Don’t believe it when Paul Ryan or a.m. itch McConnell or Trump says that the GOP tax plan cuts taxes for the middle class. That’s a lame joke. It is a tax plan to cut taxes for billionaires.

The tax plan is payback to the richest Americans, whose campaign contributions keep the Agra day Old Party happy.

“The House Republicans’ tax reform plan has arrived. And as it turns out, the people it aims to please aren’t the infamous 1 percent, the upper class, or even millionaires.

“Instead, they’re multi-multi-millionaires and billionaires — the top 0.1 percent or even the top 0.01 percent.

“This rarified group has poured gobs of money into Republican campaigns in recent years. And they expect a return on their investment.

“First up is a cut in the federal tax rate that corporations pay on their profits — from 35 percent to 20 percent. Republicans have dutifully argued this cut will help ordinary workers by encouraging companies to expand and create jobs, but this is nonsense. The tax savings would largely go to dividends and other payouts to stock owners. And since wealth ownership in this country is even more unequal than income, the benefits of this cut overwhelmingly go to the richest of the rich.

“Second is the elimination of the estate tax. This cut is transparently meant only for the richest of the rich. As it is, the tax doesn’t even kick in until an inheritance is worth at least $5.49 million ($10.98 million for a married couple), and then the 40 percent rate only applies to the money above that threshold. So no one needs this tax to go away except the top tiny fraction of the 1 percent. The GOP would soften the blow to revenue by delaying its complete elimination for six years, and just increasing the threshold in the meantime. But the end result is the same.

“Third is a change in the federal tax for what’s called “pass through” businesses. Instead of sending profits to shareholders, these companies pass their profits through as income to their owners, so the money currently gets hit by the regular individual income tax instead of the corporate profits tax. Now, the House GOP intends to leave the top 39.6 percent individual income tax rate in place for people making $1 million and above. So the Republicans want to at least minimize the imbalance between that and the new 20 percent corporate tax rate by cutting the pass-through rate to 25 percent.

“This is where it gets a little wonky.

“There’s actually a huge amount of inequality among pass-through businesses, so only a tiny fraction pay the top income tax rate as it is. (And even fewer will pay it under the GOP’s changes to the individual income brackets and rates.) So the whole idea that this is a tax break for small businesses is nonsense.

“But on top of that, defining who counts as a “pass through” business is tricky, and it’s entirely possible that rich individual filers could rejigger their tax paperwork to claim to be a pass through business. To avoid that, the GOP has inserted some pretty complex rules, which rather hilariously undercut the claim that they’re “simplifying” the tax code. But those rules will also likely guarantee that people who actually work full time in the small business they own will still pay the normal income tax rates — only passive investors, who are disproportionately wealthy, will see the full benefits of the lower 25 percent rate. (Along with, say, real estate moguls like a certain sitting U.S. president.)”

When you look at the details, it is even worse.

All the cuts that will hurt ordinary people—students, teachers, families, small businesses— and the services they rely on are being made to finance tax cuts for the richest people in the nation.