were god given, none wish to get anywhere near an intelligent discussion about reasonable considerations for gun control.  Scott Taylor didn't, and this friends, is a small sign of hope.

Now both of these men are still young enough that they have not yet been burdened by the divisiveness that exists in our politics.  Perhaps that’s the solution we need to move our country forward in a positive manner.  Every day it seems to become clearer that just about everyone in my generation (the Baby Boomers) is past our prime and so, when it comes to solving some of the mega-problems that stand in front of us, perhaps it would be best, if we just got out of the way. 

In President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration speech he spoke of passing the torch of leadership to the hands of a new generation.  I think that time has come again.  We are the generation that voted Donald J Trump into the office as the 45th President of the United States. If the country was divided before, under the Presidency of Donald J Trump, that division has become a chasm.  Many of us did not vote for him and do not support his behavior, but we have been part of the history that led us to his candidacy, and when it mattered the most, we failed to convince our contemporaries that this was wrong.

Yes that’s right we failed, and we did so spectacularly. 

So the time has come to get out of the way, clean the slate, clear the path, let the minds of a new generation, raised in the new millennium, tempered by war, disciplined by a seemingly unattainable peace, proud of our unique American heritage and unwilling to permit the slow unwinding of that heritage, take the reins.

They can't do any worse than us.

I lean left in my politics, after many years of leaning right, but more than anything in the world I just want the outright divisiveness of the Presidency of Donald J. Trump has openly tried to foster and promote, to go away, as quickly as humanly possible.  

Let a younger generation show us, there is a better way.

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Footnote #1 - In the House, Rep. Moulton, along with Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida have since introduced legislation to ban the sale of bump stocks, but there's been no action taken by the Republican leadership in the House.

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Footnote #2– this past Friday the state of Massachusetts became the first state to completely ban the OWNERSHIP of bump stocks.  The bill previously passed the legislature on an almost unanimous vote of 158 to 3 and was just signed in to law by our Republican Lt Governor (filling in for our Republican Governor Charlie Baker, who was out of state).  Being first in Massachusetts is nothing new, as it was also the first state in the country to legalize gay marriage.  I am happy to say that I live in this great state, and I am proud of our cooperative, bi-partisan leadership.