I surmise that most of you reading this do not number among the top 1% income bracket. Furthermore, I gather that most of you reading this–at least in Kings and Tulare Counties here in California–identify yourselves as Republican.
I’m writing to you.
You can thank your party for the tax hike most poor and working class families–most of you–can expect to face after the Senate haphazardly passed a new tax overhaul. For their efforts in the House, you can thank Kevin McCarthy, you can thank David Valadao and you can thank Devin Nunes.
But you can’t thank either of your senators–both Democrats–because our bicameral legislature passed this tax plan along strictly partisan lines.
There will have to be a conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate versions, but the Republicans of both bodies are confident that there will be a return–finally!–to “trickle-down” economics.
Correct me if I’m wrong: Haven’t we tried this before?
This might conceivably begin to make a smattering of sense for wealthy Republicans who live in upscale enclaves. Or even for rich Republicans who live in rural areas. Like farmers. But it makes absolutely no sense for rank and file Republicans in poverty stricken Kings and Tulare Counties.
You’ve been thrown to the wolves. By your beloved Party.
Google “Stockholm syndrome” if you have access to a computer. It may be a leading reason why Kings and Tulare Counties are so deeply red.
And it makes no sense for the rest of the United States: According to the nonpartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the new bill will increase the deficit by $1 trillion over 10 years.
How do you suppose your elected Republicans will attempt to bridge this gap should they judge it accurate? Remember–your party is the “financially responsible” one.
I’ll tell you what I think.
First, they’ll make sure you don’t have healthcare by killing the Affordable Care Act. That’ll save a bundle–and they have, after all, been promising this for years.
They’ll raise the age at which you qualify to receive Social Security benefits while simultaneously reducing the payment you get.
Adios, welfare. Nice knowing you, WIC. Sayonara, infrastructure.
You see where this is headed, you poor–and I mean that literally–benighted Republicans?
The people you vote into office are rapaciously plundering you. They are looting the country while leaving you to hold the bag. And the bag is empty.
I recently read a biography of Jann Wenner, the founder, editor and publisher of Rolling Stone. It was as much a history of the magazine as his biography, and therefore an atlas, culturally speaking, of our last 50 years.
Here’s an excerpt from page 155: Ralph Gleason…would remark that the proof that Rolling Stone was a great idea was that it survived Wenner’s management.
I have often thought along these lines regarding our government, its checks and balances, and our chiefly two-party system.
But is the comparison an apt one?
And can we, indeed, survive the Republicans’ management?
Joseph Oldenbourg