Republicans have passed their tax bill. That will almost certainly be the easy part. The harder part comes next with the expected arguments coming soon over the fast-growing debt and ever-more-costly safety net and where the twain shall meet. Via The Washington Post.
It’s smash and grab time for the GOP, writes Vox’s Matt Yglesias, as we witness the wholesale looting of America. And that’s just in the tax bill.
Paul Ryan economics have never been anything more than a blueprint for Republicans to dream about. Now that the tax bill has been passed and will soon be put into law, Ryan’s plan will be something Democrats are happy to run against in 2018. Via Real Clear Politics.
Frank Bruni writes in The New York Times that Republicans have opened the door for Democrats to claim to be the party of family values and fiscal responsibility.
This won’t surprise anyone, but Trump’s national security speech was littered with a combination of lies, exaggerations and, of course, boasts. Via CNN.
How difficult is it to change the culture of harassment? Ask the women at two Ford plants in Chicago who have been battling for change for more than two decades. Via The New York Times.
Josh Barro writes in Business Insider that liberal criticism of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam proves that Democrats can have nice things, but they can never be happy.
After a recount, Democrats win a seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates by a single vote. You’ll probably hear about the race in every get-out-the-vote, every-vote-counts political campaign for at least the next year. In this case, the Democratic win left both parties with 50 votes in the 100-seat House, with no clear way to break a tie. Via The Washington Post.
In the great black-intellectual feud between Cornel West and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Professor West writes in The Guardian that Coates is a “neoliberal” who “fetishizes white supremacy.” As the battle between supporters of West and Coates raged on Twitter — where else? — Coates tweeted, “Peace, y’all. I’m out. I didn’t get in it for this” and then deleted his 1.25-million-followers account. Via The New York Times.
If that’s not enough intellectual feuding for you, check out the conservative-camp feud, in which Charles C. W. Cooke writes in The National Review that conservative Trump critic Jennifer Rubin is among the “Trump-obsessed zealots who add nothing to the conversation.” Meanwhile, writing in The Atlantic, David Frum fires back by accusing Cooke, also a Trump skeptic, of “treading his own prudent path” as “the conservative intellectual world is whipsawed between distaste for President Trump and fear of its own audience.”
Just wait, alright. You’ll get your $18 a week for 5 years, then that will disappear as they claim that since the tax rates are what they are, they can’t afford to pay for Social Security and Medicare, as well as EVERY OTHER social safety net program we’ve ever had. Just can’t afford to take care of our own, anymore. But the rich can sure get their cuts for the rest of eternity.
This is the biggest theft of public funds for the rich since the LAST one. And the one before that, the Reagan “reforms” that jacked up the debt from almost a trillion to well over $5 trillion. The W ones gave us $13 trillion in debt. And now these vermin want to jack that up ANOTHER trillion or two. HOW MANY TIMES do we have to let them STEAL our future from us? Is this REALLY what you righties voted for? WHY, for the love of God? You get $18 a week, the rich get well over $55,000 A WEEK. OF YOUR money. And then YOU get to pay for THEM to have more while you get NOTHING. Good God, people, THINK before you let the righties LIE like this to you.
You think you’re going to get a great job because of this? Where is your Reagan era job? Or your W era job? Weren’t those good enough for you? you need MORE? You’re going to get it, alright. I hope you enjoy it, because I’ll be cursing your names and your family’s existence for the rest of mine.
Interesting how Don Lopez isn’t here cheer leading for Two Scoops and his crooked administration. I guess there are some things that even HE can’t defend.