Hot-check GOP

The tax bill shows the Republicans running Congress are not fiscally responsible.

Whatever happened to the Republican Party of deficit hawks?

GOP politicians pounded their fists on podiums during the Obama administration sounding the alarm about an imminent economic catastrophe. Grimly they predicted the American dream was on the brink of drowning under a tidal wave of national debt. Conservatives upset about mushrooming federal deficits flocked to the Tea Party movement and threw their support behind toughtalking candidates who vowed to bring the budget back under control.

Now, a Republicancontrolled Congress has passed a tax bill that’s projected to add another $1 trillion to the federal budget deficit. So it’s time voters cast aside the political fiction that the GOP is a party of fiscal responsibility. It’s time to call the supposedly conservative elected officials who supported this break-the-bank tax plan not what they pretend to be, but what they’ve become. And they need to be held responsible at the ballot box.

This is not your father’s Republican Party. This is the party of Hot Check Republicans.

Let’s review the numbers, because a lot of people in Congress clearly didn’t pay enough attention. The Joint Committee on Taxation projected the tax plan would add roughly $1.4 trillion to the national debt. Congressional Republicans claimed their tax cuts would spur more than enough economic growth to pay the difference. But the JCT reported that “the budgetary effects of changes in economic growth are projected to reduce the deficit by $407 billion.” Do the math: That still adds an extra $1 trillion to the national debt.

All of this happens in a year when the U.S. government is more than $20 trillion in the hole. That amounts to roughly $170,000 for each of us taxpayers. But of course, most of us won’t live long enough to pay our share of that debt, so the hot check just written by the reckless Republicans running Congress will end up in the hands of our children and grandchildren.

This also happens at a moment when our economy is ripping through the eighth year of a robust expansion that shows no sign of slowing down. Instead of slashing government revenues with tax cuts, a truly conservative Congress could have made progress toward paying down the national debt. Any smart homeowner knows there’s a right time to fix the foundation, not buy a boat.

All the while, President Trump has claimed “this is going to cost me a fortune,” telling crowds that his accountants “are going crazy.” What’s crazy is the very fact the president makes such an absurd assertion about legislation so heavily weighted to benefit rich people. Trump brazenly broke his campaign promise to release his tax returns, so there’s no way to calculate exactly how much he and his heirs will save under this plan. But the Senate bill provides a 23 percent break for people with income from “pass through” business entities, which accounted for $100 million of his income according to a leaked 2005 tax return. That’s in addition to the reduction or repeal of the estate tax, which could save his heirs anywhere from an estimated $4 million to $4 billion.

The Republican Party has long tried to brand itself as the party of fiscal responsibility, but this tax bill shows the GOP has lost any legitimate claim to that title. Opponents of this tax legislation have scheduled a demonstration outside Houston City Hall at 6 p.m. Wednesday. When Americans see the plethora of deductions disappearing from their income tax returns under this plan, they need to remember who was responsible. And when they vote, they need to hold the Hot Check Republicans in Congress accountable.

Now, a Republicancontrolled Congress has passed a tax bill that’s projected to add another $1 trillion to the federal budget deficit. So it’s time voters cast aside the political fiction that the GOP is a party of fiscal responsibility.