Americans know tax bill will not help us all

There are three things wrong with the Republican tax bill.

The first is that unless such senators as Susan Collins, R-Maine, and our own Marco Rubio develop some backbone, the bill could well pass.

The second thing wrong is that the bill, if passed, would inflict irreparable harm on the people who are most vulnerable — the poor, the sick, the elderly. Only the Republicans

could craft a bill that cuts essential services like Obamacare, disability insurance and programs for children and bill it as a tax “cut.” Only the Republicans could work so feverishly to pass a tax cut bill that two-thirds of the people in this country, according to recent polls, oppose. The American public has cottoned on to the fact that this is not a tax cut bill at all, at least for them. They know it’s a transfer of wealth to the very rich. They apparently aren’t as stupid as the Republican majorities in the Senate and House had thought.

The third problem is that if the bill passes and is signed into law, the Republican majority will next year aggressively pursue Speaker Paul Ryan’s dream of cutting Social Security, Medicare and what’s left of Medicaid.

Contrary to the arguments that the Republicans have advanced, these are not “entitlement” programs but the embodiment of a mutual support pact that Americans have contributed to their entire working lives in the belief that the benefits would be there when they need them. Again, the people who can least afford to see their benefits cut — the poor, the disabled and seniors — will suffer if the Republican Party succeeds in its desperate attempt to help the rich. Martin W.G. King, Boca Raton