Reactions to Senate Republicans’ passage of tax reform bill
The GOP’s tax bill couldn’t stand adequate review, so they jammed it through the Senate late last Friday night. They added 500 pages to what was already a huge document, ensuring that nobody could have reviewed it. In particular, the Congressional Budget Office had no opportunity to review it. If this is such a great thing for the American people, why is the GOP afraid of giving it an adequate review?
The answer is disturbingly obvious: This bill decreases the taxes for the wealthiest among us at the expense of middle- and lower-class taxpayers. Among other things, it removes the penalty for not having health insurance, ensuring that millions of people will not be able to afford health care.
Thirty years after Ronald Reagan foisted trickle-down economics on us, the failed experiment should be clear to everyone, but apparently the GOP still believes in it. Shame on them. ●●●
Saturday morning, desperate for any legislative accomplishment, our brave Sen. Cory Gardner once again displayed his true colors in sup- porting regressive Republican tax reform. By voting for this bill, he once again showed himself to be a partisan coward, but his cover is blown. He’ll never again (at least, not with a straight face) be able to credibly call himself a fiscal conservative after voting for a bill that adds $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit.
Don’t tell us about growing the economy at 3-4 percent per year for 10 years to pay for this. It’s never happened in our history. Gardner gallantly stood with the poor, oppressed multibillion-dollar corporations and the ultrarich (the most vulnerable members of our society) while the middle class and those earning less than $30,000 per year see relative pennies or even eventually pay more. Another “Profile in Courage” for our very own Cory Gardner. ●●●
In light of Cory Gardner’s unwavering support of the Senate tax reform bill and the fact that it will add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, it is time that The Denver Post withdraw its 2014 endorsement of Gardner along with its assertion that “Gardner has sound ideas on tax reform that could help the economy take off.” Send letters of 150 words or fewer to openforum@denverpost.com or 101 W. Colfax Ave., Suite 800, Denver, CO, 80202. Please include full name, city and phone number. Contact information is for our purposes only; we will not share it with anyone else. You can reach us by telephone at 303-954-1331.