It now appears that the Republicans in Congress will soon strike a deal on the Trump tax cuts and this legislation could be called up for a final vote in both Houses as early as next Tuesday.
Since the differing House and Senate bills went into a conference committee, the bill has only grown worse. Republican members of Congress will most likely agree to reduce the top individual rate from 39.6% to 37% – shoveling yet more money into the hands of the top 1%. Thirteen leading tax lawyers reviewed the emerging legislation and discovered that there are numerous loopholes that will allow the super wealthy to further game the system and avoid taxation. This will cause the higher deficits created by this bill to be much, much larger.
Even more outrageous and symbolic of the corruption associated with this emerging legislation was a special tax break slipped into the bill by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) that would provide a deficit funded tax break for oil pipeline companies. This special interest tax break would directly benefit sixteen members of Congress, including Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Public Citizen’s Craig Hoffman blasted this tax break saying: “Trump has set the tone for Republican officials, from the White House to the administration to Congress: self-dealing by public officials for personal gain is to be treated as business as usual and, if politically possible, no longer subject to ethics constraints. Public officials in the Trump administration and the Republican Congress today have a green light to use their trusted positions to enrich themselves — and they are doing so.”
The American people understand that this emerging tax bill is simply an awful piece of legislation. According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, only 29% of the American people approve the GOP tax plan. Approximately, two-thirds of Americans (64%) believe that this plan would largely benefit the wealthy.
Despite the wild unpopularity of this tax bill, the GOP is in a big hurry to pass it. This hurry can be attributed to the fact that the more the American people learn about the GOP tax plan, the more they hate it.
Another factor that may explain this bum’s rush is that the Republicans anticipate that Special Counsel Robert Mueller may soon hand down a series of indictments of Trump’s inner circle. (That would also explain the right wing media’s unrelenting attacks on Mueller.) The GOP needs to ram through this tax plan before the Trump Administration collapses.
Once again my friends we must resist. We cannot flag or relent in our efforts. This bill hangs by a thread. In the Senate, Susan Collins appears to have flipped and come out against the bill. Moreover, a handful of other GOP Senators may still flip. McConnell picked up several last minute votes for the tax bill by making promises that are now being broken by Paul Ryan and the extremists in the House GOP caucus.