GOP tax scam advances. But still garbage, and needs plenty of repair

While it may be noteworthy that the Senate Finance Committee advanced the GOP's tax package to the full Senate on a 12-11 party line vote (with all GOPs voting yes, including the allegedly shaky Ron Johnson), it's not a huge deal in the big picture. As Politico noted, the final bill that will/won't be voted on may look a lot different, because GOPs are trying to jam this through using budget reconciliation, instead changing laws through the typical legislative process.

The Senate budget panel was required to green-light the tax bill because Republicans are using a budget maneuver that would allow them to pass the bill with only 51 votes. Under those procedural rules, the committee could not substantially change the legislation before it heads for a full floor vote.

“Our work today is of a ministerial nature,” Budget Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said during the markup.

So now we get down to the nitty-gritty of trying to work out a version of this scam that can get enough votes to pass the Senate. One of the Republican senators who is hesitant to approve of the current Piece of Shit is Bob Corker. Corker admits claims that he is concerned that economy won't grow enough to avoid blowing up the US budget deficit, and he has floated the idea of a "trigger" that could end the tax cuts sooner if the deficit gets too big.

The Tennessee Republican and others are seeking the protection in case the nearly $1.5 trillion in proposed tax cuts do not meet the GOP's expectations for sparking economic growth. The "trigger" described by Corker would raise taxes if the plan does not boost the U.S. economy enough.

"What several of us have asked for is a backstop or trigger in that event we don't meet the projections that have been laid out — since we're not going to score it — that we have a backstop. And so that's what we've been working on throughout the weekend and feverishly today," Corker told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

"So, I hope we'll get there. I know it's important not just to me, but numbers of members who want to make sure that, for some reason these projections are off, we don't have the growth that's been laid out, it doesn't generate revenues, that we're not passing off increased debt to future generations," he added.

Asked who would bear the brunt of the tax increases under the backstop provision, the senator said he did not want to take away from the "certainty" of tax policy that businesses would want to see to invest. Prompted on whether that means individuals would see their taxes raised while corporations would not, Corker responded that "both" would have an increase.

Of course, Corker later admits in the same CNBC interview that his main goal is cutting taxes on corporations, and if tax cuts for individuals have to be "[thrown] in the trash can" in order for it to pass, then he is alright with that. What a guy!

Of course, there's another type of "trigger" that most Republicans would like to pull as a consequence of this tax deform, and former Reagan advisor Bruce Bartlett nailed it today

Literally the second the ink is dry on the tax cut, deficit hawks will emerge from their hibernation, where they have had nary a word of criticism about increasing the deficit by $1.5 trillion, to demand that SS & Medicare be slashed b/c the deficit has mysteriously increased.

— Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) November 27, 2017

Let's add that even without a "trigger", the Senate bill already ends tax cuts for individuals after 2025 just so it can stay within the budget constraints, while corporations have their tax cuts be PERMANENT. This, along with other regressive "reforms" in this Piece of Shit tax scam, led the Congressional Budget Office to say Americans making less than $75,000 would pay higher federal taxes under the Senate plan (numbers are total dollar amounts for each income bracket, obviously there are many more people making $50-$75K than there are $1,000,000+).



Now that type of regressive nature might not be one of the reasons the tax bill is being held up (GOPs have no problem sending money from the poor to the rich), but there are many other details within that tax distribution that have to be figured out, including whether there will be exemptions for State and Local Taxes (SALT), the income levels where the new tax brackets kick in and what those brackets are, and whether any deforming of Obamacare will be part of this Piece of Shit. And those issues are far from resolved when it comes to merely getting to 50 votes in order to get the tax scam out of the Senate.

And even if this Piece of Shit gets out of the Senate, there has to then be discussions with the House on a very different tax plan, and then both houses would have to pass any compromise bill that might come out of that. Needless to say there's a long way to go on this thing, and we need to be vocal and present to call BS on any tricks and lies the GOP try to pull over in these coming weeks.