It looks like the GOP tax "overhaul"--or should we say "windfall (for the rich)"--is inevitable. The latest news out of Congress is that the Senate had to sweeten the deal with one more provision that would personally enrich a handful of Senate hold-outs, in order to assure the votes to pass the thing. A final, unabashed display of what this legislation has always been about.
But, you know, taxes are taxes; the rich are always going to make sure that the heaviest burden falls on anyone but them, and they will always have the means to make that happen.
What bothers me most about the whole affair is not that the rich can and do hold all the marbles. It's that there are folks in the same financial boat as me--the ones forever burned by the proven failure of "trickle down"-- who will loudly and slavishly support the right of the rich to have what they want and do as they will. Because this is AMERICA, the land of opportunity, and some day, if they just work hard enough, and get Jesus firmly in their corner, they could be rich, too. The GOP is desperately happy to promote this fantasy among its most gullible (and financially vulnerable) adherents.
The other thing that burns my ass about this is the unabashed hypocrisy that comes into play every time the GOP gets its hands on the joy stick. When Democrats are in power, all Republicans can do is cry and wail and gnash their teeth about how "liberal entitlements" are bankrupting our children. Deficit! Deficit! Deficit! is the never-ending war cry blared through the Republican bullhorn, and the idiots in the cheap seats pick up the mantra and scream it into the faces of their less-fortunate neighbors.
Except...when the GOP gets the opportunity to ignore said deficit in order to grab cash and stash it in the coffers of the rich. Suddenly, and ever so magically--*poof*--deficits don't matter!
And they buy the silence of the middle class by throwing them enough money to buy a new TV.
So, anyway... Here it comes, folks.
Merry f**king Christmas.
The fact is that taxes are a very good tool for building up the middle class and promoting social and political, as well as economic, equality - all of these things being important to a healthy democracy. Most people don't think much, at all, and especially think little and poorly when it comes to economic policy and its relationship to our basic freedoms as Americans, which is really just ridiculous when you consider that we are the world's most important economic and political leader. The last hundred years marked the emergence of America as the world's leading power. We are just pissing it away as fast as we can, and it is the ignorance of our citizens that is enabling that decline.
ReplyDelete