Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
President Trump, every Republican senator, and the GOP majority in Speaker Paul Ryan’s House just put the future of their party on the line.
By enacting the largest tax cut since the Reagan administration, the heart of which is cutting the corporate rate from 35 to 21 percent, Republicans have boldly bet the farm.
They have rewritten America’s tax code to reflect their belief that cutting taxes on the private sector will produce the prosperity they have promised. If it happens, the GOP will reap the rewards, if not by 2018, then in 2020.
Democrats, as the Party of Government, egalitarian and neo-socialist, have come to see their role as redistributing wealth from those who have too much — to those who have too little. For, as men (and women) are born unequal in ambition, ability, talent, energy, personality and drive, free markets must inevitably produce an inequality of results.
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The mission of Democrats is to reduce those inequalities. And as the very rich are also the very few, in a one-man, one-vote democracy the Democratic Party will always have a following.
Winston Churchill called this the philosophy of failure and the gospel of envy.
Republicans see themselves as the party of free enterprise, of the private not the public sector. They believe that alleviating the burden of regulation and taxation on business will unleash that sector, growing the economy and producing broader prosperity.
By how they voted Wednesday, Republicans yet believe in “supply-side” economics. In the early ’80s, this was derided as “voodoo economics” and “trickle-down” economics, and pungently disparaged by John Kenneth Galbraith as an economic philosophy rooted in the belief that, if you wish to feed the sparrows, you must first feed the horses.
The problem for Democrats is that Reaganomics worked, and is seen historically to have been successful. In 1984, growth was near 6 percent and Reagan rode to a 49-state landslide over Fritz Mondale who, at his San Francisco convention, had declared he would raise taxes.
Thus the importance of what happened Tuesday and Wednesday on Capitol Hill should not be underestimated.
On their legislative agenda, Republicans broke out of a slump. Though they got not a single Democratic vote in either chamber, they showed they can govern alone. On the lead item on the GOP-Trump agenda — taxes — they delivered. They shifted policy dramatically toward Republican philosophy. They wagered their future on their convictions. And the splenetic rage among Democrat elites suggests that they know they have suffered a defeat difficult to reverse.
Moreover, though the bill that came out of Congress is unpopular, the nation will not vote on Trumpian management of the economy until November 2018, after the early returns from the tax cut have come in.
And the Democratic Party has also been put into a tight box.
As Democrats have denounced the tax bill for exploding the debt by $1.5 trillion, how do they propose to pay for all the free stuff, including free tuition and infrastructure, that they will have on offer?
There are only two options: borrowing and growing the national debt themselves or raising taxes, as Mondale promised to do.
Another problem for Democrats is the new $10,000 limit on the tax deduction for state and local income and property taxes.
In blue states like Oregon, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, Hawaii, the top state income tax rate is 8 to 10 percent. In Jerry Brown’s California and Andrew Cuomo’s New York, it hits 13 percent — before adding property taxes on homes and condos in Manhattan and second homes out on Long Island.
Virtually eliminating state and local tax deductions is going to cause some of the rich to consider relocating to low-tax or no-tax red states in the Sun Belt like Florida. And it is going to put pressure on blue state pols to cease adding to the state and local tax burdens that Uncle Sam is no longer helping to carry.
Stepping back from all the Sturm und Drang of 2017, the Trump-Republican record of achievement, of meeting commitments made in the campaign of 2017, is not unimpressive.
The largest tax cuts in decades. Elevation of Neil Gorsuch to the Antonin Scalia seat on the Supreme Court. A record number of new U.S. appellate court judges approved by the Senate. The U.S. is out of the Paris climate accord and out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
NAFTA is being renegotiated. Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be open for drilling. The U.S. is at full employment, with minority unemployment near record lows. The stock market has consistently broken records, with the Dow having added 5,000 points. The Obamacare individual mandate tax is gone. Obama-era regulations have been cut and some eliminated.
And one year deeper into Russiagate, and still there is no proven collusion between candidate Trump and the Russians.
Indeed, the Robert Mueller investigators appear now to be coming under as much scrutiny and suspicion for how they behaved during the election and transition as Vladimir Putin and the Russians.
Did anybody else notice that, after a couple of Dem’s resigned over “sexual misconduct”, and then a not-so-subtle threat that there were many more Dem’s and Repub’s that had used public funds to pay off sexual misconduct accusers, now all of a sudden the POTUS’ tax cuts get pushed through? I’m no Trump fan, but I think the POTUS is not so helpless and stupid as some people think. Somebody has his back, that’s for sure. Sure does look like the RepubliCrats are scared, and I call that a win. 🙂
While a firm believer in Capitalism and the Right of Self Determination, the Republican Party long ago ceased serving my interests. I view this not so much a tax cut as a final looting and pillaging of America’s corpse by global corporatists.
What are your interests?
The ones they don’t represent?
And why do you suppose they don’t represent them, what do you want represented instead?
Specifically.
BTW do you vote mostly Republican or mostly Democrat or mostly third party? As for me, I’ve voted third party for decades till Trump came along, I did for him.
While not given to responses in general, your questions are deserving. My interests are my God, my family and my country. The first 2 remain wholly intact, the latter, not so much. I viewed the “F— The Troops” video by Lark (forgot the last name) in the post above. As a VN era Marine, it’s difficult to have one’s life long world view challenged. But I can’t discount the validity of his point. I suppose I feel a contradictory sadness as I approach the end. On the one hand I feel I failed my father’s generation, half a million of them died. On the other, I’m left with “F— The Troops” and the realization that just maybe, all of us were played. (eom).
Old Bob, I guess in your world allowing people to keep a bit more of the money they earn is “looting and pillaging.”
Some taxes are memorable, others less so. Most people could immediately tell you within ~5% how much their property taxes are. Most people couldn’t tell you within 30% how much their 2016 net federal income tax was. I think Republicans probably made a political mistake (for 2018 and 2020) with the tax changes, since people will remember losing deductibility of state and local taxes, while lower federal income tax rates are harder to comprehend. The Republicans don’t care what people in NY, CA, MA & HI think, but in swing states like WI, MI, OH, PA and even potentially MN this tax bill could work against the GOP. On the other hand, the $10,000 remaining deductibility could be adequate to give them cover.
“The U.S. is at full employment, with minority unemployment near record lows.”
That single statement is one of the biggest ongoing lies spouted by the federal government. The fact that people, like Buchanan, will parrot that utter bullshit is very telling. When people who should know better tow the government line, it is doubly discouraging.
Also, all this yammering about the ins and outs of the new tax bill irritates the crap out of me. How about we have a discussion about the fundamental immorality of having an income tax at all. I know. I know. That ship sailed a long time ago.
Speaking of ships; several years back, I came across this nugget that was such a perfect encapsulation of the general idiocy of the tax code, I had to keep it. Here it is. The last sentence is the punch line.
Gifts to Charity
You can deduct contributions or gifts you gave to organizations that are religious, charitable, educational, scientific, or literary in purpose. You can also deduct what you gave to organizations that work to prevent cruelty to children or animals. Certain whaling captains may be able to deduct expenses paid in 2012 for Native Alaskan subsistence bowhead whale hunting activities.
The part that really made laugh is that only “certain” whaling captains “may be able to” take this deduction. Apparently, not even “all” whaling captains can muster up enough lobbyists to ensure the codification of this little loophole that undoubtedly alleviates the financial suffering of the uncounted millions of “certain” subsistence whaling captains that are languishing under unfair taxation in Alaska. On top of that, this was in place in 2012. Can you imagine how severe the problem is now! My God. Where is the National Association for the Advancement of Native Alaskan Subsistence Bowhead Whaling Activities (NAANASBWA) when you need them.
BLUBBER EATERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR INCREDIBLY OBSCURE TAX CARVE OUT!
Ok. That’s enough spleen venting for a couple of hours. Have a taxable day everyone.
Q: — “Hey! We made a shitload of money from those tax breaks. Let’s lower the price of our products, and give all our employees nice raises!”
A: — “‘Things no CEO says ever’ for $100, Alex.”
OTOH, trickle down economics worked for Reagan, they say. Let’s see if there’s still water in that well.
Well……….I think we know for certain that taxing corporations more and more has not worked out as planned. So the simple solution is to obviously tax more, see Illinois, see California, see any prog state.
Hey Stuck. Guess what? Robert Gore over at SLL reposted my last TBP post. I’m in the big time now. Not sure if I will be able to participate in any more of your scintillating Q,s.O.T.D. what with all the hobnobbing and jet setting I will undoubtedly be subjected to in the future. And to think, it all started with your unauthorized posting of my incisive commentary.
SLL?
You lucky bastard!!
One day, I might also hit the jackpot. I’m thinking of doing a parody of “Cover of the Rolling Stone” …. “Ain’t good ’nuff for Straight Line Logic”
You funny Xman. Maybe if you practice u will end up on Andy Nirvana’s blog.
Has anyone asked them self what the purpose of the Senate is? Why do we need it in this day and age? It seems today that the function of the Senate is to represent the monopolies that control the economic structure of this country and assists the government in creating the regulatory infrastructure that blocks creativity.
The Senate was originally created to represent the States. That changed with the passage of the 17th amendment to the Constitution. Senators once picked by the State legislatures to represent them in the national assembly are now elected by the people and have become rouge agents that are bought by the highest bidder monopoly to represent their interests.
If we are to get back to the fundamentals the States need to be again represented in Congress. This means the repeal of the 17th amendment to the constitution. Only the States can right this by calling for a repeal to this amendment that has changed our political system.
The Republican and Democratic parties are two different ideologies yes but this does not mean that their primary function to serve the people should suffer because of this. The parties have lost their way due to the sway of money.
It seems to me that the reduction of the corporate tax rate to 21 percent will help the small corporations more so than the large monopolies. Now what is needed is that government gets out of the business of regulating the way manufactured products are produced. This I believe will not only increase manufacturing in this country but will also increase the quality of the products manufactured.
The monopoly corporations that have bought up all the brands have no creativity. These corporations are run by business majors that have very little knowledge of the products they peddle. As a consequence their brands have lost the quality they once had and the products they produce are inferior. Because these monopolies have no competition due to government regulations which they helped to create there is no incentive for creativity or customer service.
If this country is the recover our creativity and standard of living government has to get out of regulating and allowing monopolies to exist in this country. It has to break up these large monopoly corporations and allow competition.
Man was made to work. There is great satisfaction in being useful and having a purpose in life. The pursuit of happiness includes working and obtaining the basic necessities of life like a place to live and a place in the community. Due to our bad leaders at all levels of government people are being obstructed in their pursuit of happiness.
These bad leaders think about money first as the greatest value. This is affecting their judgments in a negative way. The greatest value in life is really happiness. This is what our government was set up to facilitate. Happiness is not facilitated by rules & regulations created by the noose of administrative laws. It is created by the natural progression of the collective will of the people to follow their desires. This means that the interest of the value of money does not come first over the stratification of existence and the inner-togetherness that needs to be recognized in the needs of the population.
Example: There is a chronic need for affordable housing in this country. Working and middle class people are suffering from this problem. No one in government has a solution yet government at all levels is blocking all roads to the solution of this problem. Why? Because these people in government value money more than the population they were elected to serve. Building codes follow the value of money; not populations. Why?
This country has so much potential that will not be realized until there is a change of thought that shifts value to the people rather than money.
The 17th Amendment was driven by a perception that crooked / corrupt interests in state capitals controlled the election and voting of the Senators, such that big companies and corporations / trusts could decide who would be Senator and how they would vote in Congress. There were a number of scandals and incidents that drove this perception. In a typically misguided move, the Progressive interests thought that having all the people of a state vote on who would be their Senators would stifle the ability of big, corporate interests to control Senators.
Big mistake – at the beginning, the state Legislatures picked the Senators for their states. That meant that 50 or 100 state legislators could REMOVE a Senator, should he / she misbehave, and convincing 50 or a hundred state legislators (who had known addresses in known places, local accountability to their neighbors) would remove a Senator. Now, you have to convince a majority of the ELECTORATE (many of whom are normally asleep, to the point they can rarely even NAME their Senators) to remove an erring Senator and replace him with another.
THIS ALONE has driven incumbency in the Senate to record levels, and it will not change until this does. The Founders did not, however, devise a system that would protect a population from their own laziness, ineptitude and lethargy.
So what! All the tax breaks in the world won’t matter without immigration reform. By that I mean build the wall, stop chain migration, eliminate the visa lottery, eliminate the anchor baby bullshit, and put a moratorium on all immigration for 10yrs. The Pubbies can come talk to me about supporting them after they do these things. I’m not holding my breath!
Splenetic- now there’s a word you don’t hear every day.
Good use of the thesaurus.
The biggest problem I see with these tax cuts is the same problem Reagan had, no spending cuts. According to Paul Craig Roberts, in an interview he gave, Reagan got his tax cuts but the spending cuts never made it through and the deficit exploded upwards. The same thing is going to happen here. And as the Fed prints more money, inflation increases, eventually wiping out any benefit from tax cuts. The Republicans may benefit as Reagan did for a while, but it could come back to bit them, say, in 2020 or 2022.