The 2017 Corporate Tax Cut and Social Service Termination Act is about to become law.
This diary is about what the Democratic Party should do now, because it cannot miss this opportunity to define itself clearly, and to contrast itself with the Republican Party.
To do it, we must call the 2017 Corporate Tax Cut and Social Service Termination Act by its rightful name: Class Warfare.
Of course, the Republicans call it the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act because they don’t want anyone to know its real name. I call it the Corporate Tax Cut and Social Service Termination Act because that is more truthful and in the style of the Republican name. But beneath the conventions of Washington, it has a real name.
The bill that Paul Krugman recently called “The Biggest Tax Scam in History” is now even worse. The new proposal will drop the top tax rate even lower than the Senate version, to 37%, and drops the corporate tax rate to from the current 35% all the way down to 21%.
Not only does it use expiring minor tax advantages for some folks as a fig leaf to disguise huge permanent breaks for corporations and for the very rich, but it will generate an immense deficit–-John Warner estimates it will add at least $2 trillion to the federal deficit.
Which means that under the leadership of Paul “Ayn” Ryan, the House will be generating every kind of draconian cut to social programs, and try to zero out every non-military function of government. Even if an individual pays lower taxes for nine years, that person will pay a lot more for everything else because everything that government used to do will disappear or become fee-for-service:
“I saved $1000 on my taxes! Which totally makes up for the elimination of unemployment insurance and school lunch programs, cuts to social security, food stamps, and Medicaid, and the resulting increases in the cost of my healthcare, retirement, and the private security force to distance me from the armies of the newly homeless!”
People seem to understand the shell game going on here, with support for the plan hovering around 30% (mirroring a certain person’s approval ratings).
The problem is that inside the beltway, this is seen as a political loss for the Democrats. In reality the deficit it will create is an economic death knell for anyone who relies on social services, and spells the beginning of the end of the potential for government to serve as a means to achieve a fair and just society. So it is not just a loss for the Democrats, it is an attempt to make sure that progress towards this core Democratic ideal becomes impossible.
The problem is that most Democrats are terrified of running against tax cuts. That’s why I think they should dust off the phrase that Republicans used to attack Obama:
FoxNews, 9/18/2011
On CNN's “State of the Union,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the selective tax hike is “class warfare,” suggesting instead that lawmakers look to eliminate deductions and loopholes. The idea behind the Obama proposal is to make sure those making more than $1 million a year pay at least the same rate as middle-income taxpayers.
(Comment: the idea behind the so-called “Buffet Rule” was that investments should be taxed more so they would be taxed at the same rate as income. If that is class warfare, then lowering the taxes on investments would simply be warfare in the other direction, right?)
Reuters, 1/20/2015
Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, accused Obama of “undertaking ‘class warfare’ with his plan to raise taxes on wealthier Americans to help the middle class.”
(Comment: never mind that Hatch was criticizing Obama for simply closing loopholes not lowering the tax rate, and forget the fact Hatch demanded the changes be “revenue neutral,” something that the current Republican plan is… not. Lowering the rich’s taxes while cutting social services for the poor are class warfare by the same definition.)
You see the symmetry here.
We’ve been told ad nauseum by the Republicans in power that increasing taxes on the rich is “class warfare”.
So our current obscenely rich President permanently slashing the taxes of the obscenely rich — while stating that a temporary and much smaller decrease in taxes is his “big beautiful Christmas present” to us -- is class warfare, too.
In fact, everything the Republicans have done this past year is class warfare — attacks by the upper class on everyone else:
- Loosen gun control laws to help gun manufacturers sell guns.
- Give away public lands to the mining industry.
- Permanently slash corporate taxes and reducing government services.
- Eliminate the estate tax on estates over $5.5 million.
- Get rid of CHIP and sabotage Obamacare.
That’s just off the top of my head. But it shows how easy the case is to make: Everything this administration has done is for big business, the very rich, and their K Street lobbyists.
I was reading one of my favorite blogs about the Alabama victory and came across this sentence:
Overall, the [Democratic] party still lacks a compelling, accessible narrative for where they want to take the country.
And I thought, the narrative is there for anyone to pick up.
It is called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
It could more accurately been called the Corporate Tax Cut and Social Service Termination Act.
But its real name is Class Warfare.