Taxing the Forgotten People

One of my senators, Sen. Angus King (I-ME), wrote on Twitter in the wake of passage of the Senate version of the U.S. tax bill: “Tonight, I’m disappointed, and I’m angry, because the American people deserve better…. [The] at least $1 trillion in unfunded tax cuts… are not only misguided—they’re downright dangerous, and their effects will be felt by every aspect of our society, from the health of our economy to our national security interests.”

I’m afraid Senator King misses the point, but then, to his credit, Senator King tends to depict his colleagues as misguided rather than self-seeking or malicious. I’m just an aging occasional blogger with no constituency to serve, so I don’t need to give them the benefit of any doubt. I think the proponents of this legislation intend for the effects to be felt by every aspect of our society. The president has already sounded the call for the attack on social welfare programs, which offer a means to offset the unfunded tax cuts. If you're thinking Medicare and Social Security are safe, you might want to think again....

Watching this sham play out has been more than a little dispiriting.

 Ship of State?

The legislation itself, to the extent I know what’s in it as I write (and since I don’t have a copy of the 500 page document, and as I understand it, the vote was taken based on a bill that included hand-written changes to provisions representing last minute agreements, I have only a general idea of the provisions), is bad enough from my political perspective.

But beyond that, it demonstrates yet again how badly my country is broken. Because it was adopted by a straight party-line vote, without deliberation, without hearings, without study of its impact. The preliminary reports by bipartisan economic entities like the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee of Taxation dispute the claims of the bill’s supporters that the tax cuts will pay for themselves through the economic growth generated. Congressional leaders say they just don’t agree; in other words, they’ve take a bill that will vastly increase our country’s debt on faith that the trickle down theory already disproved will now emerge to save us all.

This smacks of the president’s view of reality: it is what he says it is, wishful thinking equated with fact.

The fight against the bill was also less than inspiring. I’m not sure that thoughtful discussion would have changed anything, but dependence on catch-phrases like TAX SCAM (yes, all caps) over-simplify and tend to speak to the converted. Senator Bernie Sanders raised some great arguments, but he kept yelling. The time for yelling is long past. No one listens to yelling anymore; it’s just part of the ambient noise.

What we, as a country, need to do, is shut up and look—really look—at what we’re doing to ourselves. Even the reports on the tax bill’s passage are couched in terms of fights: “GOP Victory!”

My question is: what about the country? Does anyone remember us? Because out here, there wasn’t a lot of love for this tax bill.  Those “forgotten people” the president likes to reference? That’s all of us, now. And it will get worse before it gets better.

Unless we stop fighting with each other, and listen to each other, and put our differences aside, so we can remind the folks in Washington that they work for us. If we don't do that, then Senator King was wrong--and we deserve exactly what we get.