America’s oligarchs have triumph with GOP tax plan
The Republican tax plan has passed.
“The American people have waited 31 long years to see our broken tax code overhauled,” the leaders of the Koch brothers’ political network insisted in a letter to members of Congress that urged swift approval. They added that the time has come to put “more money in the pockets of American families.”
Please. The Koch network doesn’t care a fig about the pockets of American families. It cares about the pockets of the Koch network.
Polls show that only about a third of Americans favor the tax plan. The majority feel it’s skewed toward the rich and big businesses — which it is.
In counties that Donald Trump won in 2016 but Barack Obama carried in 2012, only 17 percent expect to pay less in taxes if the tax plan becomes law, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Another 25 percent expect that their family would actually pay more in taxes.
Most Americans know that the tax plan is payback for major Republican donors. Gary Cohn, Trump’s lead economic adviser, conceded that “the most excited group out there are big CEOs, about our tax plan.”
Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., admitted “my donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again.’” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned that if Republicans failed to pass the tax plan, “the financial contributions will stop.”
By passing it, Republican donors will save billions — paying a lower top tax rate, doubling the amount their heirs can receive tax-free, and treating themselves as “passthrough” businesses able to deduct 20 percent of their income (effectively allowing Trump to cut his tax rate in half, if and when he pays taxes).
They’ll make billions more as their stock portfolios soar because corporate taxes are slashed.
The oligarchs are the richest of the richest 1 percent. They’ve poured hundreds of millions into the GOP and Trump. About 40 percent of all contributions for the entire federal election came from the richest 0.01 percent of the American population.
The American oligarchs couldn’t care less about what all of this will cost America.
Within their gated estates and private jets, they’re well insulated from the hatefulness and divisiveness.
They don’t worry about whether Social Security or Medicare will be there for them in their retirement because they’ve put away huge fortunes.
Climate change doesn’t concern them because their estates are insured against hurricanes, floods and wildfires.
They don’t care about public schools because their families don’t attend them. They don’t care about public transportation because they don’t use it. They don’t care about the poor because they don’t see them.
They don’t worry about the budget deficit because they borrow directly from global capital markets.
Truth to tell, they don’t even care that much about America because their personal and financial interests are global.
They are living in their own separate society, and they want Congress and the president to represent them, not the rest of us.
The Republican Party is their vehicle. Fox News is their voice. Trump is their champion. The new tax plan is their triumph.