See Ya Paul Ryan!

     In the era of make-believe-President Donald Trump, any good news is a welcome event, so the announcement by Paul Ryan that he’ll be retiring in January of 2019 is fantastic!  The phrase “Good riddance” has rarely seemed more appropriate.

     However, listening to a few of the news reports and reading several opinion pieces has been disconcerting.  They paint the picture of a guy who “struggled” to hold onto his principles while wrestling with Donald Trump for the soul (?) of the Republican Party. 

     While it’s true that Ryan occasionally objected to a few of Trump’s more outrageous comments throughout the Republican primary season in 2016, and he called him out during the fall campaign following the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” video (“I am not going to defend Donald Trump.  Not now, not ever”), he was quick to change his tune after Trump’s Electoral College victory.

     Paul Ryan saw a golden opportunity to pursue his long-cherished agenda:  destruction of Obamacare, privatization of so-called entitlement programs, and re-shaping the tax code to benefit the wealthy and corporations.  In order to attain these goals, he willingly sold his soul (?) to the Antichrist.  He refrained from additional criticism, and instead praised Trump’s “leadership” (???).  He enthusiastically embraced Trump’s use of identity politics--playing on white privilege and resentment.  It became difficult to distinguish the lackey (Mike Pence would be the handmaiden) from the Antichrist himself.

     As he prepares his slow departure, Ryan touts his accomplishments--in particular pointing to the tax bill.  Several days ago, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the deficit is expected to reach $1 trillion in 2019, courtesy of the Republican “tax cut”.  That’s a nice legacy to leave the next generation, Mr. Ryan.  This piece of legislation passed (last December) without a single Democratic vote.  It locks in permanent tax cuts... to corporations (down from 35% to 21%).  By contrast, middle class tax cuts were given an expiration date of 2026!  And though most middle-class Americans were projected to receive an average payout of $930 (tantamount to 1.6% of their average income), the real bonanza will be enjoyed by the top 0.1%, who’ll receive an after-tax gain of $193,380.  You’ve performed your duties for the privileged few well, Mr. Ryan, but you’re leaving behind a country that has never been more polarized--economically or politically.  You should be ashamed of your behavior--though given the fact that you were barely able to keep your racism in check during the eight years of the Obama presidency, nothing you do is all that surprising.

     Yours is a sad story, as well as a cautionary tale, though I’m certain you’ll be raking in tons of cash by spinning it otherwise.  Don’t let the door hit you on the way out... see ya Paul!

The Trump/GOP Tax Bill: Nothing But Coal In the Stockings of Working People

     Like a stocking full of coal (particularly apt this holiday season), the Trump/Ryan/GOP tax  boondoggle has arrived. 

     As we might have expected, our so-called “leaders” have staked their bill on corporate tax cuts (from 35 to 20 percent).  The majority of Americans oppose these cuts (Pew Research Center), but what does the will of the people have to do with reality?  Trump, Mnuchin, and Cohn have been relentlessly parroting the tired line that the U.S. corporate tax rate is too high.  On the surface, they appear to have a point.  The U.S. rate stands at 39% versus 30% in Germany and 24% in the UK.  Yet our “effective” corporate tax rate (once you factor in the bundle of goodies they’re able to deduct:  cost recovery allowances, interest deductability, and expensing research & development) is actually around 18.6% which puts us in line with the UK rate of 18.7 %, and much closer to Germany’s rate of 15.5%. 

     It’s likely that slashing our corporate tax rate will instigate a race to lower corporate taxes across the globe.  That will only benefit the rich.  The rest of us will pay a price the country can’t afford.  Trump supposedly wanted to call this the “Cut, Cut, Cut Bill”.  Apart from his desperate need to simplify everything (how else could he hope to understand the issues?), he’s accidentally right--but not in the way he intended.  In order to pay for the massive additions--an estimated $2 trillion dollars over 10 years--to the deficit that will be caused by this corporate giveaway, the government will cut funds for education, cut funds for health care (Medicaid), and cut funds to safeguard the environment.  Cut, cut, cut... but not for Trump, Robert Mercer, the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and the other bloated GOP cash cows.

     A few other tidbits to demonstrate their largesse:  Although they’ve made a show out of keeping the highest tax rate (39.6%) in place, they’ve more than doubled the threshold at which that top rate kicks in--from $400,000 to $1 million (for married couples).  Nice sleight of hand.  They’ve also made wealthy families eligible for expanded child credit!

     If one wants to study the results of Republican tax policy in action, the disastrous Kansas tax experiment stands as a terrifying testament.

     Trump and company would undoubtedly love to say “let them eat cake” (and probably do behind closed doors).  My hope is that resistance to their insatiable greed will continue to grow and 2018 will see their power begin to crumble.