Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/08/oligarchs-r-us.html
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I’d say looking at the GOP and 45 that their tax plan is exactly what they want and working as intended.
But maybe I’m just jaded.
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Oh no. This is an innovation. And it’s an obvious payoff to their prime donors, who are heirs and not entrepreneurs.
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I feel bad for all those ten percenters who still have to work for their fortunes, how utterly ordinary (smarmy laugh)
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Yeah, they really got the short end of the stick.
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I’m actually impressed that they could come up with something that is going to be as unpopular as this. I don’t even know how they are going to spin it. Based on how they tried (or didn’t even try) to spin their healthcare proposals, I’m not expecting anything impressive.
Do we have another bill with a sub 20% approval rating that will die in the senate because three senators care about whether it hurts their constituents?
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They’ll spin it the easy way, I’m lowering taxes. When pushed they’ll say they are lowering it on small business owners. No one in the media asks real questions and the audience is primed to view tax cuts as an inherently good thing. They won’t have to justify it further.
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But according to Ayn Rand, if we unfairly tax the wealthy, they’ll all move to a hidden mountain community and never interact with anyone again!
Actually that doesn’t sound too bad…
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I’m guessing that Whitefish qualifies as one of these.
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Actually, this is a complete repeat of the Trumpcare debacle. In order to get a bill passed, it has to satisfy enough Republicans. But the Tea Party guys aren’t satisfied with anything less than burning it all down. I predict a failure to get it passed. In fact, McConnel was so humiliated by Trumpcare, he won’t bring anything to the floor that’s not certain to pass.
I think phone calls to Republican Senators’ offices were key. Only three defected, but it was obvious a few more wanted to. What can you do when the billionaires demand one thing, but your constituents find out about it and demand the opposite?
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Just more policy non grata for us to ‘debate’ while the clock runs down… I saw this trend, of entertaining and thereby elevating the ludicrous to the level of national discourse, form during the 2016 election. That Trump ever received a platform in politics, was the (final) sign that I could not take these assholes seriously.
So now CNN says “Trump doing something outrageous!” and I understand it is political theater: a dog whistle for the discontent among us. An easy mark, a scarecrow, a straw man to be toppled. So the flurry of nonsense continues,
while we waste time discussing its legitimacy, and before you know it the whole government is run by climate skeptics… subtle (politically anyway), but profound.
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All I can say is that if no one thinks this isn’t the second Gilded Age then they’re really naive.
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This makes for a good joke, but it misses a point. It’s not the “ten percenters”. Using the “one percent” is a poor breakdown. Everyone between the top ten percent and the top one percent is working for a living. It’s definitely a good living, and way way WAY better than the median or average. But, it’s not some super rich cruising on yachts, beach and ski vacation homes.
There’s a HUGE difference between the start of the 1% percent and the 0.1%.
While $250K$ is 5 times as much as a $50K salary, they’re still working for a living. Yes, it’s way easier. But, these people are still just one health care issue away from bankruptcy. It’ll be cancer and not a broken arm though (still way easier than the average).
Looking at $1.250M is 5 times as much as that $250K. They’re ALL grouped in the the 1%.
The 0.1% just isn’t very catchy to yell about.
And, that’s really who this type of scheme benefits, the 0.1%. Or maybe even the 0.01%, I’m not sure where the exact lines are. It’s even worse and benefits even fewer people than you think. While costing all the rest, even those in the 1% to 0.1% more.
The top 10% are not the stereotype we think of as “rich” when we imagine the trappings of the wealthy.
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Every picture of the Trump family looks like a promotional image for a network sitcom that gets cancelled halfway through its first season.
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Hahaha. Well said. Sometimes I think they offer up outrageous plans like this just to see how many people blink.
Just imagine that a bond is a slice of cake, and you didn’t bake the cake, but every time you hand somebody a slice of the cake a tiny little bit comes off, like a little crumb, and you can keep that. If you pass around enough slices of cake, then pretty soon you have enough crumbs to make a gigantic cake.
Bonfire of the Vanities indeed.
The Overton Window is no joke, it’s standard negotiating practice. At this level, all we’re talking about is optics and polling. They take the temperature of the Chamber of Commerce, the Sanders/Warren faction, suburban housewives, and probably most importantly the capital-M Market and then they pivot and triangulate and shape from there.
Also, there are some actual good parts of this tax reform, but if it doesn’t have a VAT I don’t even know why we’re bothering.
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I haven’t read about that at all. Can you name one or two?
