How can GOP make tax bill even worse? Just add ACA deform!

Well, it's been a wild last 36 hours or so for the Trump/Ryan tax bill in Congress. There were odd developments involving the tax part of the bill, and whether they can even legally pass the bill as it stands today. And so to pass the bill, GOP budgeteers decided to resurrect another failed idea - messing up Obamacare.

The real reason the Republicans are putting all of these bad ideas together in one gigantic Piece of Shit Bill seems to derive from one central problem - THE NUMBERS DON’T ADD UP OTHERWISE. Note that a lot of these “combine ACA deform with tax deform” ideas came out yesterday, which was one day after the Congressional Budget Office sent a letter to the Number 3 Dem in the House that said the GOP tax plan would result in significant budget cuts.

In a letter to House minority whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the CBO explained that without any more money to offset the fall in revenue, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would be required to issue a “sequestration order” to reduce spending in 2018 by $136 billion.

The effects of this sequestration order would trigger automatic cuts to various programs, including Medicare. According to the CBO, this could be as much as 4% for Medicare, which amounts to $25 billion in 2018. Furthermore, all non-exempt programs would be eliminated, which include some farming subsidies, border security, and student loan help. Others, like Social Security, would remain untouched.

In fact, the letter says that there is only $85-$90 billion that is in the part of the budget that could be sequestered, and $111 billion outside of Medicare would have to be cut. The $25 billion in Medicare cuts is likely radioactive to begin with, but that letter also more laws and appropriations would have to be changed in order to make the tax cuts pass legal muster.

Well that, or the Trump Administration could try to ignore the laws of either America or economics. Good luck with that one, guys.

So if the tax bill is able to stay within the $1.5 trillion budget outline and then stabilize after 10 years, then those automatic spending cuts for Medicare and other areas won’t apply. So where does the GOP look for “savings”? No silly, not the military (the House just added $97 billion to Trump’s already-high budget request for this year). Instead, the GOP is choosing hurt low-income people who don’t donate to their campaigns by giving another try at TAKING THEIR HEALTH CARE.

Repealing the individual mandate has been up for consideration for weeks, but the discussion had been happening mostly behind the scenes as Republicans debated using an estimated $338 billion in savings to cover the cost of and finance additional tax cuts over the next decade.

And where would those savings come from? Because fewer people would be insured through Obamacare, while those who would still have insurance would pay more. What a deal!

Roughly 4 million fewer people would be covered in the first year the repeal would take effect, the Congressional Budget Office said last week, rising to 13 million by 2027, as compared to current law.

Premiums would also rise by about 10% in most years of the decade, CBO said.

And speaking of health care, have I mentioned that the CHIP health program that gives coverage to 9 million American children has been out of commission for a month and a half? If that program and its spending is not restored in some fashion, then those sizable costs will be shifted to the states, or children won’t receive medical services because the states will use a lack of funds as the excuse to cut those programs.

So tell me how our economy will improve if you’re pulling health care for millions of Americans and forcing a higher proportion of those individuals’ limited amounts of disposable income into health care as opposed to other areas? Then at the same time, Republicans want to add even more tax cuts for the rich and corporate, who will have even more incentive to underpay workers in order to maximize profits.

And add in the fact that this bill would be inflicted on an economy that has 70% of it based on everyday consumer spending, and combine it with a country that has huge amounts of Boomers retiring every day, and I see no way that leads to any sort of sustainable growth in the coming years. This means our 8-year expansion would likely end in the near future with another burst Bubble and bad recession.

If you ever were foolish enough to think that Republicans actually gave a fuck about anyone but their oligarch donors, the fact that they’d even consider going ahead with this destructive tax/health care Piece of Shit Bill that NO ONE ELSE WANTS should put that to rest.

New Quinnipiac poll:

Only 25% approve of the GOP tax plan.

Only 16% (!) think the GOP plan will reduce their taxes.

61% say it will benefit the wealthy most; only 24% say it will help middle class the most. pic.twitter.com/EYofMxkiI5

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) November 15, 2017

Oh wait! It looks like some Republicans are getting a fit of conscience and want this Piece of Shit improved. Including.... Ron Johnson????

So happens that the plastics company @SenRonJohnson co-founded, Pacur, is an LLC -- one of the types of pass-thru entities to which Johnson refers here https://t.co/V2n4E1jsz5

— Mark Sommerhauser (@msommerhauser) November 15, 2017

Ahh, that makes more sense. (mo)Ron doesn't like this bill not because it's a Piece of Shit, but because his father-in-law's company won't get as much of a handout as corporations will. Meh, any port in a storm, I guess.