Saturday, December 30, 2017

On Golf and Gifts, Republican style


Christmas is over but the giving goes on. Our President is spending his “working vacation” on the golf course. After berating the former President for playing way too much golf and promising his followers during his campaign that he would be far too busy to even leave the White House, let alone play a single game of golf, Donald Trump hits the greens on average every four days. He also entertains his rich friends on his personal courses. This weekend he reportedly told those friends, after signing the new Tax Bill into law, “You all just got a lot richer.” The gifts do indeed keep coming. Now the Koch Brothers are planning a nation wide campaign to “educate” the American people as to how this new tax law is going to help us (and, presumably, not the rich). This will require them to sling propaganda and falsehoods Russian-style to sell us on the Shaft of the Century. In the short term, we may see an increase in our take home pay by Spring, but even that modest amount will be eaten away quickly by rising insurance premiums because of other provisions in the bill. In the long term, the once deficit-adverse Republicans will either increase the national debt by another 1.5 trillion dollars and/or work to cut entitlements that help so many American families and children—of all colors—survive. We buy this and we are stupid. Meanwhile, rich people get bigger breaks, and every member of Congress worth over a million dollars stands to get a nifty decrease in their own tax bill when April 15, 2019, comes around. It seems that the rich are hunkering down for a long winter to come, consolidating their wealth and planning to hold on tight to ride out whatever disaster strikes next. It won't be a shortage of golf shoes.

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