GRINNIN’ GRINCHES

Trump leads cheers as Dems jeer Ryan hails payday bump; gov calls it‘ dagger’

It will be an incredible Christmas gift for hardworking Americans. PRESIDENT TRUMP

DEMOCRATS CRIED foul as President Trump and GOP lawmakers claimed victory and celebrated the passage of a historic tax code overhaul that overwhelmingly favors the wealthy.

While the bill was a Christmas wish come true for Trump, Democrats griped about the unfairness of it and challenged that Republicans now must convince a skeptical public that the hastily written legislation will deliver on all the benefits they promise.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Trump say they believe the bill — which has a $1.5 trillion price tag, lowers the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and restructures tax brackets for individuals — will boost the economy, create jobs and make America more competitive.

The House vote, its second in as many days thanks to a procedural snafu, was 224 to 201 and came hours after the Senate’s early morning passage along party lines, making the legislation the first major accomplishment for Republicans under Trump’s leadership.

“The message to the hardworking taxpayers of America is, ‘Your tax relief is on its way.’ That is what is happening here,” Ryan said. “The message to the families in America that have been struggling paycheck to paycheck, ‘Your tax rates are going down and your paychecks are going up.’ This is the kind of relief that Americans deserve.”

President Trump hosted Ryan and a collection of congressional Republicans at the White House in the afternoon, where they celebrated one another’s efforts to pass the first overhaul of the nation’s tax code in three decades.

“You’ve ended the overregulation of the American economy,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Trump at the surreal spectacle.

The President is expected to sign the bill sometime next week while he vacations at his Mar-aLago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

Flanked by Republican lawmakers outside the White House, Trump said the GOP “broke every record,” adding that it had “been an amazing experience.”

The President claimed the effort resulted in “the largest tax cut in the history of our country.”

The cuts, however, are far from the largest in the country’s history — reforms passed under President Ronald Reagan and at the end of World War II were larger.

A beaming Trump also announced that AT&T will give $1,000 special bonuses to more than 200,000 employees and invest an additional $1 billion in the U.S. because of the bill.

The 570-page plan slashes taxes across the board, but heavily favors big businesses and the wealthy and only provides temporary tax relief for most Americans.

It has been panned by a number of analysts and advocacy groups who fear that social programs will be severely slashed in coming years to make up for tax cuts received by the rich.

While the corporate cuts are permanent, benefits for the middle class disappear after a few years.

Gov. Cuomo, who has raised the possibility of a lawsuit to block the bill, called the plan “draconian” and blasted the reduction of state and local tax deductions.

“It’s the first double taxation in the history of the nation. I think it’s purely political,” he said. “It’s a giveaway to the rich. It’s a dagger to the heart of New York.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) labeled the bill as “simply theft — monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class and from every person who aspires to reach it.”

Trump crowed that a family making $75,000 a year would save $2,000 in taxes. But the bill

levies an across-the-board increase in taxes for Americans earning less than $75,000 by 2027, according to an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The Tax Policy Center found 53% of taxpayers will see a tax hike by that same year.

Blue and high-tax states such as New York will be hit especially hard by provisions in the bill that scrap popular deductions.

The Partnership for New York City, which supported the majority of the business reforms, noted that the loss of deductions will sting those who make big bucks in the city.

“New York’s high earners — who pay most of the state and local taxes — are still losers compared to their peers in most other states,” the group said.

The President disagreed with tax experts — as he claimed victory over Obamacare, touted the expansion of oil drilling in Alaska and lauded the bill as a boon for all Americans.

He bragged that the legislation eliminates the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which penalizes those who don’t get coverage.

“I hate to say this, but we essentially repealed Obamacare,” he said.

Trump called the bill a Christmas gift for the middle class.

“This bill means more takehome pay. It will be an incredible Christmas gift for hardworking Americans. I said I wanted to have it done before Christmas. We got it done.”

But opponents don’t believe average Americans will be as jolly about Government Santa.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans will “rue the day” they passed the overhaul. Mayor de Blasio agreed. “This is one of the biggest giveaways to the wealthy in American history,” de Blasio said. “It’s supposed to be the season of giving, not the season of giveaways.

“We know that this tax plan will end up hurting working people and middle class people.”