This has been rolling around in my head for the last several days, as I run, work in the lab all day, and wash the dishes in the evening, so I thought I’d put it out here and let y’all play with it.
Lots of folks have speculated on the reasons why the GOP is pushing such a bill: Doing the bidding of their rich donors and setting themselves up to collect the massive amounts of money it will take to attempt to hold the House and Senate, and of course personal gain for the richest members of Congress. Plus hitting the ACA hard.
But I still didn’t understand the political logic behind pushing and passing such a massively unpopular bill.
Then I thought of the coming 2018 ‘wave’, and how even Republicans are acknowledging their poor situation in the next two elections. And it hit me:
- Pass this POS tax bill, and give their donors their break for future support. OK, we get that.
- Get shellacked in 2018, and maybe 2020.
- But that means that Democrats will be in charge of Congress and the Senate—and perhaps the presidency—when the inevitable economic downturn/crash comes as a result of this bill. Meanwhile, the rich are doing just fine, thank you.
- Healthcare, the ACA, will be severely hurt because of this bill.
- We know the GOP are masters of messaging, even when it’s pretty much all bullshit and outright lies. They’ll do it again, blaming the economic downturn on the Democratic leadership, and of course pointing to Democratic responsibility for the partial failure of the ACA (we’ve been hearing it for years: “Obamacare is a disaster!”)
- ...and 50% of American voters may very well suck it up. Especially if it’s nicely wrapped up in racism and sexism, blaming the ‘other’ for everything wrong. We’ve seen this movie before, and it often works.
- That’s the only way Republicans can gain power again: causing an economic and healthcare disaster and then blaming Democrats, progressives, women and POC for it all.
Thus this bill not only rewards the richest 1% and insures their future support, but it may set up a situation they can blame on Democrats. Maybe I’m giving them too much credit for original, creative thought, but it could work. One more thing to think about as we plan for the next three years...