Not so fast, kemo sabe.
Republicans have long been known as “the stupid party.” They do stupid things, like waiting until mid-November to pass a must-pass tax cut that should have been done by April.
But in recent weeks the GOP is finally showing some brains and some backbone on taxes. They are using their majorities in Congress to roll back and roll over the left, and it’s about time.
In a more rational world, tax reform could have been bipartisan. But once Democrats declared they would be unified obstructionists on tax reform, there was never reason to throw a bone to the “resistance movement.” Playing nice with Chuck Schumer won’t buy any votes, so why bother?
Instead, it’s hard not to be impressed with how Republicans have suddenly gotten very smart on the “pay fors” in their tax bill. Three of these revenue raisers are welcome policy changes, and they help defund the left.
Start with the elimination of the state and local tax deduction. I would be strongly in favor of this no matter which states lose the most. Washington should never subsidize flabby and inefficient state and local services and bankrupt public pension programs.
But, just as one would predict, the states with the highest taxes — California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois and Minnesota — are all Democratic controlled states. There is no evidence that higher taxes in these states lead to better schools or police protection. New York spends $7,500 per person on state and local government, while New Hampshire spends less than $4,000. Yet public services are better in New Hampshire than in New York.
Liberals aren’t stupid and they understand the repercussion of this policy. The big blue states either cut their taxes and costs, or the stampede of high-income residents from these states accelerates. The big losers here are the public employee unions — the mortal enemies of Republicans. This all works out nicely.
Next is the decision by Republicans to offset the cost of the tax cut by eliminating the individual mandate tax imposed mostly on moderate-income Americans. About three of four who pay the tax earn less than $50,000 a year. So this is a tax primarily on poorer people, yet Democrats hypocritically want to preserve it. The purpose of the tax is to force low income Americans to purchase insurance they either don’t want or can’t afford.
Isn’t it amazing that Obamacare subsidizes (bribes) people to buy the insurance, penalizes them if they don’t buy the insurance, but at least 13 million Americans still refuse to buy it. This really is a great product.