We begin today’s roundup with The New York Times and its editorial against the Republican tax scam:
To understand the cynicism and mendacity underlying the Republican tax bill, look no further than a provision that would benefit President Trump and other property tycoons that is in the final legislation Congress is expected to vote on this week.
The provision would allow people who make money from real estate to take a 20 percent deduction on income they earn through limited liability companies, partnerships and other so-called pass-through entities that do not pay the corporate tax. The beneficiaries would also include members of Congress like Senator Bob Corker, who last week decided he would vote for the bill even though Republican leaders did nothing to address his concerns about an exploding federal deficit.
The biggest winners would be people like Mr. Trump, his family and similarly advantaged developers who make tens or hundreds of millions of dollars every year on swanky office towers and luxurious apartment buildings. An earlier version of the bill passed by the Senate provided a 23 percent deduction but put limits on its use that would prevent wealthy developers from profiting from it. The House version would simply have reduced the rate at which pass-through income is taxed.
Catherine Rampell at The Washington Post:
There are emergencies, and there are “emergencies.”
The tax bill, which Republicans are desperate to jam through before even they themselves have time to read it, is the latter.
There is zero urgency in passing this terrible, glitchy, sloppily drafted piece of legislation. Even if you actually like what the bill does, it’s hard to argue that its major provisions would be well-timed.
Here’s Edward Burmila’s analysis at The Nation:
The Republican tax bill is a throwback to the Gilded Age. Since the Reagan administration, economic policy in the United States has been gradually regressing to the age of robber barons. But with Congress set to dramatically rewrite the country’s fiscal rules for the exclusive benefit of the wealthy, class attitudes are now openly those of the Victorian era. This is not a normal tax plan; this is 19th-century social engineering.
At The New Yorker, John Cassidy explains how the tax bill is simply unworkable:
With the House of Representatives set to pass the final version of the Republican tax bill on Tuesday, and a vote in the Senate expected later in the week, here is a prediction: no matter which party controls Congress after next year’s midterms, lawmakers will eventually be forced to revise this tax bill substantially. This legislation simply isn’t workable in the long run. Unless it is fixed, it could end up crippling the tax system.
Don’t miss this interview with Enimem:
How do you hope the Trump presidency plays out in 2018?I hope he gets impeached. I’d be there for that.
Your music is popular in some of the same parts of the country where Trump’s support is strongest. How do you reconcile your feelings about Trump with the likelihood that a lot of your fans like him too?How do I account for that? He’s very good at smoke screens. He’s very good at flipping narratives. I just want people to think about things: What has he really done for you in the year since he’s been in office? The tax cut is not going to help the middle class. It’s going to help Donald Trump. That people don’t see that is so discouraging. You know, there was even a time when I was mad at what was going on.
Michael Tomasky explains how Trump is “American’s first lawless president”:
There’s that famous Ben Franklin quote, when they walked out of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 and a woman saw him and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” He replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Our republic—our system of laws—is under assault in a way I’ve never seen and I don’t think has ever happened. Richard Nixon was a lawbreaker. He was not utterly and thorough goingly lawless. There’s a difference. Donald Trump is a lawless president. It’s obvious to anyone who’s watching and isn’t in a state of contemptible denial that he feels constrained by no law. He cares nothing about the Constitution and he’ll lie about anything to anyone at anytime. That’s difference one.
At Rolling Stone, Ed Burmila urges Democrats to run and govern as Democrats:
Democrats have developed a habit over the last four decades of trying to get their voting base fired up during elections without delivering a whole lot once in power. They think Americans, and liberals in particular, want to see bipartisanship – lots of hand-holding and playing nice. By the time they wake up from that fantasy, it may be too late.
Ryan Cooper at The Week echoes that sentiment:
In an interview with The Washington Post, Northam seemingly discarded his campaign promises to push for the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion, suggesting that it needs to have Republican-style means tests and work requirements instead. Jones, meanwhile, suggested that he might vote with the GOP, and said that it was time to put President Trump's numerous sexual harassment and assault allegations behind us.
If the Democratic Party is to hang on to power, they must purge themselves of this appalling, failed ideology.
On a final note, Eugene Robinson takes on the swamp:
The presidency was never meant to be a profit center for a nepotistic, money-grubbing family. But that was before the Trumps moved in.
This scandal is lying in plain sight, overlooked because of the constant stream of missteps, outrages and distractions that come and go at an exhausting pace. While everyone watches his Twitter feed, President Trump is using the White House like a marketing agency for his family brand. This is not normal or acceptable — and it surely isn’t what laid-off factory workers and coal miners had in mind when they jumped on the “populist” Trump train.