{"id":135720,"date":"2017-12-20T12:04:16","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T19:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=135720"},"modified":"2017-12-21T23:38:06","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T06:38:06","slug":"the-republican-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/20\/the-republican-victory.html","title":{"rendered":"The Republican “Victory”"},"content":{"rendered":"

So by running roughshod over every convention, forcing through a closed-door-written one-party budget with no hearings or even opportunity for input from the opposition, hand-waving polling that says the measure is highly unpopular, dropping any pretense of being the “fiscally responsible’ party by racking up a $1.5T debt over the next ten years, impacting the lower and middle class the most (including raising<\/i> taxes for some of them), slashing taxes primarily for the wealthy and super-wealthy, and sweetening the pot to get final approval by throwing suitcases full of money at wavering GOP Senators, the GOP in Congress — and the President — have scored a great “victory.”<\/p>\n

It’s true that this will mean fiscal victory for the time being for the GOP Donor class, and for most of those GOP Reps and (particularly) Senators. But I have to believe that this victory — which you will hear our toddler-in-chief crow about on a weekly basis for the rest of his presidency — will be Pyrrhic at best, that it will have profoundly negative political consequences in 2018 and 2020 for the Republican party, and that while no doubt some of the politicians involved will cash out successfully (at the mere cost of their souls), their “brand” has taken a crippling wound that it will take a generation to recover from.<\/p>\n

Which doesn’t mean a lot of non-politicians won’t get hurt in the meantime, of course. But in desperation to score a “victory,” any “victory,” the Republicans have ruined themselves.<\/p>\n

(As a note about the political hackery involved in this effort, there’s word that Trump won’t sign the bill until January<\/a>, so that the automatic cuts to Medicare, etc., won’t take place until 2019, after the midterm elections. Can’t have the folk still being allowed to vote feeling too much pain too soon.)<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nHouse sends GOP tax bill to Trump’s desk – CNNPolitics<\/a><\/span>
\nRepublicans plan a celebration at the White House with President Donald Trump after their most significant legislative victory of 2017.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So by running roughshod over every convention, forcing through a closed-door-written one-party budget with no hearings or even opportunity for input from the opposition, hand-waving polling that says the measure is highly unpopular, dropping any pretense of being the “fiscally responsible’ party by racking up a $1.5T debt over the next ten years, impacting the … Continue reading “The Republican “Victory””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,528,374,358,376,1071],"tags":[125,1176],"class_list":["post-135720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-economic-justice","category-money-politics","category-poor-citizenship","category-taxing-spending","category-trump","tag-gop","tag-taxreform"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Paul-Ryan-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":135134,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/21\/rob-middle-class-give-rich.html","url_meta":{"origin":135720,"position":0},"title":"To rob from the middle class and give to the rich","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 21-Oct-17 12:16am","format":false,"excerpt":"I mean, that sounds like liberal rhetoric, but that's precisely what some in the GOP are considering with their plan to cut income and business taxes -- with the greatest benefits going to the most wealthy in our country -- and paying for some of the loss in federal revenue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/unnamed-10.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28501,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/10\/protecting-the-rich-from-taxes.html","url_meta":{"origin":135720,"position":1},"title":"Protecting the rich from taxes","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Jul-12 12:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama and the Dems and Romney and the GOP all agree that the Bush temporary tax cuts on the middle class shouldn't be allowed to expire just yet. \u00a0(I disagree, but that's another story.)The basic difference between the parties is whether the Bush temporary tax cuts cuts on the rich\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137579,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/01\/02\/cue-gop-pearl-clutching-about-the-the-federal-debt-in-3-2-1.html","url_meta":{"origin":135720,"position":2},"title":"Cue GOP pearl-clutching about the The Federal Debt in 3 … 2 … 1","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-Jan-19 5:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Concerned that the Dems were always winning elections (at least on the House level) because they could play Santa Claus with social programs and infrastructure spending bills and the like, beginning with Ronald Reagan the GOP have pursued the \"Two Santa Clauses\" strategy:1. When the GOP is in power, cut\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131246,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/12\/the-problem-with-the-gop-shifting-money-away-from-trump.html","url_meta":{"origin":135720,"position":3},"title":"The problem with the GOP shifting money away from Trump","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 12-Aug-16 3:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump has done a remarkable job of not spending any money in this year's campaign. During the primaries he relied mostly on his own deep pockets (albeit funneling a lot of that money to companies he owns). In his post-nomination period, he's done a lot of fund-raising -- big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135259,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/02\/gop-house-unveils-tax-cut-plan-will-cost-1-5-trillion-dollars.html","url_meta":{"origin":135720,"position":4},"title":"GOP House unveils a tax cut plan that will cost $1.5 trillion dollars","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Nov-17 9:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"While some of the scarier bits that had been floated as ideas have gone away, there, still plenty of goofiness in this plan, which largely benefits the most wealthy, because that's what they paid for with the GOP. It's worth noting that none of this is final -- further GOP\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/paul-ryan.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19440,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/05\/cutting-the-gordian-knot.html","url_meta":{"origin":135720,"position":5},"title":"Cutting the Gordian Knot","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 5-Dec-10 1:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A\/k\/a, you don't negotiate with terrorists. You don't teach people that if they keep threatening, we'll keep giving in and then call it a victory. \u00a0Yes, we'll offer up a compromise first. Then we'll negotiate. \u00a0Then we'll give in some more. \u00a0Finally, we'll give you everything you want, a smidgen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/chamberlain.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135730,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135720\/revisions\/135730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}