The Senate’s second-ranking Republican said that the #CorkerKickback was added to the tax plan as part of the effort to “cobble together the votes we needed to get this bill passed,” but never mind that. Politico has the official story of how Corker flipped his vote despite the bill still adding enormously to the deficit, which had been his stated reason for voting against it before. It’s not that a provision was added that will enrich him personally, it’s that:
Days before his surprise announcement that he would support the GOP tax bill, Sen. Bob Corker had been summoning administration officials and economists to his office to see whether he could ultimately get on board with the plan. [...]
“On one hand, you had the deficit issue. On the other hand, you had the economic growth issue,” Corker said. “I took a long walk on Friday morning and just decided that from the standpoint of, if I were the deciding vote on this … is our country better with this or not better with it? And I feel that we are.”
That’s … an interesting response to talking to economists, since in a survey of “38 prominent—and not hand-picked—economists from across the political spectrum,” just two percent thought the tax bill would strengthen the economy while 52 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed that it would. It’s not like there’s never been a tax cut before. The history is a known thing here:
“There is no historical evidence that any tax cut in history comes anywhere near paying for itself,” [former Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush economist Bruce Bartlett] said bluntly. “At the most you get back a third of the revenue you lose, but that might be overly optimistic.” [...]
Stan Collender, a former top staffer on the House and Senate Budget Committees, who worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations, said not only will the current bill fail to help the country, it will cause significant harm.
“Unless the laws of economics have been repealed, and not even Trump can do that, this has the potential for being one of the biggest disasters in American history,” he told TPM. “The deficit hawks who for the last few months have been in a witness protection program are going to emerge with a vengeance to demand the deficit they just increased exponentially is a problem, and the pressure on Social Security and Medicaid is going to be pretty intense.”
Donald Trump loves to brag about how strong the economy supposedly is, just like he loves to talk about how he’s going to help workers. This push for an economically disastrous tax plan shows just how little he cares about either the economy or working people. And Bob Corker’s vote is all about the economy? Yeah, sure.
The GOP Tax Scam added special provision to help real estate investors like Sen. Bob Corker, who “mysteriously” flipped his vote to a YES without even reading the bill. Call your members of the Senate & House at (202) 224-3121, and give them a very angry piece of your mind.