Love Those "Teeth Diamonds"!

Now that tax day's almost behind us, let's reflect on the Rethuglican tax gift to the top one percent and corporations. In essence, they'll pay less so that you'll pay more. See? It all balances out. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released this video on the #GOPTaxScam.



(h/t Tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors)

Tweet Of The Day - Republican Wealthfare

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The impact of the corporate tax cut/health care repeal all in one place.

Please share if useful. pic.twitter.com/BP0aw5iccY

— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) November 15, 2017

It's useful -- so please share.

Apparently This New Gilded Age Isn't Going Over Well

It's becoming harder, even for the casual observer, to avoid seeing what Republicans are up to with their agenda of "afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable." Visuals like this, with the Moochin' Mnuchins (foreclosure king/ multi- millionaire/ Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his second wife Louise "Marie Antoinette" Linton) vogueing with a sheet of dollar bills with his signature, drive home the point:



Is that her "blue steel look"?  Nice touch with the opera gloves, lady.

Of course, Twitter had a lot reactions; Crooks and Liars has a number of them, including this:

Who wore it better? pic.twitter.com/aZ5Uwjtef6

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) November 15, 2017

You'll recognize "Millionaire Mitt" Romney from his Bain Capital days in that picture on the left.

Meanwhile, Republican efforts to take health care away from millions while raising taxes on low- and middle- class families and making corporate tax cuts permanent are about as popular as a pedophile running for the Senate (well, with the exception of some good "Christian" folks in Alabammmy that is):

The polling on the GOP's tax plan is starting to look almost as bad as the numbers on their health care plan. https://t.co/tqHKThZRzW pic.twitter.com/IVEIHzQajw

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2017

Perhaps even more interesting is that only 16% of voters expect the bill to cut their taxes. 35% expect a tax increase. pic.twitter.com/L935zaw4oV

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2017

Morning Reading

Here are some good reads to start off your Friday (as always, please take the link to the full article):

Dave Roberts at Vox has a deep dive into the right wing's "tribal epistemology" -- seeing only what is good for the "tribe" as true:

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy having to do with how we know things and what it means for something to be true or false, accurate or inaccurate. (Episteme, or ἐπιστήμη, is ancient Greek for knowledge/science/understanding.) 

The US is experiencing a deep epistemic breach, a split not just in what we value or want, but in who we trust, how we come to know things, and what we believe we know — what we believe exists, is true, has happened and is happening. 

The primary source of this breach, to make a long story short, is the US conservative movement’s rejection of the mainstream institutions devoted to gathering and disseminating knowledge (journalism, science, the academy) — the ones society has appointed as referees in matters of factual dispute. 

In their place, the right has created its own parallel set of institutions, most notably its own media ecosystem.  (our emphasis)

Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog nails what Democrats should be talking about to voters:

I keep hearing that Democrats should either talk about economic issues or pitch their message to the emerging, more-diverse electorate -- but I don't understand why this has to be an either/or choice. Democrats who can't figure out how to do both should get the hell out of big-league politics, in favor of people who can walk and chew gum at the same time. Note that the voters surveyed were young and diverse -- and they responded well to an economic message. Enough Midwestern whites responded well to a message about a diverse America in 2008 and 2012 to elect Barack Obama twice. So find a way to get both messages out. 

But please, please, please: Make the point that the Republican Party is the problem. The Republican Party has contempt for you if you're non-white or LGBT or if you're unemployed or need health care for a child with chronic illness or live downstream from a chemical plant. The key to changing America is not electing Republicans. [snip] 

Democrats: Be proud of who you are, speak up for yourselves, and talk about what Republicans have done over the past few decades and how their extremism hurts ordinary people. The problem is the Republican Party, stupid.  (our emphasis)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) outlines two big lies Republicans are using to sell their tax cuts for corporations and the rich:

It’s hard to sell a plan that imposes new taxes on millions of working families while shoveling money to big banks, multinational corporations and wealthy foreign investors. That’s why Republicans are pushing two big lies about their plan instead. 

The first big lie is that the plan will “supercharge” economic growth, creating a rising tide that would lift all boats. Despite Republicans’ wild claims, independent analysts agree: The corporate tax cut at the center of the Republican plan will have a negligible or even a negative impact on economic growth.    

The second big lie is that corporations will pass along their tax giveaways to workers in the form of higher wages. When multinational companies got a huge tax break under President George W. Bush, corporate profits shot up and shareholders grabbed nearly all the gains. When the United Kingdom cut its corporate tax rate by 11 percent, wages went down. Republicans know the facts aren’t with them, which is why Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to bury Treasury’s own report showing that wealthy shareholders would be the overwhelming beneficiaries of a massive corporate tax giveaway. 

The corporate tax cuts will go directly into the pockets of shareholders, not workers;  and, down the road a bit, the Republicans will try to pay for the tax giveaway through cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  But they can be stopped (see Steve M., above).

Letters We Wish We'd Written Dept. -- Photo Caption Edition

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House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announce the Republican tax-reform initiative on Sept. 27, accompanied by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), and Rep. Mike Bishop (R-Mich.), on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

In today's Washington Post "Letters to the Editor:"

I offer my highest praises to photographer Melina Mara for her expertly timed and framed, snort-coffee-out-your-nose photograph of the self-proclaimed congressional leadership for “tax reform” [front page, Sept. 28]. Mara should be encouraged to provide material for a weekly caption competition. I’d suggest, “One guy you want in your wallet, and seven you don’t” for this one. But I’m sure readers would find this picture and more like it fertile ground for a wide range of humorous responses. 

Allan Williams, Arlington

That's a pretty hard one to beat.  How about "One guy who can't tell a lie, and seven who can't tell the truth."

Knock yourselves out!

Republican Party Values - A Brief Lesson

You could have knocked us over with a feather:

The Republican tax plan would deliver a major benefit to the top 1 percent of Americans, according to a new analysis by a leading group of nonpartisan tax experts that challenges the White House's portrayal of its effects. 

The plan would deliver far more modest tax cuts to most other households — an average cut of $1,700 for households in 2027, according to the report. But the results would be unevenly spread, with 1 in 4 households paying more in taxes. 

Despite repeated promises from Republican lawmakers that the plan is designed to provide relief to the middle class, nearly 30 percent of taxpayers with incomes between $50,000 and $150,000 would see a tax increase, according to the study by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. The majority of households that made between $150,000 and $300,000 would see a tax increase. 

Meanwhile, the study found that 80 percent of the tax benefits would accrue to those in the top 1 percent. Households making more than about $900,000 a year would see their taxes drop by more than $200,000 on average. (our emphasis)

So, off the top of our heads, dolt Donald "Rump" Trump and/or the New Confederate/ Stupid/ Plutocrat Party:

1) are letting federal funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program funding lapse;

2) are bumbling Puerto Rico aid and suggesting Puerto Rico may not be fully rebuilt;

3) are actively sabotaging the health care system for tens of millions of Americans;

4) have, to date, 4 cabinet officers wasting taxpayer dollars on private jet travel;

5) are fanning petty racial and cultural wars (the "Steve Bannon strategy"); and

6) just nominated a loathsome talibangelist for the Senate in Alabama and are okay with that because -- wait for it -- "he's going to be for tax reform."

With that, we've come full circle.

Ah, Republican values.

The Republican "Wealth-fare" Tax Framework

Republicans, led by their neo- fascist swindler- in- chief Donald "Rump" Trump, unveiled an outline of their "tax reform" proposal yesterday. Hopefully, it won't shock you to learn it was (as Sen. Schumer put it) "wealth-fare," loaded with yuuuge breaks for corporations and the well- to- do.

Here's a breakdown by Karoli Kuns at Crooks & Liars about what the Republican "wealth- fare" proposal would do:

1. Drop the number of personal tax brackets from seven to three: 12%, 25% and 35%... [T]his is "smoke and mirrors" because it doesn't effect prosperity, which is the justification Trump and the Billionaires use for tax cuts.... [F]ewer people will pay the highest rate, but they'll raise the lowest rate so that more people are paying more taxes. Socialize the cost; privatize the profit. It's how Republicans roll. 

2. Double the standard deduction to $12,000 for individuals, $24,000 for married couples. This is how they get around raising the lowest rate from 9.7% to 12%. It also supposedly gets rid of the marriage penalty and raises the tax credit for having lots of children, along with granting a whopping $500 tax credit for non-child dependents. 

3. Repeal the estate tax - We all know who derives benefit from this. 

4. Repeal the alternative minimum tax instead of fixing the indexing so that it doesn't catch middle-income earners in its grasp. Most people don't pay this. If it were properly indexed, it would tax high earners at a rate more appropriate for people who already have too much money. 

5. Drop the corporate tax rate to 20% which Trump claims is what he wanted all along, not 15% like he's been insisting upon. 

6. Drop the rate on "pass-through" (Subchapter S) corporations to 25%. Republicans swear this will help the mythical "small businesses" which are being terribly hammered by the higher tax rate, but the average income pass-through on these entities is $750,000. They don't need a tax break. They need to pay more.

Oh, and it would balloon the deficit by trillions of dollars, something Republicans only care about when a Democrat is in the White House.

The New York Times editorial board has more detail on the Republicans' "boondoggle masquerading as tax reform:"

After months of secret negotiations, the Trump administration and congressional leaders have come up with a tax plan — sort of. What they have really come up with is a wish list of tax cuts for the wealthy, with lots of “we’ll get back to you on that” promises where the details are supposed to be. 

This much is clear: The tax “framework” published by Republican leaders on Wednesday would greatly increase the federal deficit, would not turbocharge economic growth and could leave many middle-class families worse off by ending deductions they rely on. It would do little or nothing to improve the lot of the working class, a group President Trump says he is fighting for. It would instead provide a windfall to hedge fund managers, corporate executives, real estate developers and other members of the 1 percent. And can it be just a happy coincidence that Mr. Trump and his family would benefit “bigly” from this plan? [snip]

It’s hard to predict the economic impact of these skeletal proposals. But most experts agree that they could raise the federal budget deficit by trillions of dollars. As they have so many times in the past, Republicans will surely argue that the cuts would spur growth, and, in some measure, pay for themselves. This is the old supply-side hooey. In fact, over time the increased borrowing for unproductive tax cuts could depress growth by driving up interest rates. 

There are important public purposes that could justify increasing the deficit — repairing the country’s dilapidated infrastructure, for instance, or paying for hurricane recovery efforts. Making the rich richer is not one of them. 

(The editorial contains some useful graphics on historic marginal tax rates and the Alternative Minimum Tax - please check out the entire op/ ed.)

Once again, as with their Obamacare repeal efforts, Republicans don't seem to care about what the people want, or know that the public is on to them:

Cutting corporate taxes looks like a hard sell for Donald Trump and Republican Party leaders -- a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 65 percent of Americans feel large corporations pay too little in taxes. 

Given what the public knows about it, they opposes Trump’s tax plan by 44-28 percent, with a substantial 28 percent undecided. Half of those polled expect the administration’s plan to reduce taxes on the wealthy, while just 10 percent think it’ll reduce taxes on the middle class. A quarter expect equal treatment.

We'll have more as this "boondoggle masquerading as tax reform" gets fleshed out.  But we'll leave you with an editorial cartoon we posted a few days ago that sums it up now and forever:

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(Tom Toles, Washington Post)