Taxapalooza!

If anyone needed any further evidence as to the endemic corruption of American politics the Republican tax plan is surely the clincher.

Think about it: this is a vastly unpopular plan with the voting public. The Republicans are taking an enormous electoral gamble with it. The plan is even less popular than some tax increases have been in the past. It is an astonishing act of political disregard of voter sentiment.

Yet there it is.

Why?

Because in practical terms the Republicans voting in favor do not care about the public at all. They care only about the people who back them at election time. And the plan is an enormous giveaway to the donor class.

It seems like a very long time ago when the Republicans were promising a massive reform of the tax code. They promised such simplification that the average American could fit their tax filing onto something the size of a postcard. Trump came into power riding a wave of populism and told his faithful supporters that he would deliver a big tax cut for middle class families.

Well, the donor class put their foot down. So populism morphed rapidly into plutocracy and we have ended up with a dramatic hand out to anyone who earns their income from capital. Almost all the key features of this plan benefit the wealthy. They are the shareholders whose stock prices have soared in anticipation of the tax cut. They are the ones who will benefit from the drop in the top rate of tax. They are the group who will benefit from the slashing in tax about to be given to the so-called pass-through businesses. And they will see their primary benefits made permanent, whereas the more modest cuts that the middle class might get are slated to expire in a few years.

Nothing about this plan is middle class. It is all plutocracy.

Still, we have to suffer through the patent nonsense of Republicans desperately trying to position the giveaway as a middle class plan.

That absurd position is based on the magic of old fashioned economics. The argument is that all that extra cash slopping around corporate America will be spent on shiny new factories and other investments which will, in turn, generate jobs, competition for labor, and hence higher wages.

So ethics’s middle class component of the plan is sleight of hand and magic. The plutocratic part is solid hard cash.

Which would you prefer?

And as if you need more evidence of corruption: at the last minute one or two new additions to the plan just happen to be big bonuses for real estate developers. Anyone who makes a living in real estate development will see a special tax cut.

These additions have been explained buy leading Republican Senators as the price needed to secure the vote of Senator Corker. So they admit writing the law to benefit one of their own.

And guess who else in high office will benefit?

Yes, you know who!

Not that we have any idea of how much that benefit will be. We have never been allowed to see his tax returns.

America in decline. Writ large.