The way the Senate Republicans rammed through a tax bill that affects everyone in the country without hearings or debates, without allowing Democrats to read the bill before the vote was taken, is an assault on basic democratic values.
Senator John McCain spoke eloquently during the health care debate about the need to return to normal order, where both parties work together, but even he abandoned what seemed to his principles.
There were no principles to be seen during the debacle in the Senate.
Steve Singer writes here about this rush to redistribute money to the wealthiest in our society, while telling baldfaced lies about its true purposes.
“I am no fan of the corporate Democrats who have taken over what used to be a progressive party. But we can’t blame them for this one.
“This scandal belongs entirely on the shoulders of Republicans.
“The Dems even offered a resolution to delay the vote so that legislators had a chance to read it. All 52 Republicans voted against it!
“This is what happens when the people lose control of their government.
“This is what happens when the rich control lawmakers with their money.
“There is no longer any doubt that we no longer live in a Republic. We no longer have any form of representative Democracy. We live in a pure plutocracy.
“The rich pay the representatives and the representatives do what the rich want.
“The wealthy are their real constituents. We are merely patsies told polite falsehoods to keep us in line.
“You have no political power.
“None.
“Governments get their legitimacy from the consent of the governed.
“You did not give your consent to give away more than a trillion dollars to rich douchebags who don’t need it. But Republicans gave it to them anyway.
“Therefore, our government has no legitimacy.
“We are an occupied people.
“We are the victims of a palace coup.”
There will be an election in 2018.and another in 2020.
We must take back our government.
Time to #Drantheswamp. It is full of snakes and alligators.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’ll wait to judge John McCain when the bill comes back for the second vote after the House and Senate have worked out the differences. There is a slim chance that the revised House-Senate version of the bill will fail in the Senate then.
I am going to bet that Bill does not come back for a second vote . I am going to bet that Ryan and the House accept the Senate version . The Senate bill is bound by budget constraint any bill that expands the debt further than the phony numbers they have used will not be accepted by the parliamentarian . If that happens they will need a 60 vote majority . They do not want to let it sit out there long enough to be killed.
Is the Senate version better than the House one?
Parts are worse . I think the senate eliminates SALT altogether . Expands the cuts to the “minor Oligarchs” pass through income expanded . So they have the donor base well covered from the Round Table to the local Chambers of Commerce ……….
It does keep some college deductions …
I’m with Joel on this one. I’m baffled why Lloyd would “wait to judge John McCain” on his craven vote on this legislation. Just because McCain did one good thing in his Senate career does not erase his doctrinaire voting record (his “maverick” reputation is about rhetoric, not deeds). To reserve judgment on McCain is wishful folly in my opinion.
HuffPo has a good summary on why this bill sucks: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/most-radical-provisions-gop-tax-bill_us_5a230f19e4b03c44072df14c?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
We have become the Latin American kleptocracy we used to deride in years past. The only difference is that we’ve outdone them geometrically. This country will officially become a farce when this abomination is signed into law by our Dear Leader. Now we can move on to death squads and the disappearance of political opposition.
McCain will forever bear the stain of having chosen Palin as his running mate. Bad judgment.
And he will bear the stain of how he recently voted on the tax plan as well. He is a fraud. But glad he at least has access to world class care for his cancer. Wish the rest of Americans could have that same right as well.
“I’m baffled why Lloyd would ‘wait to judge John McCain’ on his craven vote on this legislation.”
Simple, I refuse to join the vigilante (or one of the politically correct mobs) that judge individuals guilty until all the evidence is in, and there’s one more vote to go on this bill when it comes up for its final vote after the two Houses of Congress have combined the two versions.
And why go after McCain when he is only one of 52 votes from the GOP in the Senate that passed the Senate’s version of the bill. Every Republican that voted is a sellout, a turd. But some of these turds are larger and stink more than others.
Trump hates McCain. It’s obvious that the Alt-Right and Steve Bannon also want McCain gone. In fact, they are counting the days until cancer kills him and the Koch brothers and their fascist ALEC allies spend huge sums of money to get an obedient minion to replace him.
Why? Because McCain does not belong to them. He might not always vote the way “WE” want him to vote, but I do not think he is for sale to ALEC or the Waltons.
Democrats need candidates who call this spade a spade, and who vow to work to repeal it (for it surely will become law within a week); to reinstate the 35% corporate rate and the prior estate tax rules; to raise top marginal rates and make the tax code more progressive and fair and America’s finances more secure; to beat back any attempts to destroy the social safety nets of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and “welfare.” The time is now for these kind of candidates. If they cannot produce candidates like that, then the Democratic Party will have to face the rhetorical question that Steven Fry once asked the Catholic Church: “Well, then, what are you for?” And they’ll have no good answer.
Wasn’t Russ Feingold one of those candidates?
I agree but I also have already seen many clips of Democratic Senators who have been speaking eloquently about the tax bill.
You seen to be working on the assumption that most of the Dems in Congress aren’t already like that.
We have a guy like that in Alabama, don’t we? There are ten days left. Maybe there should be a full on media campaign based on this vote.
Make the Alabama Senate race a referendum on THIS vote. Or is that too dangerous because the voters in Alabama still love it and it would just give Trump bragging rights that this is what voters really want?
NYC public school parent
We do not need Alabama they can sell their daughters into white slavery for all I care . If the Christofascists think pedophilia is okay .
But for Gods sake we need Pennsylvania, Michigan , Wisconsin , Ohio, . ….
The only Political race you seem analyze is Wisconsin . Because you keep bringing up Feingold as if you know why he lost . Your analysis of the NY Mayors race would lead one to be skeptical . Had the Democratic candidate for President been stronger the Senate might have Flipped .
“The Johnson campaign also worked to dent Feingold’s appeal by driving home the message that his years in Washington had changed him, going after him again and again for breaking the pledge that he wrote on his garage door during his first campaign in 1992, pledging to raise most of his money from Wisconsin donors. Johnson also lambasted Feingold over a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story that found a PAC that Feingold started after leaving office had spent most of its money on fundraising and payments to Feingold and his former staffers.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/johnson-feingold-wisconsin-senate-race-2016-election-results-231027
I rest my case on Feingold.
I just read that paragraph and now I know that he is corrupt and started a PAC.
That must be why Feingold didn’t even get as many votes as Hillary did even without having a real third party candidate to draw votes from him. I guess Wisconsin voters don’t want a progressive? Or at least one who is smeared by the same kind of propaganda that always takes down Democrats.
Seriously, Joel, do you think Feingold abandoned Wisconsin? Do you buy into this PAC just being a corrupt means to enrich Feingold? So another progressive goes down?
My argument, Joel, is that it does not matter who runs in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Ohio. Because every single candidate is going to look like a crooked liar as soon as the right wing propaganda gets done with them.
Do you think Elizabeth Warren is immune? Do you think any progressive is immune? Not if we have people on the left who are helping the right get that meme out. Not if we have people in media following the lead of the left in order to show they are “fair” by making sure to smear the Democrats with innuendo to compensate for their truthful reporting about the dishonest things the Republicans are saying.
I watched it happening in NYC to de Blasio and if there had been a stronger candidate he could have lost. Given his progressive track record, he should be hugely popular, but after years of smearing he is not. Look, even deinne77 joined in. That’s what I mean when I say that if there are enough diennes who repeat the right wing propaganda about de Blasio, Al Franken, Hillary, then the progressive candidate will lose.
We “pasties” should answer the outrageous behavior of the Republicans with sound rebuke of Republican candidates during the midterm elections. We need to win back some seats so the corporate lap dogs will have to back their bags and go back home. It also means that Democrats and independents need to show up at the polls en masse. Our country has become far to complacent about our responsibility to vote. As a nation, we have a low turnout compared to many other industrialized nations. Now more than ever, we need voters to be actively involved to send the message that we will not allow the 1% to rule us and rob our children and grandchildren of a meaningful future.
Agree with, “Our country has become far to complacent about our responsibility to vote. As a nation, we have a low turnout compared to many other industrialized nations. Now more than ever, we need voters to be actively involved to send the message that we will not allow the 1% to rule us and rob our children and grandchildren of a meaningful future.”
What is WRONG with the citizens of this country?
Anything about VOTING RIGHTS and those who died and suffered for our right to vote taught in schools? I am serious.
““I am no fan of the corporate Democrats who have taken over what used to be a progressive party. But we can’t blame them for this one.”
Well, ummmmmm, yes, you actually can blame the Democrats for this one, but you can’t and should not place all the of blame on them. This has been a systemic problem. People allowing themselves to get distracted and hypnotized by the identity politics of the DNC rather than looking at what’s in their wallet at the end of the day (and now at the end of a lifetime) and Democrats in the pockets of Wall Street, such as Schumer and Pelosi . . . Democrats who have destroyed public education, such as Barack Obama.
As I have said for years, BOTH parties are putrid. If an apple is rotten, it does not matter if it’s a Granny Smith, a honey crisp, or a macintosh.
Rotten is rotten, and ain’t no one gonna eat that apple.
Maybe 2018 and 2020 will pose new opportunities to all of us to turn this around . . .
I am fortunate, because I can go back to Norway anytime and enjoy the high quality and equity of life there. But I have close relatives who live here and wish to help in thier plight as much as I can do and can tolerate.
This will be a test for Americans.
Indeed! “This will be a test for Americans.” Are Americans awake enough?
“identity politics of the DNC”
Just so you know, Norwegian Filmmaker, you are repeating a phrase designed by talented propagandists like Steve Bannon, Roger Ailes and Lee Atwater. I don’t know which right wing propagandist came up with “identity politics” to convince white Christian straight voters that the Dems were only interested in minority and gay rights at the expense of white Christian straight Americans, but it’s very sad to hear you repeating it as if it was true. And it is sad to hear anyone agree with it.
There was a time when the Democratic Party under LBJ and Robert Kennedy and Bill Clinton and Mario Cuomo and Ted Kennedy were not afraid to say “we are ALL Americans together and we don’t discriminate”.
Now we have people pandering to the Trump voters and saying “they are just turned off by the Democrats’ “identity politics”.
No, they are just turned ON by Trump and the Republicans racist politics.
There is a difference. Please don’t think that pandering to people who use terms like “identity politics” are what the Dems should do.
And what smells much more rotten is anyone who believes that the ONLY thing that Democrats care about is “identity politics”.
If you could watch the 2016 DNC and diminish it as “identity politics”, then I’m guessing you are a white guy who thinks he earned everything he got by his hard work.
Citizens United and the astounding amount of money that corporations and billionaires spend to buy votes have corrupted the democratic process, and both parties are guilty of pandering to wealthy interests. We need to mandate some type of spending limits. It is the only way we can attempt to have a government of, by and for the people. Otherwise, we’re just another “banana republic.”
I agree with this.
What is so disturbing to me is that if Hillary had won and the Dems could have appointed a Supreme Court Justice, there was a chance of getting Citizens’ United overturned. Now it is 4 more years of disaster.
The Dems may pander somewhat to wealthy interests but not to the degree that is implied by those on the left working hard to help the right wing convince Americans that is the case.
The Dems ALSO are attacked for “pandering” to the teachers’ union who also gives a lot of money to them. As do other unions and organizations that believe in civil rights, etc.
NYC parent,
The Dems periodically get rented out by wealthy financial interests.
The Republicans are owned lock-stock-and-barrel by them.
Get rented out or get owned by the John, a whore is a whore. You’ve still shared your body shamelessly and took money for it, and you can’t take back your virginity from a John once you give it away in either scenario.
Where are the values here? That’s a problem when you forgive one sin even though its merits are deplorable, but you don’t forgive another sin because its merits are practiced more often or more intensely. Am I perhaps attracted too much to purism? You can stand a little purism.
As an analogy with a PRETEND scenario: So I shot a few people in town because I was willfully drunk with my rifle, but Charlie over in the next town there deliberately went into a church and shot 16 people because he is pissed off at orgianized religion and people of color.
For me, victims of a bullet are victims, and both offendeers need to be put away forever. And gun laws need to be changed.
I guess that’s why Europeans are different. They don’t homogenize levels of corruption for the most part. Corrupt is corrupt, and is not to be tolerated, and one granule of it goes under strict vigilance typically in, let’s say, France or Finland . . .
Do you know what I mean?
Norwegian Filmmaker,
You certainly idealize European socialist parties, none who can claim they have never had members who were not corrupt.
I guess Labor needs to disband in England. Tony Blair! Whatever you do in the next election, make sure NOT to vote for labor in England.
People on the right say the same thing you do except they substitute the word “unions”, especially “teachers unions” for “corporate interests” or whatever your smear of the day word is.
Political parties become more and less conservative. It doesn’t help when people on the far left help the right wing smear the party of labor.
How is that working for you in Norway? Didn’t the right wing party just win? Running on the same pro-business agenda that the right in America offered?
NYCPSP:
Remember that our right and left are NOT the same as your right and left, and many extreme righties in Norway are considered center to left here in the USA. Sorry, but you are using the same terms while not analyzing the same substances and histories. I don’t really think you can seriously compare Norway to the United States in terms of distribution of wealth and power. HA! I suggest you go with critical thinking and research instead of labels of “left” and “right”.
But I do agree with you that unions should no more be able to money-up politics than corporations do. They are both to blame. Get money out of politics is what I say and create one finite public fund from which candidates can draw and run for office, period, end of story.
Norwegian Filmmaker,
Since you claim I am wrong about Norway, please enlighten me about the agenda of the newest government.
Ever hear “tax cuts stimulate growth”? Maybe the Dems need to adopt THAT so you will think they are representing the Norwegian way?
NYC School Parent,
I agree with you, and think that so called “identity” politics are an indispensable and critical component of a functional, healthy, strong, and vibrant democracy.
“Identity politics” are really just ordinary run-of-the-mill garden variety type or aspect of politics that seek to protect all kinds of people in order to be fair and equitable and meet people’s needs in the WAY they need to be met. Without it, democracy crumbles. Each group within such political governance potentially has different needs than the other, and levels of “privilege” vary depending on who you are, your SES, and where you come from.
That said, this very legitimate form of politics has gained the adjective “identity’ because a very large and powerful party of yours and your American media have over the decades forgotten (deliberately?) to focus intently on labor rights, fair and equitable taxation, and distribution of wealth by keeping middle class people (whose identities fall into ALL categories of ‘identity politics, by the way) in the middle class, preventing them from slipping into poverty and keeping those impoverished in the right kind of momentum that would propel them into the middle class.
Remember, NYC School Parent, that a healthy middle class is like the sandwich that has a very thin bottom slice of bread (the poor), and very fat filling in the middle (the middle class pretty much), and a very think top piece of bread (the rich). Any other distribution of wealth is not healthy.
“And what smells much more rotten is anyone who believes that the ONLY thing that Democrats care about is “identity politics”.
I did not at all say that it was the only thing the Democrats focus on, but I am saying that is has become so much the darling of the Democrats and the media that labor rights, consumer rights, protection of the public commons, taxation, and distribution of wealth have faded pretty much within the Democratic party, which has become monied and corrupt over the years compared to what it was decades ago, which wasn’t even all that leftist, but leftist enough to protect and fortify the middle class in America.
I do empathize and understand your frustration, however, and hope you understand mine.
When your allies, such as the Democratic party, become your frenemies or sneaky ally who acts out of many sides of their mouth, it is difficult to not focus on their voting records and politics over the years, especially years in which the ruling elite have tried – and are succeeding – in turning this country in Brazil or China, to which I say, no thanks . . . . .
And on that note what you will hear any labor leader worth his salt try to tell his membership is .
“It ain’t about God . It ain’t about guns and it ain’t about gays . Vote your God damn wallets . ” The entire leadership of the American labor movement came out strongly against Trump . Including the leadership of the construction trades one of the traditionally more conservative segments of that movement. 70% of the members according to internal polling were voting for Trump .This is a membership that used to be rock solid Democratic .
Years of hypocrisy and broken promises. NYC is in the middle of a construction boom . High rise apartments with multi million dollar apartments . Yet their is unemployment in the trades even as their membership has fallen. They look over at these sites most non union and see substantial numbers of undocumented immigrants on the rising decks .
In 2009 the Democrats had the ability to correct this situation with labor law ,not even immigration law . The Employee Free Choice Act . Would have in the words of Wayne Huizenga the CEO of Waste Management and the largest decertifyer of Unions in the Country (union buster) “made them all Union ”
A developer who will see his costs rise in short order and disruption on his projects has no incentive to build non union. No incentive to hire the undocumented as a wage wedge . Knowing those workers citizens or not could be organized in short order. It was not the Republicans that killed EFCA It was not the filibusterer that killed EFCA . It was Diane Feinstein who never let it out of committee.. Are the members sophisticated enough to know that dirty little secret . Did the leadership
say it was a Democrat who failed the entire union movement in exchange for support of wealthy California donors . Hell thy would not admit to wasting the members money and time . All the workers knew is that nothing was done to prevent the slide they were experiencing and Trump promised to get rid of the Mexicans.
NYYPSP never has to defend Democrats to these people . She can sit there pretending the Republicans have some magic elixir.
Wrong.
I can sit there and say that not only do Republicans NOT have that magic elixir, but they don’t even care about you after all the harm that they have caused. And I can sit there and say Diane Feinstein is not the entire Democratic Party and the way to get change is not to believe the Republicans and the far left telling you that the entire Democratic Party is evil, but to vote for candidates who ARE pro-labor.
Does Diane Feinstein believe in telling lies and not talking about bills that are passed? Why didn’t the liberal independents like Bernie and Liz Warren make that vote an issue? are they just as corrupt?
Maybe Diane Feinstein shut down that bill for the same reason that Bernie Sanders voted against gun control laws and for the same reason that Elizabeth Warren supports most of the DFER agenda. I can pick ANY party and complain that they did something that wasn’t good.
I have bad news for you, Joel. Unions aren’t popular. They aren’t popular among their own members! It wasn’t just those unions guys voting for Trump against Hillary.
Those union guys have been voting for right wing Republican governors and Senators who have been curbing their power for the last decade.
So spare me your pandering to the pro-Trump union members and telling me they are only voting for the lying, racist because the dems have turned against them.
They’ve been voting for lying racists trying to blame it all on the “other” for a long time and you know it.
If they had not, we would have seen more progressive governors in those states instead of right wing Republicans who have destroyed the unions.
Who are you going to blame for Scott Walker? Obama?
Give me a break. Somehow when the Republicans do nothing for them, those guys still support them.
^^And I can’t help noting the irony in how similar your attacks against Democrats are to the Republicans attacks against unions!
“Look at this Democrat over here. The entire Democratic is corrupt no wonder no one in labor votes for them anymore. They know how corrupt they are just like Diane Feinstein.”
“Look at this union over here preventing all those evil teachers from being fired. Look at this union over there when they are demanding $75/hour to pay 5 guys to watch another 5 guys paid $50/hour to work. And then their pensions are too much anyway.”
It’s ironic how you don’t realize that the Republicans use the same attacks to make Americans hate unions that you use to make Americans hate Democrats.
If nothing else, Trump and his fellow “f***ing morons” can be counted on to supply plenty of fodder to promulgate the wit of Andy Borowitz:
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/scribbles-by-mitch-mcconnells-grandchild-accidentally-incorporated-into-gop-tax-bill
The Republican Party is now – and has been for quite a while – the party of corporations and the 1 percent.
Republicans adore flag lapel pins, but they detest democratic governance, which is why they make every possible effort to suppress voting. It’s why top Republican officials — from Reince Priebus, when he was the head of the RNC, to Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, top Republicans in Congress — refused to say or do anything when they were briefed on Russian interference in the 2016 election. It’s why a a top Trump national security official wrote in an email that Russia had “just thrown U.S.A. election” to Trump, so easing sanctions on Russia was a top priority.
Republicans are the party of kleptocracy and plutocracy. But not democracy.
They are now just about as unAmerican as it gets.
“The Republican Party is now – and has been for quite a while – the party of corporations and the 1 percent.”
I have news for you:
So have the Democrats. It’s just that they are a lot more silent, hushed, polished and certainly a lot more civilized about how disgusting they too have become over the decades. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are prime examples of that.
Y’all need some real Socialist parties here.
This has been sitting in moderation since 7 so hopefully it don’t post twice .
Diane asked why I am blaming Democrats . The best way to explain it is in a series of links.
Spending every Tuesday afternoon since last February at an anti Trump rally locally I was stunned by the lack of calls for large Demonstrations on Wall Street . I was not the only one who noticed this absence of resistance
The first is Chris Mathews who certainly is not the flaming radical that I have turned into in the last 3-4 years .., In fact you might remember the soft ball Clinton interview vs the mix martial arts Town Hall with Sanders . I love Warren but listen to Mathews in the first 2 minutes .
http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/sen-warren-on-tax-bill-it-s-democratically-irresponsible-1105516099790
Before him was Rosenfeld at Alternet You know that Russian front outfit where a good portion of the articles on this blog have been posted.
“The answer—and it’s a theory, but one honed from covering national politics—is too many Democrats across Congress are still beholden to wealthier constituents, whether individuals who contribute to their campaigns, corporate employers who threaten to leave if they don’t get more corporate welfare, or people in their social circles who get invitations to Kennedy Center galas.
Whatever is really going on in the minds of individual Democratic members of Congress—which might include shoehorning in giveaways for local constituents—there is a growing sense that the opposition in Washington is not being so loyal to mainstream America, which they like to think they are defending. The question is, why?”
https://www.alternet.org/economy/why-arent-dems-congress-raising-more-hell-oppose-worst-gop-tax-bill-eve
Former Regan economist Bruce Bartlet .On several occasions people better wake up
“I cant understand why people aren’t marching in the streets ”
https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/bruce-bartlett-tax-plan-why-arent-people
Why because no one is calling for and mobilizing these Marches on the biggest issue .The only issue that counts . How we pay for the things we want Government to do and who pays for it. The Republican goal is to shrink that government to the size of a pin head . A government the size of a pinhead can do anything. And oligarchs reign .
When I have to argue at three Town Halls with a Democratic “problem solver ” congressman about Trickle Down economics . Get asked what discussing taxes has to do with the topic of saving ACA . Be told that Corporate America needs a tax cut to be competitive , as they are rolling in profits and cash . Whose team is he on . But if he were only alone.
“In an exchange with CNBC’s John Harwood, Schumer confirmed that the latter is in fact in the works. When Harwood asked Schumer if “it would be a permanent lower rate, not a holiday rate,” Schumer replied, “Yes, you can’t do a one-shot deal.””
They are all feeding from the same putrid troth .
Reich on what went wrong .
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/robert-reich-how-clinton-and-obama-failed-defend-middle-class
The Democrats will never propose what has to be done and it is not radical not Socialist it is provisions that have been in the tax code . Some as recently as 1990 . Even Ronald Reagan knew it was unfair to be taxed a lower rate on Investment income than on income earned through labor.
I will copy and post it as a separate post but wake me up if you think the Democratic party would ever have the guts to insist on its major elements when they retake the congress . It actually implies that you would have to believe Government is not the problem. .Believe that taxes pay for “public goods”.
Bartlet again tells us how they have been and will be out maneuvered .
So are they stupid or complicit.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/20/republican-tax-cuts-democrats
Like I said before Norwegian,
the Dems periodically gets rented by the big money, but Republicans are flat-out owned by it.
There’s a real difference there, even if you cannot see it.
The lapel pins and jingoistic flag waving are all pure theater. Behind closed doors like the way this tax bill was drafted, the Republicans are swimming in dark money.
Diane asked why I am blaming Democrats . The best way to explain it in a series of links.
Spending every Tuesday afternoon since last February at an anti Trump rally locally I was stunned by the lack of calls for large Demonstrations on Wall Street . I was not the only one who noticed this absence of resistance
The first is Chris Mathews who certainly is not the flaming radical that I have turned into in the last 3-4 years .., In fact you might remember the soft ball Clinton interview vs the mix martial arts Town Hall with Sanders . I love Warren but listen to Mathews in the first 2 minutes .
http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/sen-warren-on-tax-bill-it-s-democratically-irresponsible-1105516099790
Before him was Rosenfeld at Alternet You know that Russian front outfit where a good portion of the articles on this blog have been posted.
“The answer—and it’s a theory, but one honed from covering national politics—is too many Democrats across Congress are still beholden to wealthier constituents, whether individuals who contribute to their campaigns, corporate employers who threaten to leave if they don’t get more corporate welfare, or people in their social circles who get invitations to Kennedy Center galas.
Whatever is really going on in the minds of individual Democratic members of Congress—which might include shoehorning in giveaways for local constituents—there is a growing sense that the opposition in Washington is not being so loyal to mainstream America, which they like to think they are defending. The question is, why?”
https://www.alternet.org/economy/why-arent-dems-congress-raising-more-hell-oppose-worst-gop-tax-bill-eve
Former Regan economist Bruce Bartlet .On several occasions people better wake up
“I cant understand why people aren’t marching in the streets ”
https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/bruce-bartlett-tax-plan-why-arent-people
Why because no one is calling for and mobilizing these Marches on the biggest issue .The only issue that counts . How we pay for the things we want Government to do and who pays for it. The Republican goal is to shrink that government to the size of a pin head . A government the size of a pinhead can do anything. And oligarchs reign .
When I have to argue at three Town Halls with a Democratic “problem solver ” congressman about Trickle Down economics . Get asked what discussing taxes has to do with the topic of saving ACA . Be told that Corporate America needs a tax cut to be competitive , as they are rolling in profits and cash . Whose team is he on . But if he were only alone.
“In an exchange with CNBC’s John Harwood, Schumer confirmed that the latter is in fact in the works. When Harwood asked Schumer if “it would be a permanent lower rate, not a holiday rate,” Schumer replied, “Yes, you can’t do a one-shot deal.””
They are all feeding from the same putrid troth .
Reich on what went wrong .
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/robert-reich-how-clinton-and-obama-failed-defend-middle-class
The Democrats will never propose what has to be done and it is not radical not Socialist it is provisions that have been in the tax code . Some as recently as 1990 . Even Ronald Reagan knew it was unfair to be taxed a lower rate on Investment income than on income earned through labor.
I will copy and post it as a separate post but wake me up if you think the Democratic party would ever have the guts to insist on its major elements when they retake the congress . It actually implies that you would have to believe Government is not the problem. .Believe that taxes pay for “public goods”.
Bartlet again tells us how they have been and will be out maneuvered .
So are they stupid or complicit.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/20/republican-tax-cuts-democrats
correction /can not do anything
What the Democrats will not propose in 2020 .
Tax all corporate profits regardless of where they are earned. While keeping the corporate tax rate at 35%, eliminate the deferral of taxes on profits earned outside the United States. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, corporations currently owe $700 billion in taxes on $2.6 trillion worth of profits, parked abroad in tax havens like the Cayman Islands.
· Eliminate preference for investment over earned income.
Since 1990, capital gains and some dividends are taxed at a lower rate than is earned income and wages. While workers pay payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and 25% income taxes on earnings above $37,651 and more on wage and salary income above $91,150, capital gains income is taxed at 15% for most Americans, and no more than 20% for higher incomes. Eliminating this preferential treatment and taxing unearned income at the same rate as earned income would raise more than $100 billion a year in additional revenue.
· Eliminate the tax preference for high wage income. The retirement payroll tax that funds Social Security only applies to the first $118,500 of income so about 6 percent of wage and salary earners only pay the tax, 12.4 percent, on part of their earnings. Restoring the Social Security payroll tax for the richest 1 percent, those with wages and salaries above $300,000, would raise over $50 billion.
Promote economic efficiency:
· Restore the Financial Transactions Tax and implement a financial excise tax. Until 1966, the United States, like 30 other countries including the United Kingdom, Singapore and Switzerland, taxed financial transactions to discourage speculative financial activities that would distract from businesses’ productive work. Taxing the giant banks would restore the economic balance, favoring the productive activities of Main Street over the financial shenanigans of Wall Street. A tax like this would raise more than $100 billion while increasing economic efficiency.
· Reduce the deductibility of low wages and strengthen the penalty for companies that do not provide health insurance or pension benefits. The public safety net, including SNAP and Medicaid, bear much of the burden when profitable companies pay low wages. Forbes estimated that in 2014 low-wage workers at Walmart received more than $6 billion in public assistance; Connecticut taxpayers in 2015 payed nearly $500 million in public assistance to employees of profitable businesses., found a study by the University of Connecticut. Taxing low-wage employers would encourage higher wages while raising more than $14 billion in revenue.
· Tax carbon emissions at $25/ton rising by $10/ton every year. The build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels is already transforming the environment with devastating effects on crops, forests, and sea-side communities. Charging for the damage done by burning carbon would slow global climate change and encourage the growth of energy efficient and green industries. It would also raise nearly $100 billion a year at $25/ton and more at higher rates.
Reward work not luck
· Restore the 1980 estate tax rate (adjusted for inflation). In 1980, the estate tax rate was 70% with an exemption (for gifts and estates) of about $1,000,000 in 2017 dollars. At this level of exemption, more than 97% of estates would go untaxed because the great majority of Americans are not fortunate enough to be born into families with such large estates. Revenue would increase by more than $50 billion, the great majority paid by a very small number of very lucky people.
While promoting healthy and stable economic growth, this program would generate more than $500 billion a year in additional revenue. If $400 billion of this revenue was devoted to eliminating income and payroll taxes for households with family income of under $75,000, then that would still leave $100 billion to spend on priorities like infrastructure and education.
Instead of the Republicans proposals designed to enrich a few, opponents can present a coherent program founded on principles of fairness. That is the tax reform that working Americans deserve. Tax reform that will truly make America great.
Gerald Friedman is a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Joel Herman,
You must be part Norwegian . . . !
To paraphrase Le Monde on Sept 12, 2001: “We are all part Norwegian!”
No, but can I get a permanent Visa.
Norway???
You mean the country that just voted for the “tax cuts stimulate the economy” plan that seems like what the Republicans have been saying?
You mean the country that believes in off shore oil and gas drilling just like the Republicans do?
Look, the Democrats are far from perfect. But the Norwegian people aren’t exactly voting for a progressive government when it is offered to them.
Why not? Why have the Norwegian people voted for far right conservatives instead of this progressive government?
Or is Norway’s Labor Party as corrupt as the Democrats and needs to be destroyed too?
^^^from Reuters:
“It’s a big disappointment,” opposition Labour leader Jonas Gahr Stoere said, conceding defeat for his party that has been a dominant force in Norwegian politics for a century.
Solberg, 56, plans more tax cuts as a way to stimulate growth for Europe’s top oil and gas producer. Stoere had argued for tax increases to improve public services such as education and healthcare for Norway’s 5 million citizens.”
If you think there’s reason to worry about the loss of the Republic…you’re right.
Here’re some exceprts from a piece by Dahlia Lithwick at Slate:
“The shocking norm-and-truth defiance of the GOP tax bill, the refusal of the GOP leadership to criticize or even comprehend the enormous violence done by Trump’s anti-Muslim tweets, the president’s staggering support for the candidacy of Roy Moore, the silent Republican collusion to the seating of demonstrably unfit judges, and the virulence of the White House’s attacks on the press all contributed to a general sense that absolutely everything was broken and that Democrats had lost whatever momentum they had to halt this chaos.”
Think about that. Republicans told gigantic lie after gigantic lie to “sell” their tax bill, one that pilfers public coffers to send money to corporations and the rich and is designed to “force” the shredding of the social contract through big cuts in Social Security and Medicare (among others). Trump conducts his version of foreign policy through lame-brained and dangerous tweets. Republicans support a crazy “law and order” candidate in Alabama who has consistently defied law and order and the Constitution, and who very much wants to implant his version of “the Bible” as the foundation of law and order in a democratic republic. There is virtually not a nanogram of credibility and integrity in the White House, and Fox says nary a word. Because, hey, emails!…Benghazi!…uranium!.
Lithwick continues, and here’s the scary part:
“Is the rule of law an escape hatch or a relic? It’s not yet clear what the answer to that question will be…But as the year has progressed, it’s become clear that absolutely nothing will persuade Trump supporters and Republicans in Congress that it’s time to disavow the president—not lying, not spilling state secrets, not abject failure in crisis management, and not openly performed corruption… truth and law are losing ground in the footrace against open looting and overt totalitarianism…America is operating along two parallel tracks. On one track is the chug-chug of law and order…On the other is the daily mayhem and denialism and circus-performing of the White House…the norms that would ordinarily lead to impeachment proceedings might be tiny piles of yellow legal pad–shaped cinders. And then it really would be time to take to the streets.”
Why is everybody not outraged? What makes it so hard to figure out that none of this stuff is normal, or healthy for a democratic republic? What is it that makes a certain segment of the American citizenry turn against the core values America, a nation they profess to love, and in the process, to turn against their own interests? There are lots of reasons, to be sure. Fox. Breitbart. Alex Jones. Hell, over at Infowars, this nuttiness is what Jones is spewing, for about the 50th time in the last year, while he peddles 50 percent discounts for “The Real Red Pill Heart and Brain Formula,’ of which he and his followers are obviously in desperate need:
“if they kill Trump or remove Trump when they’ve committed all these crimes, and done everything they say he’s done, when people see the economy turboing back, with real jobs and real money and real optimism to the average person and classic Americana being promoted and détente with Christian Russia and standing up to North Korea and securing our borders and just delivering at a dizzying level—it’s biblical—if we allow the evil people that hijack this country, the globalists, to remove Trump with all this fraud and if we buy into the hype and if we’re not strong and we don’t speak out, if these crazy globalists that don’t know how when to give up are actually able to remove Trump—I’m gonna walk through the scenarios for that coming up, because they mean business, they said he’ll be gone by the end of December, remember our intel from high-level Congressional sources? Just a few months ago—this is it! If they’re able to do that, it’ll cause a massive civil war in this country.”
Who is “they?” At various times “they” are “the Communists,” the “globalists,” “Leftists,” Democrats,” Antifa, Obama, CIA rogues, blacks, immigrants., Hillary Clinton. Any of the favored bogeymen. There. Are. Still, People. Who. Believe. This. Nonsense. Lots of people.
There’s the fact that people have been lied to for so often, especially by the GOP – that – for some – truth is fiction. Fantasy is fact. The earth is 6000 years old. Climate change is a hoax. Repeating tax policy from 1929 will make America great again. Saddam really did have weapons of mass destruction.
Clearly, right wing “news” has made some seriously disruptive dents in the American social fabric. Social media has helped to erode the public’s collective attention span and its ability — desire?? — to think critically. And, if you think about it, public schools haven’t helped all that much, since they been forced legislatively into doing some really stupid things (and in all honesty, haven’t we seen people leading schools and school districts who shouldn’t be leading schools and school districts?).
Let’s not forget voter suppression. The fact that voter suppression is a serious problem in a nation based on the idea of “We, the People” suggests that the Republic itself is endangered. The fact that there are lots of people who shrug off Russian manipulation of a presidential election, for Trump and against Clinton, by saying something like — “Well, if that’s what it took.”– means that for way too many citizens, the values that form the structure of the Constitution are merely meaningless words.
And, there’s racism. Lots and lots of racism. Lets make no bones about it. The Republican Party has become the national headquarters for racism and racists. The Racist-in-Chief is the prime example. David Duke and the KKKers and Neo-Nazis and Confederate white supremacists all adore the Racist-in-Chief. But what about that 81 percent of white evangelicals who supported Trump, even though he’s never, ever been a friend of “the oppressed,” and the central message of the Bible, both old and new testaments, is “do not oppress the poor?” Yeah, there’s abortion, but that’s almost exclusively a religious “belief,” so religious Republicans, flag lapel pins and all, wish to use government to force narrow religious dogma on an entire citizenry while they sing the national anthem and “God Bless America.” Trump ran a racist campaign, and they supported him, so aren’t they complicit? Lots of these folks think “God” picked Trump to be president*.
The bottom line is that everyone has a brain. Not many know much about it and how it works. The development of the brain is critical in the early years. Young brains that develop under conditions of malnutrition, environmental degradation, violence and abuse tend to end up very different in size and neural wiring than those that develop in more ideal conditions .The American Academy of Pediatrics puts it this way: “toxic stress in young children can lead to less outwardly visible yet permanent changes in brain structure and function….chronic stress is associated with hypertrophy and overactivity in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex, whereas comparable levels of adversity can lead to loss of neurons and neural connections in the hippocampus and medial PFC.”
In plain speak, alleviating poverty and its pernicious effects, and providing children with high quality environments before they get to school, and following up with health and academic and social policy programs while they are in school, results not only in high-quality education but also in a high-quality citizenry….and in promoting the general welfare of the nation. And isn’t that what public education in a democratic republic is supposed to do? Republicans and conservative evangelicals want to privatize public education. They will cut social programs that help to alleviate poverty, including heath care. Isn’t it plausible – stunning clear? – to say that they are not committed to the Republic whatsoever? They aren’t even committed to the teachings of The Gospels they claim to revere.
We’ve known for some time that poverty affects the developing brains of children. Research confirms it. A recent study at MIT “found differences in the brain’s cortical thickness between low-income and higher-income teenagers.” Not surprisingly, those differences find their way into test scores. Another recent study found that low-income children had brain surface areas 6 percent smaller than those of upper-middle class kids. That typically translates into less brain density, and then, into a lessened ability for ” language, memory, spatial skills and reasoning.” These things can be ameliorated. But not for free.
As Richard Rothstein reported in ‘Class and the Classroom’ nearly a decade-and-a-half ago in discussing literacy gaps between low-income and higher-income children, “deficits like these cannot be made up by schools alone, no matter how high the teachers’ expectations. For all children to achieve the same goals, the less advantaged would have to enter school with verbal fluency that is similar to the fluency of middle-class children.”
So, guess what? It really does take the concerted effort(s) of “a whole village” to raise a child. We are the keeper of our brother. We have an obligation to create “a more perfect Union, and to “promote the general Welfare” of the country so that we genuinely have a government “of the people, by the people for the people.” There’s nothing new or radical about any of this. It’s in the Constitution. The Framers envisioned a democratic society “ in which the common good was the chief end of government.” They agreed with John Locke’s view that the main purpose of government –– the main reason people create government –– is to protect their persons through –– as historian R. Freeman Butts put it –– a social contract that placed “the public good above private desires.” The goal was “a commonwealth, a democratic corporate society in which the common good was the chief end of government.”
Is there any sane person who would say that Trump, the Republican party, white evangelicals, and white supremacists – among others, like the NRA, the US Chamber of Commerce, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – share in that conception of democratic government?
Abraham Maslow wrote about the desire of humans to know, and the fear of knowing, because knowing requires doing. It’s easier to pin a flag on a lapel than it is to commit to and work for “liberty and justice for all.” It’s a cinch to profess you’ve been “saved” by a “lord and savior” if you really don’t have to do much beyond that, especially if – you know – “God wants you to be rich.” Psychologist Milton Rokeach explained in ‘The Open and Closed Mind’ that that ‘beliefs’ often lead to the quest for “power and status,” identification with absolute authority and “a cause,” and “the moral condemnation” of those one deems inferior or different. People who are more dogmatic — close-minded — are more likely to believe and behave that way. The Republican party is their ideological home. Congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein put it this way in a piece, ‘Let’s Just Say It: Republicans Are the Problem’:
“The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition..”
Let me put that a different way. Republicans are now inherently opposed to democracy and everything it represents.
“A Republic, madam, if you can keep it.”
Indeed.
I’m with you, democracy.
And hearing complicit leftists blaming the Democrats for not pandering more to racists and working class white folks who need a scapegoat for their issues is helping all of this happen.
We can’t pander to what is worst in those voters. We can’t lie to them and pretend there are simple solutions and if we had just ended NAFTA they will all have huge salaries and great benefits and everything will magically be wonderful.
The Dems offered one of the best platforms last year that I have seen in decades. They should have had the chance to try to enact it.
They will offer a similar progressive platform next time. Maybe people should give them a chance to enact it instead of complaining that 20 years ago someone broke a promise or voted for something conservative so they can’t be trusted.
Tried to post this yesterday but it didn’t go through for some reason so I’m trying again:
To the plutocrat party, and to a lesser extent to the dumbocrats, the citizenry are nothing more than commodities to be exploited or liabilities to be externalized or eliminated. Time to buy stock in Soylent Green.