Elections have consequences….the tax scam passed by Congress
this week is a flat out pillaging of the Treasury for a chosen few at the
expense of the rest of us. I was enjoying the end of my vacation sipping a beer
in a Newark airport bar when the sanctimonius, smirking asshat Paul Ryan filled
the tv screen in front of me. I couldn’t believe the crap he was spewing. Does
he really believe that BS he was selling or is his soul so craven by this point
that he knows he’s lying to most of the people he was elected to represent and doesn’t
care? You want examples of how bad this bill is for the majority of folks in
the country? Let’s start with the fact that there is a large tax cut for private
jet owners, golf course owners and big real estate developers and owners but no
money for the child health insurance program……..Ben Wilker writes “until now,
your income that paid for public schools (via state and local taxes, wasn’t
taxed by the federal government. The Republican bill ends that. Instead , they
are now creating a tax break for private
school tuition. They are in effect,defunding public schools to fund private
schools . It’s a straight up war on public education”……………….Joy Reid reports
that she had a Republican source tell her that Bob Corker and other Republicans
don’t care about the massive opposition to this bill from the large majority of
Americans. They are “cashing out”…………………..she also wrote that “the median
household income in the US is $59,039. But Republicans don’t see those people.
They start their analysis at $100,000 per year plus additional business income.
Ordinary people are invisible to them……………..David Sirota reports that documents
show John Cornyn slipped a line into the bill that enriches GOP fossil fuel
donors and personally enriches 16 GOP lawmakers including Ted Cruz. Line was
inserted as Cornyn’s former chief of staff lobbied the issue for a natural gas
corporation……………………………….And Cruz isn’t the only one. An analysis has shown the
real estate carve-out that was added to get Bob Corkers vote will also
personally enrich 13 other senators including our very own Ron Johnson, Rand
Paul, Orrin Hatch, Rob Portman and Jim Inhofe. Oh, and President Trump of
course………………………..Trumps alma-mater, the University Of Pennsylvania’s Wharton
School of business analyzed the bill and even they say it will not do what the
authors say it will plus it will balloon the deficit $1.9-2.2 trillion by 2027
and that’s AFTER incorporating “dynamic” estimates of economic growth effects.
But Ryan and others say “they can’t predict the future” and if that happens
they will battle the deficit increase by “entitlement reform”. That’s your
Medicare and Social Security he’s talking about……this tax scam bill is not tax
reform in any meaningful way for most of the population including most if not
all of you reading this. It is a straight out response to the extortion of
right-wing donors who said they would cut off campaign funding for Republican
candidates if it didn’t happen.
Had a great trip to New York with old friends this week. The
city is a marvel…exciting, thrilling and exhausting. I really don’t know how
the people that live there do it. The 9-11 memorial and museum are a sobering
reminder of what we (they) went through 16 years ago…..the Metropolitan Museum
of Art is amazing and the Guggenheim will challenge your ideas about art…………..visited
the Trinity Church and graveyard, a place dating back to the 1690’s that still
exists surrounded by the canyons of steel in the Financial district. Alexander
Hamilton and other folks from the beginning days of our country are interred
there……………saw the sun come up over the Statue of Liberty (thought about the
past and future of this country and how far we have fallen in such a short
time)……….took in the Broadway musical “Beautiful” which tells the story of
Carole King’s rise in the music business. Full of great songs and singers, a
story well-told, and great fun………………………and saw our friend Doug Andrews (a
Wausau native) play stand up bass in a small performance space with an awesome
group of musicians…..ate and drank great food and beverages…a vacation to
remember.
While I was gone the Packers were eliminated from the playoffs
for the first time in quite awhile…and decided to shut down Aaron Rodgers for
the rest of the season. I understand the reasoning put don’t particularly like
it. If he’s healthy he should play. I know that players in other sports get
rested and miss games all the time for various reasons. The NFL, in my opinion,
is different not only because of the shorter season, but the fact that guys
miss game because of injury much more often than other sports. They shouldn’t
be held out if they are healthy just because of what may happen. If that’s the
case all star players would sit out once they’re team is out of the playoffs.
Is that a good idea?
Quotes of The Day
“Nobody talks more about free enterprise and competition and
of the best man winning than the man who inherited his father’s store or farm”-
C. Wright Mills, 1951
“Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy
justice can have”-James Baldwin
“Are you living in a fantasy world”- Savannah Guthrie
interviewing Paul Ryan
“The cuts the bill provides to the middle class are modest
and temporary. They’re also confusing—not a straightforward slashing of rates,
and some popular deductions will go away. The cuts for corporations are massive
and permanent, by contrast”-Nate Silver
“We have reached an inflection point where our core values
and democratic institutions are at stake”-Sally Yates
“We need a law that either forces leaders to reveal what
they may financially gain from a law they are pushing or one that prohibits
them from any financial gain from a law they support or sign. That is
transparency and honesty”- Matthew Dowd
“GOP says they can’t find the money to fund childrens health
insurance—but they wrote a real estate loophole for Pres. Trump that will cost
$414 billion”-Rachel Maddow
“What you are seeing…with this tax legislation…is the
ugliest display of pigs at the trough that I have ever seen in Congress”-Lawrence
O’Donnell
“We must especially beware of that small group of selfish
men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their
own nests”-Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Songs Of The Day
